Speeches
Prime Minister’s Easter Message
9 April 2020
Easter in Australia will be different this year, as it will be all around the world.
It's still true that we'll be able to gather together in our immediate family, but there won't be the opportunity for that extended family gathering, special times I know, as well as going off to church and our religious services where we can remember the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The coronavirus means this Easter will be different and we will be staying at home.
And it's important because we cannot undo the tremendous progress we have made together in recent times.
So this Easter we are staying at home. Don't travel. Don't go away.
For Christians, not being able to gather does not diminish the hope that we have through this important Easter period.
This year, we will live out our faith by doing the right thing.
That means staying at home, making sure we're checking on our neighbours and supporting our communities and families, our friends.
That's what living our faith is all about.
So as we go into this Easter long weekend, whatever your religious views might be, I do wish you a Happy Easter, Australia.
I hope it is a time as you come together in your homes, together with your immediate family, that it will be a strong reminder about what's most important.
Happy Easter, Australia.
Ministerial Statement, COVID-19
8 April 2020
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
We gather again today in unusual circumstances, during extreme times, to consider extraordinary responses to the twin crises our nation faces—to our nation's health and to our economy. What we do today is what governments have always done in such circumstances, where our nation is under threat, and it is what previous generations have done before us.
Today we act to protect Australia's sovereignty. When Australian lives and livelihoods are threatened, when they are under attack, our nation's sovereignty is put at risk and we must respond—as a government, as a parliament and as a nation together: nurses, teachers, drivers, cleaners, doctors, police and paramedics; factory workers, engineers and bankers; grocers, miners, farmers, pastors, priests and imams; politicians, union officials and even lawyers; and mums, dads, grandparents, kids and families—all of us. Our sovereignty is measured in our capacity and freedom to live our lives as we choose in a free, open and democratic society.
We are not a coerced society. We act through our agreement and our wilful support of the national interest and through our many institutions, including this parliament and the many other parliaments around this country. We will not surrender this. Our sovereignty is enabled by having a vibrant market economy that underpins our standard of living, that gives all Australians the opportunity to fulfil their potential—to have a go and to get ago. We will not surrender this. Our sovereignty is demonstrated by the quality of life we afford Australians, with world-class health, education and disability and aged care and a social safety net that guarantees the essentials that Australians rely on. We will not surrender this. Above all, our sovereignty is sustained by what we believe as Australians, what we value and hold most dear: our principles, our way of life and our way of doing things. We will never surrender this.
So make no mistake: today is not about ideologies. We checked those in at the door. Today is about defending and protecting Australia's national sovereignty. It will be a fight; it will be a fight we will win. But it won't be a fight without cost or without loss. Protecting our sovereignty has always come at great cost, regardless of what form that threat takes, and today will be no different. So today we will agree to pay that price through the important measures we will legislate. But today, as a government, I want to commit to all Australians, as Prime Minister, that once we have overcome these threats—and we will—we will rebuild and we will restore whatever the battle ahead takes from us.
As a nation we are working together nationally, especially through the national cabinet. I wish to again place on record my thanks to all our premiers and chief ministers. We have come together to lead together in a new way through these crises. I thank all of my ministers, who I lead together with the Deputy Prime Minister and the Treasurer. We are, all together as ministers, ably advised by our experts and officials in the Australian Public Service. I particularly want to acknowledge Professor Brendan Murphy and his team.
I thank all of my colleagues on the government benches for their input and leadership in their communities, as I do all members of this House and the other place. I thank the opposition leader and his parliamentary team and all of our staffs.
I extend my thanks to the many businesses, large and small; to the unions; to the banks; to the media; to the not-for-profit organisations and welfare and charitable groups; to Indigenous leaders; to the churches and other faith groups for their prayers, for their support and the many efforts that they are making. Together we have now established the key baseline supports and protections that have bought us much-needed time in these crises, to get us through—and I will speak of those actions today—but there is a long way to go in this fight. This has been our road in. We will now lead the country on the road through and then the road out and beyond.
It has been 16 days since this House last met. As of this morning, 5,956 Australians have contracted the coronavirus. Thankfully, 2,547 have recovered, while 294 are hospitalised, 92 are in intensive care and 36 are on respirators. Sadly, there have been almost 50 deaths in Australia. Tens of thousands more have died across the world. One of those was the member for Cooper's father-in-law. On behalf of the government and the parliament, I extend our deepest sympathies to the member for Cooper and her family.
Honourable members: Hear, hear!
Mr Morrison: They are with all who have lost loved ones in recent times, here and overseas, and are fearful of that event occurring in the future. And, as a nation, we especially send our best wishes to our good friend the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson. Get well soon, Boris. We need you.
Honourable members: Hear, hear!
Mr Morrison: When the House last met, new cases were growing at more than 20 per cent a day. In recent days, it has averaged two per cent a day. This is very encouraging. We are flattening the curve. We are buying ourselves precious time in this fight. I want to thank the overwhelming majority of Australians for doing the right thing. You are saving lives; you are saving livelihoods. But we have to keep up our efforts. Progress can be easily undone, as we have seen in other places around the world. We are only a few days away from Easter, a time that should give us great hope. The message is clear, though: stay home, don't travel, don't go away. We can't let up now.
I've said many times we are facing twin crises: the health crisis and an economic one. We must deal with them simultaneously and in real time, and so often they work against each other. But that is the balance we must achieve. Since the parliament last met, we have taken many actions on many fronts. People coming back from overseas now have to self-isolate for 14 days in a designated facility. The national cabinet has further tightened restrictions on public gatherings, and these are taking some time to get used to. We've expanded the coronavirus testing criteria to include people with fever or acute respiratory infection and under key categories. Australians should be very proud that we have one of the most comprehensive testing regimes in the world. We have one of the highest rates of testing in the world. Today some 313,000 tests for the virus have been conducted across Australia. This is more than double the number since we last met. I commend the Minister for Health on his efforts in this respect.
Since the parliament last met, we have strengthened the preparedness of our hospitals and are working with the states to triple our ICU capacity. We've changed medical indemnity rules to encourage retired health workers to return to practice. We're supporting up to 20,000 registered nurses to get online training to better prepare them to deliver care in high-dependency and intensive care units. We have finalised a historic partnership with private hospitals, ensuring that over 30,000 hospital beds and 105,000 skilled workers are mobilised to work in conjunction with the public hospital sector. The government will guarantee the viability of all 657 private and not-for-profit hospitals across Australia through these challenging times, because we need them.
To preserve critical resources, we've acted to suspend all non-urgent elective surgery. Of course, we know many Australians still need to see their doctor during this time—and they should—and need to get the medicines they depend on for their health. So we've expanded Medicare subsidised telehealth services and we've given extra incentives for GPs and other health practitioners so that their practices can stay open for face-to-face services where needed. We know Indigenous Australians are at great risk from COVID-19, and we are making $123 million available for targeted measures to assist Indigenous communities and businesses. We're supporting those Australians with a disability through the efforts of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
We've taken action against those who would seek to profiteer from the health crisis by buying goods like face masks, hand sanitisers and medicines and reselling them at big mark-ups or exporting them in bulk overseas. It's not on. These products should be for Australians first and foremost. We've invested an initial $74 million for mental health support. And, to counter the great risk from domestic violence, we have committed an additional $150 million to support Australians experiencing domestic, family and sexual violence. While we have continued to build our national medical stockpile all this time, over 30 million masks have arrived in just recent days, with great help from groups like the Minderoo Foundation, with more than 500 million masks on order and domestic production also underway.
Our government has moved decisively to address the economic storm that also confronts us. This is the greatest economic crisis to afflict the world in many generations. We have responded with the biggest economic lifeline in Australia's history, which we will consider today. I want to thank the Treasurer for his leadership as these measures have been brought together—working together, I should say also, with the treasurers of the states and territories around the country on so many other measures. So far, more than 200,000 additional jobseeker claims have been finalised over the past few weeks, with the COVID-19 supplement doubling our safety net support. Thousands of extra workers have been recruited into the public cause to ensure we can move through the claims still outstanding as quickly as possible.
Today, we will put before the parliament our JobKeeper package. JobKeeper will keep Australians in jobs and it will keep the businesses that employ those Australians in business, both now and into the future. The $130 billion economic lifeline will provide payments of $1,500 per fortnight to an estimated six million eligible workers through their employer. As of yesterday afternoon, over 700,000 businesses have registered for this support, and this number continues to grow. This payment is the equivalent of around 70 per cent of the national median wage. For workers in accommodation, hospitality and retail services—some of the most affected by this economic crisis—it equates to a full median replacement wage. We also have extended the partner pay income test for those on jobseeker; the partner test has been changed from around $48,000 to just over $79,000.
As well, we want those working with children, and particularly our essential workers, to have confidence in their childcare arrangements. The government is providing business continuity payments to support childcare services to stay open. This means around one million Australian families will be able to receive free child care. The investment complements the more than $1 billion the government expects the sector to receive through the JobKeeper payment.
Managing our workforce is a critical part of keeping the economy going. We have announced changes to temporary visa holders, including for international students, temporary skilled visa holders and working holiday-makers. We are also relaxing the visa conditions for our Seasonal Worker Program and the Pacific Labour Scheme so that participants can stay for up to one more year. This is essential for our agriculture sector, which, for the first time in a long time, is seeing rain. These extensions are subject, of course, to labour market testing, allowing local jobseekers, Australians, the opportunity for work.
The government knows many Australian businesses are under pressure, and we won't allow a fire sale of Australian businesses to foreign interests. The Treasurer has announced temporary changes to the foreign investment review framework to protect Australia's national interest. This means all proposed foreign investments will now require approval, regardless of the value or nature of the foreign investor.
With businesses and families under stress, the national cabinet has agreed to a moratorium on evictions over the next six months for commercial and residential tenancies in financial distress. Yesterday, the national cabinet agreed that states and territories would implement, legislate and regulate a mandatory code of conduct for commercial tenancies, which includes retail, office and industrial properties. The code sets out the good faith leasing principles for these tenancies. It means that businesses will be able to emerge on the other side and start trading again, not weighed down by disabling debts that would otherwise keep their doors closed forever.
We are all in this together. I know that some families, coming into this health and economic crisis, were already doing it incredibly tough. That's why we are providing an additional $200 million to help vulnerable Australians pay bills and pay for food, clothing and petrol. Additionally, we are providing almost $60 million to assist older Australians with food and other essential items. To mobilise the full resources and talent of the private sector behind our national mission, we have established the National COVID-19 Coordination Commission under the leadership of Nev Power. I thank all of those commissioners for their service. This is about government and the private sector working together to solve problems for our nation. All the measures I have detailed today are measures that we have announced in recent weeks, since we last met.
We have a long way to go. Through the actions we have taken to date, we have bought Australia valuable time to chart a way out over the next six months. But there are no guarantees, and it could well take far longer. Our country will look different on the other side, but Australians will always be Australians. We have navigated the road in, and we can now see some encouraging signs. We do stand in a place today far better than most nations around the world because of the efforts of all Australians. We've been flattening the curve, buying more time—time other countries haven't had; and we have seen the devastating effects on those nations and their people—preparing our health system for the challenges to come, putting in place the big economic lifeline and the buffers for Australians in what, for so many, will be their toughest ever year, 2020. We are charting the road through. We are all in. Our institutions are strong. Our people are strong. Australia is strong and will continue to be strong. We will respond to this challenge. We are up for the fight. We will pay the price needed to protect our sovereignty, and we will chart our way out. We will get through this together, Australia.
Press Conference - Canberra, ACT
7 April 2020
PRIME MINISTER: Good afternoon, everyone. I'm joined by Professor Murphy, as usual.
Together we are making significant progress. Around 6,000 cases across Australia, less than 10 per cent of those coming through community transmission at this point. We have so far avoided the many thousands, if not tens of thousands, of cases that may have otherwise occurred by this point across the Australian community, and indeed the many more fatalities that could have also have occurred by this point. The daily growth rate in cases has now fallen to just a few percentage points per day. This has occurred quite rapidly. In fact, it has occurred well beyond our expectations, in the way that we have been able to bring that daily growth rate down together, and certainly ahead of what all the theoretical models would have suggested. But we must hold the course. We must lock in these gains. It is providing us with much-needed time. We have so far avoided the horror scenarios that we have seen overseas, whether it be initially in China in Wuhan, or in New York in the United States, or Italy, or Spain, or even the United Kingdom. And just on the United Kingdom, we extend our deepest concerns and expressions of support for Prime Minister Johnson at this very difficult time for him and his family. They do not have the opportunity in all of these places that we're seeing from here, that we have right here and right now. The combination of our health and economic responses is giving us the opportunity, as a National Cabinet, individual governments across Australia and, of course, at the federal level, to plan our way through and out of these crises. We have bought valuable time, but we cannot be complacent. We must keep the tension in the cord. This Easter weekend will be incredibly important. Stay at home. Failure to do so this weekend would completely undo everything we have achieved so far together, and potentially worse. So, all the things we have been asking you to do, day in, day out, they apply especially so this long weekend of the Easter weekend. When you normally may have gone out together as family and been out in public places and parks, or gone away, or wherever you might have been, that is not something you can do this Easter long weekend. We have already seen in other countries where major festivals or events or holiday periods have been the spark for significant outbreaks elsewhere in the world. I was only speaking to Prime Minister Modi yesterday, and he was recounting a similar event that occurred in India recently. And so it is very important all Australians this weekend, that you must follow these very helpful and straightforward requests that we make of you in terms of your movements this weekend.
Today, the National Cabinet met to consider a series of issues, including further reports from the expert medical panel, and Professor Murphy will take you through some of those matters shortly, as also work on the commercial tenancies code. After reviewing the data on progress, Professor Murphy stepped the National Cabinet through the academic modelling work that has been undertaken by the Doherty Institute that they will be releasing later today. Professor Murphy will take you through that modelling work very, very shortly. But I want to be clear about a couple of things first. You will have what we have. This is the modelling work that is available to the Government. It is the full complement of what we have available to us. The modelling work is theoretical. It is not based on Australian case data and does not model Australian responses. The modelling does not predict what will happen in Australia. It does not tell you how many Australians will contract the virus or how many may succumb to that virus, or how long it will last in Australia. The modelling work is based on international data. The early work that we had that I shared with Professor Kelly earlier was based mainly on data that had been extracted from the Chinese experience. This modelling data draws on a broader international data set that has been made available since that time. And what it does is it proves up the theory of flattening the curve. It confirms, based on that international data, that by taking the measures we are taking, you can make a difference. And, indeed, that is what we are experiencing here in Australia. We are on the right track. Controlling the spread, boosting the capacity of our health system, and buying time, giving us the opportunity for more choices.
National Cabinet, of course, will be seeking further modelling work to be done, that it does incorporate Australian case data and modelling of the Australian responses. But part of our modest success to date means that the number of cases, particularly those through community transmission, is still quite low, which does not present a very big case base to do a lot of that work at this stage. But we are keen to see that work broken down to state level jurisdictions because, of course, the experience in different states and the capacities of their health systems are different in each jurisdiction. So, the National Cabinet fully understands the limitations of this work. And so for those who might have thought today they were going to have predictions on these things, that is not what is being presented today. And I would urge those who are reporting on it not to present it in that light. It would be misleading. But it will help us work through into the future this type of work, particularly when we get more of the Australian case data incorporated into this modelling. It will help us plan the way out.
For now, and certainly over the weeks ahead, though, the lesson is simple, and that is that we must continue to do what we are doing. That is how we get through this. But there is still quite a journey ahead. So, we need to just continue to adjust and adapt. Today the AHPPC considered and put forward a number of recommendations to National Cabinet, and again I will ask Professor Murphy to take you through those. But I do want to run you through very briefly the decision today on the commercial tenancies code. Now, as you know, a key part of our Government's strategy at a federal level, working with the states and territories, is what has been called the hibernation strategy. And what that means is being able to preserve as much of the foundations and pillars of our economy through this time to enable the economy to rebuild and grow on the other side. That means keeping the jobs, it means keeping the businesses, it means keeping the tenancies in place, it means keeping the loans in place, keeping the credit lines open, to ensure that the liabilities that are established, or protecting against insolvencies and bankruptcies, so on the other side of these crises the economy will be able to rebuild and rebound again. And the commercial tenancies actions are very important.
Now, I want to thank very much the states and territories, in particular the treasurers of the states and territories who have been working keenly on this issue over these past 10 days or so. I also want to thank the many industry players who fed into the work of this code, both tenants and landlords alike. And it is agreed by National Cabinet today that a mandatory code will be legislated and regulated as is appropriate in each state and territory jurisdiction. That mandatory code will apply to tenancies where the tenant or landlord is eligible for the JobKeeper Program, so that defines a tenant or a landlord who would be in a position of distress, where they have a turnover of $50 million or less. So, the code is designed to support those small and medium-sized enterprises, be they a tenant or indeed a landlord. The code brings together a set of good-faith leasing principles. Landlords must not terminate the lease or draw on a tenant's security. Likewise, tenants must honour the lease. Landlords will be required to reduce rent proportionate to the trading reduction in the tenant's business, through a combination - over the course of the pandemic period - through a combination of waivers of rent and deferrals of rent. Waivers of rent must account for 50 per cent at least, of the reduction in the rental provided to the tenant during that period and deferrals must be covered over the balance of the lease term and in no less period than 12 months (sic: 24 months). So, if the lease term goes for three years, you can amortize the cost of lease of the rental deferral over that three year period, after the end of the pandemic period. But if the lease only has another six months to run, the tenant would have a minimum of 12 months (sic: 24 months). after the pandemic period in order to cover up on the deferrals of the rental payments. The arrangements will be overseen through a binding mediation process. All of this will be run by the states and the territories.
The point here is simple - it's the same request we made of landlords and tenants about 10 days or so ago when I stood up on this issue, and that is that they sit down and they work it out. This must be shared. Banks also must come to the table here and provide the support to the landlords and I would particularly send that message to international banks operating in Australia, who are, in many cases, providing that support, particularly to many larger landlords. We will expect those banks to be providing the same levels of support and cooperation as we are seeing from the Australian banks who are aware of these arrangements. What this does is it preserves the lease, it preserves the relationship, it keeps the tenant in their property and it keeps a tenant on the lease, which is also good for the landlord, and it preserves the lease that is in place that underpins the value of those assets. And so this is seen as a proactive, a constructive and cooperative mechanism for landlords and tenants to see this through together.
We also had a very brief discussion of schools today. That will be considered in greater detail on Thursday. Education ministers are meeting now, actually, to consider the issues around education and to report back to the National Cabinet on Thursday. Of course, Premier Andrews made his announcement this morning. Not unexpected. Schools are going back after the Easter break and the arrangements that he's announced are not dissimilar to those that are currently running in schools in New South Wales and many other states as they run into the term break. But it is important that we're looking at the educational impacts of what is occurring, with how the rest of the school year will be managed. From the Commonwealth's point of view, we are leaving those issues specifically to the states and territories to apply to each of their jurisdictions as they see appropriately. But from the Commonwealth's point of view, and particularly from a national economy point of view, then we obviously want to ensure that parents who are unable to provide a proper learning environment at home because of their work commitments, that they don't have to choose between their children's education and having a job that can feed their children, and that is not a situation we would consider tolerable. And so we thank everybody for working to that end. But, of course, the educationalists need to provide that advice about the structure of the balance of the year, and to ensure that our kids do not lose a year of their education.
So, I thank you, again, for your patience, after these National Cabinet meetings to run through all of those issues. Now I will pass over to Professor Murphy and he will also take you through the presentation.
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: Thanks, Prime Minister. So, just an update, this morning's data, we had 5,844 cases, and, unfortunately, some more deaths, tragically, with 44 deaths. We still have less than a hundred people in ICU, and less than 40 people on ventilators, which is quite a low rate of serious disease. As the Prime Minister said, the thing that worries us most of all is the more than 500 people who have acquired this virus from someone in the community that doesn't know they've had it. That means that there are people walking around in our communities who could be transmitting this virus without knowing they've had it. That is why we cannot relax what we've been doing.
We have, as the Prime Minister said, seen some very impressive reductions in growth in transmission of COVID-19. But if we, in any way, lose that rigour that the Australian community has embraced, particularly over Easter, it could all come undone. We've seen what this virus can do in a cruise ship, at a wedding. It can spread to 30, 50, several hundred people very quickly. We've got to be maintaining that vigilance and all of those practices that we've all embraced in recent weeks.
As the Prime Minister said, we discussed at the National Cabinet some other AHPPC advice statements which, will be published later today. They are advice around those experimental drugs that people are thinking about, but are still not proven to be of benefit. Advice around the use of masks and other protective equipment for healthcare workers - a very sensitive issue at the moment. And we are getting more and more masks into the country as we speak. Advice around when it's appropriate for someone who tests positive to be looked after and stay in their own home under close scrutiny. Advice about organ transplantation. We've stopped doing renal transplants for the time being in Australia because of the virus risk. But we would hope to be able to resume that as soon as it's safe to do so. Also advice around those point-of-care serology tests that many of you have been reading about that have come on the market recently, and expressing some caution until we understand their role. They're not a replacement for the standard diagnostic PCR test.
So, the other thing I want to say before I go to the modelling is that a lot of people with chronic diseases, conditions other than COVID, are not currently getting medical check-ups. Our doctors are very quiet. They don't mind being quiet, but they're very worried that people are so frightened that they're not seeking medical attention. This is a really concerning issue. There are lots of people with medical conditions in the community who need regular check-ups, regular review. As you know, we've set up telehealth facilities, so you can have a telephone or a video conference with your doctor. Or you can go and see your doctor. The risk is fine as long as you ring beforehand and make arrangements, and maybe seek a telehealth consultation and go to the doctor if necessary. Please don't neglect general health conditions at the moment. That is a really important message.
So, now I’ll just go through the slides and the modelling, if we can have the, flip the next slide, please. So, basically, this modelling - two papers are ready for release, they're ready for publication. The Doherty Institute modelling team, who we have been funding for some years, actually, to do modelling as part of our pandemic preparedness. They are experts. They work on pandemic influenza. And they are publishing some stuff that they did for us early in the course of this outbreak, to help us better prepare. So, the two papers that they're publishing, one is one where they looked at some very theoretical models of a worst-case theoretical scenario to see whether we have the right tools to manage our health system capacity within potentially worst-case demand situations. The other paper is one we did looking at the risk of people travelling to Australia from other countries, based on that early China export data, so that we used that to guide us in some of the recommendations we made to government around border measures. So, the Doherty Institute will be publishing those highly technical papers later this afternoon. And those of you with scientific brains will be able to read through them. But it's very important to understand that these models are highly theoretical and they are not actual predictions, as the Prime Minister said. They're not based in any way on Australian data. In fact, they're based on data derived from countries that have had a significantly worse experience than Australia.
Can we have the next slide? So, as the Prime Minister said, we are flattening the curve. And you can see the Australian curve, which is bending, and that is a very positive sign. And you can also see the case numbers, and all of the measures that we've put in place to interrupt the transmission of this virus over recent weeks. But complacency is our biggest risk. We cannot be complacent. But this is the Australian data. This is the sort of data that we will now take, particularly the community transmission, and we will get, feed this - our modellers have got this data, and they're now doing real predictions on what might happen in different scenarios in different states, as the Prime Minister said. So, this is what the real data is.
Now we'll go and look at some of the theoretical modelling. Can we have the next slide? So, in a, when we started, before we even had many cases in Australia, the modellers looked at what would happen in this highly artificial situation if right across Australia we had diffuse seeding of this virus so that nearly 90% of the population, 23 million people, were infected at the same time. That's an incredibly unlikely scenario, that the whole country gets infected at the same time. But that, in microcosm, has been seen in some cities in the world, where we've had these huge outbreaks that have overwhelmed the system. But if that happened in Australia, you would see a very, very big peak. And you can see the most important thing we've been looking at in this health system capacity modelling was "what is our intensive care unit bed capacity?" And what is the intensive care unit bed demand? We have already planned to triple our intensive care bed capacity, and we want to make sure that we have the tools to manage the growth of serious disease with COVID-19 to within that capacity. So, in this scenario, which is what we call the unmitigated scenario, this is where you just let the virus spread, you do nothing, and treat people as they seek medical attention. And as you can see, and as has been seen in some countries, this is an horrendous scenario. It's not real, it doesn't reflect the current state in Australia, but you would see an ICU daily demand for new intensive care beds, you know, of 35,000-plus, completely beyond the realm of any country like Australia to create. So, very important message. If you had this highly artificial, very unlikely diffuse outbreak, you couldn't meet demand.
Can we have the next slide, please. So what we then did, what the modellers then did, and you can see this in the paper when you download it from their website this afternoon, is looked at, in this highly artificial, unreal scenario, what do their mathematical models tell you about the tools that we have, and that we have already used to mitigate an outbreak? So, what they've shown, firstly, in the second blip, is what happens when you do what we have been doing in every state and territory, is quarantine and isolation. Detect a case, isolate them, either in their home, in a hospital, make sure they don't spread, and quarantine all contact. That has a huge reduction in the spread of a virus, which I will show later on. But it still shows that if that's all you do, and you have this huge artificial country-wide outbreak - which, again, is unlikely, but we have to model for the worst-case scenario - you would still materially exceed ICU daily bed demand. So, then what the modellers have done is looked at a range of social distancing measures. Because we know that these social distancing measures reduce the transmissibility of the virus. We've already seen that. In fact, the modellers are already looking at early data on what's happened with social distancing in Australia. And you can see that you very significantly drop the peak. Obviously, you extend this theoretical outbreak. And I make it very clear - this is not any way a prediction of what might happen in Australia or the length of an outbreak. It's just showing what would happen in this highly theoretical Australia-wide outbreak, and how effective these measures are. That's the purpose of this graph, is to show that the measures that we have put in place successively, quarantine and isolation, and then social distancing, which we can dial up and down, have a major downward effect. So that if you do have an outbreak that is not properly controlled, you can apply these measures and we know we'll get control.
Next slide, please. So, just a couple of scenarios that you'll see in the paper when you read it. In the unmitigated scenario, you would only get about 15 percent of people who need ICU beds could access it in a conservatively increased ICU bed capacity situation. With quarantine and isolation, you get a much lower infection rate and lower hospitalisation rate. But still most people who need ICU don't get it. Once you start to introduce social distancing, and with a little bit, and then more, you can see that we very significantly reduce the infection rate, we very significantly reduce the hospitalisation rate, and we know that we could meet the ICU bed capacity. So, again, we know that, in theory, we have the tools that we can dial up to suppress an outbreak, to manage it within our resources. This is, again, not predicting what we are doing now or what's happening now. In fact, the measures we put in place now have already reduced our infectivity rate much lower than the model impact of even this most significant implementation. So, it's not a prediction, it's just showing that these tools work. Next slide. So, this is what the modelling has been, this theoretical modelling. This is what's published and you can pore all over that when it's released on the website.
But our future modelling is probably what you're more interested in and this is going to be based on real-world Australian data. So, in the real world in Australia, we don't have a diffuse outbreak across the whole country, we have focal outbreaks. The one that worries us most of all is the community transmission in Sydney. I've been saying that for a while. That's the one we're focusing on, that's why New South Wales Health has been so proactive and forward-leaning in doing a range of broadened testing in a whole lot of suburbs where they're concerned. And the early indications, as we've said, are positive, but we cannot be complacent. We must not be complacent. We must hold our line. Our current case rate is very, very low. Every death is a tragedy, but our death rate is one of the lowest in the world so far. We don't know what it will be as the disease progresses, but we are reassured to some extent about that. It's a tragedy that every one of those deaths has occurred. The community transmission is what we're going to focus our modelling on, working out what the infectivity rate, what's likely to happen, where those transmission events are occurring.
We also have to factor into our modelling other things, like we're still seeing cases in returned travellers. Our quarantine measures have been effective, but we have seen positives in people in the quarantined hotels. We have to be sure we've got enough tests to be able to test broadly, and we have to have public health mechanisms to make sure we can quarantine and isolate cases. And we're now starting to see, in the modelling data, the true impact of the wonderful uptake by the Australian community of social distancing and general hygiene measures. Some of those measures, I think, will stay with us all forever, even when this is over. I think the new approach to hand hygiene, personal hygiene, has probably changed the way a lot of us think. And that's fantastic. But we're seeing the impact of these measures in the disease now, and we will start to be able to produce and share with the public the models of what future potential scenarios in Australia are. As the Prime Minister said, we're not in any way out of trouble at the moment, but we are in a relatively strong position to keep the pressure on, make sure we're well-prepared, and plan our next approach in dealing with this virus. But the most important message from this model is we know that the tools we are using do work, and we can scale them up and down as necessary, and the data we have so far suggests that they are working. So, I'll stop there. Thank you, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, Brendan. Just before I go to questions, and I'll just start here and move across the room, if that's alright. I also want to draw people's attention to the simple procedures that Safe Work Australia have set out. You can access this at swa.gov.au/coronavirus. This deals with where there may be a suspected case of COVID-19 at work. There are seven simple steps - isolate the person from others. Secondly, ring the national COVID-19 hotline. Three, ensure the person has transport to their home or to a medical facility. Four, clean the area where the person was working. Five, identify others who had close contact with that person in the previous 24 hours and before that infected person started showing symptoms. And, six, clean the area where those others also were working. And, seven, to review the risk management controls relating to COVID-19. Now, there are more details. But I understand there has been some need for further information on that. And we were getting feedback that people weren't quite sure what to do, and may have been getting conflicting advice. If you go to swa.gov.au/coronavirus, that will give you instructions. So we’ll start right over here on the side and then go to you, Michelle.
JOURNALIST: A question for the Chief Medical Officer, in the modelling that you do have, is there any kind of indication of when you would actually start relaxing some of those social distancing measures? Or will that be when you actually get the Australian modelling?
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: I think the latter. I think that modelling was really just to look at whether we've got the tools and the capacity. What we do next in Australia will very much depend on our real-time Australian data. And that's too early to say yet.
JOURNALIST: As you have a relatively limited number of cases, what are the advantages of trying to eliminate the virus altogether?
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: So, that's a good question. There was a strategy that was undertaken in Wuhan to completely stop transmission, and that is one of the options available. The issue, though, is that then you don't have any immunity in the population and you really have to control your borders in a very aggressive way and that might be for a long time. So, that is one option.
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible]
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: No, the National Cabinet... What is clear about the way countries are responding to this virus is that there is no clear right answer. There are lots of potential paths. National Cabinet has asked the AHPPC to come back with a range of alternative scenarios. But the good thing is that we can do that now in a position of relative calm. So, at the moment, our strategy is very much to identify, completely control and isolate every case. That may be the long-term strategy. But we have to look at all of those potential options. There is no clear path. Unlike pandemic influenza, where the strategy was to control and contain until the vaccine came, because we knew the vaccine would come, we don't know if and when a vaccine will come with this virus. If it does, that's a beautiful way out. So, we have to look at a range of different potential scenarios and we will be presenting them to the National Cabinet for their discussion. But there is no single right answer.
PRIME MINISTER: If I can add to that, the National Cabinet has to also consider the ability to actually continue to run the country under such a scenario. And as you know, the economic lifeline that is being provided through the many things that are being done, particularly at the federal level, but also at the state level, they have a finite life. And so obviously if those scenarios were to come forward and it would involve a duration that went well beyond all of the Government's capacity to support that, then that would render such an option not workable.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, now that the commercial tenancy response is in place, will the same apply to residential tenancies? Will they get mediation to defer payment? Will they get at least three months of rent reductions supported by land tax reductions?
PRIME MINISTER: Residential tenancies will now be dealt with directly by each of the state and territory jurisdictions. The issues that we've worked on as a National Cabinet have been to deal with the commercial issues, because they have that broader national economic impact, and the residential tenancies are a matter for state and territory governments, and they'll be addressing that specifically in each jurisdiction.
JOURNALIST: No baselines?
PRIME MINISTER: Sorry?
JOURNALIST: No baselines? No guarantees that tenants, Australia wide, will get…
PRIME MINISTER: We have a moratorium on evictions, and then individual measures beyond that they believe are best addressed within each individual jurisdiction.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, if the aim of a JobKeeper Payment is to keep people employed and tied to a business, why do you have a different system or a different threshold for the larger companies and those employees who are stood down, as opposed to the medium-sized and smaller companies, those who are stood down? The 30 and 50 per cent thresholds?
PRIME MINISTER: They have different financial capabilities and different sized balance sheets and access to financial markets.
JOURNALIST: But, I mean, why, why? Are you saying the big businesses should just suck it up?
PRIME MINISTER: Because larger businesses, in many cases, have a much greater capacity to deal with these issues, just like banks do. That's what I'm saying. I'm saying smaller businesses have a different level of capability and a higher level of vulnerability in dealing with the significant cash flow issues. I mean, it's like comparing Qantas to a corner shop. They're very different operations.
JOURNALIST: Professor Murphy, given that there are over 500 people who have contracted this disease without knowing where it came from, a logical extension of that is at least 500 people have been walking around, not knowing they have it. And it's been modelled earlier that one person walking around within a month could infect up to 400 people. When might we expect to see that potentially dormant amount of people reach a critical mass? And on that, do you think it's therefore likely that, of the hundreds of people let off the Ruby Princess who had the disease, that only about 11 cases have come from that in community transmission, as has been said by New South Wales Health?
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: So, on the first question, those people that don't know they have the virus are the reason why, particularly New South Wales Health, is now broadening testing to every suburb where one of those people has been found. So, they're now testing everyone with acute respiratory illness. And they have found already some of those people who probably gave the virus to someone else. So, other states are doing sentinel surveillance as well. People are testing more broadly than the case definition at the moment. One of the interesting things to note is that people turning up to the testing centres, the numbers have dropped, mainly because people are getting less flu. Because of social distancing, our coughs and colds and flu are actually spreading less than we would have expected at this time. So, we are now testing a lot more broadly. That's a way we will find these other people. And at the moment we're not seeing a huge upswing in those cases. But that is what worries us and that's why we're broadening the testing in all of those areas where community transmission has been found. In terms of the Ruby Princess, whilst those people did leave the ship, within 12 hours of them leaving the ship, New South Wales Health had contacted every state and territory health department where they had gone to, and ensured that they were all contacted and asked to quarantine. So, we believe that most of the passengers who left the Ruby Princess were well aware that there was a risk once they found the positive cases, and we've seen the cases from the Ruby Princess that have popped up in every state have generally been in people that the health department in that state knew about, they were already quarantined, they were already watching them. So, it's too early to say how many will have been transmitted, but New South Wales Health, I believe what they're saying, they wouldn't tell me something that wasn't true.
JOURNALIST: Dr Murphy, does the modelling indicate anything about the relative effectiveness of different measures, such as whether to close schools, or whether to stop large gatherings? And if that modelling work…
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: It doesn't, unfortunately.
JOURNALIST: It does not?
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: It doesn't. And so we're looking now at international experience. What it does, we use international experience to say what the impact of social distancing generally has achieved in Europe, and we've applied that to this model. It doesn't look at the specific impact of each of those models. They hope to get some more granularity on that, because there are other countries that have been doing social distancing for longer, and they will try and get that. But we don't have it. This is a general impact.
JOURNALIST: Can I follow that with…?
PRIME MINISTER: [Inaudible] Professor Murphy, and that is the incidence of the virus amongst younger populations, based on the international data, confirmed the advice that we have been receiving from the AHPPC that it is very low relative to the rest of the population. But Dr Murphy can probably…
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: Yes, so symptomatic disease in young people is still extraordinarily low. And, again, I've said on many occasions, we don't know whether children might be asymptomatic transmitters, but we have not found any evidence internationally of significant school-related outbreaks. We don't know.
JOURNALIST: And so can I ask you to restate at the moment your advice on whether parents should be sending children to school in the light of the modelling and your latest information?
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: We see no reason why. The AHPPC advice is that there is no reason to withhold children from school. We do think schools need to be made safe, and the National Cabinet has asked us to come back later this week with some detailed advice on how to make schools safe, in terms of hygiene measures, reducing gatherings, practising where possible social distancing, cleaning playground equipment, all of those things. But we believe that there is not an evidence base to say that keeping children from home is a strong public health measure on the current evidence that we have.
PRIME MINISTER: The National Cabinet and the individual premiers, when they have been making changes to schools, that has been on the basis of the workplace health and safety issues relating to the staff, to the teachers and others who are present at the school. It has not been done on the basis of the health advice, at least from the AHPPC, regarding any health risk to the children.
JOURNALIST: You've talked us through theoretical modelling using international data. There are a lot of Australians who would like to see some actual modelling, using Australian data. Is that something that you're able to provide at some point? And why isn't that useful at this point? And, PM, just to follow up, a lot of your messaging in the last few weeks has been rightly directed at adults and grown-ups, but there are a lot of children who are at home probably watching this right now. They're not at school. This is a pretty overwhelming thing to be living through. What's your message to the children of Australia who are quite anxious about the weeks and months ahead?
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: Ok. So, yes, there is. We now have data on nearly 6,000 Australians. That data is currently in the hands of our modellers and they are doing just as you say. It's still very early data yet. Once we have something that is scientifically valid and useful, the National Cabinet has asked us to share it with them and they will share it with you.
JOURNALIST: Does it show, though, the actual data that we're heading to best-case, worst-case, most likely? Do you have an idea on where we're trending?
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: It's too early to tell on the trend data we’ve got at the moment. But in the next week or 10 days, we'll have much better trend data. The data is still confounded by the noise from returning travellers. Once we’ve got that noise out of the system, we'll be able to get a much better picture.
PRIME MINISTER: My message to the children of Australia is the same message I give to my own children. I know this can be frightening and it can be scary. And they're hearing a lot of things, much of which they won't understand. I think some of the most heartening and cheering videos I think we've seen was where you see little kids in their bedrooms, with their own little lightsaber, attacking the virus. And you know, that's sort of what it feels like somedays in these roles. But I think the key message is, we will get there, we will be Ok, but we have a look after each other. They have to look after their brothers and sisters, they’ve got to look after mum and dad too and try to be as patient with them as they can. When mum and dad, mum or whoever is asking you to do something, I think it is important to do what mum says, and help them as much as they possibly can, because they are trying to do the best thing for those children. We will seek to teach them as much as we can about what's going on. The thing to know is that in Australia they are one of the most safest places in the world and their parents love them very much and their parents will do everything they can to keep them safe through all of these difficult times.
We’ll keep going across the left, yep?
JOURNALIST: Doctor Murphy, can you give us an idea of when - I know you talk about this modelling and it’s early days - when it might become available, and Prime Minister is it fair to say you will require this modelling before you can make any decisions about dialling down social isolation?
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: I would think in coming weeks the National Cabinet, twice a week, I am presenting to them on the data and the trends and they are very keen on what's on what’s happening. But in terms of having some meaningful data, I would say it's a matter of weeks before that would be in a useful form.
PRIME MINISTER: You can get any data at any time, but to get the right data you have to get it at the right time and that when it's ready and that's when it’s had the proper integrity and rigour applied to it. You don't want to make decisions based on poor process and poor data, and when we say we trust the science here and the research, we have got to allow them to do that work properly and not meet arbitrary timeframes. To be honest, the modelling is one of just many tools that we are using. There is no map for this. We are in uncharted territory, and Australia is in a position that many countries would wish to be in. What we have got right now is important time, that's what Australians have given us through their cooperation and work they are doing, that is giving our researchers, our scientists, our doctors, our healthcare sector, all of us more time to be able to chart and plot the way out of this, and that is the full attention of the Government now as go forward, having got all of these larger measures in place. And so there won't be one issue that determines that, and what I think you will expect to see is the National Cabinet look at all the information coming through, and you will have some jurisdictions, some states and territories that might be in a position to move when others are not, then we will learn from the experience of those states that may have trialled things. And we may see a number of trial type of relief of restrictions at some point in the future and that would mean that in states like New South Wales or Victoria or even south-east Queensland that are more impacted that they be able to take this easing of restrictions with a bit more confidence. So the National Cabinet is working together very much on this and discussing the options that are available to them and really trying to help each other with the decisions that they need to make in each and every case. So there is no one point of data, no one point of experience, it's the combination of all and sharing the learning together and making decisions as much as we can together. Up the back.
JOURNALIST: Yep PM, so you were just mentioning how the modelling helps you with your economic response plan, can you give us information about how that's helping you with your economic response plan and also just separately, have you had any employers push harder on getting you to freeze that increase in the superannuation guarantee as a mechanism for helping them get through this period of time as well?
PRIME MINISTER: No, is the short answer to the second question, it's not a matter being raised with me, I can't say it hasn't been raised with anyone else, but that's not a matter the Government is currently considering or considering, I should say. The second point is, there are two parts to those charts, one is the peak and the other is the breadth, and states and territories and I are very conscious that the path out of this is not just about avoiding the peak, but about being able to get back to some sense of normality that will enable the economy to support Australians, without the need for the unprecedented JobKeeper and JobSeeker supplement type supports that are in place because that is finite, that cannot go on forever, that will revert, that will go back to where it was before, and so we will be working to address both of those issues, to ensure the health system can cope, but also to ensure that the duration of where we have to put limitations in place, can be minimised. And that is very difficult. That's why I have talked from the outset that there is a twin crisis we are fighting here. We are fighting on the health front, on the virus and on the economic front, to protect people 's livelihoods, saving lives, saving livelihoods that's our plan.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister you spoke about how you hope the modelling will give you an idea of the path out of this, Professor Murphy said that better hand hygiene will be with us to stay how do you think Australia will look as a society on the other side of this crisis?
PRIME MINISTER: Well it's a question I think we are all asking ourselves about how we can best put in place the policy environment that gets the best outcome on the other side. And I think, as Australians go through these many months ahead, it will change many of us and our behaviours for a long time to come and in some cases not in a necessarily bad way, there will be things we learn from this experience which I think will be very important, but the other side of what we are in currently at the moment I think highlights the need for us, of course to be an open trading nation, that has been a core part, a core part of our prosperity over centuries. But equally we need to look carefully at our domestic economic sovereignty as well, and these are issues that the government and particularly the Federal Government is spending a lot of time focusing on at present.
Up the back?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, this morning Gladys Berejiklian said that if a vaccine, that social distancing wouldn't be lifted until a vaccine was realised and we are hearing that could be for potentially a year or even longer, what's the AHPPC’s advice to National Cabinet on that and just further on the same issue, in terms of testing we are seeing that the guidelines are being lifted to some degree and you are testing a bit broader, is there a point at which you could be testing asymptomatic people that aren't necessarily in a risk category to see if this virus is lying dominant and any other populations?
PRIME MINISTER: I’ll let Professor Murphy speak to the testing other than to make this point, that the testing resource is also globally, largely, finite and so testing resources need to be applied where they are of greatest use and I know that’s the strategy being followed by the medical profession. In relation to the comments you referred to from Premier Berejiklian I know having spoken to her that her position is not as hard and fast as you may have represented. I think there is a very practical and pragmatic approach being followed by all states and territories, and that the restrictions are one of the many levers that we have to pull in both terms of getting this under control, but also at a point where we can actually move forward again and start to ease them, that's no time soon I should stress, that's why I say this Easter, make sure you follow all the rules in staying home and enjoying Easter with your own household, and spending that time there because that is what is going to save lives and save livelihoods. So it is important that we deal with this on a week by week, month by month process, and where we are in a position to make changes in the future then of course we will. Because that will be in the national interest to do that ultimately so long as we don't compromise the other battle we face which is on the health front.
PROFESSOR MURPHY: So on testing of asymptomatic people there isn't a lot of evidence about it, the one place we will likely do that, is in aged care facilities if we find a case in and aged care facility, we’ll, because we have seen some asymptomatic cases and because this virus wreaks havoc in aged care, that is a strategy that we will be undertaking, at the moment, we think the yield is more in testing people with acute respiratory symptoms in areas of community transmission, that is where we are broadening the testing at the moment, we will look at the data on asymptomatic carriage, it's not clear yet how significant that is or what people might test positive when they are well how infectious they are, that data is still emerging.
JOURNALIST: Just on cruise ships, at least 17 of our 45 or so deaths now are related to cruisers, are linked to cruisers and the cruise industry do you think the industry needs to take a fair portion of the responsibility to do with this and do you see that industry changing, long-term beyond the pandemic and its practices and so on?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm sure every single sector in the country, whether it’s cruise ships or anyone else, will be reflecting on these very difficult experiences that they have had, both negative and otherwise. They have largely been negative in terms of how they would deal with these sorts of issues again in the future. In terms of the cruise shipping industry, like many other sectors, they have got caught up in these early phases because people were out on cruise ships and that was always going to present some very difficult transitional issues in these early weeks. And there was no simple way through all of that, what I think is important to understand is what the virus has done has pushed pause on the global economy, that has never happened before. It’s never happened before, at this scale and when you think about the global economy and everything connects all around the world, people on planes, people travelling people on business, supply lines, resources on ships, all of this and then all of a sudden, it gets paused. Then that's going to cause the obvious complications that we have seen and so that’s been difficult and there have been issues, no doubt, that I think everybody would hope would have gone differently but I think, on occasion we just have to step back a bit and just reflect on how significant the impact has been here, and everybody even if they have made mistakes, I think have been trying to get this right. Journalists have been trying to get it right, you haven't always got it right too, others working in government, people working in industry they have been trying to get it right, I think we have got to give people a bit more of a break in those circumstances. Sure there are things they should have learned and sure there’s things that should have been done better and sure there’s things that need to be done differently in the future, but you know right now? I have got to deal with today's problems and I have got to deal with next week's problems and next month 's problems and that road back and so I can't allow us to get too held back in things that have already occurred. We have got to learn from them sure, but the intray is pretty full on a lot of other things.
Phil? No I’m sorry we’ve had one question, Phil?
JOURNALIST: Professor Murphy, you said in response to Michelle's question about the eradication theory that one of the downsides of that may be that you do not build up sufficient community, sorry immunity in the community, do you have a benchmark in mind for what percentage of the population needs to have developed an immunity over time before we can start sort of returning to normal?
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: The short answer is no, some people believe you need over 50 per cent immunity, to up to 60 per cent, and to be clear, we are not pursuing a path of herd immunity, we are pursuing a path of control and suppression, but, if you did want to get that sort of level of immunity to prevent transmission it's probably at that level but we don't know yet, that's modelled on other viruses, there’s no community in the world that has very high immunity as yet.
JOURNALIST: Just wondering about the six month timeframe we are being told about. Does it come from this highly theoretical modelling and if so how much when can we trust it and in a few weeks when we have the Australian data will we possibly have a different timeframe?
PRIME MINISTER: The six months was based on some early work that was done but also, I should stress, it has had factored into it the scale response we can provide in terms of supports. So all of these things come together and we will have to keep this under constant review, but it was important that we, I think, had a realistic initial timeframe to work to, to be able to construct things like JobKeeper. I mean, we could have done what other nations have done and said ‘Oh, we'll put this in place for a month or two months or perhaps three months.’ We said no, if we're going to do something we have got to be able to do this for the foreseeable period that we can currently about the extent of this pandemic. And so we took six months and to the best of knowledge we are the only country that have been thinking about it and those sort of longer terms and that's important because $130 billion on JobKeeper is significant. Absolutely significant, unprecedented. And if I had said to you that this was only going to cost $65 billion and it was over three months, I think I would not have been upfront with the Australian people. I would have had to have said, as we have done, we think that’s at least what we need to do. And that is going to draw heavily on our capability. But at least we know - and Australians can know - and this will be in the Parliament tomorrow, it will pass the Parliament tomorrow. It will pass the Parliament because it must pass the Parliament, because Australians need the certainty of that lifeline for that next six months. This buys us this next six months, as we work the medical professionals to chart our way through and out of this. This is an absolutely essential lifeline for Australia. That is unprecedented in its scale and its scope and its coverage. This will provide Australia with what we need to get through the next six months, and hopefully that gives us the time we need to chart our way through and out.
JOURNALIST: PM, thank you. In terms of commercial tenancies, what happens if a landlord doesn't want to engage with their tenant in this process? Even though it is a mandatory code, is there a way around people who may not do it, may not engage and negotiate in good faith?
PRIME MINISTER: They are legally required to do it. So in not following the legal requirement, they would be forfeiting their rights under the lease.
JOURNALIST: So there is no way out for a landlord is what you’re saying? And at risk of being cheeky, can I just get your reaction to the George Pell decision today?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm staying focused on the coronavirus today, thank you very much. The High Court has made its decision. I know for many Australians the memories of things that are completely unrelated to that case, which has been addressed in the High Court, just the mere discussion of these topics brings back great hurt and when these things are raised my thoughts are always with them. But the High Court has - the highest court in the land - has made its decision and that must be respected.
JOURNALIST: Professor Murphy, back to the modelling. We saw some really horrific levels of infection just a few weeks ago, in the mid-teens, and higher. When it comes to the modelling, what rate of growth - because you are talking about managed rates of infection in, effect with the push and pull of levers - what rate of infection can we tolerate without pushing the ICU availability? And just one to you, a second question, you talked about a pandemic period. What is the definition of a "pandemic period"? Is it simply a declaration of the National Cabinet or is there some other metric?
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: So, the answer is we don't know, Andrew. That's what the modelling is going to look at at the moment with our Australian data. So, certainly we're very confident with the growth trajectory at the moment. But that can change. Particularly that community transmission is what we have to look at. We will be doing Australian modelling on that. So I can't give you an answer to that today. But we will in coming weeks if that's the course we pursue, because the National Cabinet has asked for a range of options of how we come from… some people have created the analogy, we’ve got ourselves on a life raft, unlike the US and other countries that are still in the water. We are on a life raft. We now have to chart the course of where we take that life raft. The National Cabinet wants considered advice on all the directions. We don't have those answers yet.
PRIME MINISTER: Pandemic period - when you talk about the commercial tenancies code - is mapped to the JobSeeker program, which as you know began last Monday - last Monday week, technically. That runs out for a period of over six months, around six months. That can obviously be extended or retracted, based on the assessments made by the government at any point in time, considering all the issues we have been discussing with you today. The JobKeeper programme has become, if you like, a key building block, not just for the Federal Government, but also states as well who are tagging a lot of their supports and assistance to those businesses who find themselves in those situations. So, it's not a scientifically defined space at the moment, but it is certainly assisted and being defined by the scientific and medical advice that we are receiving. So that is what we refer to when we say the "pandemic period". We’re going to leave it there. Sorry, you didn't have a question.
JOURNALIST: Can I just ask very quickly, this forthcoming modelling exercise involving the Australian context, Prime Minister, will you guarantee that you will be able to release the underlying assumptions when that modelling comes out as well?
PRIME MINISTER: As demonstrated today, you're getting everything we have got. And I think that's the approach we have been taking all along. We have been very up-front with the Australian people. And the National Cabinet equally wants to be very up-front with Australians about this. That's why we have spent quite a bit of time today going into some detail, explaining the qualifications around the information that we have provided to the public today, but in, particularly to the media, and we would hope that it is appropriately reported, in terms of what it is, and also what it isn't. We will continue to be up-front with Australians, but as we close off today, there are 301 Australians based on the information I received this morning at 6:30, who are in hospital. Some 93 of those are in ICUs. Some 36 are on ventilators. And it's a reminder with the 42 fatalities that we've had there are many Australians out there at the moment who are just going through such a horrible time beyond the isolation, beyond the inconveniences of the restrictions, and also the terrible economic loss. There are those who are dealing with lost loved ones. There are those who are dealing with family members who are in ICUs, and there are those who are fearful that others might fall into that situation. And this is a heavy burden for those Australians to carry. And we need to assist them in carrying that burden as well, in the way we deal with these issues, And to Boris, we are with you, mate, and we hope you get well soon.
Press Conference - Canberra, ACT
3 April 2020
PRIME MINISTER: Good afternoon. The National Cabinet has met again this morning.
The National Cabinet now is moving into a new phase, having established the many baseline supports and measures that we've put in place to suppress the spread of the virus, and we're now moving into a new phase where in our regular meetings we'll be able to review the data and in particular review measures on a regular basis and make such adjustments as is necessary as we move through this next phase.
But I can say this, that had the virus kept growing at the same rate it was 12 days ago, we would now have more than 10,500 cases in this country. There'd be over 5,000 more cases. And in fact, some commentators who were doing the maths were suggesting that we would have had 8,000 cases just as recently as last weekend. That is a tribute to the work that has been done by Australians in getting around and supporting the very sensible measures that are being put in place all around the country by the state and territory governments. But we must continue to do this. It doesn't matter what the temperature is. If it's a warm day, don't go in masses down to the beach. That's a simple instruction that all Australians expect other Australians to abide by. It isn't just the government asking you to do this. It's your fellow Australians asking you to do this, because by complying with those arrangements and supporting those arrangements, you're supporting your fellow Australians.
We need to continue to keep the pressure on. We need to continue to suppress the virus. We are now at single digit rates of growth, but we need to do more. The changes that you are making Australia are working and we need to keep making those changes and making sure we can make those changes on a sustainable basis in our daily lives.
We also must continue to get the balance right. And that's why, as I said, the National Cabinet will be regularly reviewing the data and all the baseline supports and the baseline restrictions that are in place to ensure that we're only doing what is necessary to protect the health of Australians and at the same time ensure that we continue to keep our economy running and the income that is available to people through their work will be available to them, and not unreasonably taken from them. This is the road ahead. This is the road that we're making into this virus, but the National Cabinet is also very focused on the road out as well. We've talked about six month periods and that is true. They're not a guarantee, it could be longer. We pray it’s shorter, but a six month period should give people a good indication of what they have to ready themselves in terms of the changes they're making in their daily lives.
So we are in what we describe today, as a National Cabinet, as the suppression phase. We are now in a place where we're seeking to put the pressure down on constraining this virus in Australia. We then need to look at the recovery phase, which is beyond. And I want to assure Australians that the National Cabinet is very focused on those issues as well. But in these early phases, the work has had to necessarily focus on establishing all the rules, establishing the restrictions, putting the economic supports in place, particularly through arrangements like JobKeeper and JobSeeker to ensure we were getting the additional resources into our health system, supporting initiatives in areas of community supports, domestic violence, mental health, all of these things putting in place the supply lines to ensure that we can get access to the medical tests, to the PPE equipment, the personal protection equipment, and all of the upgrading of things like ICU’s. And that work has been going at a great pace to ensure we have the contact tracing. And one of the most pleasing figures that the Chief Medical Officer and I have been observing each day is that great job the states and territories are doing. And they have employed an army of people to do this in their ranks, to be going out and tracing the contacts of those who have picked up the coronavirus. Those figures of untraced cases has fallen dramatically over the course of the last couple of weeks. And that is a great effort from the states. And I want to thank them for the tremendous work that each of them are doing on the end of that phone, ringing people up, tracking down where they've been. It's painstaking and frustrating work, but they're doing it and it's saving lives and it's saving livelihoods.
The National Cabinet having put those controls in place, and will now continue to assess these measures on an ongoing basis. Today, we had a further report on modelling work that had been done, that modelling work is not yet complete. That modelling work looks at different scenarios. So we can be confident to an acceptable level that the potential course of the virus in Australia will run at a pace in which our health systems will be able to support the Australian population. The early news on some of this early modelling is that at the current rate, if we keep doing what we're doing and we keep doing the work to upgrade our ICU capacity and secure the extra ventilators and all of the things we're doing right now, then right now that trajectory is promising. It's encouraging, but there are no guarantees I want to stress, this virus writes its own rules and we have to seek to try and understand them as best we can and respond as best we can to the pressures that we face. Now, that modelling will have further work done over the course of the next few days. It will be reviewed again by the National Cabinet when it next meets next Tuesday morning. And then following that, the Chief Medical Officer and I will be conducting a briefing on that information and sharing that with the nation. The good news, though, is that on the scenario planning we have at the moment, we are tracking well, but we can take none of that for granted.
Also agreed today was a range of very practical issues that we believe that are necessary at the margin and to address issues that have arisen in the community. We have from this afternoon we'll be releasing a daily dashboard on all the key statistics with a very straightforward and simple summary by the Chief Medical Officer about the key features of that data that will be done on a daily basis. Of course, that will be of great use to the media. Much of the data you'll already be familiar with in the media, but that information will be available on health.gov.au and people can look that up on a daily basis. It will be published in the afternoon because that is the period of time in which all the information has come through from the states and territories. You will note many of the Premiers are updating their information again the following morning, but that afternoon report is a daily baseline on where things are at on each and every day.
We also agreed today, that for Easter and religious services, given all of these religious services now where they are continuing are being done in a streaming or broadcast mode. That the places where the broadcasts and the streaming is taking place from, most usually in a place of worship, they will be considered as workplaces. Now, what does that mean? It means that the same rules that apply to a workplace for those who are participating in presenting the service, conducting the service, will apply as they do in other places of work. That means particularly for orthodox religions, where particularly when it comes up around Easter, there are additional canters and there are additional other religious ecclesiastical roles that are played in those services. That means there can be additional people that are taking part in the celebration of those services, not people going to church. It's the priests and the others formerly involved in the conducting of the ceremonies. That way they can be faithfully relayed to the faith communities around the country. So it doesn't mean, churches are not open, places of worship are not open. I want to be very clear about that. But we've had a lot of feedback from religious communities that there are ways that these services are conducted and they'll be able to do that respecting absolutely the four square meters per person rule that applies in those workplaces and that and that should be followed.
Also on working holiday maker visa holders. Now, there are many of them still in Australia. Many have returned to their home countries. There are particular places that in the agricultural sector that rely on those workers each year as you go into the seasons, either for planning or for harvesting or for fruit picking and so on. And it's important that those businesses and those producers are able to continue to conduct their business. Now, of course, Australians who want to do that work, then please do, get out there and do that work. And there'll be opportunities there. For working holiday makers who are looking to engage in those occupations as they regularly do. They will be required to self isolate and to go on to Australia.gov.au and register for self-isolation and do that where they are now for a period of 14 days before they transfer to another part of the country out in a rural or regional area. At that time, their employer will be looking to see that they have conducted that self-isolation before they would be employed in that work. Now this is important to ensure that we don't get a lift up of the virus that might be in many metropolitan areas and it gets transferred to more vulnerable areas in rural and regional communities, which as yet are not experiencing the same level of the virus being transmitted in those communities. So this is being done to ensure that those producers can get the work done, but also to ensure that the communities are protected. At the same time working through the states and territories and local governments. We will be working to ensure that the workers accommodation that would be in those places is also respecting strict health requirements. You can't have 6 backpackers in a caravan up out in rural parts of the country. That's not on. Not gonna happen. You need to have more strict rules around that and local governments and shires will be observing those health rules and working with their states and territories to put those conditions in place.
On the economy. We are continuing to do everything we can to limit the impacts wherever possible and to provide all the necessary supports. And JobKeeper and JobSeeker are critical to those plans. In relation to JobKeeper, in discussion with the states and territories today, local governments and their support will be provided by the state government so that local government employees are no different to state government employees in these arrangements. Local governments are not eligible for JobKeeper from the Commonwealth government where there is support necessary, if there is support necessary for local governments that will be provided by the state and territory governments, not the Commonwealth government.
On commercial leases. As you know, we've been working on this issue for some time and I have, had hoped we'd be in a position to have finalised this today and we are very close to doing that. And the National Cabinet considered the proposals that came forward. An industry code of practice for commercial tenancies, including retail tenancies, has been worked on by the various stakeholder groups representing tenants and landlords over the course of the next few days, that industry code as the the National Cabinet reviewed that today, has not got to the point that we believe it needs to get to to ensure a sufficient security for tenants and landlords that are affected by these arrangements. What we are seeking to have happen is for the industry to complete their code and that code will be made a mandatory code, incorporated into state and territory legislation where appropriate. Where it will be mandatory for tenancies. That is the tenant and the landlord, where they have a turnover of less than 50 million and they are a participant in the JobKeeper program. As you know, the JobKeeper program has a threshold which has a 30 per cent loss of revenue. If you're in that situation and you're a tenant, then we will be working to implement a mandatory code of practice regarding the negotiations, the discussions that you will now have with your landlord to ensure that both of you, the landlord and the tenant, can get through this next period and on the other side be able to go back to business as usual and enable those businesses to succeed. And the landlord also to succeed in the future. What is important as part of this code is that both parties negotiate in good faith, that there is a proportionality principle that needs to be in this code. And that proportionality principle is simply this, that the turnover reduction of the tenant needs to be reflected in the rental waiver of the landlord. Now, how that is done inside the lease is up to the landlord and the tenant. There are many different ways you can achieve this. If, for example, there was a 3 or 6 month rental waiver because a lessee, a tenant would have had to close their doors and there's just simply no money coming in. Then one way to achieve that is to extend the overall lease by 6 months on the other side, if they're going to give a rental waiver. Similarly, they could agree to a different level of rent over the entire term of the lease. And that was shared over a longer period of time. These are things that we do not wish to be prescriptive about. What we want to do is have landlords and tenants in the room to ensure that they can work these issues out between them, so they can have an arrangement which enables them to get through this period and to get to the other side. The banks will need to come to the party as well. The banks are not parties to those arrangements. And so that makes it legally a little more difficult. But banks are already moving to providing all sorts of new facilities and arrangements to their customers. And we would expect banks to be very supportive of the agreements reached by landlords and tenants who would be working under this mandatory code. But I stress, again, I, we would like as a national cabinet for this to be done by industry and for them to finalize a code with this proportionality principle as quickly as possible so we can move to have that adopted into state and territory regulation as a matter of a mandatory arrangement. Now, if you're in that arrangement, which you would be required to enter into, if you're in the terms that I said, then you would be, have that protection of of issues around evictions. You would have the protections around claims on penalties or acting on guarantees of interest protection on rent, on all of these matters, you would be protected. Also, the landlord will be protected in that the lease would not be able to be terminated on those grounds. So there's give and take on this, give and take, those tenants and landlords are being encouraged to sit around that table and get that done now. The mandatory code would require it. And if you sit outside the mandatory code, then you are leaving yourselves out in the cold. So with those measures, we are looking forward to make further progress. States would also, under those arrangements, be looking to provide various exemptions and and waivers and reductions to some of their fees and rates. But we're looking to see that industry code come in place to ensure we can make progress more quickly. And that was the arrangement we came to today. And National Cabinet will consider this again at the latest on Tuesday morning. And if we're able to come to an arrangement before then, then we would convene to make that possible.
With those rather lengthy, but again, I thank you for your patience, remarks. I'll pass over to the Chief Medical Officer.
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: Thanks, Prime Minister.
So worldwide, we've now passed 1 million reported cases of COVID-19. We believe that the true number is probably five or 10 times as much as that, because we know that judging by the death rate, the testing rate, in many countries, they're not detecting all the cases. There are some countries that don't have the capacity to test. In Australia, we're now reporting 5,274 cases. But in Australia, we're pretty confident that our testing has been probably the best in the world and that we are very confident that whilst there will certainly be some undetected cases, we have a pretty good idea of the size of our outbreak.
As the Prime Minister has said, the growth rate has been falling. It's about 5 per cent a day at the moment. The border measures have had good effect. We're still detecting return travellers. We're still detecting contacts of return travellers. But those numbers are reducing. We still have cruise ship people to come home. We still have a lot of issues with people that have contracted the virus from overseas, but we are in control of those issues. The issue that worries all of us, and I've said this on many occasions, are those community transmission, those cases which have been passed from person to person in the community without a clear epidemiology link. We know there are over 300 of those in Sydney, about 60 in Melbourne, 30 in Brisbane, and smaller numbers in some other states. That means that there are people who have COVID-19 or incubating it who don't know it. And that is why we introduced these social distancing measures that we've all been taking to heart really well. And I, like the Prime Minister, I'm truly delighted at the way the Australian public has embraced these measures, which are all about stopping, slowing that community transmission so that when cases are identified, they can be tested, they can be dealt with by the public health units and we can continue to suppress this virus. So we are quietly pleased with the direction we're going, but we can not stop because those community transmissions have been growing and they are still growing slowly. And we have to keep doing these measures to bring them under control. Thanks Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you. We’ll start this side and we’ll come around. Greg?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, [inaudible] relatively low. People are going to be wondering you know, is it all worth it? So Donald Trump has told Americans that social distancing could potentially save 2 million lives, if Australians were just getting about their lives as normal, you know, how many lives are we saving through social distancing?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, as I said at the outset, had we not taken the measures we'd already taken just twelve days ago, there'd be 5,000 more people with the virus right now. Now we'll be sharing more information on our modelling next week. And I think that will go more to the issues that you're raising. But I can absolutely assure you that social distancing, combined with the many other measures we've put in place, is saving lives and it is saving livelihoods. Now, one of the things the National Cabinet is very keen to do now we've got through and I'm sure you would agree, there has been a massive amount of work that has had to be done to put in all the measures and arrangements we have done over the last several weeks. $200 billion worth of economic supports, investments in our health system, our childcare system, our mental health system, our emergency relief. All of these things, don't happen by themselves. There's been an enormous amount of work. The restrictions, the regulations, the state and territory governments have been putting in place as the National Cabinet has come together, has been to get us to this first stage of establishment to get the baseline of the protections and supports. Now, what we are looking to do is let Australians know what our next target is and what we're hoping to achieve in the weeks ahead so we can work together to achieve those goals. So you can expect me to be saying more about what our goals are, whether it be in what we're trying to do on the spread of the virus or what we're doing on our targets on ICU beds and things like this so we can share with Australians how we're getting there along the way. And I think that's an important point. Australians are making big sacrifices. They want to know what it's achieving. I can tell you what it's achieving right now. You're saving lives. You're saving livelihoods. And if you want to know how much, you only have to look overseas and see what is happening in other developed countries around the world. That is not our experience in this country. And we're doing everything we can to ensure it does not become our experience. No, just just one each I think.
JOURNALIST: If churches are workplaces that can safely be attended by those conducting a service, why can't the Australian Parliament sit if parliamentarians observe the four-square metre rule? And what do you say to calls for a joint committee to scrutinise the Government's response on Covid-19?
PRIME MINISTER: Parliament will resume this week and Parliament will be called and will do the work it needs to during the course of this crisis. And that will be done promptly, as you will see next week, and will be done on the modified rules that respect the social distancing and other practices that are needed. In terms of other arrangements regarding oversight, the Government doesn't have any issues with that. The Senate provides, I think, very good mechanisms for doing that and we discussed that with the Opposition last night.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, on the JobKeeper program, it is set up so that employers could, with confidence, pay their employees $1,500 a week - a fortnight - this month knowing the Government would reimburse them in May. Many employees have been stood down or are being reportedly told that their business, their company just doesn't have the cash flow to provide that money now. What should those people do for the next month if they're not being… if they're not going to go onto JobSeeker but they aren't able to get that $1,500 a fortnight from their employer before May 1?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the employers need to talk to their banks straight away, because what we're providing under the JobKeeper program is an absolute guarantee you can take to the bank. Because those payments will be made for each of those employees and that should enable them to put a facility in place with their bank so they can make those payments to their employees. Now, where a business chooses to not go into the JobKeeper arrangements, I mean, it's not a mandatory program. It's there to provide support. Then those employees will be able to go and make applications through the safety net process of the JobSeeker program.
JOURNALIST: Just on international students, they’re not covered by any of the support measures that have been announced so far, is that something that the Government's looking at? We're hearing that a lot of students are struggling to keep their accommodation. If they're kicked out, that obviously causes a lot of other social issues and could more be being done by the Government to communicate to people who speak languages other than English? A lot of the feedback from communities is that these measures they're trying to keep on top of them, they want to do the right thing, but it's very difficult for them to understand in their own language. Is that something that the Government can look at as part of his daily dashboard?
PRIME MINISTER: The communications program that has been running on people's screens now for us for some time, that also has a languages component to it, which has been rolled out around the country as well. And even in my own communications, whether it's WeChat or other arrangements, we've been pretty focused on communicating through the various language media to achieve that end. In terms of students, the Immigration Minister, well, Acting Immigration Minister i should say, will have more to say about other visa holders and the arrangements the Government is coming to for those. And I'll leave that to him to make those announcements in coming days. People should know, though, in particular for students, all students who come to Australia in their first year have to give a warranty that they are able to support themselves for the first 12 months of their study. That is a requirement of their visa when they come to that first year. And so that is not an unreasonable expectation of the Government that students would be able to fulfil the commitment that they gave. Now, these visas and those who are in Australia under various visa arrangements, they're obviously not held here compulsorily. If they're not in a position to be able to support themselves, then there is the alternative for them to return to their home countries. We still have quite a number of people who are here on visitor visas. My simple, as much as it's lovely to have visitors to Australia in good times, at times like this if you're a visitor in this country, it is time, as it has been now for some while and I know many visitors have, to make your way home and to ensure that you can receive the supports that are available where they are in your home countries. At this time, Australia must focus on its citizens and its residents to ensure that we can maximise the economic supports that we have. But there are many students who are in Australia. That's why we lifted the hour restrictions on student nurses, for example, some 20,000 additional student nurses then became available into our health system. That's very important. For those backpackers in Australia who are nurses or doctors or have other critical skills that can really help us during this crisis, then there'll be opportunities for them as well. But our focus and our priority is on supporting Australians and Australian residents with the economic supports that are available.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you said the National Cabinet has moved from the containment phase to the suppression phase. Can you give us an insight into what the benchmarks were for making the decision to move to the phases and what the benchmarks are for moving to the subsequent prescribers like that?
PRIME MINISTER: I wouldn’t describe it like that and if that's how it came across, then I apologise. What I'm simply saying is in our first few weeks, we've been establishing getting all these measures in place. That is also part of the act of putting the pressure down on the virus and having those restrictions and those limitations and those controls and then the economic supports that are necessary to cushion the impact of those across the community. That's what the suppression phase is and we'll be in this for some time. We'll be in this for some time. There will be a recovery phase and we are working at the same time on the road out, not just the road in. And Nev Power, as you know, heads up the Coordination Commission. There is important work being done as part of that body's work, particularly by people like Andrew Liveris and others who are thinking about the next phase and what will have to do to get the economy back up and running again on the other side of that. And then there'll be a phase after that which will be a return, hopefully, to some form of business as usual in Australia as we once may have known it. But that is quite a way away at the moment. And so right now, we are focused on keeping that pressure down on this virus and ensuring that the measures, the restrictions, the supports that we have are sustainable. I can't stress how important this is. You can't do that forever. The Budget is only so big and the restrictions that people live under can only be lived under for so long. And so that's why it's important that we continue to look at it all the time as a National Cabinet and that we calibrate these things to how the country is moving, how they're responding, and that's why we are so grateful for their support. Mal.
JOURNALIST: PM, can we take from your comments that the National Cabinet has deployed or at least identified the major measures of the response and that subsequent meetings are going to be more progress reports than the deploying of something significant.
PRIME MINISTER: I think as a general rule, Mal, that's a pretty reasonable summary. That doesn't exclude us from considering additional measures. The Commonwealth Government, through our Cabinet, will continue to consider those. But over these last few weeks, I think we've put the big rocks in the jar in terms of our response and that's important. That doesn't mean there won't be others, though. I mean, yesterday's announcement on child care, I think was incredibly important. The work we've done on domestic violence. And while I've said it on a number of interviews in the last 24 hours, people should go to esafety.gov.au. Your children will be online more than they ever have been and that means they are at risk more often than they ever have been online. And I encourage all parents to go to esafety.gov.au and check out the very helpful hints that will help keep your children online safe as so many of them now are engaged in distance learning. So that, I think, is a pretty good summary of where we're at, Mal. We will be looking very carefully at the data and ensuring we're being driven by what that's telling us, what the medical experts are telling us, but also in the area of education. We had a good discussion about education again today. The work is already underway about what schools should look like on the other side of the school holidays. And while I'm on that, people should not be going away for Easter holidays. This is Easter at home. We put the Easter decorations up in the house yesterday with Jenny and the kids. It might actually keep them occupied for at least an hour or so if they're painting Easter eggs or whatever. But this Easter will be at home. People should not be getting in their cars and going to other places. But beyond that, on the other side of school holidays, the education ministers around the country will be working with the medical experts to further inform how the rest of the school year can be conducted. We do not want our children to lose a year of their education. John.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what do you say to a minority of noisy critics out there who believe or don’t understand why the Government may be unnecessarily causing economic destruction to save the lives of predominantly older Australians?
PRIME MINISTER: Every Australian matters. It doesn’t matter whether they’ve just been born or they are approaching the end of their life. Every Australian matters. They matter to me, they matter to my Government and all of the members of Parliament in this place, every state and territory premier and chief minister. Every Australian matters. That's my response.
JOURNALIST: PM, you've given us an update on the commercial tendencies. There’s a lot of confusion out there from residential landlords, is it a situation that their deals with their tenants are being dealt with on a state by state basis and not the National Cabinet and what can you tell us?
PRIME MINISTER: The priority has been on the commercial tenancies, given the business issues involved and the many business closures. And so that's where the National Cabinet has put its first attention and all of the state and territory treasurers. On residential tenancies, you'll recall that we already announced that there was a moratorium on evictions. That doesn't mean there's a moratorium on rents. It means that people are responsible for their rents, but there is a moratorium on evictions. We won't have anyone thrown out of their homes. That's very important. And there'll be further work that is being done by the treasurers on residential tenancies. But the commercial tenancies are what is very important at this point. And I should have stated before to add what I indicated earlier, the intention is there would be mediation available in the event that landlords and their retail commercial tenants were unable to reach an agreement. And I should also point out that if you are not a JobSeeker tenant, if you're just a tenant that hasn't had a reduction in their business turnover, then your leasing arrangements stand. You should be still paying your rent to the landlord. Those things haven't been suspended. These arrangements are designed to address particularly the small and medium sized tenancies. The larger retailers and the big landlords, they'll sort it out. They'll get together, they'll sort it out and they'll have arrangements because they know how much they both need each other to make both of their businesses work. But we want to make sure that smaller tenants have the protections they need to be able to sit down with their landlords. Many landlords are doing the right thing, talking to their tenants, understanding that they both need each other and coming to sensible arrangements that help them both get through. But there's unreasonableness that is happening from both landlords and tenants alike, landlords not taking the tenants calls and continuing to take the rent, tenants who are just threatening to throw the keys in their door and walk away from their leases. That's not the way we need to behave in this. What we need to do is have a code of behaviour which will be mandatory under state and territory laws that will get people into a room and get them to sort it out. And if people don't want to do that, well, they won't have those protections. Yep, Jen.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, not everyone is considerate or patient. Six months is a long time, six weeks is a long time. Are you worried people are going to start getting frustrated with these social distancing rules and start intentionally breaking them, particularly around Easter when they just want to go see their families? Apart from telling people to be patient and the state laws that are in place, what can be done? And one for Dr Murphy, if I can as well, do you believe the numbers that are coming out of China at the moment?
PRIME MINISTER: I might let you go.
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: Look, I think we... the only numbers I have total faith in are the Australian numbers, frankly, because we have the highest testing rate in the world. I think China is in a really difficult position. They did clamp down incredibly hard and they stopped transmission, but their population is not immune. They still have a lot of people in their population and they are obviously trying very hard to prevent second waves. I think they have been pretty transparent. But as I said, I'm only confident about our numbers. I'm certainly not confident that the numbers even out of the US are probably much higher than are being reported because nobody else in the world has been doing testing like we have. Nobody else in the world got on to all of those original cases out of Wuhan in January and contained them. That's why we are now dealing with what we know rather than a huge community transmission that happened all through February in countries like Italy and the US. We are on top of our cases but we still have a long way to go.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, Brendan. Patience must become the virtue of Australians over the next six months, at the very least. It is something we need to get very familiar with. It's something we've got to encourage each other in and it also is something the National Cabinet, all the states and territories I know are very conscious of, to ensure that we can keep these arrangements sustainably in place over the many months ahead. Where we think they can be eased, where we think they can be modified in their enforcement and how that's done, I know the state and territory premiers and chief ministers are listening very carefully to their communities. I have no doubt the police commissioners in each of the states or those who are responsible for the enforcement are listening carefully and exercising the appropriate discretion. I think we have to sort of give each other a bit of a break on ensuring how we're adjusting to this new normal. It’ll take a little while. But patience must become our virtue in Australia. That will save lives, it will save livelihoods.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what is the Federal Government doing in terms of buildings that the Commonwealth owns? Will you be offering rent relief as well and setting an example as the Federal Government?
PRIME MINISTER: We intend to. The Commonwealth doesn't have too many retail tenancies that would fall into this category. They are predominantly held by state governments and it would be our expectation that we'd be acting as a model landlord in those arrangements. Yes, I think we should absolutely do that and I know the Treasurer and the Finance Minister will be ensuring that those arrangements are in place. I’m going to keep coming around.
JOURNALIST: PM, two quick questions. One, would you consider any option of people using financial hardship rules to take any of their superannuation to help pay rent? And secondly, overnight the US recorded its biggest historical jump in unemployment in a week. They’re a bit of a lead indicator. Do you have any concerns that that might happen in Australia?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, first of all, on the issue of access to super, we've already set out our rules about accessing super, and that applies to those on JobSeeker and they can access $10,000 of their super before the end of this year and $10,000 next year. We haven't made any additional announcements on those issues and so obviously someone who was on JobSeeker, they are clearly in a position of financial distress and there are other broader rules that apply and the Commissioner will continue to exercise his discretion, as he always does on those issues. And on the second issue, on the level of unemployment, well, this is why we put JobKeeper in place. This is why this program is such an important program. This is why we've put $130 billion into supporting the jobs of potentially 6 million Australians so they can stay connected to their employer. This is going to save tens and tens and tens of thousands of jobs immediately, and hopefully millions more, as we go through the many difficult months ahead. Now, our scheme was designed for Australia. It is Australian made, for Australian circumstances. It's built for Australia, JobKeeper, and I think it'll work for Australia as well.
JOURNALIST: Just on you've got reports of people in Queensland…
PRIME MINISTER: Sorry, I couldn’t hear you.
JOURNALIST: You’ve got reports of people in Queensland having to go to the state administration tribunal on rental claims, that their landlords are saying the eviction moratorium you guys have introduced is not law. Do you have any comments on that?
PRIME MINISTER: My comment to the landlords is do the right thing. Do the right thing. We're all in this together. Sit down with your tenant, the tenant that's been paying you rent, working in their business, week after week after week, respect each other's livelihoods and support each other's livelihoods wherever you can. This is going to be a tough time, whether you're a tenant, and I know there will be landlords that will feel it as well. Of course they will, and that's why the banks have got to do the right thing by them. This isn't about picking sides. It's about ensuring that Australians work together to solve a problem that they share together. It's not the tenant’s problem. It's not the landlord's problem. It's not the bank's problem. It's all of their problem. And so we need them all to work together to solve it.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, are you aggrieved by the way Ruby Princess was handled? And also, you mentioned Chinese wet markets this morning. What do you think needs to be done about those?
PRIME MINISTER: The matters in relation to that vessel, I think, have been addressed by the New South Wales Premier, and we've just focused on meeting the next challenge and learning from the past ones and we will continue to do that. In relation to wet markets, I was asked about this this morning. It's not a matter that I've sought to raise. You asked me a question, I'll seek to give you an answer, and Alan Jones asked me about that this morning. Look, no doubt, and perhaps the Chief Medical Officer might want to comment as well, but these markets it is not the first time we've seen these types of viruses come out of these sorts of places. We don't have them here and there's good reason and I think this is a big challenge for the world into the future, the World Health Organisation and other international organisations. I think this is an area they can spend a bit of time and attention on because we can clearly see the great risks to the health and wellbeing of the rest of the world as a result of these types of places and facilities. Now, I'm not making any criticisms of anyone. I'm not making any cultural references or anything like that. I mean, there are all sorts of different countries and we all live different ways. But it is important that when you're handling these types of food supplies and how they are provided to the public and how they're treated, these things can be very dangerous, as we've seen. Did you want to say anything about that, Brendan?
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: Zoonotic viruses, so viruses that spread from animals to humans, are our biggest risk and that's what we've seen with Covid-19. And clearly that risk is much greater when you have close contact between a lot of live animals and human beings. So it is a risk. It's been well identified. You know, other other viruses like SARS and MERS crossed from animal to human in the same way. So it's a very important issue and I think it's something, obviously, that the Chinese authorities have been very concerned about.
PRIME MINISTER: But for now, we'll be focusing on what we need to do in Australia. We'll let other countries focus on what they need to focus on in their country. I'm speaking regularly to leaders around the world and trying to learn from their experiences and share our experiences with them. This is a very difficult challenge, as we all know, and we're fighting this war on two fronts. We're fighting the virus, put the pressure down on the virus to stop it or slow it's spread, to save lives and to ensure that we keep our economies running to support the livelihoods that Australians depend on. Thank you.
Press Conference - Canberra, ACT
2 April 2020
PRIME MINISTER: Good afternoon, I'm joined by the Minister for Education and the Attorney-General as well. He'll be making some announcements on some critical areas as a result of some of the decisions we've been taking and the work that is being done. But before I do that, I’d just like to run through a few things. 10 weeks ago, this week, ahead of the rest of the world, Australia listed the coronavirus as a disease with pandemic potential under our Biosecurity Act, following the outbreak of coronavirus in Wuhan, China. We stood up our incident response centre at that time and I visited on the 22nd of January. Some of you joined me there on that day. We set up quarantine facilities soon after that, on Christmas Island and ultimately, later in the Northern Territory and we repatriated families and individuals from Wuhan, China, who had been affected by that initial outbreak area. The expert medical panel was stood up and has met every day since the 31st of January. On the 1st of February, we started closing the borders to visitors coming from mainland China. And we were one of the first countries in the world, indeed, to do so. The Chinese-Australian community did an amazing job in those early days of the spread of the coronavirus. They have been an early example to the rest of the country as the broader implications are now being experienced and the measures that have been taken. They showed all Australians back then how to do this. And I want to thank them very, very much for the example that they set in those early phases, containing and limiting the spread of the virus that had come from China in those early days was incredibly important and has put Australia in the position that we have been in now for these many weeks, where we have been able to get ahead of this, more so than many other countries around the world.
Five weeks ago - a fortnight before the World Health organisation - we called out the coronavirus as a pandemic and we activated the emergency response plan on that basis, further border closures and measures were announced and implemented. Three weeks ago our first economic package was released and that has now been scaled up, as you know, just in terms of fiscal measures of the Commonwealth to some $200 billion, with the Reserve Bank and the Australian Office of Financial Management adding a further $105 billion to that total through their support of liquidity in financial markets. The National Cabinet was formed soon after that and started to put in place the many social distancing and other restrictions and they've been upgraded ever since.
Today, emergency powers are in place across all the states and territories and at a Commonwealth level with a very clear message when it comes to the measures we need to have in place, to continue to save lives and to save livelihoods. Stay at home unless you're out there exercising, getting medical care, you are going to work or education, these are important, or getting things that you need at the shops. These measures are being implemented as was agreed by the National Cabinet, by the states and territories with the enforcement arrangements that they believe are necessary to ensure that those social distancing and other restrictions are effectively implemented in their states and territories, according to the circumstances in their states and territories. And as we know over these last couple of weeks, and particularly in this last week, this is getting very, very real for Australians as they continue to adapt and change their daily lives to what it is going to be like for us, for many months ahead.
We are one of the few, if only, countries that have been talking about the coronavirus pandemic as being one that we are going to have to live with for at least the next six months. I've been very clear about that for a very simple reason. I really want Australians to understand that we need to be in this for that haul. It will be months. We need to make changes that we can live with and that we can implement day after day, week after week, month after month. And so making your changes to your daily lives and how you do things and the other changes that have been put in place, we have sought at all times to make them sustainable, to make them scalable, because this gives us the opportunity as this happens to prepare more and more and to strengthen the position we're in so we can get more ICU beds in place, so we can get more PPE, that personal protection equipment, that we can get more ventilators and then we can even better prepare our community for the changes and impacts that will come.
We are slowing the spread, that is happening and that is saving lives and it is saving livelihoods. And again, I thank Australians for their support. The rate of growth, as we've seen, particularly over the course of this week, has fallen to; on a daily basis, single digit numbers, and that's welcome, but it's still not enough. And in particular, we're watching those community transmission numbers very carefully as are the states and territories most affected.
Over these many weeks, there have been announcements on aged care, health systems, domestic violence support, emergency relief, private hospitals. Many responses, unprecedented responses. It's creating a new normal in Australia during this virus. A new baseline as we fight the virus and we fight the economic threats that it poses.
Today, we are making further announcements. Childcare and early childhood education is critical, particularly for those Australians who rely on it so they can go to work every day, particularly those who are working in such critical areas. And as I said, critical areas aren’t just the obvious ones. It's not just the doctors or the nurses who are at the hospitals. It's the cleaners at the hospitals as well. It's the people driving trucks to get food out to supermarkets and ensure the supplies continue to run. If you have a job in this economy, then that's an essential job, in my view, in terms of the running of the economy, and it's important that all those parents who have children, that they get access to childcare and that those facilities will be there for them in the many months ahead.
The Education Minister will take you through the specifics, but what we will be doing is we'll be ensuring for those parents who are still in that position where they're needing that childcare, it will be free and we'll be putting in place support arrangements to the childcare facilities, some 13,000 of them, to ensure that they'll be able to remain open and be there for those parents to ensure that they can do what they need to do each day, just like it's essential that those schools that are out there, that they can take the children they need to take each day from those same parents so we can continue running Australia each and every day.
In addition to the issues that we've been addressing in the childcare area, which are the Education Minister will go into in more detail. Now, the Attorney-General has been working closely with the union movement. I spoke to Sally McManus again this morning and I want to thank her for her engagement in what is a very difficult time. They understand that, and I thank them for the way they've engaged in that discussion. There are, there are no blues teams or red teams or, there are no more unions or bosses. There are just Australians now, that's all that matters. An Australian national interest and all Australians working together. And I thank all of those that are coming together in that spirit. And that will be very important as we move to put in place the arrangements we are for this JobKeeper program and the many things that relate to that. And so the Attorney-General has also been working with Fair Work and others to ensure some very constructive and flexible arrangements have been put in place to help us get through this.
Parliament will return next week on Wednesday to pass the measures that we've recently announced. I'm meeting with my senior leadership tonight with the opposition, there has already been briefings that have taken place with the opposition. They've been putting forward their views and we're working through that. The drafting is taking place each and every day until very late in the evening.
But we now need to make the changes that have been made, work. That is so important. There is a new normal here in Australia and it is one that we now need to get used to and settle into for that haul over the next 6 months. That is something that will go against the grain for so many, but we adapt. We can change the way we live, but it doesn't change who we are and what I have seen from Australians in so many cases is exactly that sort of attitude. While we have to be isolated, we can still remain connected and Australians are finding innovative ways to achieve that and I think that is tremendous. Because through all of this, we must always maintain who we are as a people, our character, our principles, our values - and to live them out. We are a strong society. We are a Liberal Democratic society and, as I said in the House, we will demonstrate to the world here in Australia how such societies can deal with these sorts of challenges our way, the Australian way.
So stay positive, Australia. Stay connected, stay strong. We will get through this together.
Dan.
THE HON. DAN TEHAN MP, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION: Thanks. PM And as you have said, we want all parents who have to work through the coronavirus pandemic to be able to make sure that their children are getting the care that they expect and they want their children to be getting. So that's why we'll be moving to a different childcare system as of Sunday night.
It will be a system which will mean parents will get their children cared for for free. What we will be doing is turning off the old system and going to a new system which will provide that relief to parents. And can I say to all those parents, what we want to do by doing this is ensure that your childcare centre will remain open so that you know where you normally take your child to get cared, that that will be there for you so that you're not looking to have to go to a new centre, that you're not, you do you do not have the worry and the concern about trying to look for new care for your children.
The way it will work is that we will look at what 50 per cent of the fees, up to the rate cap, were in the fortnight before the 2nd of March. And we will pay you that amount on a fortnightly basis. We will also make sure that it is calibrated with JobKeeper. Now, 60 per cent of the wages, 60 per cent of the costs of a child care centre are the wages. So with JobKeeper, we are helping support the sector to the tune of over a billion dollars. With this payment, we will be helping the sector to the tune of $1.6 billion dollars. And this will enable the sector to make sure that they remain open and are providing this care for parents for free.
Now, there are some conditions that we're asking, if the sector are to receive these payments. The centre must remain open. It must provide care for those parents who need their children cared for. They must also seek to re-enroll those parents who might have dropped off. So if they need care, they can get that care as well. And to help and assist with that we're backdating to the 23rd of March the requirement that the sector must pursue from parents a fee. So we're waiving the gap fee for parents going back to the 23rd of March.
So the hope is that now all parents who need, will get the care they want. And those who have sought to disengage from from the child care sector will re-engage with the sector. I want to thank the childcare sector for the cooperative way they've worked with me and worked with the government as we have devised this new way of payment. Obviously, we've had to calibrate this after we knew the settings of the JobKeeper payments so we could ensure that we got the balance absolutely right to keep the sector functioning and viable through the next six months.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you Dan. I’m going to ask the Attorney now to update on the issues relating to industrial relations.
THE HON. CHRISTIAN PORTER MP, ATTORNEY-GENERAL: Thank you, Prime Minister, and thanks to everyone present. So the Prime Minister's asked me to give you a summary of some of the changes in industrial relations and workplace relations that have occurred over the last 3 weeks and to highlight some possible next steps in that regard.
So behind the scenes, in a quiet and cooperative way, there have been a series of reforms to modern awards and the IR system that's been done cooperatively and quietly but it has been utterly critical to saving what I believe to be tens of thousands of jobs. And it’s probably fair to say that there's been the type of change in 3 weeks inside the award system that you might otherwise wait 30 years to see. The reform has been temporary, it's meant to last for as long as this crisis lasts. It's critical and ultimately it's been incredibly cooperative.
So there are 121 modern awards. There have been very significant changes to 3, restaurants, hospitality, and what's known as the clerks award. Now, whilst that's only 3 of 121, they cover about 2 million workers. These have been applications by agreement between the employers and the unions in each of those sectors, and they've been approved in record time by the Fair Work Commission. And the changes to those 3 awards have meant things like this, that an individual worker who was performing one type of duty in one type of classification can go and move and perform another type of duty in another type of classification. They have facilitated working from home arrangements. So remarkably, some of the awards were so inflexible that it was actually unlawful to work from home, of which, of course there is a great amount occurring in Australia at the moment. They've also allowed for, by agreement, things such as taking longer durations of annual leave at reduced rates. Those types of changes are absolutely critical. They would have saved tens of, tens of thousands of jobs. It's not a matter of the government claiming credit for those changes, we are here to thank the parties that have facilitated those changes. That is the ACTU, ACCI, the Australian Industry Group, individual employer associations like the AHA, individual unions like the SDA have changed the terms and conditions for 2 million workers to ensure that tens of thousands of jobs have been saved. And as I say, that's been done quietly and cooperatively but represents a massive reform to our employment relations system.
So next steps that are to be undertaken, and I should congratulate the President of the Fair Work Commission, Iain Ross, for his remarkable work in facilitating those changes that I've just described and using his own motion power in the Fair Work Commission. It's proposed that all, 103 of the 121 modern awards will be changed to allow for 2 changes across 103 awards. The first is for 2 weeks of unpaid pandemic leave for all employees. And the second across those 103 awards is the allowing of the taking of double the duration of leave, at half the pay. Now you can see how those commonsense changes would allow the flexibility in a number of businesses, which flexibility could well make the difference between survival of the business and preservation of the jobs, or the failure of the business and the loss of the jobs.
So these are incredibly important changes, they would have saved tens of thousands of jobs. And I might also add they have been critical to ensuring and protecting the supply lines of the goods and services that Australians rely on. I'm now deep in drafting with the Treasurer and Treasury to ensure that our $1,500 dollar JobKeeper payment is going to be facilitated in the simplest way legislatively. That is quite a task, but that is also a task that is going to involve changes to a number of acts. So thank you, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, Christian. And now we're going to go to questions, another figure I should have been relaying to you, is Australia has now reached a testing rate of more than a 1,000 tests per 100,000 population. That's 1 percent of the population. We're the first country to the best of our knowledge that has been able to exceed that mark. Our testing resources, and I'll ask both of you guys to join me, the testing resources that we are putting in place have been absolutely fundamental to our tracing and other measures that we're taking at a state level to ensure that we can contain the growth and spread of the virus. Those testing figures are the result of some incredible work that has been done by the Health Ministers, the securing of the testing materials themselves and their application right across the country. It has been an extraordinary, mammoth testing effort and that has put Australia on top when it comes to ensuring we have the best information on tracking this virus.
Happy to go to questions, we’ll go here, and as I’ll, try and make sure everyone gets a go. Yep?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, why has it taken so long for relief for this particular sector? Hundreds of centres have already closed, parents keeping kids at home have still been paying fees to keep their place and also the centre Goodstart won't qualify for that JobKeeper payment because it's over, has a turnover of over a billion. Will an exemption be made for that major centre argument given it employs over 3,000 casual educators?
PRIME MINISTER: I'll let the Minister speak to the issues around Goodstart and those other measures, but this week we announced a $130 billion package to support JobKeeper all around the country. We, in just the last few weeks have put $200 billion worth of support into the Australian economy for the next six months. We have mobilised a testing regime better than any in the world. We have put additional resources at record levels our hospitals, into our private hospitals, into our aged care facilities. And we've been working through these issues each and every day. No government in our history has moved more quickly to deal with the resourcing needs of the Australian people than the one that is leading Australia through this crisis. Dan.
MINISTER TEHAN: Thanks PM. And we had put measures in place, we'd lift the rate of absence days from 40 to 62. We'd also asked all those centres who were suffering as a result of parents withdrawing to put into, submissions to the child care fund. And we're looking to see what additional financial assistance will be provided as well of that, as well with that fund. But the key thing was we needed to put in place a new system to deal with what was occurring. Now, the old system is quite a complex system. It was drafted for a pre-pandemic time. What we needed to be able to do with reductions in attendances is look at how we could put in place a new, new system which would adjust for that. And that required looking at ways to do that outside the current legislative framework. And this is incredibly complex piece of work to be able to do. And can I just say to all officials in the education system who have worked tirelessly on this for the last week for the sector who have liaised with the government on this. Thank you for your support because they have fully understood the complexity of what we have done. In turning a system upside down and putting in place a new arrangement which we are able to announce today. And our hope is the payment will flow before Christmas. Now when it comes to Goodstart, they have over a billion dollars in revenue, they make a profit of $100 million roughly annually. Now I continue to liaise with Goodstart. We have to see, they are just over the $1 billion revenue mark. So we continue to discuss with them. Obviously, they will benefit from what we have announced today, which puts a baseline into their funding. Now we will continue discussions with them. And I was on the phone to them this morning and I have said that I will continue to discuss with them because there is some sort of debate or discussion as to whether that $1 billion revenue mark for how long that will hold for and what then adjustments could be made.
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible]
MINISTER TEHAN: No, I'm not, I'm not saying that exemptions will be made. I'm saying we will continue to liaise and discuss these issues through with them. But they would not have been aware, even when I was discussing with them this morning about what we have announced this morning.
PRIME MINISTER: Under the JobKeeper package also, the tax commissioner, JobKeeper applies to not for profits as well as profit, profit making companies. And the Australian Tax Office commissioner will have an authorised discretion to deal with unique cases. So that just doesn't apply in any one sector. It applies across the board.
Michelle?
JOURNALIST: A point of clarification to the Minister. Will these centres be open to all who were using them before, or the Prime Minister emphasized the importance for essential workers of varying sorts. But what about people who are not working or who are working from home? Is it open slather to them all?
MINISTER TEHAN: So what we're going to ask the centres is to prioritise and they should prioritise Obviously, those who need their children cared for because they are working, and working where they can't care for their children safely at home for them then to prioritise as well vulnerable children who need that continuity of care as well, and then to re-engage with those parents who have taken their children out of care, to see whether they can be accommodated as necessary as well. But there is a clear priority list that we want centres to take into account, and the most important of those are those essential workers and the vulnerable children.
PRIME MINISTER: So Michelle, in this new normal that we're living in, it's no longer about entitlement. It's about need. And we're calling on all Australians to think about what they need, and to think about the needs of their fellow Australians who may have a greater need when it comes to calling on the many things that are being provided.
I'll go to Greg and over the back. Then I'll come over this way.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister you talk about a 6 months or more, shutdown effectively.
PRIME MINISTER: That's not, that's not the phrase I've used and that's not the phrase that I've counselled people to use.
JOURNALIST: Okay, well, you've mentioned this is something we'll be dealing with for 6 months. Would you be able to provide a threshold as to when the shut downs can start winding back to avoid a second stage pandemic? Is it, is it something like that there's no known cases or no new cases? And more importantly, will there be a ban on travel- will the borders be closed until there is a vaccine?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, they’re important questions, but again, what the National Cabinet has done and the National Cabinet is meeting again tomorrow and they'll also be considering issues around childcare regulation and things of that nature. They have imposed a range of restrictions on people. I wouldn't use the phrase that you are, and again, I'd encourage people not to not to use that phrase, because that can only, I think, encourage people to think that there is a, there aren't food in the shops and things of that nature. So that's the basis of why I encourage media not to use that word. So I'd ask you to co-operate by doing that. The thresholds about when you can ease restrictions, whether they be, whether they be the social restrictions, the closures that have been put in place or indeed the travel arrangements, these are not things that are known at this point and can't be known at this point. And that's what the government working together with all the state and territory governments, our medical advisers and others are constantly looking at. But this is why I've been fairly upfront with Australians to say you're looking at least six months for this, and that's why we have to adapt. And I can assure you that if any of these restrictions were not necessary from a health point of view and if there was the ability to ease them without compromising the nation's health and indeed risk what you've noted as being a taking off of the virus again. Well, we'd have to be very careful about that. That's why I counselled that going into this, that the restrictions we put in place have got to be restrictions that we can live with each day. There were many others who advocated much stronger measures. And I did say you need to be careful what you wish for because we have to live with it for 6 months. And it's important that as a country and the governments of the country working with the states and territories, the way we implement these and we work together means that people can live with them each day because we want Australians to be able to keep doing it. And we don't want that frustration to become so much that they might otherwise walk away from the measures that we already have. So this is a partnership between governments and the public. It's a partnership to do things that are sustainable and to make the changes in a manageable way. And as I said, we are fighting a war on two fronts, we are fighting this virus and we are fighting the economic threats that it carries for us. And to do that, we have to get the balance right between all of these measures. We are watching the data very, very closely and we will see cases obviously continue to rise. No one is saying that that won't occur, but it's the pace and rate of that growth that is important. And one of the key focuses of all countries around the world and the G20 leaders, G20 leaders meeting we had the other day, was we're all investing everything we can to find that vaccine, but not just the vaccine, but to improve the treatments that are available, the anti-viral treatments. And there are some promising signs in a number of these, and we'll continue to work with other countries along those lines.
Now, over here, yep, up the back?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, when you say child care will be free, is this free for all parents or is the existing means testing arrangements still in place?
PRIME MINISTER: Dan?
MINISTER TEHAN: Yeah no, the existing means testing arrangements are no longer in place. So what this means is that we want everyone to be able to access care who is working during this 6 month pandemic.
JOURNALIST: The cruise industry in Australia is worth $5 billion dollars a year. The cruise ship industry, we've had New South Wales Police Commissioner in the last few days threaten to send the Navy out to kick out cruise ships off the coast. We've had him say that they shouldn't get treatment because the companies don't pay tax in Australia. Overnight, Trump actually said that people on cruise ships deserve to be treated humanely. Where are you sitting on this issue? And is that damaging rhetoric from the New South Wales Police Commissioner hurting our ability to get Australians who are stranded off the coast of the US home as well?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the cruise ships that are off the coast are being managed by the New South Wales government and they have the authorities that they have to deal with that. And I understand some of them were visited for the purposes of health checks very, very recently. The principles that we've had in place haven't changed, and they've been applied consistently. If there are people who are sick and need health care, then whether it's a foreign national off our shores, who is in need of that or an Australian somewhere else who is in need of that, then countries have been respecting that. And that is the position of the Australian government and that has been respected and that has been honoured as recently as we've seen in Western Australia with the cases that are there that we are provisioning those ships so they'll be able to move on their way. And that's what we would be encouraging them to do. And the states will continue to manage those issues with the authorities that they have.
JOURNALIST: The messaging here might be confusing for some parents, they were told to keep their kids at home. Now they're told to send them to childcare. What's the actual preference?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I don't, well, I disagree. What we've always said and the health advice has been very clear and it has not changed. There is no health risk to children going to school or going to childcare. So that hasn't changed. Absolutely no change. That has been the clear and consistent advice that the government has received and that I've relayed on these issues, as have the Premiers. They've all said that the health advice is clear, children can go to childcare and children can go to school. What schools have moved to largely now and will continue to, is a dual model of providing education of both distance learning for those children who can have an appropriate environment provided at home for them to do that. And where there are parents who can't do that either because they are working and they're in, if you've got a job that's an essential job, then they need the ability for their children to go to that school. And we've had great cooperation from the teachers unions, from the schools, ensuring that no child is being turned away or on that basis. Now, what we're doing here is ensuring the same arrangements exist for childcare centres. So people who have those jobs won't have their livelihoods put at risk. I don't want a parent to have to choose between feeding their kids and having their kids looked after. Or having their education being provided. This virus is going to take enough from Australians without putting Australian parents in that position of having to choose between the economic wellbeing of their family and the care and support and education of their children. I won't cop a situation where a parent is put in that place with their kids.
Now we're gonna come over here, Phil?
JOURNALIST: Regarding the airlines? The government has said it doesn't want,
PRIME MINISTER: Sorry I couldn't hear you over all the shutters?
JOURNALIST: Regarding the airline industry. The government has said it doesn't want to accede to that request by Virgin for a loan. It doesn't be seen to be bailing out a specific business. Is that a principle that will be applied across the business sector as this crisis unfolds, that distressed businesses need systemic sector wide support programs rather than individual bailouts? Is that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well Phil you know I haven't made any comment on this matter. What I can only point to is the decisions that the government has made and those decisions have been made on a sector wide basis.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister you’ve, you may have heard the call from the opposition today saying that backpackers that are qualified nurses maybe from the UK or whatever, that their qualifications should be fast tracked, in other words, they should be absorbed into the system as soon as possible. Do you agree with that? And one other question. What keeps you awake at night with this crisis? We see these images from New York, from London, really distressing images. And what sort of discussions do you have with your family about it?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, look, on the first, just remind me the first part of that again?
JOURNALIST: Nurses?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes, as you know, we moved several weeks ago to ensure that student nurses could have their hours relaxed. And I think from memory there was about 20,000 in that category to ensure that they could be made available into the health system and that's been important. And equally, there are backpackers who have a whole range of skills in both the health sector, but another critical sectors and I know in the ag sector with, you know, the great, I suppose irony of what we're seeing at the moment is those parts of our community have been suffering for so long with drought in particular have now seen some rain and they are looking to get a crop in. And there's a bit of work going on out there and they need people and we have to be careful in how they access workers that we don't basically pick up the virus from the cities and transfer it to the regional parts of our country, which are for now, less affected. And we're working on that issue right now. I got to say, with the NFF and a few others to ensure we can deal with some of those labour needs out in the agricultural sectors. But those who are here as backpackers, they also work in areas of not just healthcare, but in disability care and aged care and a range of different care settings. And they're an important part of that service. So we are looking at how we can ensure that they are better utilised during the course of this current crisis and there's more work to be done there. The immigration, the acting Immigration Minister is working on those issues as we speak.
Mal?
JOURNALIST: On the other issue?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh I'm sorry, on the other issue. Look, to be honest, I'm pleased that my family is with me. They've joined me in Canberra, and that's a great comfort to me. And I hope it's a comfort to them but they sustain me. And we're just like any other family, I suppose, in many other respects. You talk to your kids about what this means, and I suppose the really difficult issue for all of us is trying to imagine the world on the other side of this. And to give your family some positive and encouraging news about how amazing Australia is and how we’ll all come out of this. And I think back to my grandmother and how she lived through the Depression and I remember as a kid being told stories by my grandmother about what they used to do as a family to get through, and we're doing the same thing in our house. We're keeping each other entertained, as I said the other day, we’re doing lots of jigsaw puzzles. Jigsaw sales are soaring I understand. But, you know, you've just got to keep your family positive and stay connected and together. For us, our faith is very important to us. And that helps us get through each day. But every family's different. Stay together, Australia.
Yep Mal?
JOURNALIST: PM will Parliament have a role between now and October apart from the bipartisan endorsement of the legislation that you're proposing?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I hope it's, the Parliament will continue to do its job, as it's called on to do in terms of passing legislation and whether that's given bipartisan support ultimately, we'll find out next week. But the initial responses from the opposition have been very positive, and I thank them very much for that. And we'll have further discussions about that, we’ve already had discussions with the opposition through our, what will now be our weekly meeting for them to raise issues. And we've already got arrangements with them in terms of expenditure. And how particular the Finance Minister's advances are being utilised and things of that nature. The difficulty in calling the Parliament together is a practical one, frankly. Predominantly we've got people coming to Canberra, and we're moving to other parts of the country as we need to call the Parliament together, we will and it will continue to do its job. But equally, our parliamentarians, while they may not be meeting here, they're working incredibly hard in their communities. The phones are running hot every day, connecting people up in their communities to care and support the many programs, frankly they've got a bigger job to do out there in their communities at the moment than they would have here, because their community needs them in their community, because they are local leaders who can help lead their communities through what will be the very difficult months ahead.
Andrew?
JOURNALIST: Just a question for the Minister, just on a few of the mechanics, mechanics of the childcare, the free childcare. Will the system revert back to, I guess, the current system at the end of the pandemic crisis? If a family wants to increase the number of days it accesses childcare? Will that be covered free as well? I'm thinking like if a nurse who's working part time, that has to go back to full time. And does it apply to everyone who has got a child in the system as of like, I guess a couple of weeks ago, or is it only those essential workers?
MINISTER TEHAN: So the way it will work is we were going to have it for 6 months. So there'll be a one month review, there’s an additional 12 weeks up until June 30 with a second 12 weeks. And then obviously there'll be an assessment made of the situation, where we're at in terms of flattening the curve with the pandemic, what the requirements are, and then we can look to see whether we would then obviously look to evolve back to the existing system. So that’s, that's the arrangement that we've currently got. But we will continue to assess and review as we go on. Obviously, all those people who are connected currently to a childcare centre, we want them to be able to get access to that centre. And for those who need to up their hours, or up their days, obviously that's a discussion that they're going to have to have with their centre themselves. But what we do want and as the PM has said, we want everyone to use common sense in this area. We want people to understand that the priority will be given to those who need to be working. The priority will be given to those who can’t care for their children.
PRIME MINISTER: Yep Shane and just behind you, and then to you. Yep?
JOURNALIST: So will parents get their fees covered if their kids are absent. And the other question being, just how will payments be made? Is it through Centrelink, through the centres?
MINISTER TEHAN: No, the payments will be made to the child care centre. So what we're doing is we're changing the way the system works. So as of Sunday night, we're going to be asking all childcare facilities to be finalising all their existing fees and getting them into the system. Currently this week and as of Sunday night, we'll be turning that off and then we'll be making fortnightly payment to centres directly because they're the ones that we have to, they're the ones we have to underpin the viability of.
JOURNALIST: Parents, if their kids are absent will they still be getting their fees covered?
MINISTER TEHAN: So what we've said, for those parents who have who have removed their children from childcare going back to the 23rd of March, centres have the ability to be able to waive the gap fee dating back to the 23rd of March.
JOURNALIST: PM you mentioned you've spent, or planning to spend at least $200 billion. I think you've announced an extra $1.6 billion today. Have you and the Treasurer started putting your mind to how you're going to pay for that? Does that include revisiting policies such as franking credits? And has it come to your mind that the senior public service and yourselves and Cabinet have to consider a pay cut? Given what's going on amongst many other businesses, including here?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, of course, we've given great consideration to the capacity of the Commonwealth to support the announcements that we've made. And that has been done on the advice of our Treasury officials and working closely with the Australian Office of Financial Management. And this is going to put a great strain on the country, clearly, but it is one that is absolutely necessary given the circumstances that we face. But we have still been even in these unprecedented announcements, we have exercised a discipline and a measure in this. We are very conscious of the size of these commitments and what can be done, that’s why I said the other day, There'll be some who will think it's too much and some who thinks it's too little. And what we have done is sought to calibrate these commitments consistent with what the country will be able to withstand. And no, we're not reconsidering franking credits and these sorts of things.
I mean, ultimately, when we come out the other side of this, then obviously we're going to have to address the many challenges that we've taken on. One of the important principles, though, Shane, that we've put in place is to ensure that the measures are temporary and they do not provide long tails of expenditure. Now, as we know and it's, look, it's an observation, it's not intended as a criticism. It's just learning from history. When we went through this last time, there were long tails on expenditure and there were structural changes to expenditure. There are not structural changes here, whether it's what the Minister for Education, Dan has just outlined to you, or what the Attorney General was outlining in terms of industrial relations. There is a snap back there, a snap back to the previous existing arrangements on the other side of this. And so there is an intensity of of expenditure during this period. And then we have to get back to what it was like before. And then we have to deal with the burden that will be carried out of this period of time. And on the last matter, well we put the freezes in place.
Here and then we've got one, two. And I think there was one up the back and then we'll have to call it quits.
JOURNALIST: PM Do you think it's time the banks cut their dividends now as they've been forced to do in New Zealand this morning? And also secondly, is there anything the federal government can do to incentivize state governments to pass on land tax waivers to landlords to help them with their negotiations with tenants?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, on the first one, that's that's a matter that's being considered by the Council of Financial Regulators, and that's not a move that has been decided at this point or has been considered necessary at this point. And I'm aware of the decision of New Zealand agencies at this point, the Australian government and in particular through our financial regulators, we have not received that advice to move to that level. When it comes to dealing with the tenancy issues, this has been a key focus of the work of the National Cabinet over the last week or so. And I want to thank you, whether it's the retailers groups, the landlord groups or the banks and others, they've all been engaging very constructively in how we can deal with this very difficult issue of a, particularly a retail tenant in the majority of cases, who has had either shut their doors or have had a significant reduction in their revenue. Now, they are obviously greatly assisted by the two measures we've most recently put in place, both the JobKeeper arrangements, but also the cash flow arrangements we put in place prior to that, which could provide up to $100,000 to these businesses. But there will be quite a significant disruption to that normal tenancy arrangement. And what we are seeking to do, working with the states, is to ensure that there are the appropriate incentives in place for landlords and tenants to get together, particularly those who are under great stress. Anyone who's part of the JobKeeper program is already defined as that. And I would urge landlords and tenants to work this out. They're going to need each other on the other side. They're going to need each other to be, they're going to need the premises and the landlord is going to need the tenant. And so they need to. I tell you what the great incentive for a landlord is, if that tenant goes bust and can't pay rent. Then they've got no one paying rent and they'll be looking for a tenant in a very bad market 6 months from now. So my advice to landlords is sit down with your tenants and work it out.
Yep, right up the back?
JOURNALIST: A question for the Education Minister. How will these measures announced today affect after school services, a lot of providers have already closed, given learning going online?
MINISTER TEHAN: So, well those after school services will be able to look at these new measures that we've put in place. And if they can start up, then we would encourage them to start up. Can I also say there is also measures as part of this, for those offering vacational care. So that will, the way that arrangement will work is that we will go back to the term three holidays of last year and look at what payments were made there over those vacational periods. And then we'll be able to offer assistance to those who are offering vacational care.
And can I just say one other thing, and it goes to what the PM was talking about, what he's talking about with his family. There are a lot of parents out there at the moment, especially those that have Year 12 students who are contemplating what their VCE is going to look like this year and what that will mean for pathways into work, into vocational education, into university next year. All the Education Ministers have these at the top of the next priority list. We wanted to deal with child care. We want to deal with child care regulation, which the states and territories have been very cooperative on. Our next thing is to look at what it means for VCE students. And can I say to all those VCE students out there and their parents, this is the next on our list of priorities. Obviously there are numerous issues that families are facing, but this is one I'm getting a lot of feedback, which is of concern and we will be addressing this in the coming weeks.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, I understand that you say there is no health risk in sending kids to school, but there is some conflicting advice from the states. Gladys Berejiklian said for practical purposes, keep your kids at home. So in that case, who should parents listen to, should they send their kids to school?
PRIME MINISTER: Gladys Berejiklian in the same press conference said that there was, there was no, that the health advice said it was safe for children to go to school. So my simple point was, is the health advice has been very clear and the New South Wales Premier has made that point. Now, since that time, I mean, this is a rapidly evolving situation. And Dan just made the point that the groups of Ministers around the country are dealing with these issues, like a production line of issues that they need to address day in, day out, and where we are at now at schools is many of them are already moving to distance education. But no child is going to be turned away at a public school or at a private school if that's what their parents need for them to be there. And so parents can make commonsense choices based on their own arrangements. Schools will be doing the same. And I think that's the best way to approach the situation.
Now we’ve got one more up the back and then we'll have to call it a day.
JOURNALIST: On childcare, Minister I just want to ask about that 50 per cent, pegging it at 50 per cent of the pre coronavirus daily peak cap. By doing that, even when you take into account the jobKeeper payment on top of that, there's gonna be a reduction in revenue to these child centres from before the coronavirus crisis struck. So do you accept that there is still going to be staff losses from within the sector? And what can be done for those people?
MINISTER TEHAN: Now, what we're doing, is we're completely recalibrating the way the childcare sector will operate. And what you can't do is compare apples with oranges. And if you look at the data and when you put JobKeeper in there. Our view is that we are providing additional support to the sector and that being in providing that additional support to the sector. What we're saying to them is we want you to remain open and we want you to prioritise those essential workers. And as the PM has said, that’s anyone who's out there working, those vulnerable children and then to look at re-engaging with those who have taken their children out of the sector.
PRIME MINISTER: Alright, well I want to thank everybody, the National Cabinet will meet again tomorrow. We'll be considering a range of matters if there are issues to report on following that meeting, then then we'll do that under the normal arrangements.
Thank you all very much.
Press Conference - Canberra, ACT
30 March 2020
PRIME MINISTER: Good afternoon, everyone. Now is the time to dig deep. We are living in unprecedented times with the twin battles that we face and that we fight against the virus and against the economic ruin that it can threaten. This calls for unprecedented action, governments making decisions like they never have before. And today our government has made a decision today and that I announce today - that no government has made before in Australia in response to crises such as these. And I hope and pray they never have to again. In the past, on so many occasions, they couldn't. But today we can. Today we must. And today we will. We are working now to a whole new set of rules. But it's our principles and values as Australians that will guide us through this uncharted territory and will get us to the other side together.
Our actions must be well considered. They must be well tempered and targeted. They must be effective. They must be clear in their purpose and they must be efficient in their execution. It is never the time for rash and ill-conceived decisions. That is why we have applied ourselves to delivering this plan that will provide Australians with the economic lifeline that they will need in the many months ahead to make it through and to get on this bridge we're building together to the other side.
Some will say it's too little. Others will say that it's too much.
What I say is, we must work together to make this work, and to make it go as far as possible. We still do not know the many other challenges we will face in the months ahead and our decisions have been calibrated to that end. Our goal is to protect the lives and livelihoods of Australians, to protect and preserve the very economy that we will depend on so significantly in the months ahead and on the other side as well, for the generations that will follow us out of this. Many countries in the months ahead and perhaps beyond, that may well see their economies collapse. Some may see them hollow out in the very worst of circumstances, we could see countries themselves fall into chaos. This will not be Australia. We will get Australians through this with uniquely Australian solutions to deal with the unique Australian challenges we face here. Using our Australian systems to address these challenges, but built, most importantly of all, on our values and principles as Australians. To date, we have announced two packages of support - of economic packages worth almost $70 billion dollars.
You may have thought that was a lot. And it certainly seems so at the time.
This has been subsequently supported by some $15 billion dollars in additional measures by our states and territories working to the same purpose. Together with the Reserve Bank we've put together a $105 billion into our financial markets to keep our credit lines open and to support our financial system through this crisis. It's been about keeping Australians in jobs. It's about been about keeping Australian businesses in business, and it's been about cushioning the blow for those who most significantly will be impacted by strengthening our social safety net, of which we can be very proud of in this country.
Today, I announce that we are committing $130 billion over the next six months to support the jobs and livelihoods of what we anticipate are being almost six million Australians, who will need that lifeline in the months ahead. We have already boosted the job seeker payment for those who have lost their jobs. Today, we are introducing a $1,500 per fortnight JobKeeper payment to keep Australians in their jobs, even when the work may dry up. We will pay employers to pay their employees and make sure they do. To keep them in the businesses that employ them and to ensure they can get ready together to bounce back on the other side.
These businesses and their owners will tell you, are their employees - they are their most important asset. And this plan is about keeping those businesses together, by keeping these employees in these businesses. We want to keep the engine of our economy running through this crisis. It may run on idle for a time, but it must continue to run.
Our plan will see our businesses large and small, right across our entire economy share the load with our welfare system, deliver these important income support. Our JobKeeper plan sees every Australian worker the same way, no matter what you earn. There is not more support for some than there is for others. That is not the Australian way. If one person falls on a hard time, if anyone falls on a hard time, it's the same hard time. We're all in this together. That's what's fair. That's what's Australian. So with this plan now, it is time to draw together again. It is time to chart our way through together these businesses with their employees staying together, looking ahead, seeing what it will be like on the other side and working and building towards that on the other side so they can take that opportunity and create a new future together on the other side of this.
So they emerge together and we all emerge together as Australians as one.
I'm going to ask the Treasurer to go through the details of those announcements. I would also note, in addition to the JobKeeper package, we are also extending arrangements for the JobSeeker arrangements to those who are receiving payments or seeking to receive payments where they have a partner pay income test. That partner pay income test will be changed with the taper rate and that'll extend out to what would be an annual income for the partner of $79,762 per annum, which will broaden the access to that payment for people in that situation whose partners previously were earning around about $48,000. That was the threshold. And I would note, though, that many of those partners who were seeking those payments will obviously now in very many cases be covered by this JobKeeper payment by remaining attached to their employers. I want to thank the Treasurer for the work that he has done together with the Treasury Secretary and the Treasury Department. The Finance Department, of course, the Finance Minister. This is a very big challenge. And I appreciate the work you've done, Josh, but from. All of us. It's about the support that's needed, Josh.
JOSH FRYDENBERG: Well, thank you, Prime Minister. Australia is facing a war on two fronts. As the Prime Minister said, we are facing a health crisis and an economic crisis at the same time. The past weeks have been tough, but the weeks ahead will be tougher. And Australians know that no matter how great the challenge is, their government has their back.
Our priority all along has been to properly resource and prepare our health system for the challenges that we face in the period ahead. But we have also never lost sight of what the need is to cushion the harsh economic impact for Australians from the coronavirus as we build a bridge to the recovery. This is what the hibernation strategy has been all about. We are partnering with banks to support lending to their customers and the banks are providing a six month reprieve from having to make repayments. We are ensuring that tenants facing significant hardship as a result of the coronavirus, will have the security of a six-month moratorium on evictions. We're working with the utility and the insurance companies who have a responsibility in this Team Australia moment to help their customers get to the other side.
But most importantly of all, we have been focussed on keeping Australians in jobs and Australian businesses in business. This has seen the government join with the banks to provide loans of up to $250,000. And as the prime minister referred to earlier packages, we are providing cash payments of up to $100,000 to small and medium sized enterprises. Where people have tragically lost their job, we've effectively doubled the safety net with the new JobSeeker coronavirus supplement.
But today we go further, we go much further at a cost of $130 billion over the next six months. We are providing support to the Australian worker like never before. Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. And this new $1,500 a fortnight JobKeeper payment will provide job security at a time when it's needed most. This payment will give working Australians their best chance of keeping their job and keeping them connected to their employers so that they can bounce back in the recovery phase. This $1,500 payment is a flat payment. As the Prime Minister said, it is the equivalent of around 70-percent of the median wage and represents about 100-percent of the median wage in those sectors, most heavily impacted by the coronavirus like retail, like hospitality and tourism.
It will be available to full and part time workers, sole traders, and in the case of casuals, to those who have been with their employer for 12 months or more. From today, employers and sole traders will be able to apply to the Australian Tax Office for workers that are on their books as of 1 March. The payments will flow from the first week of May and be backdated to today. If employees have been stood down by their employer since March 1, they are still eligible for these payments. To be eligible the turnover of the business will need to have fallen by 30-percent or more, or in the case of a business with an annual turnover of more than $1 billion by 50-percent or more. Our wage subsidy scheme for Australia is unlike those announced by other nations. It's more generous than New Zealand's scheme, it's broader than the United Kingdom scheme as it applies to all employees, not just those that have been stood down, and it's available to all eligible firms, not just small businesses, as is the case with the Canadian scheme.
Our scheme is as the prime minister has said is uniquely Australian, with every eligible employee receiving the same wage subsidy. Today's announcement, together with our previous two packages, including the $105 billion injected into the financial system with the Reserve Bank of Australia, sees total support from the federal government during the coronavirus reach more than $320 billion dollars or 16.4-percent of GDP. This unprecedented level of support reflects the unprecedented moment that we are in, and the announcement today is the means by which Australians can get to the other side of this coronavirus.
PRIME MINISTER: I'm going to start over here and then I'm going to move across and make sure everyone gets a go. Okay. So might start with you, David.
JOURNALIST: Is this going to be enough to shield workers and businesses already affected by this?
PRIME MINISTER: With $130 billion of support on top of the almost $70 billion already put in and the support to financial markets, this is an extraordinary level of support in extraordinary times. But we are in unchartered waters, David. And the government will continue to do all within our power and all within our capacity. And with a measure, a plan of this scale and this size, it is certainly our intention that we hope that is the case today.
I'm just going to move around so they will get an opportunity.
JOURNALIST: PM, there are renters in the big cities who'll be struggling to pay the rent if they lose work. Fifteen hundred a fortnight while welcome may not be enough to cover their rent. Is there anything further that can be done? Is that mainly a state responsibility or is there something else that you can do to help people pay their rent?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we're currently looking at rental assistance payments at the moment. We're also working with the states and territories when it comes to residential tenancy issues. That continues to be a matter that's a subject of work within the national cabinet right now, as you heard me say last night, there is a moratorium on evictions that would apply and be put in place by the states and territories to both commercial and residential leases. The follow on effects of that in terms of guarantees around rents and things of that nature for landlords and vice versa is a matter that's still being worked through.
JOURNALIST: What happens, if after six months if this is still going? And also, what guarantee is there that businesses will pass this money on to staff?
PRIME MINISTER: I should stress this measure is being delivered through the ATO. As I've said to all of you, on many occasions, we've been about finding existing delivery mechanisms to ensure that these supports get out. When you design new systems, then you can find yourselves in all sorts of difficulties. And even with these systems, as you can see, there of course, will be a lot of work to do, I mean, these payments are always done in arrears for things of this nature. So that will not be news. And those arrangements businesses can put in place to ensure that they can keep going and working with their banks and so on, because this is an absolute guarantee of a payment they will receive when it comes to supporting their payrolls. But the systems that will deliver this program are systems that we have assurances from in terms of the Australian Taxation Office, and that provides the mechanisms for them to follow through on the employers. This is a payment per employee that will be able to be followed through on what is known as the single touch payroll system, which is now being broadly implemented right across Australia. And that puts the checks and balances in place for the tax office to be able to ping those who are not doing the right thing.
But Josh did you want to add to that?
TREASURER: Well thanks Prime Minister, there's a legal obligation on the part of employers in this case. And importantly, there's an alignment of interests between the employers and the employees. They want to keep this connection because they know there's going to be a time after the coronavirus and they want to bounce back stronger than ever. So we have been motivated by two key issues here. Firstly, to reduce the cost of doing business for those employers so that they can continue to keep their people employed. And secondly, to maintain that formal connection between the employer and the employee, which will give great confidence to the employee. This is a psychological and tangible material boost to employees around the country.
PRIME MINISTER: Lanai, and then Katherine.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, this money, it will start hitting people's accounts by, in May. So what do people who lose their jobs today or tomorrow do to make ends meet between now and May? And am I right in that, you expect 6 million Australians to lose their jobs?
PRIME MINISTER: No, no, that's not what this means. And first of all, people will be getting paid from now. The reimbursement in arrears happens with the companies on that date, but it applies back to now, from today.
JOURNALIST: [inaudible] in their accounts?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, what will happen is the businesses are using their payroll systems through their normal pay arrangements and those pay arrangements will be supported from today. So what this means is, is these employees won't be going to Centrelink. They won't be engaging with the Social Security system. They'll be engaging directly with their employer. And their employer will be making the payments. And then we will be reimbursing the employer. Josh made a very important, the Treasurer made a very important point in terms of how this is different to the UK system for example, the UK system pays employers for employees that are stood down that are no longer doing any work. What we are doing is providing this support to employers when their businesses are still functioning, when their employees are actually still at work. Our scheme is designed to actually keep people not just in pay, but in actual work, wherever that's possible. And so that's why the the mechanisms kick in, the threshold kicks in when they have a downturn in revenue of 30 per cent. Now, I've been taking some soundings from people in my own electorate and they've seen their businesses fall by 50 per cent, 70 per cent. But they're still keeping people on and they're still running businesses. And this is actually an incentive for businesses to adapt to these new circumstances to keep people on doing actual work. And for those businesses that have had to close their doors because of the decisions to close down certain businesses. That means they can still have them on the books, on the payroll and still looking at how they can work together to resuscitate and revive the business on the other side. So this isn't, this isn't money for people just to go away and do nothing. This is about people remaining connected to their business and looking to the future. So we anticipate the number of employees in businesses that will be affected in this way can be as much as that 6 million figure, but they wouldn't be people who would normally be finding themselves in the unemployment statistics, even in these circumstances or even necessarily being able to go to Centrelink and get access to the job seeker support. That's why it's called a job keeper payment. It's about keeping people in jobs.
Katherine.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, are there any exclusions in terms of this wage subsidy, for example, if you are in Australia on a temporary work visa, will you, will you be eligible for the subsidy? also you've been talking about businesses, eligible businesses. Does this also apply to charities,
TREASURER: Yes it does.
JOURNALIST: Not for profits, visas, arts companies? You know, the sort of people that have been absolutely slammed over the last couple of weeks.
PRIME MINISTER: Sure. I'll let the Treasurer add to this, but it does apply to not for profits as the Treasurer has said. it applies to New Zealanders who are here on 444 visas. I've had that conversation with Prime Minister Ardern. We had a discussion earlier today about those issues. That is a departure from the arrangements we've put in place when it relates to the social welfare system. New Zealanders under, on 444 visas don't don't get access to the welfare system, but they are getting access to this job keeper payment. The reason for that is we have New Zealanders who've been making a life here, have been part of work here. They're connected to businesses here. They have commitments here. And they own properties and they rent properties. And they're part of an ongoing economy in Australia. And so we're about keeping them part of that economy because they're part of what happens on the other side. The Prime Minister herself has told me that for those disconnected, if you like, from the Australian economy, they know the rules when it comes to the welfare system in the economy. And many of them are finding their way back to New Zealand.
But Josh?
TREASURER: Yes, Katherine, it does apply to not for profits, just like our cash payments to small and medium sized businesses also apply to to not for profits. The other point I just want to make about the UK and New Zealand schemes are they were 3 months schemes and this scheme's been announced and costed for 6 months.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah Tom?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister could you just clarify whether any workers who have already been stood down will qualify for this latest job keeper payment?
PRIME MINISTER: Do you want to?
TREASURER: Yes they will. It goes back to March the 1st. And so if you have employees who are on the books as of March the 1st and you're the employer, you are eligible to receive this job keeper payment.
JOURNALIST: [inaudible] reach out to those employees [inaudible]?
TREASURER: Yes, the employers and employees, in many cases, when you've stood them down, you've still got them obviously, on the books. And no doubt the employers will do that.
PRIME MINISTER: The ATO has a button on their, on their site, which employers can hit I understand from today that will register them as being, going into this program and that system. And so it would be a matter of the employee making contact with their employer if they fit into the categories if, the Treasurer's outlined, full time, part time and casual for more than 12 months. And then they can enter into those arrangements.
Coming across, ok yep?
JOURNALIST: So just clarifying on from what Lanai asked, are you saying that businesses could with confidence give their employees $1,500 dollars a fortnight from now and get that amount reimbursed to them in mid-May or what?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes.
JOURNALIST: And another one,
PRIME MINISTER: Assuming on their self declaration that they are eligible, that their turn out, that their business has fallen by 30 percent.
JOURNALIST: And just another point of clarification for people-
PRIME MINISTER: And they register with the ATO. Yes?
JOURNALIST: For people who might have already put in or in the process of trying to get the jobseeker payment. What exactly should they do? There are going to be a lot of confused Australians at the moment.
PRIME MINISTER: They should ring their employer, find out whether they're registering to be part of the job keeper program, and they'll be able to take up that arrangement with job keeper. You obviously can't get job keeper and job seeker, and that will be one of the conditions that the employers will be working through to ensure that they're not double counting on those measures. So if you have applied to job seeker through Centrelink, then you can get in touch with your employer and translate across to the other program. That will mean it will take a lot of pressure off Centrelink and the government services system, and that will hopefully mean that we'll be able to even move more quickly through those arrangements.
Andrew?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, correct me if I'm wrong, maths, it’s about $39,000 dollars a year. You’re calling it a wage subsidy? Is it your expectation that employers if they can, would have a contribution? Secondly, it's a gobsmacking amount of money. This is clearly going to require some legislation. When is parliament going to resume?
PRIME MINISTER: Okay I’m going to deal with those in turn. I've already spoken to the leader of the opposition today, from this week we are having a a weekly telepresence meeting between the senior leaders of the opposition and of the government to just run through issues that are being managed by the government and to provide the opportunity to engage with the opposition with those on those items from tonight and tomorrow our key ministers, obviously the Treasurer, and others, will be engaging with their shadow ministerial, your counterparts, to provide further information and briefings from our officials to the opposition so they can understand these measures. We will be having to recall parliament. I discussed that with the leader of the opposition today, and he understands that. And we put in place the measures, the mechanisms last Monday to enable that to be done in a much smaller arrangement, and that would be done in person. Here in the parliament in Canberra to enable these, this legislation to be progressed through the parliament to give effect to it. On top of that, it would be important to ensure that if there was agreement reached on the legislation even before the parliament were able to sit, that would create greater certainty and clarity. This, some of this legislation could be a bit complicated. And so we need to ensure that that that we get that legislation right when it comes into the parliament. So it'll be convened at a time when officials can appropriately draft that legislation and we can share that with the opposition and we can have it progress through the parliament as quickly as possible, as we saw last Monday when we did that exact process for around $70, almost $70 billion worth of measures.
Now, you'd have to remind me of the second question.
JOURNALIST: Wage subsidies?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, yeah. Good point. And Josh will add to this, I'm sure. Yes. Is the short answer to that question. I mean, there will be businesses that will particularly those who continue in operations, who will have their employees operating and they will have the first $1,500 dollars of their wages each fortnight met by this payment. And that will give employers a bit more room to be able to keep employees in jobs and on the job for longer.
But Josh?
TREASURER: Well Prime Minister-
PRIME MINISTER: And it doesn't include the superannuation. There is no superannuation guarantee levy on this payment. I should stress.
TREASURER: That is correct. Employees who are eligible will be receiving a minimum of $1,500 dollars because in some cases the employer will be paying them more than than that amount. And as I said in my opening comments, you will have many workers in the retail space, in the hospitality space, in the tourism space who may have been on minimum wage, this effectively is a 100 per cent of that wage. So this will this is why it's it's a very fair system with a flat payment of $1,500 dollars, that will be a minimum payment to those many people.
PRIME MINISTER: Over the back?
JOURNALIST: Is this, so you’re saying it’s the same amount of money for everyone. Would that include, so, it's full time workers, casual workers, part time workers all receive the exact same amount? And say there was a casual worker who was on the books but was potentially earning less than this amount on a general fortnight, are they still earning the same amount it’s just across the board?
PRIME MINISTER: it’s a flat, it’s a flat wage payment for every single worker that feels it fits into that category.
Phil?
JOURNALIST: A lot of workers have been stood down, have been retrenched. Are they, first question are they ineligible for this payment if they’re effectively sacked? And of the 6 million estimated recipients, how many do you estimate will be completely dependent on this $1,500? They won't have any other income for the next 6 months?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the second part of that question is difficult to answer Phil because we're in very uncertain times and that'll depend very much on the circumstances of each and every business. But in our answer to Andrew, we're obviously saying that those who are actually performing work functions during their hours of work. Then there are arrangements that are there for them that will continue to be honoured. And so that that is hopefully the case from, for many. But how many? It wouldn't be possible to make a, I think, a determination on that. And Phil, you just might remind me the second part of the question?
JOURNALIST: If someone’s been retrenched?
PRIME MINISTER: I’ll let Josh do that.
JOURNALIST: Could an employer who may have sacked someone in the last couple of weeks maybe have a rethink and put them back on the books now and they know this wages [inaudible]?
TREASURER: Well exactly right Phil. Because this, this changes the financial equation for those employers. If they were on the books on the 1st of March for an employer, they will then be employees who were eligible for this particular payment through their employer. So if you're an employer who's been forced as a result of a downturn following the coronavirus to retrench workers, you'll put them back on your books and you'll receive this $1,500 dollar payment.
PRIME MINISTER: There would be, though, the issue if they've paid out any entitlements under that arrangement. And that would have to be sorted out, obviously, with the with the employer. For those who continue on with the business, then they obviously keep all their entitlements, but they're not paid out those entitlements, because they're actually still employed by the business.
JOURNALIST: PM a lot of these businesses, are exporters, they sell goods internationally a functioning international trading system will be necessary to to kickstart the global economy again. You've made some comments at the G20 about this the other day. What more would you like to see in the way of global leaders working together to resuscitate that global trading system? What forums should be used and what role will Australia play?
PRIME MINISTER: Well those challenges are the same, the same challenges we were confronted with before this crisis regarding global trading systems and the WTO and many of the dysfunctions that were occurring there and frustrating export trade, they remain, and they they still remain issues that need to be progressed. Right now, my supply chain and trade issues are very focussed on ensuring the delivery and clear supply lines for medical supplies at present. And that was a key focus of the discussion that was had the other night. Many countries all over the world have contractual arrangements in place for medical supplies and we would expect those to be honoured and not disrupted politically by any sovereigns. So that is something obviously we would expect and we would be calling out that behaviour were it to be practised. More broadly, though, I think all governments are very focussed right now on the needs of their domestic economies and the supports that are needed for people here and now. So those issues, it would be wonderful to see them progress. But right now the priority is ensuring that we can keep our economies running. And and that remains such an important issue for Australia. And we must have a running economy to ensure that we can come through this together.
Josh, did you offer any further comment on that? No? Now Brett, Brett, can have the last one and then,
JOURNALIST: PM just two quick qualifications, the recalling of parliament, how quickly would that happen given people are relying on these payment almost immediately. Do you expect that that will happen this week? And you've mentioned New Zealanders on the triple 4 visa. Are there any other exemptions for other nationalities that are here on temporary work visas, people from the Pacific and those types of programs?
PRIME MINISTER: Short answer, no on the second issue, such matters are under consideration. But for now, the short answer to that is no. In terms of recalling parliament, well, we will draft the legislation. We will engage with the opposition as from now and to work with them over the course of this week like we did on the last package. And I'm sure we'll be able to move to the early recall of parliament, which was envisaged when we put these mechanisms in place. It won't be this week. The legislation will take at least this week to draft and to ensure that we can properly brief the opposition on the meaning and on the measures that will be contained in that legislation. But I hope to move through that in a co-operative way as quickly as possible. And I've had productive discussions with the leader opposition so far on those issues to date, I obviously haven't gone into the details of the measures they've been announced here today, but that will enable us now to to enter into those discussions and move through that as quickly as possible.
Thank you all very much.
Press Conference - Canberra, ACT
29 March 2020
PRIME MINISTER: Good evening, everyone. It's been a hard week in Australia. I said earlier this week when the Parliament met that 2020 was going to be one of the most difficult in the lives of all Australians and this week has demonstrated that. A tough week. Hundreds of thousands of people have left the labour force, left the workforce, thousands upon thousands of businesses have had to shut their doors. Sixteen people in total now have lost their lives, including two today. This is a very difficult time. It is also true, though, as the National Cabinet has met tonight, the National Cabinet that brings together all the premiers and chief ministers of all the states and territories, the heads of all of our Australian governments, together with myself, to make the decisions that are needed to save lives and to save livelihoods and we've gathered together again this evening to do just that.
Earlier today, I reminded you in our earlier media conference that the rate of increase has been falling. Towards this time last week, the rate of daily increase was up around 25 to 30 per cent. Today's rate of increase it actually has fallen to 9 per cent. But there are no guarantees about how that goes forward. We need to continue to do the things that we've committed ourselves to do to save lives and save livelihoods and I want to thank Australians for their strong support and growing support for the measures that are necessary to do just that.
Earlier today, I noted that we are working and we'll be working again through the night this evening to pull together the next tranche in our economic supports that they can be there to support Australians in jobs and to keep them in jobs and to keep them connected to the companies that will be there on the other side so they can stand up again and ensure that Australia bounces back strongly, so we can return to life as we knew it at some point in the future once we get to the other side of the virus. I also outlined today, announced today, over a billion dollars in additional support on top of the $3 billion we've already committed to the arrangements for health around the country. So from tomorrow, telehealth, that means you can get a consultation over the phone with your doctor. That starts tomorrow, the Health Minister announced that and went through the details today. Some $200 million in emergency relief going to important not for profit and charitable sector organisations like Foodbank and many others that are going to be helping people in great need as this economic crisis hits and hits hard. $150 million to support domestic violence. That includes the work of 1800 Respect and MensLine, as we're very aware of the greater stresses that are going on Australian families and households and that for most, we hope, home where people will be for a lot of time this year. It'll be a safe place, but for many we know it's not and we need to work to counter that threat to those individuals as well. And $74 million dollars to support mental health and we're all going to need that help in the months ahead and that's to support organisations like Lifeline and Kids Help Line and many others.
Earlier throughout the day, some 1,600 people went into quarantine as a result of the decisions taken by the National Cabinet on Friday and I particularly want to congratulate New South Wales, who have done all the heavy lifting on that today, working together with the Australian Border Force and the Australian Defence Forces. That was an extraordinary effort to put that in place from midnight last night and I congratulate Premier Berejiklian and everyone who has been involved, Commissioner Mick Fuller, the whole team in New South Wales working so well with us today to ensure we can put those arrangements in place. And to those who may be even watching this now from inside those hotels where you are self isolating, I know this is a terrible inconvenience for you but it is necessary to save lives. And we thank you for your cooperation this evening.
New technology we've put in place today is going to help us as a country get the messages and information we need to do the right thing to save lives and save livelihoods. The WhatsApp message service I referred to earlier today has now had 291,000 people go onto that arrangement and you can get on there by entering into your internet browser aus.gov.au/WhatsApp. Some 1.25 million messages have been sent over the course of today. The coronavirus app, which I mentioned earlier today, is up on the app platform and for the Apple app platform and Android and a new registration feature is now in place on that app. There have been some 482,000 downloads on the coronavirus app today and I want to encourage every Australian - you've got a phone, you need the app. Go on there and make sure you download that app and go on the internet browser and get access to that WhatsApp service so you can get the messages you need to support your decisions for you and your family. That coronavirus app also has that new registration feature about self-isolation, that helps us get information to you and supports the work that we're doing in managing the virus and I'd encourage you to look at that this evening and register, if you please could, and I’m asking media to support us by publicising both the coronavirus app and the WhatsApp message service.
Tonight, the National Cabinet met to consider a series of issues and they related principally firstly to the issue of public gatherings. Now, you'll be aware of the arrangements that are already in place, that gatherings are currently restricted to 10 persons, except for members of your household. And for the purposes of employment and education, we should also comply with the requirements for working and learning from home and social distancing principles. So up until now, that has been a restriction of 10 people in a gathering in an outdoor area or in a shopping centre or anything like this. The advice now is that, and I should stress that that 10 person limit that is enforceable now in most states and territories and can carry very significant on the spot fines.
That advice has now been strengthened to say that it should be reduced to two persons in public spaces and other areas of gathering. States and territories will determine whether they proceed to make this an enforceable limit in the same way that the 10 person limit is already being enforced, but agreed that in all cases this is the strong advice of all states and territories, that unless it's your household, the family, those who are living at your residence, that being with only one other person as a gathering outside is what is required. That provides, importantly, for those who may be getting daily exercise, particularly for women, that they wouldn't be required to walk on their own and they'd be able to walk with another person.
In addition, in public areas, public playgrounds, outside gyms and skate parks will be closed as from tomorrow. And bootcamps, obviously, will be reduced to two, which doesn't really make it a bootcamp, that makes it a private session with your trainer for those who are accessing those services. For individuals, the strong advice that we are endorsing again today as a National Cabinet, and this follows the advice we have been providing but we felt it was essential to reinforce this tonight. This is the public health advice. You must stay at home except for the following reasons: A, shopping for what you need, food and other essential supplies that enable you to remain at home and to do that shopping as infrequently as possible. B, for medical care or compassionate needs. C, to exercise in compliance with the public gathering rules that I've already outlined. And D, for work and education if you cannot work or learn remotely.
Also, we are going further this evening on the basis of the advice that there is strong advice - this is not a compulsion, this is strong advice - that people aged 70 and over should stay at home and self isolate for their own protection to the maximum extent practicable. They are not self isolating for the purpose that people can that our health advice is that they consider they carry or are carriers, but this is for their own protection to limit their interaction with others in the community. This does not mean that they cannot go outside. They can go outside and be accompanied by a support person for the purposes of getting some fresh air, some recreation. But they should limit contact with others as much as possible. These arrangements should also apply to those with chronic illness over 60 and Indigenous persons over the age of 50.
Now, the National Cabinet also considered this evening issues relating to commercial tenancies as well as residential tenancies and they agreed to a series of principles which are released through the statement. But the most significant of those is that states and territories will be moving to put a moratorium on evictions of persons as a result of financial distress if they are unable to meet their commitments. And so there will be a moratorium on evictions for the next six months under those rental arrangements. Now, there is a lot more work to be done here and my message to tenants, particularly commercial tenants and commercial landlords, is a very straightforward one. We need you to sit down, talk to each other and work this out about looking at the businesses which have been closed, businesses that may have had a significant reduction in their revenues and we need landlords and tenants to sit down and come up with arrangements that enable them to get through this crisis so on the other side, the landlord has a tenant, which is a business that can pay rent and the business is a business that can re-emerge on the other side of this and be able to go on and employ people on the other side of these arrangements. And we want the banks to help them achieve this outcome. We want people to sit down and work this out. We will be working on measures that will be encouraging you to do just that and to support you to do just that, but also to ensure that if you aren't going to engage in that sort of cooperative activity between banks, between tenants and between landlords, then the sort of support that you might otherwise expect to receive, you will not receive. This is part of the hibernation approach where we want people bespoke, customised to their own circumstances to sit down and work these things out. There is no rulebook for this. We are in uncharted territory, but the goal should be shared. And that is a business that can reopen on the other side, not weighed down by excessive debts because of rental arrears. A landlord that has a tenant so they can continue into the future to be able to support the investments that they have made and banks that have clients, both the landlords and the businesses. The three of them working together to ensure those businesses can get through and be there on the other side.
Our message to businesses also, and so many have been doing this and I congratulate them for their innovation, and that is to rethink your business model. We now have restaurants who are acting through takeaway. Good for them. We have retail businesses that are doing more through their online platforms. We have phone ahead and pick up type services that are being established that remove the direct contact in retail circumstances. And people need to exercise their discretion when they are going into shopping centres and retail supermarkets and things of that nature to be observing the strict rules around social distancing.
We're asking businesses to adapt to what is not a usual set of circumstances. They must be sustainable because they will run for, we believe, at least six months and we want to be able to get everybody through. So we are seeking their support. We will have more to say about commercial tenancies in the days ahead. The treasurers of all the states and territories, led by Josh Frydenberg as the federal Treasurer, have been working very hard on this. We'll be engaging with business and landlords and banks over the next couple of days to seek to get even stronger provisions in place so they can all sit down and get this sorted. But there's nothing stopping anyone sitting down tomorrow and working out a good deal that sees everybody through. It means everyone's going to have to carry a bit. The government also will be doing that as we move to our next phase of our economic supports so we can all get through. I'm going to pass you over to Professor Kelly- Murphy, sorry. We gave him a day off yesterday which he thoroughly deserved. And so thank you very much. Brendan.
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: Thanks, Prime Minister. So I'm going to start tonight just by putting a little bit of perspective on the outbreak of coronavirus in Australia and give you a sense of some early hopeful signs. We've got an outbreak of 3,978 cases at the moment, much less than perhaps some people might have predicted some time ago without mitigation. So there is evidence that the public health measures that we're putting in place and the social distancing measures are likely having some early effect. I should say at the outset that we are not Italy, we are not the United States, we are not Spain. We have one of the highest rates of testing per head of population in the world and one of the lowest positive test rates. So we think, unlike countries like, unfortunately, like Italy, Iran and even the US, that when they detected significant outbreaks, they probably had much, much larger outbreaks in the community that were undetected. We feel reasonably confident that we are detecting a significant majority of the cases in Australia. That means that we can get on top of cases when they're detected. There are 5,000 or more public health workers in our state and territory public health units. I would like to give them a huge shout out tonight. They're the people who are contact tracing within hours, every contact of a positive case, asking them to isolate and protecting the community. If we can keep our numbers at a level where we can continue to contact trace, where people behave and isolate when they're asked to, we can really bring about good suppression.
As the Prime Minister has said, we have had a somewhat slowing of the growth in the epidemiology curve, but it's not enough. We have to slow it further. We have to slow it further. And we have to stop the thing that's worrying us most, which is community transmission, that's transmission without known links to a known case. And that is of concern, particularly in Sydney and to a lesser extent in Melbourne and south east Queensland. There are tiny pockets of it in other states. Those things do worry us because if you have outbreaks in the community, they can be much harder to detect. And so we've broadened the testing criteria in those areas to make sure that we can detect and bring under control. But because we are not sure that these measures that we put in place will take sufficient effect to bring the slope of the curve right down, that's why these additional measures are recommended by the National Cabinet tonight.
Essentially, all is being talked about is what we've been saying all week. We have to change the way we as people interact with each other. It's very simple. We need to all stay home unless we're going out to shop, to do personal exercise, to go to medical appointments or to go to work or study if you cannot work from home. So anyone who doesn't need to be out of their home should be in the home. This is radical and the vast majority of Australians have done the right thing in the last week. We've seen huge evidence of that. We've also seen some very silly behaviour of people who haven't complied with that, particularly outdoors and sometimes indoors. And that's why we feel that it's really important that every Australian does the right thing. Because for these interventions to take effect, the science shows that you need more than 90 per cent of the population to be doing it all the time. So please continue to do what you're doing. Continue to follow these rules. And hopefully these early signs of flattening will mean that we can keep going in getting a reduction in the rate of increase every day. Thanks, Prime Minister.
JOURNALIST: Just to clarify on having a group of two people, I assume that parents can still take their children to the park. Does the two person rule now apply to weddings or funerals? Or do the old numbers apply? And yesterday we saw the Victorian Chief Medical Officer say that the public behaviour in some cases was, to use his word, “crap” and that if it didn't change we're on track to have 100,000 Covid-19 cases within three weeks. Do you agree with that prediction?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'll deal with the first issues first. It's your household, so your household can be together inside your home, outside your home, outside of your household. If you were out, Sam, just on the street today, you could be there with everyone who's in your household. But if you weren't with the members of your household, you could be there with one other person maximum. Ok? So that's what the rule is. In terms of the weddings and funerals, we believe the arrangements we have for those under those circumstances can remain as they have been. For funerals and for weddings, that was funerals at 10 and weddings at five. And of course, state and territories, as I said the other night, can exercise discretion on those matters on compassionate grounds as they see fit. In relation to the other matter, well, I'll refer to Dr Murphy.
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: So I think Dr Sutton was commenting on some of the very isolated examples of pretty poor behaviour that he observed and I absolutely agree with him that it is totally irresponsible that people should behave like that. Now, 100,000 modelling would mean that we lost all mitigation control. We're not doing that. But I think what he's saying is if we have a big community outbreak and we lost control, then you would get very rapid doubling. Now, we have no intention of getting in that situation, which is why we're enforcing these measures. But at the moment, it is still a precarious position. If people don't take this seriously and we get big community outbreaks, they will be very hard to control. I'm not going to go into any particular number modelling. I think that's all speculative but I think his point is absolutely right that every single Australian needs to take this seriously or community transmission could get out of control and we could have a situation which is as terrible as we're seeing in the US even at the moment.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, if people over 70 should stay home, what's your advice on how they should get groceries, medicines, anything else they need?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that's why we've been upping our investment and have states and territories as well in a lot of those home-based services for elderly residents. And also tonight, as I said, there is a registration feature, which I'm sure and I would hope that friends and family of those who are in that situation would be able to register and that also gives us that ability to know where people are. What this means is we've got to help each other, at the end of the day. I mean, they can still, it is not a strict rule. It is there for their own protection. And so what we're encouraging elderly residents to do is to stay home as much as is practicable and should they need support that I'm sure they can get support through their community or others. And I'm sure they could even ring their local MP and I'm sure their local MP and would want to help them in any way they could at either a state or federal level, because I've seen that already happening through many of our electorate offices. But I'm sure they could get support through other local community organisations, volunteer groups, that those services and those numbers are available. And so it is an advice that we're putting in place for their protection. It is not the medical advice that older Australians would be communicating the virus to others. It would be about their protection and that's why we'd be moving to do that. Yep, Michelle.
JOURNALIST: The two person rule applies presumably inside as well as outside, right?
PRIME MINISTER: Correct, like in a shopping centre as opposed to in a park.
JOURNALIST: So what is the rationale in that case for keeping shopping centres, apart from food shops, open?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, what we've said today is you should be only going out to shop for things that you actually need and you should be doing it on an irregular basis. I'll give you an example. Our kids are at home now, as are most kids, and Jenny went out yesterday and bought them a whole bunch of jigsaw puzzles. I can assure you over the next few months, we're going to consider those jigsaw puzzles absolutely essential. It's important that parents and families and households can get the things that they need to completely change the way they're going to live for the next six months at least. And so what we've done is sought to be practical about these issues. I mean, people are buying sporting equipment at the moment, gym mats and things like that so they can exercise at home. These are things they're going to need. Now, I don't think it's practical when we say for essentials and things that you really need that high-end fashion and these types of things. And that's why you've already seen a lot of those types of retail businesses already closed because people aren't doing that. And so, Michelle, what we've said is that for the purposes of work, where you can't work from home and you need to go to your workplace and there are many public servants who are in that situation, particularly in this town and many others, because of the important work they're doing, including tonight on the economic package, for example, then they can't do that from home and they will need to be at work. But when they are at work, as we are doing here in this very room, observing those social distancing and other important principles about four square metres per person, and that would apply in a learning environment as much as it would in a work environment. So these rules are intended to be instructive, to be a guide but on this two person rule and particularly on the 10, I mean, already from memory in South Australia an on the spot fine of $1,000 if you violate that rule in South Australia. So they're not mucking around. They're very, very serious. And states like New South Wales and Victoria will move further down onto those two person rules, is my understanding. But states and territories will make their own announcements about those issues. What you're now seeing with the National Cabinet is what I've flagged now for several weeks. You will see some states and territories, depending on the extremity of the situation in their states, moving to other measures before other states and territories. That is completely understandable and is consistent with the way the National Cabinet is operating and it's being done with the full knowledge and discussion of the National Cabinet. They are all moving to the strong advice on two, some states and territories will move to an enforcement capability around that, two. Others will remain at the other level. But there's the rule, the guidance, the strong advice is don't gather together in groups. That's the simple way of putting it. Just don't do it. It's not helpful. It actually creates the risk. And when you're going out for shopping, you should be going for just stuff you need and do it and get home. It's not a time for browsing. It's not a time for catching up with friends or bumping into people and having a long conversation and maybe drawing a few other friends across to catch up on how it's all going. No, you can't do that anymore. That's what we have to stop doing. And that's why we're trying to keep as much of these sorts of things open for people as possible so they can get what they need. But as time goes on, the National Cabinet will continue to look at a lot of these businesses and may have to make further decisions in these areas. And in some cases, that may not be too far from now. Tom?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, just wanted to ask about this cluster of cases in 30 or so in the Barossa Valley, there’s three or four towns there. I think there's a bit of localised restrictions going on put in by the state government. But you mentioned a week or so ago that there might be a sort of a localised shutdown action plan that you were coming up with. Is there a case to do that yet? Have you gone any further on that plan?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, where there's localised actions, and Dr Murphy may want to speak on this as well, they will be handled by the state jurisdictions themselves and they can take whatever further actions they think are necessary. And where you have those more localised outbreaks and then understanding what they are and the measures you can put in place around those villages, I mean, many of us may have visited them and you can set up cordons around those sorts of places and stop people coming in and out. In fact, we're already doing that with large numbers of remote communities around the country right now. And so there is, I think, there's enough guidance and instruction to the states and territories to handle those matters when they present. But Brendan?
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: So I think the important thing is to be able to contact trace and isolate everybody. And if you have a situation where there is a largish community outbreak and you're not sure that you've got on top of everything and that you haven't got all the contacts, then you might put in some localised restrictions. I’m not briefed on the details of those cases in the Barossa but that is something that is a weapon we always hold in reserve. That if you have a very localised but growing community outbreaks, one of the mechanisms to stop that spreading is to put localised restrictions of movement.
PRIME MINISTER: I’m going to go to Brett and then I’m going to have to call it because I have another meeting to go to on the very package which we're working on this evening with the Treasurer.
JOURNALIST: One of the big anxieties of people is just getting the basics. People still aren’t able to buy toilet paper, hand sanitizer. We've been promised that those supply chains will normalise. That hasn't happened. When will that happen? That's one of the reasons people are leaving their houses quite a lot is to try to get the basics that they can’t. And just secondly on Australians who are overseas, Labor says that the Government should have acted more quickly to get charter flights in place, it's now too late. I don't believe the Foreign Minister has had a press conference since March 6. Where is Marise Payne and could she be doing more to help those Australians?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I mentioned some weeks ago, it was less than two weeks ago, that Marise Payne went into self isolation after she returned from an overseas visit. So that would explain why you're not seeing her at press conferences. I think that's entirely reasonable. Look, I'm not going to get drawn into the commentary on what the Labor Party is saying. Honestly, I'm too focused on doing what the Government needs to do, what the National Cabinet needs to do. We're engaging with the opposition on these matters, but I don't intend to get into a political commentary about these issues. I'm just not interested in the politics. Thank you very much. I have to go, I'm sorry.
Press Conference - Canberra, ACT
29 March 2020
PRIME MINISTER: Good morning everyone. I am joined today by the Minister for Health, Greg Hunt, as well as Christine Morgan, the Head of the Mental Health Commission, and Professor Kidd, who is the Deputy Chief Medical Officer, focusing particularly on GPs. As each day unfolds, there are more challenges to address. The National Cabinet will meet later today to consider further measures. What I want to say to Australians though today, as we have assessed the information this morning, this time last week the rate of increase on cases was up around 25 to 30 per cent a day. That rate now over the last few days has fallen to about 13 to 15 per cent. Now, they are still strong rates of increase, there’s no doubt about that. But as we take the measures we have been taking and put them in place and we have the cooperation from the Australian people, then that obviously in turn has an impact on how we are managing the spread of the virus. But also how that impacts on our health system, on the population, and people's jobs and livelihoods.
Today, what I am here to do, together with those who are joining me, is to announce more support for the care of Australians. There are many things we have to address, whether it is income support or whether it is direct health support through our public hospital system, and it was only a week or so ago that the Health Minister and I stood here and announced $2.4 billion in additional support for the health sector, followed up by a further $600 million in support for the aged care sector. So there is already $3 billion of additional funding support going into these critical areas. Today we are here to announce further support going into our health sector but also into our welfare supports for those in the community who can be most vulnerable as a result of the changes that are taking place in daily life here in Australia as a result of the decisions that are being taken and the impact they have in the community.
But before we come to that I also want to announce something very important for how we are getting information to Australians. Today, with the great assistance, and I want to thank them from Atlassian and Facebook, we have been able to put in place the WhatsApp feature and if you simply go into WhatsApp and type in ‘aus.gov.au/whatsapp’ you will get access to a new messaging service which enables us to talk to more and more Australians to provide direct information on a whole range of features in terms of basic health advice, updates on the measures that are being put in place by state and federal governments, and that can assist you to get to get the accurate and timely information about what is being done by governments around the country to support you as you and your family and your household and your community work through the difficult months ahead because of the coronavirus. I can also say that on the Apple app store, the coronavirus app, you can now download. I did that this morning and that is available and that is doing exactly the same thing, providing further information, more resources, a trusted place of advice and information that you and your family and your business can use to understand the decisions and the information that is available to everybody about what is occurring with the coronavirus. That is an official source of information and I would ask for the support of media in promoting those channels where people can get access to that information. So, aus.gov.au/whatsapp, and the coronavirus app, you can simply do that by going to the app store. I did up this morning, I just typed in on search ‘coronavirus’ and the Australian government app came right up and I downloaded it and the information is there for people to get access to it.
But today we are also announcing support of $1.1 billion, which has been foreshadowed today. That is being done in four tranches. There is the Medicare subsidised telehealth services, so people can continue to get access to quality healthcare when they are at home. We are asking Australians to stay home, particularly older Australians, even more so. And we want to ensure that they can continue to get access to healthcare and health advice and support from GPs, which is why this measure is being put in place. That is some $669 million. Getting health services into your home. Secondly, we are also announcing $74 million for mental health support. The Health Minister will take you through the specifics of that when he speaks. We are putting $150 million into support for domestic violence initiatives. I have flagged with you in recent days my concerns and the National Cabinet's concerns about these issues. Google has shown a 75 per cent increase in searches when it comes to issues around domestic violence in recent days. We need to put more resources into supporting people who will be vulnerable and may be vulnerable, and we are putting that support in. And that will ensure that those services, whether it is MensLine or whether it is the 1800 RESPECT line, or any of these other types of support and others, they will get the funding they need to provide services that are so essential. We are also putting $200 million into emergency relief support. That will be provided to support charities and other community organisations which provide emergency food relief as demand surges as a result of the coronavirus. These services are demand driven, but we anticipate the funding boost, which is more than four times annual funding, will help hundreds of thousands of Australians in most urgent need. The funding will be shared among existing providers, including FoodBank, SecondBite, OzHarvest, the Salvation Army, St Vincent De Paul, Anglicare and many other local community organisations. To find your closest emergency relief provider you can go to the DSS government website and that information will be available to you, but many who already access the services will know where they are and what they do.
We will also be moving to provide further income support. The Treasurer and I have been working together with Treasury and other officials night and day over recent days to ensure we can provide further boosted income support across the Australian economy. We are being very careful to ensure that income support can be delivered in a way that gets it to people as quickly as possible using the existing systems that we have. When we do these things it is not a matter of just cutting and pasting ideas from other places. We need to have solutions that will work in Australia. And so our approach has been to apply the discipline to the design of measures to deal with unprecedented levels of demand. We have even seen, where we have moved as part of our second stimulus, and it was not a stimulus, it was a safety net package, our second safety net package, that even with the significant ramping up of capacity through Centrelink and other government services, that was fairly quickly overwhelmed. And so we are learning from that and ensuring the measures we seek to put in place next will be able to be distributed even more effectively. So it isn't a matter of whether more income support for workers and employees is needed, it is a factor of the design of the delivery of that support. You cannot just cut and paste somebody else's system, because we have seen in many other jurisdictions that are putting these in place, they are having to rapidly redesign and change them. You have got to have more detail from the outset to ensure you have the most effective implementation. So I would say to employers, who I know are going through very difficult times, these changes will be announced soon and I would ask that before you make any further decisions that you take the opportunity to see the further measures that the government will be announcing, and we will be seeking to enlist you in that process. And we will be ensuring also that those who have already gone into this very devastating situation where they have had to stand down workers, that any measures we are announcing will be taking them on as well and we will be working with them to that end.
Finally, I would say that overnight, when the midnight ban came in - I should say the midnight quarantine arrangements came in place for returning travellers, those arrangements have worked relatively smoothly, that is the advice from the Chief of Border Force. I spoke to him this morning. The number of passengers was actually down on what might have been expected, and I want to thank all of those state and territory authorities. I want to particularly thank those of New South Wales, which had to shoulder half the burden this morning. On the numbers through to this morning, New South Wales has been dealing with half the number of cases of people who have been coming in. They have got great support from the ADF, great support from the Australian Federal Police. The New South Wales agencies have done a tremendous job, and there have also been very difficult challenges in Western Australia, dealing with those cruise ships. And again, I want to thank the Western Australian government, the Western Australian health system, the Border Force, the ADF, everybody else, the private hospitals that have come to the aid to support us. Everyone is working together and everybody is working incredibly hard to deal with the unprecedented level of demand and changes that are necessary. Right now, it is about getting more support to people in the community that needed most, and that is their healthcare, that is their mental health, that is the protection for vulnerable Australians and that emergency relief, and that is what this $1.1 billion package I have announced today will be addressing. Greg?
THE HON. GREG HUNT MP, MINISTER FOR HEALTH: Thanks very much, Prime Minister. Today is about taking care of our vulnerable Australians, all Australians and, in particular, our GPs and our nurses. It is about support for health and mental health, at a time of the most profound and understandable stress. Whether it is because of concerns relating to income, whether it is concerns about a job or whether it is the direct fear or contact people may have in relation to the coronavirus or other issues and is the ability to get the support, anxiety, the possibility of depression, loneliness, isolation, the need for access to services, all of these are real. So these are the things we are seeking to support with changes that would otherwise have taken 10 years being done in 10 days and I want to thank both Michael and Christine for their support on that.
Just before addressing the specific mental health and telehealth measures, I do want to provide a brief update on some of the national progress. The most important development is the one that the Prime Minister has outlined in terms of the positive, early signs of flattening of the curve. This is the work that Australians together, both governments, but above all else, the people have been taking. As the Prime Minister said, from daily rates of increase a week ago in the 25 and 30 per cent rate, to now on our latest advice from the National Incident Centre this morning to being in the low teens. That is an early positive sign. We have so much more work to do but by people isolating, by people doing social distance and they are really doing this, Australians are rising magnificently to this challenge and we want to say thank you. And to those small few who are not, you have to take these measures because they are about saving lives. They are not about convenience and inconvenience, they are about saving lives. Part of this has been the testing regime. As of this morning, our latest advice is there are 209,000 tests that have been completed in Australia. More than 98 per cent negative rate and what that really means is that with the 3,898 cases reported to us, we have one of the broadest and most reflective testing regimes and this is borne up by the secondary evidence that, at this point in time, our loss of life, as terrible as it is, is well below 1 per cent, it’s below 0.5 per cent of those confirmed. That will change, but we know that, but it continues to be a recognition that the evidence we have is at the global forefront. At the same time, 750,000 telehealth services have already been delivered in only a very brief period of time.
So that brings me to the measures the Prime Minister has outlined. Firstly, let me deal with mental health. In particular, it’s $74 million directly but we believe about $300 million when you take into account the telehealth services. There are two parts to this. There’s the preventive work, and I want to thank Christine for her work, Michael Gardner from my team, and all of the mental health professionals who have helped pull this together. Counselling and support services, $10 million for Beyond Blue, $14.5 million for Lifeline and kids health and other groups. Our vulnerable Australians will receive a very, very significant package of $45 million and that includes $10 million to support older Australians, $3 million specifically for our health workers because the pressures they are under are real. These are our heroes at this point in time, these are the people who are putting themselves out there to protect Australians. $7 million for young Australians through headspace and then an additional $28 million to support and provide psychosocial support going forward. Those that have trouble accessing services, who are on the margins sometimes, we will be supporting them. All of that going together, the counselling, the vulnerable and information campaign which begins this evening to assist with that.
But that brings me to telehealth. Telehealth is vital for mental health and for physical health. What we are doing now is a radical transformation in the way we deliver our health services. As of tomorrow, we will have universal telehealth available in Australia. It is not the money, it is a $669 million program, as the Prime Minister said. It does two things. One, for everybody who is self isolating or is under formal isolation or formal quarantine, that means you can ring your doctor, whether it is your GP, your specialist, your mental health psychiatrist or psychologist, your allied health practitioner or your nurse practitioner, all of these are available. It is a decade's worth of work in a matter of days and I want to thank Professor Michael Kidd and his team for pulling this together. He has had the support of the AMA, the College of GPs, the Council of Medical Presidents from all of the colleges, rural doctors, Indigenous groups, they’ve all pitched in magnificently. What these services will mean is that every Australian anywhere can get the help they need. We are also doubling the bulk billing incentive and making that available both for face-to-face and telehealth consultations and we are providing a doubling of the practice incentive payments for those general practices that continue face-to-face consultations. That is very important because so many health services still need to be face-to-face, involve examination, involve physical consultation and I want to thank our general practitioners for participating in this. So these services, very simply, are about saving lives and protecting lives, about supporting our doctors, supporting our patients and protecting Australians with their mental health and their health and their well-being. I might invite Christine and then Michael.
CHRISTINE MORGAN, HEAD OF THE MENTAL HEALTH COMMISSION: Thank you, Minister, and thank you, Prime Minister, and I would like to reflect the thanks expressed to every Australian who is really embracing our concept of physical distancing but with social connection. As we have said so often, mental health is as integral to who we are as our physical health and what we are seeing today is the Australian system, as our Prime Minister has referred to it, being opened up, being flexed up to ensure that the mental health and well-being of every Australian, whether we come into this mentally well, whether we come to it mentally ill, whether we come to it mentally challenged, and at that point I would like to stop and just remember so many Australians who have recently been through the scourges of our drought and bushfires who are already suffering and to remember that their mental health and well-being is important. Today's package reflects the importance of trying to prevent mental unwellness, but also to ensure we provide treatment for any who need it. It covers our vulnerable Australians, frontline workers as our Minister has said, and all Australians. And I commend the work that so many have done for it.
But I would also like to stop and reflect on the fact that as we must practice physical distance and as we all embrace the concept of loneliness that can go with that, for too many Australians today that also encompasses a sense of fear. As our Prime Minister has said, home is not always safe. If only it could be. That is certainly something we would all embrace but the reality is that for too many, it is not safe and for those who are at fear or facing the reality of any form of violence in their environment, it is incredibly important that being physically distant, we nevertheless remain very connected and we provide all opportunities for anyone in those circumstances to find a way to reach help. It is impossible to be going through that degree of fear, that degree of what is happening to me, without being mentally affected. Now, our mental health services are yet another avenue of support. Today's package, as the Prime Minister has said, provides support for those known services to any Australian who needs them. 1800 respect, MensLine Australia, the counselling support services, they are there for you. But also know this, that any mental health service that Australia provides is there for you also. Do not hesitate, use any avenue you can. We are there to help, we are there to support, whether you are living with the fear of it as a potential victim, whether you are living with that as the horror of a potential perpetrator, we are there for all Australians. Our mental health and mental well-being is a foundational piece for us to be able to get through this pandemic. There are so many positive signs. We have heard it in the bringing down of those increases. There is hope, there is a future, we need to do it together and we need to be there for all vulnerable Australians. So I encourage all of us to remember and look after our mental health and well-being, to access our mental health services and, for those who may be afraid, we are there for you. Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, Christine. Professor Kidd?
PROFESSOR MICHAEL KIDD, PRINCIPAL MEDICAL ADVISER: Thank you and good morning. I am a general practitioner and, in my working lifetime over the last 35 years, I have never seen such a dramatic change to the way that we deliver care to our patients as we have over the last two weeks with the movement towards whole of population telehealth. From tomorrow morning, if you are a patient, you will be able to reach out to your general practitioner, your specialist, the other healthcare providers you may see who are able to access the NBS and Medicare and seek advice using the telephone or using video consultations. If you are a GP or another healthcare provider, you will be able to reach out to your patients and make sure that they are Ok, make sure that they are adhering to their plans for the management of chronic diseases or their acute concerns where this is appropriate. It is very important, as the Minister has said, that we continue to have face-to-face healthcare services available when they are needed. We know that in a pandemic, one of the greatest risks to the population is if we see a collapse of healthcare services, with people with acute conditions and chronic conditions, with mental health conditions, not getting access to the services they need. The measures which are being put in place will ensure that the people of Australia continue to have access to high-quality general practice and other healthcare services available from their chosen providers. Services, as the Minister has said, for people who are on concession cards and for children under the age of 16 and for people who meet the vulnerable categories, will continue to be bulked billed using telehealth. This ensures access to people at this time of great challenge in our nation 's history. At the same time, the support being provided by the government to general practices ensures that our general practices will remain open and will be there to provide services to you. May I just finish by saying my thanks to the peak medical and health organisations across Australia who have worked at an extraordinary level to make this happen and may I say thank you to all my peers and colleagues, the healthcare workers across this country, who are doing extraordinary things protecting the health of our population. Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, Professor Kidd, and I also offer the government’s thanks to all of those who are working, particularly in our healthcare sector at the moment, whether it is nurses, whether it’s doctors, whether it’s paramedics, whether it’s cleaners working in hospitals as well, those other services that support the functioning of all of those places. As they have been telling you, they can’t stay at home but they need you to so they can keep going and doing what they need to do and I think that that messaging that has been coming out of particularly the health workers and nurses is the most effective plea, I think, anyone can make. So happy to take some questions. John and then Michelle.
JOURNALIST: Thanks, Prime Minister. On the significantly enhanced support for businesses to help pay employees that both you and the Finance Minister have confirmed this morning through the existing tax and transfer system. You are asking employers to hold off making lay off decisions until they see that package in the coming days. Would you envisage it to still only apply to SMEs or to have a broader application to potentially bigger, publicly listed companies such as Qantas or Premier Investments, for example, or just SMEs?
PRIME MINISTER: We are looking at a broader application, John. I mean, the waves of economic support that we put in place have had the feature of being scalable and the feature of actually working through existing channels wherever possible. And those packages are focused on the most immediate needs. The last package that we announced with the Treasurer was about broadening and strengthening the safety net for those who are going to be immediately impacted by the shock of losing their jobs. The next stage, which will be even bigger than anything you have so far seen, will go broader than that and ensure that we are working together with companies to keep people connected to companies. This is part of the hibernation strategy of ensuring that we keep people connected with businesses and with their jobs so that on the other side of this, Australia can bounce back stronger. This is going to be incredibly tough economically as well as from a health point of view. But where Australia can ensure we can bounce back better on the other side and more strongly is by following these strategies which enable businesses to re-emerge very, very quickly, with their employers, with their capital, with their equipment, with their shops, with all of the things which they can switch on again and get moving again. That is in the long-term interests of Australia. Certainly, this health crisis and economic crisis is a battle on two fronts and it is going to be waged in an unimaginable and unprecedented way over the next at least six months and potentially beyond that. But the battle we need to win is for the long-term as well and that is that the businesses are able to resurge and we can get Australia back to life as we know it again - as we have known it, I should say - as soon as possible once the virus passes. Michelle?
JOURNALIST: Minister Hunt, for some time we were hearing that the official medical advice from your top committee was unanimous. Now, the other day, Dr Kelly acknowledged the Victorian principal health officer had a different view. Could you explain the differences please?
THE HON. GREG HUNT MP, MINISTER FOR HEALTH: Sure. Look, very briefly, and I am not inside the medical expert panel, we very specifically want them to meet. I think like every group, they discuss, they take the best advice from the communicable disease network experts, virologists, epidemiologists, contagious disease, communicable disease experts. They bring their views and they have been magnificent, they have been magnificent and everybody will come with different ideas and different views. But my understanding is that ultimately, their decisions have been consensus decisions, as in every group when you make decisions, there are multiple inputs some people have different views but I have to say, one of the things that the Prime Minister did when COAG met before it became the National Cabinet a few weeks ago, was achieve two fundamental things. One, the primacy of a single, national unified voice, the medical expert panel and all the states and territories agreed that at the Prime Minister 's request and they have operated as a single national unified voice. Secondly, out of that came the concept of a single national unified government, the national unity cabinet and those two elements are essential. So different views will come in but one voice comes out and that is the national medical voice and I want to say our chief health and medical officers, they have been working 18 hours a day and to thank them for their extraordinary guidance.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you. And then over to Phil?
JOURNALIST: Can we get clarification on the telehealth services with mental health, does that mean a GP can to provide a mental health plan over the phone or does it extend to a psychologist extending help over the phone and is it entirely covered?
THE HON. GREG HUNT MP, MINISTER FOR HEALTH: Yes, what we have here is general practice, specialist consultation services, obviously where physical examinations are required such as surgical or other physical procedures, they still have to occur face-to-face but everything which can be done by telehealth will be done by telehealth, and that includes general practice mental health consultations, psychological services, psychiatric services. That is an important question and thank you for asking that.
PRIME MINISTER: Phil?
JOURNALIST: Can I just clarify on this wage, you’re working on at the moment, one you confirmed this morning, it would only apply to workers who have been stood down and not retrenched as such and just for people out there watching who may not have heard, it will apply retrospectively so if someone was stood down by their employer two weeks ago, with the prospect of the business starting up again, they will receive this new wage as well?
PRIME MINISTER: Well Phil, I can give some responses to that, but let me be clear, the package of measures has not yet been finalised and so I am not in the habit of going into details of things that have not been finalised. I don't think that is fair on Australians, I think it's important that we continue to work through that detail. Treasury is meeting as we speak, they met all yesterday and all the day before that and the day before that. These are not simple things to do when you're talking about rolling out programs of income of support to millions of people. Anyone can have an idea about that but converting that into an actual deliverable program that can reach millions of people is a very complicated exercise and that is the work we are engaged in doing. But the principles, I can say, is that the package would support those who have more recently been the victims of these closures that have taken place and we will be seeking to support people involved in those closures but we will advise further details of the starting point about that, but yes, I can confirm that is understood to pick that up because you want them to stay connected to their businesses as well. What I can also say is what has enhanced this need is from the measures that were announced last Sunday, the package of the $66 billion we had in place prior to that, that was put in place before the more enhanced measures that were agreed by the National Cabinet. They are obviously taking an even greater toll. I said at that time, we would be back. There would be more. There will be more, and the Treasurer and I will be looking to making an announcement on that as soon as we can, it is not that far away but we want to be sure that when we do it, we have covered the majority of the ground that needs to be covered to enable the program to be successfully implemented in partnership with those businesses, which will extend beyond what has been the level of coverage we have had to date. Let's just recap what we have already done. We have already provided over $30 billion worth of support to these small and medium-sized businesses to support them in the, over the next six months. This will be in addition to that.
Yep, over to one here, then we’ll do this side and then I’m happy to move over to that side.
JOURNALIST: Thanks PM, we’re seeing still a lot of complacency out in the community about how to respond to the virus but at the same time, the head of the NHS in the UK Steven Power said this morning that in the UK they have been doing very well to have fewer than 20,000 deaths. Are we looking at the same scenario in Australia? Can you release the modelling on that because is releasing the modelling and releasing these kinds of forecasts a way to make sure people are not complacent?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, let me just say a few things about numbers. It is very hard to make comparisons between countries for a range of reasons, the way they are collecting data is different but one of the things in Australia which sets Australia's numbers out in terms of their accuracy is the very high level of testing. I mean, the figures I have in my morning brief today is that we have a testing rate per 100,000 population of 815.9. Now that compares to 753.7 in South Korea, 177.9 in the United Kingdom, 486.1 in Canada and 484.6 in Austria. Just, these are some indicative examples. Now our percentage COVID-19 positive testing rate is 1.8%, in South Korea it is 2.4%. In Canada, it is 2.6%. What you can see is where you have very high levels of testing, then your positive rates are actually very, very low. Where you have testing regimes which are not where Australia’s are, then you have higher positive testing coming out, it’s 14.1% in the UK and so the overall case numbers that you are seeing in many of these other countries, they are not really directly comparable to Australia. I mean you would have to use them for the purposes of getting some idea but I think it is very dangerous to make ironclad comparisons between countries. The fatality rate is the one which is the most clear and on that score, then obviously while the fatalities in Australia have been heartbreaking and devastating, particularly for families of those, they have been confined particularly to those who are of a more advanced age and with quite significant comorbidities. We have not yet seen in Australia the sort of fatality statistics that have occurred in other countries more broadly throughout the population. But to go to your second point, That’s why this is so important, Australia right now, and this is why was I thankful on Friday that we had seen what was an 80% fall in people 's movements around our major capital cities as a result of the measures we put in place over the last fortnight. That is great. But you are right, there are still people, whether it is on St Kilda beach or people still congregating in shopping centres, congregating outside, that does not help. We have said very clearly as a National Cabinet that people should not be doing that. You should be going to work, where you have to, and if you cannot work from home, you should be ensuring that when you go outside to shop, you are going to get what you need and that there is a reasonable understanding that people should continue to exercise and where they can do that, in their own home, fine. If they are doing it on their own or with appropriate social distancing outside for a limited period, fine. But the idea of people gathering still in groups, this is not helping. People really should not be doing it. And that’s what we’ve been saying now for some time. At least over the course of this last week. And you will see the states and territories increasingly enforcing this but it would be much better if they did not have to do and we're seeing it amongst younger people, particularly in their 20s and in their 30s, early 30’s, and there seems to be a view that because they are healthier that they are not transmitters of the virus. They are transmitters of the virus. And while they themselves may only have a mild case but that is no guarantee, what they are doing by having that view, is that they are putting other people’s lives at risk. So the measures we have in place I think are having the impact that we hope they would have but there are no guarantees. We are going to rates of daily increase of 20% down to the low teens at the moment and we’re watching those figures very, very closely and I would stress on our numbers it is still overwhelmingly the case that the cases are imported cases. The figures I have at my briefing this morning, that’s at 6.30 this morning, that the Commonwealth has, there were 3,809 cases. That number is moving through the course of the day as you know, but 2,562 of those cases were imported from overseas. SO that remains the predominant driver of case numbers in Australia and as our testing numbers increase, obviously that is going to capture more cases as well.
So here, and then we’ll move around, yep?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, are you looking at relaxing restrictions around Centrelink benefits for people who lose their jobs, who’s partners earn over $48,000 a year?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes.
JOURNALIST: Do you need Parliament to bring those measures in or when to expect that people will start to benefit from that?
PRIME MINISTER: No, we don't need Parliament and we have ensured we have flexibility working with the Opposition early this week and this will be part of a much more comprehensive set of measures which in many cases will overwhelm, by that I mean in a positive way, that requirement itself. There is an even more effective way beyond the changes in social services that we can address that and we will be announcing that in the not-too-distant future.
JOURNALIST: Are you considering at all the calls of the AMA to use private hospitals for other urgent medical care to free up the public hospital capacity, which is already stressed, to deal with COVID-19 admissions?
THE HON. GREG HUNT MP, MINISTER FOR HEALTH: We are working with the private hospitals and over the weekend the states have all been working directly with private hospitals. Our view is that they are a critical part of the system and part of our capacity. Just before coming here, I had a call from one of the major private health providers, in terms of hospitals, and they are close to an agreement with at least two of the states. They will be reporting back, the states will be reporting back to the National Cabinet today, as was agreed on Friday so I want to thank them, they have made extraordinary progress with what is an indispensable and critical part of our system.
JOURNALIST: Do you expect New South Wales and Victoria to break away from the National Cabinet process and move to shut down retail and schools today or in the coming days?
PRIME MINISTER: Again, I want to be clear about how the National Cabinet works. The National Cabinet has been very clear that some states may have to take further measures sooner than other states. That is not a break away from the National Cabinet. That is actually the National Cabinet working. I would caution people against running a commentary that there being any potentially different actions by states because of the more extreme conditions they are facing as being any malfunctioning of the National Cabinet. Quite the reverse. All the states and territories are working together to arrive at actions which can be as far as possible, nationally consistent but where states and territories need to take additional actions because of their case numbers, then that is entirely understandable. There is no breakdown in that process. That is an enshrining and building up of the process. That is a demonstration of the way the states can work together and so as much as some states may find themselves in a position to do a few more things, it should not be the view that the states who are not doing those things are not doing enough. That would be the wrong analysis. And the states are looking at making these decisions together. That is what they have done from day one of the National Cabinet. So we will meet again this afternoon and we will, I will be able to further update on where we up to on the economic package and it is important that any further restrictions that may be considered are also considered in the context of ensuring that essential supports are in place for people who might be affected by that and that is why our Treasury is working so valiantly along with the Treasurer and the Finance Minister to make sure we can finalise these measures as soon as we practically can. So it has always been the understanding that there can be further responses from individual states based on their medical advice, which is also collectively received, and that is understood by the other members of the National Cabinet.
JOURNALIST: Over the weekend the UK government was granted permission to access foreign data anonymously, so they can track if the community is following the lockdown laws. Is that something Australia would consider, and what are the other potential implications of that mass of contact and movement data that you would potentially have access to which could help us limit the spread?
PRIME MINISTER: Well the Australian government isn't doing that. What I want to be clear about is the policies and measures that we will put in place for Australia will be right for Australia. They will understand how Australia works and how Australia thinks and what our rules are and what our society understands and accepts. Our values. That is what we will do in Australia. We're not going to go and cut paste measures from other places, which have completely different societies. I mean, in China they were welding people's doors shut. That might be okay with them, but what I'm saying... And the UK is a different society to Australia, I would also stress. We have different health systems. We have a federation in Australia. We have different ways of doing things in Australia. Now, what I'm saying is if Australians can continue to work together and to comply with the very clear instructions that are being provided for people to self isolate and to do the right thing, and that is how we get through this and we get through it as Australians, remaining true to the principles and values that we hold most dear. So the government will seek to be continuing to do that, and we also want to ensure that we have enforcement of the arrangements that are put in place, and those sorts of issues are not matters that are directly before the National Cabinet, but as we go forward, we just want to ensure that people are doing the right thing and people are cooperating with the very reasonable, but the very urgent instructions, that we are providing to them.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, as you were saying on cruise ships, in WA we of course had to of course dock that cruise ship on Friday because in Mark McGowan's words, they had reached crisis point regarding the number of people on that ship-
PRIME MINISTER: The Arcadia?
JOURNALIST: That’s right yeah. What is the Commonwealth government going to do to support WA as it’s got over 40 or 50 cases of foreigners who need now to be treated for the virus, and for you, Mr Hunt, as well, some women's health groups have raised concerns about what some of the suspensions to elective surgeries are going to mean for different women's health procedures. Will new IVF be suspended? Will that not happen for the foreseeable future? And can you confirm that abortion care will not be jeopardised during this time?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I will throw to the Health Minister, but firstly, on the Arcadia, this is important. Because this was a German cruise ship, these are German passengers who will be flying home courtesy of the German government to get them out of Australia and to get them home. Right now we have many Australians who are overseas as well, and I am concerned about their welfare, and so when I am dealing, and with other foreign governments, about the welfare of Australians who may become ill and may need hospital care and may not be able to be returned to Australia, then it is important that Australia does the right thing about those who have fallen into our care to ensure that I can say with great moral authority that Australians are doing the right thing, and we would ask you to do the right thing. And the Japanese government certainly did that in the case of the Diamond Princess at Yokohama. So there are some, if you like, moral rules here, about if there are people who need our healthcare in Australia, through no fault of their own, then of course we would extend that to them, and yesterday I had numerous discussions, and the day before, with the Western Australian Premier and the Health Minister had numerous discussions with his counterpart to put in place a very sensible facility program for those who are going off the ship and home, for those who will require hospitalisation treatment, and those who would have to be isolated because they wouldn't be able to board that plane. And so the Western Australian government has received great support to do that, and it was a very cooperative arrangement and I want to thank Premier McGowan, and his ministers and WA health for their assistance. But Greg can supplement that.
THE HON. GREG HUNT MP, MINISTER FOR HEALTH: Thank you to the Prime Minister, on the German cruise ship we have all been working very closely with WA and I think what we have done, actually, is implement the Diamond Princess rules of where Japan took care of those Australians who were sick, and we brought them home, Germany is bringing home their citizens, and we are taking care of those other citizens that are ill. And I think that is the right thing to do. More broadly, on individual services, let's be clear that there is, and in the letter that I gave to private health providers and hospitals on Friday night, we have said that there is grounds for compassionate discretion and that means that, you know, items that continue to be urgent, continue to be what are called Category One, and then compassionate cases of Category Two can continue. And that is a relationship between the doctor and the patient. So one of the things we have been very keen to do is not to try to interfere in that relationship between the doctor and the patient, so we have allowed discretion.
JOURNALIST: So then doctors could say no to certain procedures like different planned parenting procedures or even abortion care? That is their discretion, is that what you're saying?
THE HON. GREG HUNT MP, MINISTER FOR HEALTH: It has always been the case that the relationship between a doctor and a patient is paramount, and one of the things that Michael and Jo Tester and others from my office and have been very keen to do, and all of the heads of the medical profession, is to preserve and protect that fundamental relationship. So it is not the government that is making those decisions.
PRIME MINISTER: So, one more.
JOURNALIST: Just one more question. There was a particularly bad example in Sydney over the weekend where a group of doctors who flew in from Chile, who were supposed to go and isolate in hotels, then got out of those hotels and have moved across the country on domestic flights. Have we tracked those doctors down? Where have they gone, and what is your message about that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, they did the wrong thing. That is my primary message. And law enforcement authorities will be following up those matters across jurisdictions. Now later today the National Cabinet will be meeting, as we flagged. If there is a need for me to provide further information following that National Cabinet tonight we will do that in the Blue Room later this evening, we are meeting this afternoon, not in the evening, so you can expect any press conference to be held a little earlier in the evening than we did last Sunday. And we will consider those further matters before us and if that requires me to come back to you again today then I will be doing so.
Thank you very much.
Press Conference - Canberra, ACT
27 March 2020
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you. Thank you for the way over the course of this week you have been responding to the very significant changes that we've been asking you to make to your lives and to your livelihoods. Over the course of the past week, people moving around places like Melbourne and Sydney have fallen by two-thirds. In the last two weeks, it's fallen by around 80 per cent. There has been a significant change in the way that people are taking on these messages and supporting each other all around the country. On behalf of all the Premiers and Chief Ministers and myself, the members of the National Cabinet, we simply want to say to you, Australia - thank you. Keep doing it. You're saving lives and you're saving livelihoods. This has been a significant shift. We need to see it keep taking place, all around the country. But you have encouraged us greatly. You have encouraged us by the way in which you have taken this on. We've called on you as Australians to combine together in this effort and your response over the past week has been simply magnificent. We always knew Australians are up to this test. And you're proving it, each and every day. Let's keep doing it, Australia. And we will continue to get through this together. Washing your hands, staying 1.5m away from each other, only going out when you have to, to do the necessities, and returning. And just doing simple things. This afternoon, people won't be going to the pub. But they will be at home, just with their family, on their own, and they will be FaceTiming and other things with their friends. They will have those conversations through that method. It's a big change to our way of life. But we're staying connected to each other. We might have to keep our distance, but it doesn't mean we have to disconnect from each other. This is also a very important message about supporting each other, supporting each other's mental health, and ensuring that no Australian, even though we have to be isolated, no Australian should have to go through this alone.
Last night, I joined the G20 leaders all around the world and I was very proud of my country. I was very proud of the response that I'm getting from the Australian people. I was very proud of the fact that together we have ensured that we have the highest testing rate, it would seem, in the world today. And the efforts that have been done by our health and medical professionals at the Commonwealth and state level to implement those arrangements. Whether it's been the travel bans, or the other restrictions we’ve put on Australian life, all of these things are making a difference. I can assure you I would rather be in Australia now with the way we are dealing with this together than in any other country in the world today. I was filled with great concern for in so many countries, what they are facing at the moment. But here in Australia it is a vital time. But we're getting on top of this and we can keep on top of this and we need to keep doing what we have been doing.
This weekend, the challenge will be there again. Let's keep doing the right thing. Let's keep saving lives. Let's keep saving livelihoods. And, you know, businesses are adapting as well. Distilleries are making hand sanitiser. Large companies, like Woolworths, are completely changing how they do things and employing more Australians. Cafes are changing how they do things. Businesses are being agile and they are adapting, even under significant strain and stress. But for many others, it has been devastating. There have been long queues, there have been frustrating delays as people are getting access to the strongest support from our safety net. You know, our social security system, our safety net in this country, our health system in this country is something I was reminded of again last night that we can be very proud of. In many countries where they are moving, they are simply getting their standard of social support to the same standard that Australians have in normal circumstances through our social security system. And so by extending the support of our social security system, by providing greater financial support and greater eligibility then we are able to help more people. So, in particular, the 10 percent of GDP measures that we already have in place more than matches up to those that are being done around the world. But I promise you - we will be doing more and I will say more about that shortly.
I want to assure you that we're in two fights. We are battling this thing on two fronts and they are both important. We're battling this virus with all the measures that we're putting in place and we're battling the economic crisis that has been caused as a result of the coronavirus. Both will take lives. Both will take livelihoods. And it's incredibly important that we continue to focus on battling both of these enemies to Australia's way of life. I'm watching closely and am deeply concerned, as are all Premiers and Chief Ministers, by the devastating impacts on our economy and we will all be doing more to provide whatever support and assistance we can to help Australians and the businesses that employ them through this very, very difficult time. No decision that we're taking on the health front that has these terrible economic impacts is being taken lightly. Every day someone is in a job, for just another day, is worth fighting for. Where the health advice enables that, every day I can keep an Australian in work, every day I can get that little bit more of support by keeping those things running. The more we can do that, every day matters, because it matters to the person whose job it is, it matters to the business that has been built by someone over many years, it matters to their families, and that means it matters to me and it matters to all the Premiers and Chief Ministers. So, we will not take these decisions lightly. We will not take them for a matter of convenience because every decision we are taking we understand has very real personal impacts for individuals and for families, and individuals and for families, and the stresses that it can place upon them at the most difficult times.
Today, we have decided to take further actions targeting what is our greatest area of concern and Dr Murphy will speak more to that. What we're announcing today enables us to deal with the increasing pressure we have from Australians coming home. The reason we can focus on that is because of the great work Australians have done, particularly over the course of the past week, on getting on top of their own movements and their own behaviours. It means we can focus even more on these critical areas that are our greatest risk at this point in time. Two-thirds of the cases that we currently have are from an Australian who has come home: two-thirds. That is very different to what we're seeing in other parts of the world. Our biggest issue, the biggest number of cases, relate to this. And as time has gone on, the risk of those who are returning from other parts of the world actually increases because more countries have the virus. Where Australians have been, they have been there for longer and they have been more exposed. And so we are going to take further measures today to strengthen the enforcement of the self-isolation that is put in place for people returning through our airports in particular.
This is the isolation declaration card for coronavirus. Everyone who has been coming into Australia now for some time has had to fill this out. On this, they make a declaration. They say who they are, they say where they are going to self-isolate, they tell us what their phone number is, their passport numbers, and they sign up to self-isolation. This is enforceable by law. If you have come back into Australia, you need to live up to this pledge. And the state and territory governments are going to make sure you do. And there are strong penalties for those who don't comply with this and those states and territories are already moving in their enforcement measures.
But today we believe we need to go even further. In addition to the arrival declaration and the support of legislation that is put behind that. So, by no later than midnight tomorrow, that is 11:59pm Saturday states and territories will be quarantining all arrivals through our airports, in hotels and other accommodation facilities for the two weeks of their mandatory self-isolation before they are able to return to their home. If their home is in South Australia or in Perth or in Tasmania and they have arrived in Melbourne, they will be quarantining in Melbourne. If it's in Sydney, it will be in Sydney, if it's Brisbane, and so on. This same situation we put in place, particularly for the case that you will be aware of in Western Australia in relation to the Vasco da Gama and the returning vessel there in terms of these arrangements. And the Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan will be having more to say about that.
But each state will be doing the heavy lifting themselves to support their other states. And I thank them for the reciprocal nature in the way they are putting these arrangements in place. It is a great team to be part of with the Premiers and the Chief Ministers. They understand they need to share each other’s burdens to ensure that we can manage this issue together as a nation. This will be enforced by the state and territory governments. The Commonwealth will be supporting them with all manner of assistance, which will relate to the work done by the Border Force, logisticians, and other supports that will be necessary, but those arrangements will be run by the state and territory governments in each state.
We will be supporting them also by providing members of the Australian Defence Force to assist in the compliance with these arrangements. Now, I want to stress that members of the Australian Defence Force are not authorised as enforcement officers regarding prosecution in states and territories. That is the responsibility of law enforcement officers so sworn in those jurisdictions. The ADF will be there to support those enforcement authorities. And so we will be turning out the defence forces to support compliance with these new arrangements. It will require that cooperative and facilitative support and I have no doubt the defence forces will do that in the most sensitive way they can, but it is necessary.
The other thing we are doing is we will be supporting the states and territories in the important work they have of enforcing the existing isolation arrangements for people who are already here. The ADF will be supporting those states and territories with compliance checks to ensure that people are at their residences, that they have so sworn that they would be at. To ensure we get compliance with the self-isolation. Again, if there is a situation where people are non-compliant, of course the enforcement authority is the state jurisdiction and the relevant law enforcement agency in that state. But the ADF will be there to put boots on the ground, to support them in their enforcement efforts, and I thank the ADF for their great support in turning up to this task. We believe these important actions are the most important we can take right now because of what you've done, Australia. By you getting onboard with the changes that you have needed to make, this means we can target our efforts even more into these areas, where we believe the most critical concern is right now.
Now, also today on the economy, we were briefed by the Treasury Secretary, Dr Kennedy, and states and territories were given a very extensive understanding of the impacts that we're potentially dealing with. The Treasurer and I will have more to say about that in the next few days, as we are preparing to put in place the third tranche of the measures that will be there to support Australians further as we go through the many difficult months that are ahead. The thing about an economy is your society does depend on it and so do governments. You can't run a country without an economy. And we are doing everything we can to ensure we maintain as much of that economy as we can through this crisis, to support all of the essential services that are so necessary at a time like this.
Part of that plan that we will be announcing will be to seek to hibernate Australian businesses. This will be a very innovative approach in the circumstances we find ourselves in. We will have more to say about this, but I discussed it with the Premiers and Chief Ministers today. The idea is pretty simple, there are businesses which will have to close their doors. They will have to keep them closed either because we have made it necessary for them to do so, or simply there is just not the business to keep their doors open. We want those businesses to start again. And we do not want over the course of the next six months or as long as it takes, for those businesses to be so saddled by debt, so saddled by rental payments, so saddled by other liabilities that they will not be able to start again on the other side. We want these businesses to effectively go into a hibernation, which means on the other side, the employees come back, the opportunities come back, the economy comes back. This will underpin our strategy as we go to the third tranche of our economic plan, and that will include support by states and territories of managing the very difficult issue of commercial tenancies and also dealing ultimately with residential tenancies as well.
So, in conclusion, I thank you for your patience. But I thank you most of all for the great job you have done this week, Australia. We have got to keep doing it. We have got to keep sticking together. We have got to keep supporting each other. We've got to keep sharing the right information with each other. And we have got to stick together and support each other through what I know is becoming day by day, a much tougher job for all of us. We can do it. I'm so encouraged by your reaction this week, as are all the Premiers and Chief Ministers. The next few weeks will be particularly vital and so we're getting this together at a time when it is most necessary and your response this week has been simply awesome.
Thank you. I’m going to pass you on to Dr Murphy.
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: Thanks, Prime Minister. So, we have just over 3,000 cases in Australia and we are worried. We are worried about the growth. But as the Prime Minister said we're in an almost unique situation in this country in that even now, a substantial part of our new cases are returned travellers. Our numbers have not been helped by a recent cruise ship, which has given lots of cases in Sydney. And we are still seeing significant numbers of returned travellers with the virus developing an infection and in many cases passing it on to their families. More than two-thirds are returned travellers, and a significant proportion of the other cases have been transmitted from returned travellers.
So, the Health Protection Principal Committee yesterday recommended to governments that the single most important thing we can do, is completely stop the capacity for any returning traveller transmitting the virus. Obviously we would look after them when they get the virus, as some will do, as they continue to come home. Coming from countries now that have very large outbreaks, so the risk is getting higher and higher, as the number of flights reduce, but the risk in those countries increase. This is a really important thing.
But we are also worried about community transmission. That is the single most important concern for the health experts. There is small amounts of community transmission in some pockets in Sydney, which is probably the most significant in the country, but tiny pockets in other states. We think that we are pretty confident with our testing regime, which is one of the highest rates of testing per population in the world, with one of the lowest positivity rates. But we're not kidding ourselves - if community transmission becomes significant, that is the real serious concern. That's why these social distancing measures are just so important. That's why they have to be for the long haul. For several months. So we have to have sustainable measures that every single citizen complies with every minute of the day, working from home where possible, going out only for the necessities, not mingling with your friends in a shopping centre or in a park. Practise social distancing, hand hygiene, cough etiquette. Every minute of the day. And as the Prime Minister said, we have seen dramatic improvements in the practises of everyday Australians. But we are watching really closely. And very, very - daily attention is being paid to, any growth in community transmission so that we can make any further recommendations to the government as necessary.
But at the moment, we are doing a very good job. But we have to have really good compliance with this social distancing to make it work. We can't have anyone breaking the rules, being stupid, being cavalier, and not taking this seriously. You have seen what's happened in countries over the world, where big community outbreaks have taken off. We are getting on top of our outbreaks, our state and territory public health officials are doing a fantastic job. But we have to very closely watch this community transmission. That's our biggest concern at the moment.
Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks Brendan, Katherine?
JOURNALIST: Today, National Cabinet was I believe, was to discuss trigger points for moving to stage 3 lock downs or imposing the next phase of restrictions. Were any trigger points resolved or agreed upon, and also is it reasonable to interpret that from what you have just said about the proximity of the next tranche of measures that you want to sequence any further lockdowns with the next phase of the hibernation package, for want of a better term, do you want to sequence those two things - so you go into lockdown once the hibernation package is in full view?
PRIME MINISTER: The National Cabinet, as I said, is very aware that the restrictions we've placed on people - families, households, businesses, everyone - have been very significant. We want to ensure that as far as practicable that we continue to pursue this both from the health point of view and ensuring we minimise the impact on people, particularly economically, and we do understand the need to try and keep these things as close together as we possibly can. But the great point about today was, is the progress that has been able to be made in the last week means that is giving us more time to consider these other critical issues. The states and territories do have different experiences with the outbreaks in their various locations and we will continue to work on what other possible restrictions might be necessary and we will continue to work on the circumstances in which they might be introduced. But what we are saying right now is the thing that we need to take action on right now, after the good response - great response - we've had from Australians to what we announced, particularly last Sunday. This gives us the opportunity to do that and to continue to work on the economic supports as well that will be there to help people should those other restrictions become necessary.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, in the announcement you have just made about the new quarantine measures for Australians returning home, can you give us a sense of the scale of what you're anticipating in terms of the number of people who will need to go through this new quarantine restriction?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, to give you an idea, yesterday there were 7,120 arrivals at our airports around the country. To give you an idea of what that was this same time last year, it was 48,725. That gives you an idea of what has happened over the course of these past few weeks and months. The number of arrivals now are at a level which the states and territories believe means they are able to practically implement these types of arrangements. And that coincides with the risk that is increasingly presented by arrivals at this stage, as the virus has spread more broadly around the world, that obviously has increased the risk to those who have been overseas for longer. For those who are seeking to make their way back, know these arrangements will be in place and they are mandatory. They should also know that it won't be before too long where it will be very difficult to get back to Australia. The coronavirus has not been a secret for the last several months and for those Australians who were able to get back over the last several months, they have been able to come back under much more convenient arrangements. Now, it is getting a lot tougher and it is getting a lot stricter and so I am sure Australians will consider that depending on where they are in the world today.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, how much do you expect that this is going to cost? Is the taxpayer going to have to foot that bill regarding these quarantine arrangements? And in terms of the concern regarding community transmission and not going unless absolutely necessary, can you say something about schools? Is anything going to change there given there is transmission going on in schools?
PRIME MINISTER: First of all, in terms of the cost, the cost of the accommodation and all those arrangements are being managed by states and territories. They are putting this in place. What we are doing is providing that support through all the other measures through the Australian Defence Force or the Australian Border Force and there are transport arrangements. But that is being worked on together right now between the Department of Home Affairs, the Australian Defence Force, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, directly with each of those state and territory jurisdictions to ensure they can get the measures in place. The greatest stress and strain will be in New South Wales because they have the highest number of arrivals of any of the states and territories. For some, for example, Tasmania, there are no international arrivals to Tasmania because they don't have an international airport. So, it will be disproportionate on those states and territories. That is why I do thank them. Those states that get the biggest share of arrivals are really having to step up in the national interest and I think that is a tremendous effort. But equally in Western Australia, with that cruise ship, they are stepping up there too and I want to thank them for that. The arrangements, how that will apply to the individuals, they are being determined by the states and territories. The Commonwealth is not involved in that decision.
On the issue of education, I'm glad you asked me. We met again yesterday with the Australian Education Union. I will be issuing a statement on behalf of the National Cabinet that we agreed this morning. In each of the states and territories, they will be pursuing their own arrangements directly with those schools between now and the end of term. Term finishes at the end of next week for Queensland, at the end of the following week for other states and territories. We've had, I think, very constructive discussions with the union movement this week. But at the end of the day, it needs to be sorted out in each state and territory. Each state and territory will be doing that in response to the requests that have been made of them. We have a variance in attendance levels across the country. The Premier of New South Wales tells me that attendance in New South Wales is down below 20 per cent, but in South Australia it is many times higher, as it is in Tasmania. This will actually impact on how we're rolling out the influenza vaccinations as well. We have put arrangements in place for those states and territories - they will be sorting that out on the ground but some may have to work more through GPs and pharmacists, because the children won't be at school. In other places, like South Australia, they will be in a better position to do that. But the point is, as we have now entered into a transition phase with schools, where education needs to continue to be delivered, but over the next few weeks, the schools themselves will be preparing, together with - on a national basis, seeking to get some consistency on this - about when schools reopen on the other side of the school holidays. It won't look like it has looked up until now. But what is important is that vulnerable families, the parents who have jobs - as I have said to you, what's an essential job? A job that someone has. If they are in a position where they cannot provide the suitable arrangements for their children to learn at home, then I'm assured that no child will be turned away under those circumstances. So, I thank the unions for their support and the constructive way they are approaching it. But you will see some different arrangements between states and territories as we go into the term break.
JOURNALIST: PM, can you walk us through a bit more of the hibernation plan, is it your idea that a business that rolls down the shutter on its business at one point, six months later is allowed to reopen without $1 more debt accruing? And who is going to have to take a hit? The banks think they might be able to capitalise on someone's mortgage. Are you hoping they won't do that? There are local councils, state governments.
PRIME MINISTER: Sure.
JOURNALIST: So can you walk us through how that will work?
PRIME MINISTER: We will make announcements on the details on this. I simply today wanted to set out what the objective was. There will be a burden for everyone to share. And that will include the business as well. There will be landlords who will suffer. There will be the banks who will be having to make arrangements with them. Whether councils are involved in providing waivers on rates and things of that nature, that will be something states work through. Whether land tax will be relieved for those who have tenants in a distressed situation, all of these things are what we are having to work through. It isn't a simple process. But the intent is, as far as possible, to achieve what you have said, Chris, and that is to ensure that a business that through no fault of its own, just like if there's any Australian who has lost a job through no fault of their own, we are simply trying to preserve and support them in the best way we possibly can for the simple reason that A; they are Australian, and that is what we should do, and B; that on the other side we want them to surge again. We want Australia to rise again on the other side of this and to go forward strongly. Sorry, Sam?
JOURNALIST: Childcare is obviously very important to that. You have a situation at the moment where parents are paying for childcare where they are being urged not to attend or in some cases they have lost their job and they can no longer afford it. Centres want you to guarantee a slice of that $9 billion in the childcare subsidy so they can not only pay their staff but allow these parents not to pay for care that they are not getting. What is going to happen with that? Because at the moment they are saying that centres are going to have to close.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, this is one of the very sensitive areas that we're working through, Sam. We're working on a plan to deal with that with those many premises around the country. They are an essential part of keeping the economy running for those who are still part of it and for those who are still going to work and we understand that. We are working through these issues, through a list of priorities, and that is one that is certainly very high to the top of the list, about how we're supporting people who remain in work to be able to stay in work and their child care support is a key part of that. But we haven't finalised those arrangements yet. In terms of the health issues around child-care centres, well, they are the same for schools. The health advice on those issues has not changed. And so we would continue to see child care, for particularly for those who are at work, especially I should say, exclusively I should say - for those who are at work as being a fundamental service that is required to help us get through. Jen?
JOURNALIST: We've heard clips from the Chinese President this morning saying that this is a global emergency and it's, we're all fighting a common enemy. Yes, that's true. But is that enough? Should China take more of a responsibility here? And were you given any assurances last night from the Chinese President?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, all leaders last night set out what they were doing to address the twin crises and this was acknowledged and the point that I made last night, was about the fact that we're confronting a twin crisis here. And that was accepted, and I think broadly understood and supported as we all put in place measures. We were talking about what we were doing to confront the virus and there is a massive commonality. Testing - so important. And the fact that Australia has, based on the data we have, one of if not the highest testing regime in the world, at some 700 per 100,000 - I mean, Korea comes closest to that, but as I said the other day, other places have testing regimes - and we are 25 times higher than that, and we're about 5 times higher than the UK on my last reading of the data. So, testing, contact tracing; incredibly important. And that's why we have surged in support from Defence Forces, as have the states in recruiting large numbers of people to do the contact tracing to get on top of this. Self-isolation and its enforcement, which is what we have been talking about today. We're all very committed around the world to putting in whatever resources we need to do to get the antivirals in place and to find the vaccine. All of one mind on all those issues. Other matters around border arrangements, keeping the supply lines open for essential medical supplies. That's very important. And there was broad commitment to those sorts of things. On the economy side, we discussed all the various stimulus and support and social security mechanisms we are putting in place, and, as I said, Australia on all of those marks, I think fares very, very, very well.
In terms of where it started and how it started - not a time for that. It's a time for saving lives. It's a time for saving livelihoods. And that is what everyone has a common purpose to do. The last point that was also discussed - and I noted particularly in relationship to our Pacific family - is we're a developed economy. We have one of the best health systems in the world and we come into this with a very strong balance sheet and a strong economy. But there are many countries around the world, for whom that is not true. And we should brace ourselves, I think, for some very devastating images around the world and we are all going to have to do our part as a global community to support those who are not in as strong a position as the G20 nations. And here, that means our Pacific family. I noted that we would be taking particular responsibility, with our cousins across the ditch in New Zealand, to ensure that we do everything we can to support our Pacific family. Tom?
JOURNALIST: Two questions. First of all, will the government consider at any stage repatriating the 10 or 20,000 Australians still stranded overseas? And, secondly, have you had a conversation with Gladys Berejiklian about the Ruby Princess situation? Can we expect any kind of an investigation into that?
PRIME MINISTER: We've had a number of conversations about that. We are learning the lessons from that episode. And a lot of what you have seen here today is as a result of that. So, we will continue to do that. I mean Gladys and I and the Premiers - we are talking all the time, every day. We are working closely together to ensure that we can stay on top of this for the interests of saving lives and saving livelihoods. That is the only agenda, that is the only issue, that is the only focus that we have. In relation to those Australians who are overseas, yes, we have got an arrangement currently in place for those who are stranded in South America, in Peru. And we've also had an arrangement where we have already just brought back a group from the United States and Hawaii. And they have come back. And they are currently in the Swiss Hotel. There will be some Australians who are in places where they have found themselves through no fault of their own, isolated, and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is working on all of those cases. But for those Australians who have had an opportunity and - even more amazingly, those who continued to leave the country, even after a ‘do not travel’ advice was given, then I don't think they could expect their follow Australians to think that the Australian Government would be having them high on the list of the people we need to go and support. But it is the job of the government. Australian citizens, wherever they are through our consular services, get that support. We will be doing our best to support them in whichever way we can.
Now, are we going to go to Tom, and then we'll go right over the back there. I will try and make sure everyone gets a go.
JOURNALIST: You have spoken before about making sure people get the right information, not - you know, information that is incorrect on social media. Given that, and a lot of older Australians get traditional newspapers and are at risk, would newsagents be considered an essential service through whatever stages of lockdown we're going to talk about?
PRIME MINISTER: First of all, no Premier or Chief Minister is speaking about the term that you have. Shopping centres, well more specifically I should say supermarkets, food, all the things that Australians are going to need - well, they are going to continue to be able to access those in the normal way. So, I would caution against the way people talk about this word "lockdown", and the reason I'd say it is this. And I know it’s, you meant it innocently. I don't want to give people - and none of the Premiers do - that that is going to be someplace we might get to, where people can't go out and get essential supplies, that they can't get the things that they need to actually live life for the next 6 months. So, when we talk about potential other restrictions, there is no need for people to rush out and cram supermarkets and do things like that, because of other restrictions that may become necessary. So, I would actually caution the media against using the word "lockdown", because I think it does create unnecessary anxiety because that is not an arrangement that is actually being considered in the way that term might suggest.
But in terms of news information, well, what we have been doing is identifying activities that are undertaken at premises that we would be restricting. And so we have been nominating things that should cease. We haven't been going down the path of saying, "Well, this is all in. And everything else is out." It is actually focused on the things that we would restrict. Now, the reason we're doing that is because that's much easier to understand. Even barre classes, the other night, I now know what they are, by the way you will be pleased to know! All the memes that people have put together- it’s barre is it? I will get the pronunciation, thank you, Sam Maiden!
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible]
PRIME MINISTER: That’s one press conference I will remember, Sam! But barre, or whatever it is, by being specific about what is being restricted, that is a much more helpful way because then people know and they don't have to ask questions, "Well, is this in? Is that in? Is this in?" We are trying to be as clear as we can about what is being restricted. And we are looking to keep, as I said before, every service open that we possibly can. And they of course are important services, Tom. They are important services.
Now I promised I think to go over the back, right up, yep?
JOURNALIST: You thanked Australians for their cooperation with this and you’ve cited the progress of the last week, you obviously don't want to use the term lockdown, but New South Wales and Victoria are suggesting stricter measures, are you confident with the trajectory that we are seeing now in terms of people adhering to these measures, that that is enough to ensure that we won't have to enforce stricter measures?
PRIME MINISTER: No I don't think we can say that absolutely. I think where further restrictions are necessary, further restrictions will be applied. That is the approach we are taking. Today as we have met, we believe what we are doing today to target in on this most particular area of risk is what is necessary for today, but what I would flag is going forward, is that states and territories are getting in different phases of where the virus is at, and that you may see in the future, greater variation in how far restrictions go in some parts of the country, versus others, and I would encourage those where greater restrictions are not imposed, that is not in any way a suggestion that those jurisdictions are taking this any less seriously, it is just saying that where they are at, the restrictions are relevant for where they are, and other jurisdictions may be in a different situation. And so we are looking to build in that flexibility going forward because as Doctor Murphy keeps saying, you start this with this restriction, and then you have got to be able to do it for 6 months, and even, frankly, if we were to go to further restrictions, and say that they might be done for two or four weeks and reviewed after that time, you had better be ready to do it for 6 months, because at what point do you pull it back? And I think with what we're learning about the virus, that would present very challenging. Let's hope that that would not be required, but the reality is I think if we are being really brutally honest, is that once these restrictions come into place, they stay in place, and they will be in place for some time, and we will all have to keep adapting, and as I said this week, the way people adapted gives me great encouragement. John?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you mentioned as part of this business hibernation that both banks and also things like energy companies and landlords will have to spread and share some of the pain, what about employee benefits such as accumulated leave, long service leave, that might have accrued over many years, to perhaps get a business back on its feet, not to have its debts on those balance sheets? Could they be on the table as part of the discussion?
PRIME MINISTER: What the Treasurer and I are seeking to do is keep people connected to their business through this time and what we are seeking to do is ensure that in these businesses, everybody is part of it, everybody is a team member in this, it is and everybody's interest that that business resuscitates and rises again on the other side. That means your job is there again, your income is there again, life can return to some form of normality on the other side. So what I am saying is, we are all in it together. We are all in it, whether you are the landlord, whether you’re the lessee, the employee, whether you are the bank, you are all in it. The energy companies, they have already moved, I think, I know they have, Angus Taylor has told me, they’re looking to provide more support, whether you’re the local government, all of these things. I mean, it’s time for Australians in these commercial arrangements to sort of get it, that they have to sit down and come to an arrangement with one another. I mean, for example, if a tenant, a shop in a local high street somewhere in the country cannot keep their shop open and they have to put the lock on the door, they can't pay the rent, if the landlord wanted to enforce that on them and kick them out and rip their fitout out and do all that sort of thing, who do they think is going to move into the shop and pay the rent? I mean, what is sensible here is to understand the economic environment we are in and to see that on the other side, it is in everybody's interest that everybody gets through. So that is what working together, I think, in our economy really means. So we want landlords to talk to their tenants, we want employees to talk to their employers, we want banks to talk to their customers and vice-versa, and we want them to sort out arrangements that help them or get through.
JOURNALIST: On the issue of residential rents, was there any conversation or was there any appetite to nationalise some of those restrictions or rules given that some states have already come out in front and given amnesties to some of the renters that we see? Was there any mood to make those rules nationalised?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, they can’t be nationalised under a federal jurisdiction, these things will always remain the province of the states under the Constitution, but there is a lot of work being done together to try and get a consistent approach when it comes to residential tenancies. Residential tenancies are a bit different to commercial tenancies, there are different landlords, there are different issues in place. We are looking, the Commonwealth provides rental assistance and more and more people are coming onto rental assistance, for the simple fact that they have lost employment, they are coming onto the jobseeker payment which gives them entitlement to rental assistance, and so there will be a lot of supports that come into that. But it is an issue that is a high priority, just like childcare and they’re complicated issues in many respects and we have to work through them to get the right answers, but it is high up on the list of. The Treasurers of all the states and territories, working under our Treasurer leading the process, is looking at exactly what you are talking about right now. Yep? I can do one more over here.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the AMA today has raised concerns about protecting Australia's supply of PPE and other medical equipment, and with these reports that they are being exported or taken out of the country. Are you aware of this being an ongoing issue and you flagged it earlier in the week that there might be measures being put in place? How far away are those and, if I may, Professor Murphy, in April when all of the elective surgery nurses in private hospitals are no longer going to be doing that role, is there capacity to shift them potentially into ICU, or what is potentially happening with that workforce?
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: We have advanced plans with the states and territories, working with the private hospitals to absolutely keep those incredibly valuable clinicians. 35 percent of our intensive care is in our private hospital sector. They provide huge capacity, so they will have a key role in our outbreak, and we understand there are financial issues with elective surgery being reduced because of the PPE issue but we are absolutely omitted, state and territory and Commonwealth government, to make sure that we keep the private hospital sector viable to help in this response and to be there at the other end.
PRIME MINISTER: On the other issue, those regulations are coming into place literally as we speak. My hope is that will ensure through the ABF and all those authorities that they’re able to crack down on this. It is very disappointing, to say the least, and there will be some people who just don't get it and do these sorts of things, and we have toughened up the laws to make sure that they will get it.
JOURNALIST: On intensive care, where are we up to with increasing capacity? The Journal of Australia says we may be 10 days away from hitting capacity around the country?
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: I think that prediction is not necessarily shared but we obviously have done very advanced work in increasing our intensive care capacity. So we have strategies to at least triple our intensive care capacity and even go further if we need to. We are working very closely with the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society, they are preparing a national heat map of where the beds are, where the usage of those beds are, and we are working very hard to increase our supply of ventilators and consumables. We are, compared to many countries, our baseline ICU capacity is very good, much better per head of population and many other high income countries, but we have a very, very committed and enthusiastic intensive care community who are planning on very significant surges which we hope will not have to happen.
JOURNALIST: Many have suggested that more comprehensive restrictions would result in a shorter disruption and fewer deaths. Now, we know you don't agree with that, but are you willing to release the modelling that explains what the government, what the government thinks would happen under each scenario?
PRIME MINISTER: The decisions that I communicate from this podium are the decisions of all Premiers, Chief Ministers, and myself. This is not some personal view of mine, these are the decisions of the National Cabinet based on the medical expert advice that we receive in terms of the restrictions that are necessary to deal with the management of the outbreak of the virus in Australia. I sometimes note that those who often are pushing for greater restrictions, they will keep their job. I am not going to be so cavalier about it. I am going to make sure I fight for every job I can because I know that that job means something very important to that person, and that family. And I would not compromise that principle, save only that there would be a compelling health reason to do so.
So, Australia, thank you again. Thank you for what you have done. We will continue to do everything within our power to support you. This weekend, I hope you have a good one, it is going to be quite different to the ones you have had in the past, I know, but I also know that you will support one another and you will continue doing the things that you have been doing this week to save lives and to save livelihoods. Thank you.
Press Conference - Canberra, ACT
25 March 2020
PRIME MINISTER: Good morning everyone. Last night, I had to announce on behalf of the National Cabinet some very difficult changes that we have asked Australians to make and in many cases in relation to the operation of businesses, some very difficult changes which means that they will need to close their doors. And that also means that their staff will no longer be able to turn up to work and have employment. These are very difficult changes that we're asking Australians to make. I want to assure all Australians again that these decisions are not being made by Premiers and Chief Ministers and myself lightly. We are very mindful of the impact. We are also very mindful that you are receiving a lot of information and we are moving as quickly as we can, but also seeking to be understanding of the need for Australians to be able to absorb this information and make the changes in their daily lives and to talk to their family and friends and their employers and others about that. So this is a time of significant change and I want to thank all Australians for the spirit in which they're receiving this information and working hard to ensure that they can adapt that to their daily routines and their daily lives. I've said all throughout this that there'll be many months ahead of this and we are seeking to do things that are in, that are sustainable so we can keep doing them, not just now, not just for a week or two, but that we keep doing them month after month after month to ensure that we can all get through this together.
So again, I want to thank the Premiers and Chief Ministers who have all been out this morning and been providing further explanation to the points and announcements that I made last night. We are very conscious of the great cost of these measures and the impact on the daily lives of Australians and we are there with you and we will continue to be to explain these as best as we can and the states and territories will be seeking to do everything they can to ensure they're followed, because when we do these things, we save lives, we do these things, we can save more livelihoods, we do these things and it sets us up even better to get on this bridge to the other side of the recovery and to be able to make sure that that's as strong as it possibly can be.
Now National Cabinet is meeting again this evening. It is meeting to pick up on the items that we were unable to get to last night. I am not planning at this point to be holding any media conference this evening after that meeting, as it is largely dealing with matters that are in process, are in train. And so tonight, it is not our intention to be making any further announcements about those types of issues that we addressed last night. It was a very lengthy discussion, as you can imagine, and we thought it was important that we break the meeting to ensure that I could convey the decisions on those important behavioural changes and particularly the issues of closure of premises in all of the categories that I announced.
There are many challenges we are facing now, which we've already discussed. But there are going to be many more and some of them yet haven't even revealed themselves as to what the nature of those challenges are going to be. What as a government we've been seeking to do is put in place the right advice, the right structures, the right disciplines, the right processes, to ensure that we can make the best possible decisions that can stick and will ensure that we can best manage this crisis. As I described it last night, a twin crisis, a crisis on a health front, which is also causing a crisis in the economy as well. And both of them can be equally as deadly, both in terms of the lives of Australians and their livelihoods. The purpose is to have these structures enable us to save lives and livelihoods, to cushion the impact, to build a bridge to the other side and get everyone across that bridge together. The National Security Committee task force on Covid-19, which meets very regularly to make decisions about what the federal government needs to do. For example, the ban on people travelling overseas, which will be in place as I understand by midday today. The National Cabinet, Premiers, Chief Ministers, doing all they can to work together like I have never, ever seen before with states and territories. And sure, there may be the odd time where there might be a bit of difference at the edge. But I can tell you in my entire working life, in public life, I have never seen the states and territories work together like they are working together right now and I thank them for that. The National Cabinet is an essential gathering and it is all of our preference to keep that consistency and common action together as much as is possible. But we also need to recognise that in some places, states and territories are in different situations to other parts of the country. A very good example of that is the Northern Territory. It is a very unique set of circumstances in the Northern Territory, particularly as it relates to remote communities, indigenous communities. So while we seek to get consistency across the country, there will always be exceptions or differences based on those circumstances in those states and territories.
We also have the economic advice that comes through to us from the Reserve Bank and from Treasury and other members of the Council of Financial Regulators, ASIC and APRA. Those bodies which are feeding up information, and advice to us in all of these bodies. The National Cabinet, the Expenditure Review Committee, our Cabinet and the and the National Security Taskforce. That work has been important to define the economic responses. And of course, there is the medical expert panel, you keep hearing it referred to as the AHPPC. It is the panel of medical experts, doctors who work in public health in all the states and territories and the Commonwealth, who are providing the expert medical advice together to the national cabinet and to our respective governments.
But there is another area and I'm joined by Neville Power here today, Nev Power, as we know him, that we believe needs greater coordination. And that's why today I'm announcing the establishment of a national COVID-19 Coordination Commission. That Commission's job, put simply, is to solve problems. Problems that require the private sector working together with the private sector, CEOs, to talk to CEOs and to be engaged with by CEOs to ensure that the private to private effort is there solving problems in the national interest and it's being mobilised. It's about the private sector working together with the public sector. It's about better coordinating the efforts that are happening within the public sector and to do that we have been operating with what has been called the national coordinating mechanism, but that is essentially being done by governments between governments at a state and federal level. Whether it's repurposing manufacturing lines, whether it's re-tasking workforces, that one day were taking calls for travel companies, now taking calls at Centrelink and ensuring that we're repurposing the workforce effort. There will be many other problems that need to be solved. And Nev Power I have appointed as executive chairman of that Commission to help us solve those problems and work through them with all arms of government right across government, working with states and territories, some of whom have also put in place similar arrangements to ensure we can get these problems sorted. Whether it's ensuring we get food to supermarkets and we ensure the supply lines remain open there and the trucks can roll out when they need to roll out and we have enough of them to do that job at all the right times. These are the many challenges that we need to face.
Now, Nev Power was the former head of the Fortescue Metals Group. He has a great experience in doing just this task. You work in the mining sector, you need to know how to solve problems and big ones. There are only big issues in the mineral sector. And it's great that Neville, when I rang him the other day, I simply said, Nev, I need you to serve your country. And he quickly responded, in the same way that the Commissioner of our Bushfire Recovery Agency, AJ Colvin, I asked him the same question. I need you to serve your country, and he stepped up and that's what Nev’s agreed to do in leading this new Commission. There will be a board that will be appointed and we already have sitting on that board a number of eminent Australians who'll be working with Nev to help guide this problem-solving task and there'll be others who'll be added to this board. The other members of this board are Greg Combet, Jane Halton, who formerly... Greg Combet, who everyone will know, I think, quite well. Jane Halton, I'm sure many of you know but she now sits on a number of boards outside. She has previously served extensively within the Australian public service and in her last role as the head of the Finance Department. Mr Paul Little who used to head up Toll and has a great understanding of how to deal with the many logistical issues that will be present as we go forward. Katherine Tanner, who heads up Energy Australia, Kath also sits on the Reserve Bank of Australia board and is very experienced in the energy sector, but also has a very good handle on what's happening in the financial sector as well. And the deputy chair of the organisation will be Mr David Thodey. David also heads up as chair of the CSIRO. But of course, as former head of Telstra and a deep corporate experience means that together they will be able to reach out and into corporate Australia to solve problems on behalf of the nation, working together with the states and territories. Now, the board will be joined by Phil Gaetjens as the Secretary of Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Secretary of the Home Affairs Department, Mike Pezullo, who is currently running the national coordinating mechanism. That will continue to function and it will plug straight into this new Commission to ensure we're getting the advice. They will come to us and say, Prime Minister, we need to do this. We need you to authorise this. We recommend that you take this action to get these problems sorted. And so I want to give Australians confidence that we've got the best people in this country working to solve the problems and the challenges that are going to confront us so we all get through to the other side. And I want to thank you, Nev, for taking on this role and all of the other members of the Commission's board and all of those who are going to be working with them and we'll be making further appointments, particularly in the not for profit sector, to see how we can mobilise that effort as well.
Before I throw to Nev I want to make a number of comments and we can take a few questions today. We had a lot of questions last night and we have a fairly busy agenda today. I also need to note another decision that we confirmed this morning amongst the Premiers and Chief Ministers, and that is that the national cabinet endorsed the advice of the medical expert panel, the AHPPC that from today midnight the 25th of March until further notice all elective surgery other than category 1 and urgent - I stress very urgent Category 2 cases - will be suspended. This will apply in both the public and the private hospital systems. Cancellation of elective surgery will allow the preservation of resources, including personal protective equipment, and allow health services, private and public, to prepare for their role in the Covid-19 outbreak. Now this had already largely been implemented for category 1 and category 2 and what this means is a further scaling back of those of those elective surgeries in Category 2. So with that, I'm going to hand you over to Nev and then we can take some further questions.
NEVILLE POWER, CHAIR OF COVID-19 COORDINATION COMMISSION: Thank you very much, Prime Minister, and thanks, everyone. As the Prime Minister mentioned, I've stepped up to this role when he asked me to do it, because I think Australia right now, more than anything, needs to focus on minimising and mitigating the impact of the coronavirus on our businesses, on our communities, on our people. And that’s through the preservation of jobs, as much as we possibly can, given the constraints that we have around the restrictions from the coronavirus. So my role is going to be looking for those problems and looking for opportunities where we can join businesses together to solve two problems, where there is a workforce that has no longer gainfully employed and where there's a workforce that it is needed, where there's equipment that can be redeployed, where we need to intervene to protect our critical supply chains and our utilities. And also very importantly, looking to the future, because we know that this virus will come and go and we want to be well positioned to make sure that we restore people's jobs and livelihood as quickly as we possibly can afterwards. So our priority is to identify those areas and ask people for their help and look for coordination across all of those areas to minimise the impact of this virus.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, Nev. Just before we come to that, also there is some important information I wanted to relay on testing. My morning brief this morning has Australia at 162,747 tests for Covid-19. Now, to put this in perspective, the tests by 100,000 population for Australia is five times, almost five times, 4.7 in fact, what it is in the United Kingdom, it is 25 times what it is in the United States. It is even higher now than in the Republic of Korea and puts Australia right at the top of that leaders board in terms of the amount of testing that we're undertaking in Australia. This is a very important statistic because it shows that those testing resources we are securing and we are continuing to deploy. The testing and the contact tracing is the most important jobs we have as governments to ensure that we can best manage this virus and to, supported by all the other measures, ensure we can reduce the peak impacts that we are so determined to do in managing the virus in the community. Andrew?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you keep using the word scalable to talk about economic measures, surely now you can see the scale of the economic and societal problem from the lines outside Centrelink. Will you consider a scheme like Boris Johnson's where he provides money to distressed businesses so they can keep their workers on the bridge until we get to the other side?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, two things. We are already providing money to businesses through the BAS arrangements and one of the weaknesses of the system that you're advocating for is that it has to build an entirely new payment system for that to be achieved, which is never done quickly and is never done well. And that can put at great risk the sort of resources we're trying to get to people. The best way to get help to people is through the existing payment channels, through the existing tax system arrangements. That was the lesson from the GFC. Of all the money that went out in the GFC - and I'm not making a partisan point here - the key lesson was you must use existing channels for getting money to people because that is the most effective way for that to occur. To dream up other schemes can be very dangerous.
JOURNALIST: Even if that means more job losses, Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: No, no, I don't accept that at all and that is not the advice of Treasury either. That is completely inconsistent with the advice of Treasury. See, what we're doing is keeping as many businesses as we possibly can open. And then what we're doing for those businesses that closed because of the many measures, in fact, that we're putting in place, we are ensuring a stronger safety net for all of those who are impacted by that. Businesses will close because of the restrictions we have put in place. There will be no jobs in those businesses. And so what we want to ensure is the Australians who are affected by that and the businesses indeed that are affected by that, that they can get a lifeline and a safety net that will help them through. Because if you lose your job and you earn $150,000, or if you lose your job and you earn $50,000 or your job is at risk on those two different levels, then I'm ensuring that both of those people get the same support.
This isn’t a one on one interview, Andrew.
JOURNALIST: Will you waive mutual obligations?
PRIME MINISTER: I addressed that last night.
JOURNALIST: Communications, logistics, transport will all be important. The Department of Defence does that very well. So what role do you envisage for the Department of Defence?
PRIME MINISTER: They’re already playing a role. They're already involved, particularly in logistics issues and the repurposing of supply chains on PPE masks and things of that nature. And I want to commend Minister Andrews, Karen Andrews, for the amazing job she's been doing around that effort, working together with the Minister for Defence. Defence personnel are already involved in contract tracing and surging workforce support into state governments to help them with those tasks. Logistic support from the military will also be available and the many other tasks that they can be involved in, which were on great display during the bushfire crisis. And all of those resources will be at the disposal of the National Coordination Commission for coronavirus, and they'll be plugging in heavily with this work with Nev.
JOURNALIST: You said in your opening remarks last night and again today that the situation is slightly different in some of the states. Is it conceivable that New South Wales and Victoria could move ahead to further restrictions at a faster pace than other states?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the preference of all states and territories is to ensure as much consistency as possible, because it is absolutely true that the situation in New South Wales is different to that in Victoria and to that of Western Australia and in particular the Northern Territory and Tasmania. And where possible, they are seeking to ensure a consistent approach. But the issue of hitting higher thresholds and other measures is a matter that is being discussed by the National Cabinet. But be assured that if additional measures are required for different parts of the country, there would be no resistance to that occurring. It would be hard, I think, for some Australians to get their heads around is why a particular measure might be introduced in Melbourne, but not in Adelaide and that could cause some confusion for people living in Adelaide. It could also mean that if some states were to go ahead and other states were forced to follow, then that could cause needless economic loss in those states as well. See we're managing two crises, an economic one and a health one, and they are impacting on our country in different ways across the country.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, last night you told Australians to stay home except for essential school work, grocery shopping, health or exercise. This morning the government texted people who are sick to stay home. While obviously it's more urgent that sick people get that message, don't you think that lack of detail this morning undermines the very clear advice you gave us last night?
PRIME MINISTER: No, it doesn't, because it was consistent with the advice. The most urgent message that we're getting for people to stay home is to stay home if you're sick. That is the most important, urgent message. It is also important that people should stay home when they're in self isolation. And as I said last night, our preference and our instruction is more generally stay home unless you're going out for essentials. But the most dangerous thing you can do and we know of people who are sick and have sought to go to pharmacies and that is very dangerous. And so the most important part of the message that we're seeking to get out is that message. There will be more messages. I mean, just last night, you were criticising the government for not having a text messaging service. And here it is first thing this morning, and I knew that was taking place. So I'd ask the media to be patient. We're obviously getting to these issues. And I appreciate there'll be criticism from time to time. But that message is very clear. The message we gave last night was very clear. There will be more messages that come out using those sorts of mechanisms and we are further upgrading that capability.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, there are still some people today who are a little bit confused, parents saying do I send my kid to school do I know, some small businesses who don't fall very specifically into some of those categories?
PRIME MINISTER: Which categories are you referring to?
JOURNALIST: The categories in terms of I should close? So many, a small jeweller, or a nursery for plants. Some people are still confused about what to do. Would a, just a lockdown for a time be a good idea so that unequivocally it's clear we need to just all lock down, we need to control this now?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, you're suggesting I should close down businesses where there's no medical advice that they should. I don't understand why we would cause that harm to a business and all their workers and their livelihoods for the sake of some sort of message convenience. I think that would be quite reckless. What we're seeking to do is put in place measures on a scalable basis. Now, last night, I gave a very clear list of those businesses that were unable to continue in their premises because of the risk of the spread of coronavirus. Now, our advice is not to extend that more broadly within the retail sector. People can still go to car yards. They can still do those things, where It's necessary for them to do that. And those businesses are expected to put in place the arrangements I talked about last night, which is the four square meters per person. How many people can be in that premise. And what I was trying to stress last night is the government is taking these decisions together with the states and territories very seriously. We are not going to do things to a business or someone's job and livelihood where, at this stage, that may and is not necessary. And so when we do make those decisions and if we do make those decisions, you can have the confidence that it's not being done in some sort of cavalier way to just suit the convenience of messaging. That's not my priority. My priority is to protect Australian lives and protect their livelihoods and to make this information as clear as I can. Kath, last question.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, just picking up from Phil’s question, the Victorian Premier this morning in his press conference said there would be stage three lockdowns, not today, but that they're coming. And he said that it was basically understood now in the National Cabinet that there were differences between the states. And his clear inference was that Victoria and New South Wales would move ahead of other states to implement stage 3 lockdowns. Is that your expectation and would, I think you said a minute ago, there wouldn't be resistance. But I'm just wanting to be clear. Is it your expectation that New South Wales and Victoria will move ahead of other states?
PRIME MINISTER: Ultimately, the National Cabinet is not a compulsory mechanism. That's not how our Federation is built. That's not what our constitution provides for. It is, I think, the preference of all the National Cabinet that wherever possible, they can move together and they can move together in a consistent way. But there is also an important discussion about where other states are under more extreme circumstances, that measures that may be required there more urgently may be less urgent in other parts of the country. So there is a real discussion about how those issues can be addressed. But I can assure everyone that no measure has been restrained from in any state or territory, if any state or territory felt they needed to take those more urgent actions than I know they would do it through the National Cabinet. And they would not seek to do it unilaterally, but they'd seek to do it in partnership, in cooperation with other states and territories. Now, on the issue of schools, I could say that this morning I had a very positive discussion with the National Education Union. We're working through those issues. And the points I'd make briefly about that to you is simply this - that we recognise absolutely just how important teachers are in dealing with this crisis. When I think about teachers, I'm thinking about them in the same way that I'm thinking about paramedics, about nurses, about doctors, about, frankly, those who are trying to upgrade the capabilities of Centrelink and things of that nature. These are critical people in our community at this time and it's very important that we work with teachers to ensure that their workplace health and safety is being addressed as we manage this very difficult issue. School is not as usual anymore. That's clear. We all accept that and school won't be as usual going into the future. That's important. But we must have an orderly transition that ensures that workers, and as I said last night, an essential worker is a worker with a job because I don't want any parent to have to choose between putting food on the table for their kids and for their kids getting an education. That is not a choice I want any parent in this country to have to make. And so we are working with the National Education Union. We will be having further discussions with them to work through these issues. I thank them for their cooperation today and the very good spirit that they and and many other unions around the country are working together with us. And I have no doubt, particularly working with Greg Combet and Nev as part of that process, they will be critical going forward as well.
Thank you very much for your time.
Press Conference - Canberra, ACT
24 March 2020
PRIME MINISTER: Good evening, everyone. I said in the Parliament that 2020, for most Australians, was going to be their toughest year and what we have seen unfold just this week has been demonstrating just that. Australians who have lost their jobs, lost hours of work. Businesses that have been forced to close their businesses. These are heartbreaking events in our nation's history and story. And I want to assure all Australians that the National Cabinet has been meeting, as the federal cabinet has been meeting, state governments also and we've considered the many, many difficult issues we are having to address. We are not unconscious of the real impacts that these measures are having on the daily lives of Australians and so we will continue to do everything we can, both as a federal government and as state and territory governments around the country to do all we can to support our people through what is going to be an incredibly difficult time. The queues that we saw outside Centrelink, the challenges and frustrations people have had in gaining access is a sheer function of the extraordinary and overwhelming demand and we will work night and day to ensure that we can get more capacity into these systems. What this reflects is the size of the need and the size of that need is demonstrated by the impacts of what the coronavirus and the many things that governments are having to do to limit its health impacts across the country and to ensure that we can protect the lives of Australians.
But our goal is to get through this together and by following commonsense rules and doing the right thing, that’s how we slow the spread of this virus, and that's how we save lives. It also means that not all states, I want to stress, are in the same position. Some states, particularly in New South Wales and Victoria, are far more advanced on the progression of this virus than other states and territories. But tonight, despite the variations that do exist, there is a strong will for states and territories to seek to move together, wherever they possibly can, to ensure a consistency of application of the various rules and arrangements that we're putting in place across the country.
Tonight, we agreed to extend the restrictions that were announced on Sunday night, but to do so in a manner that was consistent with the types of measures that we announced on Sunday night. What I mean by that is there was an initial list of activities that largely went to the issues of social gatherings, particularly in enclosed spaces, that was being done to restrict the amount of contact between people outside activities such as going to work and things of that nature. And so tonight we worked to complete that list of those types of activities that we believe were appropriate at this time to slow the spread of the virus, to ensure that we are covering all the necessary activities and business functions inside premises that should be considered at this time. And so from midnight tomorrow night all of these following activities, and they include some that I've already announced from earlier, will no longer be taking place.
Cafes I’ve already said but that but the takeaway that will continue. So no change to the issues around cafes. Food courts in shopping centres will not be allowed to continue. But getting takeaway from those food outlets in those shopping centres, that can continue because takeaway is able to be done. In the retail space, auction houses, gatherings together in auction rooms, that can no longer continue. Real estate auctions and open house inspections - in particular, open house inspections - that cannot continue. Outdoor and indoor markets, excluding food markets like Flemington and things like that, because that is essential to ensuring the food supply right across the country, they will be addressed specifically by states and territories in each of their jurisdictions. States and territories have very different arrangements in terms of the types of markets they have, and they'll be making those decisions specific to their states and territories.
But the point and the principle is very clear - large gatherings brought together by particular organised events are things that we are seeking to avoid and that's the principle the states and territories will be seeking to follow.
In terms of personal services where there is a lot of contact, obviously, between those providing that service in a premise and the patrons, the following now won't be able to continue: beauty therapy, tanning, waxing, nail salons and tattoo parlours and the same for spa and massage parlours. That excludes health-related services in those areas, physiotherapists, things of that nature, health-related and allied health services. Hairdressers and barber shops will continue to be able to provide those services but it is very important that they strictly manage the social distancing and limitations of the number of people in their premise. So that's four square meters per person. And on top of that, to restrict the amount of time a patron is in the premises to no more than 30 minutes and preferably less. Cinemas, nightclubs, casinos, gaming or gambling venues, all of these were included in the announcement on Sunday, as were adult entertainment venues, concert venues, theatres, arenas, auditoriums, stadiums. They were all included in what we said on Sunday evening. Amusement parks and arcades are now included. Play centres and both indoor and outdoor are also now included. Community and recreation centres, health clubs, fitness centres, yoga, barre - I hope I've pronounced that correctly, I might need some help with that. I'm not quite sure what that is, to be honest, but B-A-R-R-E for those who are looking for the specific definition. And spin facilities, saunas, bathhouses, wellness centres. Boot camps and personal training is limited to a maximum of 10 people and the social distancing arrangements must be strictly enforced. Social sporting based activities, swimming pools. Now, I'll come back to the social and sporting based activities in a second to explain what we mean by that. That's large groups of people gathering together to play soccer in a community oval and things of that nature.
You can see what we're trying to do. We're trying to limit the gathering of people in large numbers that can relate to the transmitting of the virus through those social interactions which are not considered necessary.
Galleries, museums, national institutions, historic sites, libraries, community centres, youth centres, local government, non-essential facilities, libraries and swimming pools, community facilities such as community halls, clubs, RSLs, PCYCs, I mean, many of those are already included in what I announced on Sunday night and of course places of worship. On places of worship and other similar type venues, there has been a very difficult decision we've had to make tonight in relation to weddings and in relation to funerals. Now, weddings can continue to be conducted where it is just the couple, the celebrant and the witnesses. That's no more than five people. And the four square metre rule has to be observed within the venue in which that's taking place. But large gatherings for weddings, sadly, won't be possible under these new arrangements. And sadly also - and I know this will be very difficult - funerals to no more than 10 persons observing the rules around the four square metre rule and social distancing practices. Particularly on these types of activities, this is not an easy decision. Where we've already found, and Dr Murphy can speak to this, some of the events that have been some of the major transmitting events, it has been exactly these types of events, particularly weddings. And that is why, regretfully, we have to be able to put these arrangements in place.
Now, these are the rules and arrangements that are applied when it comes to the strict enforcement of these arrangements and that will come in from midnight tomorrow night and states and territories will be moving tomorrow to put those arrangements in place. Now, there are some also very important further rules that we want people to follow, just like the 1.5 metre rule, just like washing your hands and coughing into your elbow and doing those straightforward things. And that is to stay at home unless it's absolutely necessary that you go out. Going out for the basics, going out for exercise, perhaps with your partner or family members, provided it's a small group. That's fine, but going outside and going out and participating more broadly in the community, unless you're shopping for basics or there are medical needs or you're providing care or support to another individual in another place, going to work and where you cannot work from home. So that is encouraged, strongly encouraged, to work from home where you can do that. Visits to your premises, to your house, to your residence, should be kept to a minimum and with very small numbers of guests. We don't want to be overly specific about that. We want Australians to exercise their common sense. So that means barbecues of lots of friends or even family, extended family coming together to celebrate one year old birthday parties and all these sorts of things, we can't do those things now.
These will be significant sacrifices, I know. We've all been to those events as extended families and gatherings and gathering together in that way, even around the large family table in the family home when all the siblings get together and bring the kids, these are not things we can do, now. All of these things present risks and they obviously present them to the elderly members of our families as well, who we need to protect.
House parties where someone wants to now have the social events, not at clubs and venues like that, but to organise a party at someone's home, it’s, the states and territories will particularly be looking at that one and be considering whether they will put specific measures in place that could lead to that being an offence for those who've organised those types of events.
Outdoors, do not congregate together in groups. Now, the medical experts panel have made suggestions about how that can be managed. It's very difficult to put a number on it. But the point about it is this - if you're gathering together in a group, say, 10 people together outside in a group, that's not Ok. We've got to move people on. It's not a hard and fast rule. I say it only for illustrative purposes. The point is that you should only be going outside of your home to go to those essential things that I've talked about, not to go out and congregate together in groups. We need you to stop doing that. That is not going to help. If we do all of these things then we are going to be able to put greater pressure on slowing the rate of the spread of this virus, which particularly in New South Wales and Victoria has been growing at a much more rapid rate than other places and the numbers in Queensland have been similarly affected.
Now, on schools, we had another important discussion, the medical expert advice on schools has not changed. It is safe to send your children to school. Tomorrow, I'll be meeting - and there have been discussions today between the Education Minister, Dan Tehan, and the education national unions- and I'll be meeting with them tomorrow to discuss a set of arrangements that we would like to proceed with that, importantly, keep schools open. That also will protect those teachers and other staff who are working in schools and to work through those issues to ensure we can put acceptable arrangements in place to ensure that children get taught. I said this the other day. This is incredibly important. It's going to be a tough year in 2020 and one of the things I don't want to have yielded up is a year of a child's education, which is so important. We need to work so hard together to try and ensure that those kids get that education and that is not lost to this virus. And so I look forward to meeting with the Australian Education Union tomorrow and to have that conversation and to see how we can come together and agree how we can continue to deliver that while doing that safely for those who work in schools. And of course, for the kids themselves, as we know, the medical advice is that kids can safely go to schools. Under the arrangements we've already put in place we've seen the number of students attending schools reduce significantly, and that actually assists in observing the other issues around social distancing that are applying more broadly across the community. So we can do this. We can work this out. And so that would mean ensuring that schools in those states that haven't already ended the term, which is only in Victoria, that we would be able to continue to keep those schools open up to the end of the term. But I would anticipate that for several days prior to the end of the term, there will need to be some pupil free days while the teachers and the school staff work on the projects they've already been pursuing on extending distance learning. And so that will be an important job for those educators to be doing as we go into the term break. Schools, we agree, across the country would need to reopen on the other side of the term break because it won't be a holiday. It won't be a school holiday, given the arrangements I've just outlined to you. They will reconvene after the term break and there will be a mixture of both distance learning and where parents choose to keep their children at home, then there will be the learning that is there for them to undertake, and the parents would be needing to take responsibility for ensuring that their children are engaged in that. For all those workers who need to send their children to school, that's why the school needs to remain open.
Now, if you ask me who is an essential worker? Someone who has a job. Everyone who has a job in this economy is an essential worker. Every single job that is being done in our economy with these severe restrictions that is taking place is essential. It can be essential in a service, whether it's a nurse or a doctor or a school teacher or a public servant who is working tonight to ensure that we can get even greater capacity in our Centrelink offices, working till 8 o'clock under the new arrangements, in the call centres, these are all essential jobs. People who are stacking shelves, that's essential. People earning money in their family when another member of their family may have lost their job and can no longer earn, that's an essential job. Jobs are essential and every one who has one needs to be able to keep doing their job. And that means they will need to continue to be able to send their children to school for an education, for an education at that school. So I look forward to having those discussions tomorrow and I'm sure there will be a common sense of purpose in ensuring that we can meet these objectives and keep the nation functioning and providing the necessary education for children, the protection that is necessary for staff and to keep Australia running.
Now, before I go to Professor Murphy, there are one or two other things I have to mention. The National Security Committee Taskforce that works on the coronavirus also met this afternoon, this evening. And we have previously had a ‘do not travel’ warning on Smart Traveller in terms of all overseas travel. That will turn into a ban using the biosecurity powers that were afforded to us by the Governor-General through the Minister for Health. Now, the numbers of Australians going overseas has reduced dramatically and there will be exceptions to these rules which will be set out in the directive that will be provided. But this would include people involved in aid work in the Pacific and the support that we're providing. It may involve compassionate travel and essential travel for employment, things of that nature, but the number of people and the number who are coming, sorry, who are leaving Australia now is very, very low. But still, it strikes me on those numbers that there are people defying that advice and still looking to go overseas on leisure travel. They can't do it because when they come home, that's when they put Australians at risk. I had hoped that would have been fully complied with and I've got to say, Australians have been pretty good about it. But we need to put that arrangement in place.
Also, we're putting in place arrangements that will make it an offence and we'll be able to seize at the border those who've engaged in profiteering by bringing together and making large purposes of various supplies in Australia and seeking to export them overseas. Now, it doesn't relate to normal commercial legal activities, but we have been able to seize at the border - and the Minister for Home Affairs can speak more to this - quantities of materials that were seeking to be sent overseas and that is not helping Australia. That is not consistent with doing the right thing. And there'll be penalties in enforcement and we'll be able to seize those, that equipment and that can include medical supplies and include personal protective equipment and that will be seized and redeployed to it's best use here in Australia.
So with those changes, there was still a lot more that we needed to deal with tonight, but we knew we needed to report tonight and the National Cabinet will meet again tomorrow evening at the same time to work through a series of other issues, which includes a further consider of possible measures down the track. So we're well-prepared should we have to move to that stage, and the thresholds that would be necessary to move to those other arrangements. We'll also consider the issue of leases that I've flagged earlier, that will be considered and there'll be other matters that have been raised by Premiers and Chief Ministers that we’ll address as we go forward as well. So I apologise for the length. It's been a busy night and hopefully that's been very clear. But Dr. Murphy?
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: Thanks, Prime Minister. I'll be brief. We are very worried about the rate of rise in the number of cases of coronavirus in Australia, particularly over the last few days. It is a very, very steep growth and it's very concerning. Still, a significant proportion of those new cases are returned travellers or contacts of returned travellers and before I talk a bit about social distancing, I want to emphasise again that we are really serious now about a return traveller. You leave the airport, you go home and stay there for 14 days and the states and territories will be checking on you. We will not tolerate anybody putting the community at risk as a return traveller. People coming back from some countries, and you know which ones they are, have a high risk now of carrying the coronavirus and they are the people who've largely led to the spread of the virus in our community over recent weeks. So return travellers, please stay at home. Don't go anywhere on the way from the airport or the cruise ship or wherever you're from. We've been materially hit by people from a cruise ship in the last few days as well. So that is so important. And the other important thing is that if you're identified as a contact of a case and you're told that by the state and territory public health official and you're told to isolate for 14 days, you must isolate. You must not go to the chemist when you've been told you've got the disease. Some people have been doing things like being told they're a positive case and going into the chemist or the supermarket on the way home. If you're isolating because you're a positive case or you're isolating because you're a contact, you go home and you isolate and you obey those rules. That is a really, really important part of the control.
Now, the other part of the control is this social distancing. And that relates to the fact that we do have some community transmission cases that aren't clearly contacts that have appeared in small pockets, particularly in New South Wales, in Sydney, but tiny pockets in other states. That's why we introduced those very restrictive measures from yesterday that were announced on Sunday night. But because of the great rise in cases, we felt it was very important to recommend that those restrictive measures be well articulated and made clear and to some extent tightened, because we have to get people to take this seriously. We have to change the way we interact as human beings in our society for quite a long time. This virus will be with us for some time. We have to all think about avoiding any unnecessary interactions where you are close to someone and could place them at risk. These measures are really draconian. We know that. But if we are going to control community transmission, we have to stop the capacity of this virus from spreading from person to person. And I have said many times, it is a long haul and that's why we are keen to keep society functioning but keep society safe. Thank you, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you. I just want to be very clear about something I said before - shopping centres remain open. I was referring to the food courts in the shopping centres. Shopping centres, retail premises in shopping centres, they will remain open unless they're the ones that I've mentioned about beauty therapy, tanning, waxing, etc. Those premises, because they’re personal services premises, they will obviously not be able to remain open. So I want to be very clear. The shopping centres remain open. In each of the retail premises, there will need to be displayed, to assist patrons, how many people can be inside that enclosed area in that shop at any one time. That's just observing the four square metre rule, I would hope many retail premises were already doing that. I want to be very clear - shopping centres remain open. There's no need to rush out to shopping centres or the food stores or any of these. They will continue to remain open and you should go and get things as you need them. Thank you. Phil?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, my question, you are now strongly advising people to stay in their homes unless, you know, the need for exercise or going out for essential reasons. At the same time, the shopping centres are open. Is now just inevitable we're going to move to closing down retail as well?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, hopefully this is not necessary, Phil. Hopefully that putting in place the unnecessary gatherings of people and also within our own homes and our residences by not having those gatherings in our homes of lots of people, dinner parties with 10 friends and all these sorts of things. No, we can't do them any longer. If we do all the things that Dr. Murphy has outlined and these other quite strict measures we've put in place about other areas of social gathering and not having that community game of football down on the lawn on a Sunday afternoon in the park and things like this, stopping all those things we believe will have a really significant impact, we would hope, on the spread of the virus. But it is important for people to go to the shop. It is important to go to the shopping centre. It is important that they get access to these normal services. It's important for them because they need it. It's also important for our economy that it continues to operate and function as much as possible. So I don't leap to that conclusion, Phil. What we will do is put these measures in place and should the information change and the advice change, then we should contemplate at that time. But I do note in a lot of the commentary in both in the public and others, that there seems to be a great wish to go to that point. Well, be careful what you wish for on something like that. Be very careful because that will need to be sustained for a very long time. And that could have a very significant and even more onerous impact on life in Australia and we should seek to try and avoid that where it is possible. But if it is necessary for health reasons, ultimately, well those decisions will be taken the time. Andrew?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, there does seem to be something really incongruous about the fact that life as we know it should stop, that we should not be going out in groups, not be playing football in the parks, not be going to the shops unless absolutely vital. And yet you're encouraging kids to go to school. My question to you, Professor Murphy, aren’t schools now human petri dishes for a virus? What would you do if there is an outbreak at a school? Does it close down or just keep going to get through the children's population? And Prime Minister, separately, are you encouraging schools that have closed their doors to students to reopen after the break, after the holiday break?
PRIME MINISTER: I’ll make two points and I’ll ask Dr. Murphy to speak on the other matter. I think it's very important, Andrew, that media don't use that sort of alarmist language. I don't think it helps. I would encourage more modest language on these sorts of issues, particularly based on the medical advice that you've heard from us day after day on this issue. So I would encourage a more measured way of talking about these issues, because I think that can cause unnecessary alarm amongst parents. Secondly, you'd have to remind me of the question now, of the second question.
JOURNALIST: Will you be encouraging…
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, on individual schools, yes. I believe, and the position of the National Cabinet, is that schools should remain open and they can provide distance learning for those parents that wish their children to remain at home. But importantly, for those parents who have jobs who need to send their children to school for their learning because they can't stay at home with them because they need to be at work. These are nurses. They're doctors, they're people who are working at Centrelink, people doing very important jobs. I mean, even just in the last few days, we have had impacts on our workforce in some of those areas in the public service, which is compromising our ability to do those things. Now, we're responding to it. But what we don't need is arrangements that we put in place which compromised the society's ability to function and to deliver important services, whether that's aged care, whether it's education, whether it's driving a tram or providing public transport. We need to keep Australia running, consistent with the health advice that's been provided. And on the health advice, I’d provide you to Dr. Murphy.
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: Thanks, Prime Minister. So I think, as I said on Sunday night, Andrew, there is no evidence that we have major transmission amongst school children. We don't know whether that might occur. We do know that children do not, in general, get symptomatic disease. So I think that analogy is inappropriate. Of course, if there were an outbreak in a school, you would close the school until you'd sorted out who are the direct contacts and you would quarantine all of those contacts. And of course, we need to do measures to protect vulnerable teachers, because older teachers with chronic disease shouldn't be in schools. And that's part of the discussion the Prime Minister's going to have with the education unions. We've got to protect any vulnerable people in our community. We do not see children, fit, healthy children, as vulnerable people with this virus and schools can do a lot of things to make them a safe place to be with good hygiene, they are already adapting in many ways with reduced classrooms because some parents are choosing to keep their children at home. And we think a well-supervised, well-structured classroom is probably a safer place than many children roaming the community, which they would probably do if they weren't at school.
JOURNALIST: In terms of the offences that you were mentioning for those gatherings, what could they... are the states that they indicate a real willingness to go ahead? And do we have the Police resources for something like that to be really adequately policed and monitored and executed?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there are two parts to the enforcement, which is a matter for the states and territories, and there'll be opportunities, I'm sure, for media to put those questions to the States and Territories and the Premiers as they'll be marshalling those resources and deploying them as part of their responsibilities. There is the actual legal position itself, which means that if something has happened, there'll be the opportunity to follow that up. But in terms of house parties and gatherings like that, well, it is not uncommon for police to be turning up at noisy parties in the suburbs. That's a fairly common Saturday night. Hopefully there'll be far less reason for them to do that, given the strong message that we've sent about those types of gatherings and they can - it's not just at night either, by the way. It's during the course of the day, just to be really clear about that. And so in taking these decisions, states and territories are very aware of their responsibilities of how they need to take actions to enforce these measures. So I'll refer you to them about how they will achieve that. But they haven't taken these decisions - and I want to stress, these are decisions that are being taken by the State and Territory Premiers and Chief Ministers with myself as the Prime Minister who convenes the National Cabinet, these are not decisions being made by the Federal Cabinet and instructed to the States and Territories. That's not how the National Cabinet works. These are decisions being taken together, heads of governments, to form these views. And in these areas in particular, it is the states and territories that have the lead and the primacy and so they are coming together and setting these in place. Brett and then over the back.
JOURNALIST: Just to clarify when the travel ban kicks in, is that immediate or is it midnight tomorrow?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, people shouldn't be doing it right now. That's the advice. So no one should be getting on a plane and going overseas. We've been making that point for some time. The direction is being worked on overnight and as soon as that direction is signed off by the Health Minister, it will come into force then and that will happen tomorrow.
JOURNALIST: Just a second question, to be frank, some of the most distressing interviews I've done in a while today with people at Centrelink who were trying all night with children who aren't in school. They've lost their jobs. They don't know how they're going to pay the rent, in tears in the gutter, trying to use the website, the phone system crashed. They feel as though when they needed the Government most, the Government wasn't there for them. Are you sorry about that and what is the Government going to do to make sure that that capacity is there for those Australians?
PRIME MINISTER: We are deeply sorry about this. I mean, we've gone from 6,000 to 50,000 to 150,000 all in the space of, a matter of, day. And tonight, they're working to boost it again. I would say to Australians, yes, we are terribly sorry, but at the same time, we are asking Australians, even in these most difficult of circumstances, to be patient. Everyone is doing their best. What we're dealing with is is unprecedented. No system is built to deal with the circumstances and events that we are now facing as a nation. And I would urge people as difficult as it is, work with us. We are working to get this up as high and as far as we can. But we have had a multiple, many, many, many times over what is normally expected from this system. And it was already upgraded and it's been upgraded again and it will be upgraded again. Opening hours for the call centres have been extended, no resource is being spared to ensure that we can get these systems in place. But the support is there. It will get to you. And it is dated from when you've expressed that intent. And that's all registered and that's taken care of. So even if it takes a few more days to get the arrangements sorted out, it will go back to the time from when you needed it. And we'll work those, through those issues together and it deeply distresses me as I know it does the Ministers and the Secretary of the Department and all the people who are working there trying to get this as good as they possibly can because they want to get that support to Australians. I want to get that support to Australians. And we’re going to do our very best to get there.
JOURNALIST: PM on Sunday the National Cabinet received advice from 22 health experts, and lawyers, a bunch of other, across the Group of Eight universities. The Chief Medical Officer had commissioned. That advice was to launch an immediate and hard line lockdown that would be very costly, but would flatten the curve immediately and then get Australia out of an economic recession in a quicker fashion. Why was that advice dismissed, and what was the discussion of that advice?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that was not recommended.
DR MURPHY: That, there was a group of university academics who convened and provided a diverse range of opinions. It certainly wasn’t a unanimous view. There were-
JOURNALIST: It was a majority.
DR MURPHY: Yes- And that was not necessarily- they were selected on the basis of their interests in this area. And that that opinion, like the opinion of many external experts, was considered by the very large and complex process that we undertook with the Communicable Disease Network of Australia, which is the primary expert advisory group, and the AHPPC with another half a dozen academic experts in that, and that that position was very seriously considered. But as I said then, and I have said tonight, any measures we place, we believe need to be for the long haul. The idea that you can put measures in place for four weeks and suddenly stop them and the virus will be gone is not credible. So we are very keen to put as restrictive measures in place without completely destroying life as we know it. If Australians all do the right thing with these measures and do exactly what the Prime Minister has said and behave completely differently and practise distancing at every point that will achieve the outcomes that we want and we haven't even seen yet what the early implementation of our measures will be. But make no mistake that if there is widespread community transmission, we may have to introduce some harder measures.
PRIME MINISTER: And the National Cabinet acts and receives the advice of the medical expert panel, which is not the group you're referring to. That is the medical expert panel, which Dr Murphy convenes. And their collective consensus view is what is put to the National Cabinet.
Now I promised here earlier, then we're over there, and then we’re up the back and then Michelle. Yep. And then we'll go around for one, maybe one more.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, many Australians watching at home would think that there is an inherent mixed message that 10 people can go to a boot camp, but you’re saying only 5 people can go to a wedding. How do you explain that contradiction? And there are calls from Tony Abbott, amongst many others, saying that it is inevitable that we have to go to a shut down, is it not better to do it now, it is very conflicting rules. It’s very complicated rules for Australians to get across?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, no I don't think it's that complicated to understand that only the direct participants in a wedding, in an enclosed venue, that would be a necessary restriction. I think that's fairly straightforward. I think people can follow that quite, quite plainly.
What we're saying is people shouldn't group together when they're outdoors. Now, what we're talking about of people up to 10 for a training, that is a business, that is someone's livelihood. And you're saying that I should turn their livelihood off and I'm not going to do that lightly. And if it's not believed to be necessary based on the medical expert advice, I'm not going to be cavalier about people's jobs and their businesses. Where possible the National Cabinet together is going to try and keep Australia functioning in a way that continues to support jobs and activity in our economy, which is not going to compromise the health advice that we're receiving. And so, no, I don't think we should rush to that sort of scenario. I think you could rush to failure in that sort of scenario. You could rush to causing great and unnecessary harm because understand this, this country is not dealing with one crisis. We're dealing with two crises. We're dealing with a health crisis that has caused an economic crisis. And I am very concerned about the economic crisis that could also take a great toll on people's lives, not just their livelihoods, the stresses that that will put on families. The things that can happen when families are under stress. I'm as concerned about those outcomes as I am about the health outcomes of managing the outbreak of the coronavirus. And it is a delicate task for the National Cabinet to balance those two. Lives are at risk in both cases. And so the National Cabinet won't just rush on the sense of an opinion of inevitability. We will calmly consider the medical advice that is put to us and weigh those things up and make sensible decisions as leaders. I will not be cavalier about it, and neither will other Premiers and Chief Ministers.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Michaelia Cash has announced mutual obligations for welfare will be suspended for just one week while the website gets back up. You've outlined a very wide range of businesses that are going to be shut down. Can you explain how that’s sustainable to still require mutual obligation after that week? And how will it work with jobseekers being required to make job applications with so much of the economy off line?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, if those arrangements needed to be extended, then they will. I mean, we are working in a very flexible environment and we're in a position to take further decisions. What we also want to encourage people to do, is right now, I'm looking to hire 5,000 people, 5,000 people to ensure that we can get the support into our social services system so people can get the benefits and we can upgrade the systems and we can roll that out. There are other places in retail shops, in supermarkets and places like this. There's logistics arrangements that need to be done. In manufacturing, we're producing masks and sanitizer and things like this, important services. We need people to go and work in those jobs and we're going to encourage people to do just that. But we will be very sensitive on the mutual obligation issue. It's a matter that is regularly discussed by Cabinet Ministers and we will seek to ensure that it is has worked in a compassionate way for people in those circumstances.
Yes, sorry, thank you, a question up the back?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister on house parties...
PRIME MINISTER: Yep.
JOURNALIST: The social distancing measures have been in place for a while now. As sad as it probably is to everyone in this room, it is pretty clear that not every Australian is watching or reading the news. What are you going to do so that all of these changes that are happening almost day by day now is actually explained to Australians in a way that they will understand and receive it? Minister Hunt mentioned today that text messaging would start, is that happening? When is that happening? How are you going to ensure that even though individually these things might be easy to explain, en masse this is a lot for the public to take in and they are clearly not getting it?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we all have a job to do in that, you included, the media included. And our public information campaign continues to grade up every single day. It's on bus shelters. People are still catching buses and walking down the street. It's on social media. The official messages that are being put out need to be shared amongst your friends and that will continue, the public advertising, whether it's on television or radio or the many other means of communication, it is all being deployed and it is all being increased. The text messaging, yes, that will be coming very, very soon. Very soon. And we'll be using all of those devices to get that message out. But I think it's pretty clear that most people, if not every person in this country, would know that the coronavirus is having an impact on our country and on the lives of Australians. I mean, it's hard to avoid when you look at the Centrelink queues and not understand that something very serious is going on. So I would encourage Australians to seek out that information from the trusted sources. We’ve got time, I think, for one more. Phil? Oh, sorry, Michelle hasn’t had one, then we’ll finish with Phil.
JOURNALIST: Could I take you to the question of border. There's a lot of credible...
PRIME MINISTER: Did you say border or order?
JOURNALIST: Border, people coming in. There’s quite a lot of credible anecdotal evidence that the checks there, although people are being given material, are not very stringent in some cases. Are you putting any more resources and effort into that, given that the people coming in now must be very high risk?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I wouldn't make the second assumption about high risk. That's not the advice we've had. In some cases there are high risk groups that are coming through and they are identified by the Australian Border Force in terms of how they manage those arrivals. All those who are arriving, and the numbers arriving are falling each day, all of them are required to go into self isolation by public health order at a state level. They're required to do it. It's the law and that's where they need to go and that's where they need to transfer to immediately, not to go via the shops, not to pop in and see a friend on the way home and not to go and go for a wander around the park. You go straight home and you self isolate for 14 days. That is the law and that is the major protection that we have and that applies to everybody, every Australian returning citizen or resident. And , yes, more resources are being put in, Michelle. Phil?
JOURNALIST: PM, hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs and small business operators who don't know how they're going to pay rent. What progress, if any, has been made tonight on trying to ease people's rent bill? Waive them, lift land taxes and whatever?
PRIME MINISTER: Sure. A lot of progress has been made over the course of today and over the course of this week, we'll be looking to hopefully finalise some measures. This is obviously a complicated issue because you've got a tenant, you've got a landlord, you've got creditors and all of those issues and you need to solve for the entire chain that's there. The states, working together with the Treasurer, have done some excellent work today and there's more work to be done on that. It will be considered tomorrow night at the National Cabinet. And as a first pass, talk to work through that issue and it will be considered again. But it does involve both the Commonwealth and the States working together. The States have the legislative authority when it comes to tenancies, both commercial and residential and the Commonwealth has other incentives and levers that it can pull to support and enable that chain of businesses and individuals who are caught up in that process where people are under rental stress. Of course, rental assistance also goes to those who have found themselves out of work and on the jobseeker payment. That's one of the many other payments they can get access to, like family tax benefits and other payments that can help them in those circumstances. But rent payments, how much people are paying on their energy bills, is another area that we're working with the energy companies and we've already seen some concessions on that, which we welcome. On top of that, it's mortgage relief, which you've seen the banks already move on and I think that's another important area. And the work that has been done by the Treasurer with the banks and in that area in particular, both whether it's for small businesses or others, I think is really good work to try and reduce the pressures that otherwise are falling on people at this incredibly difficult time. We spend every minute of every day seeking to identify every possible burden or harm that is falling to people in these difficult circumstances and to ensure that we can do something, working with the states, to provide some remedy to that. But equally, the same time is being spent on ensuring that we get respirators and that we get personal protective equipment manufactured, that we have enough hand sanitizer. I mean, we currently have I - and I'll end on this - we have one of the highest testing rates in the world. One of the highest testing rates in the world now. The last number I had before coming in here and going to the National Cabinet early this evening was 147,000 tests and we've been able to secure supply of hundreds of thousands of more tests into Australia. Testing is critical to how we manage the coronavirus and its impact, as is the contact tracing. And we're doing a lot of effective work there about how digital methods can be also used to assist in identifying contacts and to be able to shut those issues down as was practised in Singapore. And so those delivery methods are also being looked at by the Commonwealth and we're making a lot of progress there. But to fight this fight, there are so many tools that we have to use. But the people we need most are Australians listening, being patient, carefully understanding the things we're asking of them. We know it is a massive change to our lives, but if we do it and we do it consistently and we do it patiently and understandingly, then we will get through this. Thank you very much.
Press Conference - Canberra, ACT
22 March 2020
PRIME MINISTER: ...all members of that National Cabinet have reaffirmed our commitment to just how important the National Cabinet is to ensure that all governments are working closely together to put in place various arrangements and supports to ensure the Australian people can come through this together over the very difficult months ahead. I want to thank all members of the National Cabinet for coming together this evening and to work through the many issues that have been raised, particularly over the course of the day so I can stand here tonight with the Chief Medical Officer and provide some clarity as to a number of issues that has arisen over the course of the day.
So the National Cabinet, I want to assure Australians, is working and will continue to work and all of its members are very committed to its processes and its decisions. Secondly, the measures I'm going to take you through tonight relate to two particular areas. The first one is in relation to places of gathering, of social gathering, and I want to take you through some new rules. Stage one of those rules which premiers and chief ministers will go into further detail tomorrow as they move to legislate and regulate the changes we're putting in place. The second in relation to schools and I want to reinforce, as the Chief Medical Officer I'm sure will, that there has been no change to the advice, the health advice, in relation to schools. I said earlier today, and as the Chief Medical Officer has been stressing also at all of our presentations, social distancing, keeping the healthy distance, healthy physical distance between individuals as you're practising here tonight, wherever that is, is our biggest weapon in fighting this virus, saving lives. And we need all Australians to be following the health advice when it comes to keeping a healthy distance and observing the limits that relate to gatherings, whether they be outdoor or they be indoor. This is incredibly important. The failure of our public to do that will put people at risk and make it extremely difficult for governments to be able to take actions that can control the flow and spread of this virus. Governments must do their bit and we are, but we need Australians to do their bit. On the weekend, what we saw was a disregard of those social distancing practices as people turned up to the beach in large numbers, crammed venues in our major cities. As I flagged this morning, this sent a very clear message to premiers, chief ministers and myself that the social distancing practices are not being observed as well as they should be.
Now, I want to thank all of those Australians who are doing the right thing, those Australians who are engaging in the self isolation, particularly when they've come back from overseas. I want to thank them for doing that. But what I am seeking and all the premiers and chief ministers are seeking is that Australians will do better than they have been on this and to hold each other to account. I might just ask if we don't do flashes, if that's OK, because it's a bit distracting. Thank you.
So what's important is that we now need to take action because we can't have the confidence as a group of leaders that the social distancing guidelines and rules that we've put in place won't be followed to the level of compliance that we require to flatten the curve and to slow the spread and to save lives. So the premiers and chief ministers together with myself tonight agreed that there is a need to move to more widespread restrictions on these gatherings in indoor spaces and I want to run through them with you. I want to stress that this is stage one of this response. Premiers and chief ministers are also very clear that they want these rules to apply state-wide, territory-wide, in each of their jurisdictions. They are stage one, and they will be reviewed on a monthly basis. But as I have stressed and the Chief Medical Officer has stressed and others have also, that once you start putting these sorts of arrangements in place, we should have the expectation that they will remain in place for at least six months. If the health situation changes and enables us to reconsider those arrangements, then that can be reconsidered. But I wouldn't want anyone to get the impression that these arrangements are things that will be in place for a couple of weeks or a month and then will be discarded and everything will be OK. These are very significant measures and they are done, regrettably, because it will mean for many people that the places at which they go to work, they will be unable to do that in the way they were before. And it makes it even more important, the measures I announced earlier today, to provide support to those individuals who may be affected by these changes. This is what I mean. When we all don’t do the right thing, then it has real implications for others.
Stage one would see that in enclosed spaces for gatherings in the following facilities to be closed as of midday tomorrow: registered and licenced clubs, licenced premises in hotels and pubs. So that is in the licenced area, not in the accommodation area, but in the venues that sit within those hotels where their licenced gatherings and gatherings that will also be excluded- that will also be closed. Off licence parts of those premises for bottle shops, that particularly applies in places like Tasmania and in Queensland, I understand, they will be excluded from these arrangements. They work like any other retail premises. They are not a place of people gathering in an off licence bottle shop. Entertainment venues and cinemas, casinos and nightclubs. Restaurants and cafes will be restricted to take away only. Indoor sporting venues. Places of worship. Enclosed spaces for funerals and things of that nature will have to follow the strict four square meter rule which will be enforced. Home deliveries, takeaways, all of these things will continue as I know many of these catering businesses are already adjusting their business models in anticipation of things that they believe would potentially take place. The fact that we're having to do that at this point, I've gone into the reasons why and I am deeply regretful that those workers and those business owners who will be impacted by this decision will suffer the economic hardship that undoubtedly they will now have to face. That is a very, very regretful decision, but a necessary one in the view of the premiers and chief ministers and myself to ensure that we can control the spread of this virus.
This should highlight to all Australians how serious this is and how hard we all have to work together to get this right. In remote communities, there will be specific rules that will be defined by the chief ministers, premiers in those communities and they'll be worked through tomorrow morning. The premiers and chief ministers together myself will be considering stage two potential restrictions in this area. But what we first want to see is we want to see the public respond to these very serious measures. We're dealing with the principal places of social gathering where we saw people coming together on the weekend. If we don't get on top of that, then we look at a much more difficult health scenario into the future.
Now on the issue of schools, children should go to school tomorrow. There is no change to the medical expert advice in relation from the AHPPC panel, the medical expert panel from the states and territories in their advice to the National Cabinet in relation to the health advice. That said, I also want to thank all the teachers and all those working in our schools who've been doing that under a lot of pressure. The principals and deputy principals, the teachers, the teachers aides, all of those have been working in the school communities under a lot of stress and strain as this debate has raged on. The health advice has been clear and they've remained open and this is important because - I want to stress this - I don't want to see our children lose an entire year of their education. That's what we're talking about here. This is very serious. If you're a four year old child at pre-school, you don't get your four years old year back. You only get it once. Early childhood education is incredibly important, as is all the years of school education. And we want to ensure keeping Australia running means ensuring we can keep up to the mark with our children's education as best as we can and where there's health advice which says you can get to school and you can be taught then it's important that we do that for as long as possible, except where health circumstances would change that arrangement.
What we will be doing, though, is allowing parents to the end of this year's school term to be able to keep their children home where they choose to. But for all of those parents who wish to send their children to school for an education at the school, those schools will remain open. In addition, schools will seek to provide learning at home in a distance learning framework. But you cannot be assured that that will come in place immediately. That will take some arrangements from those schools, particularly the public schools, in many independent and Catholic schools, they may choose to move to those models, as some already have. But what's important here is if you’re a parent and you want your child to go to school up until the end of this term, then the schools should remain open and must remain open is the instruction until the end of that term. Now, Victoria has already taken the decision to end the term over the course of this week, their term was due to end on Friday anyway and they've brought that forward to Tuesday, which is actually a pupil free day for the teachers. And I understand they'll also be working on how they will be able to deliver potential distance learning models in the future. The premiers and chief ministers all have the same view that schools should reopen on the other side of the term break, subject to the health advice at that time. Parents who make the decision for their children to remain at home must take responsibility for those children. Those children are staying at home. It's not an excuse for them to go down the shopping centre or to go and congregate somewhere else or potentially put themselves in contact with the vulnerable and elderly population. If you choose to keep your child at home, you are responsible for the conduct and behaviour of your children. That is always the case for any parent. But particularly in this case, it is important that they observe the strict social distancing arrangements that have been advised to the public. This term break will be like none other. This won't be a holiday as it's normally known for the break in term. There won't be trips interstate. There won't be those holiday normal type arrangements. There won't be congregating up at the trampoline venue or whatever it happens to be. That won't be happening. It won't be a holiday as anyone has ever known it. And it's important that I think families and households understand that, because over the course of the term break, we need to ensure that we continue to follow the very strict rules around social distancing. This is a critical time, an absolutely critical time. The decisions that parents make, that we all make, over the course of the next few weeks in particular, could very seriously determine the trajectory that Australia continues to go on in relation to the coronavirus. So I would seek and implore Australians to follow this advice. You will be saving lives and you'll be saving livelihoods. Already as a result of the measures we have been forced into taking this evening, there are many livelihoods that will be impacted as a result.
So they are the measures that we've arrived at tonight. It was an important discussion to have and we've been able to come to an agreement between all of the states and territories as to how we proceed on those issues. We will meet again on Tuesday night. There are many other issues we have to discuss. The tenancies legislation is a key issue that comes up on Tuesday night and there are many other matters that are before us. We are going to keep working together. We are absolutely committed to this process of the National Cabinet. It is a key tool for helping Australia work through the difficult challenges that we have. So with that, I'm going to pass over to the Chief Medical Officer and he's going to make some comments on these things. I'm happy to take a few questions.
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: Thanks, Prime Minister. If Australia is going to get through the challenge of this pandemic over the coming months, we have to live differently. We’ve been making that point very clear over the last week. But it's also clear that some people haven't got it. And I'm particularly talking to young people who may think they're immune to the effects of this virus. And it's true, most young people don't get significant disease. But as a young person, you don’t want to be responsible for the severe and possibly fatal disease of an older, vulnerable Australian. We have to stop the rapid spread of this virus. There has been very significant increase in cases over the last few days. Still a lot of imported cases, but definitely some community transmission. As the Prime Minister has said, people have not been getting the messages and we have had to take, we've recommended unanimously, that these fairly dramatic and drastic recommendations be put in place because we have to stop those situations where viruses pass readily. We've had some events in Australia where 35 people have picked up the virus from one particular function. We cannot allow this sort of spread to happen. We have to all, in every aspect of our life, practise social distancing, good hygiene. These measures have to become our routine. We are going to live differently if we're going to get through this virus without serious impacts on the vulnerable in our community and serious impacts on the health system. We can do it. These measures are sustainable for as long as we need to. We can still get on with living, but we have to live very, very differently. I can't emphasise that enough.
I do want to say again that many of the cases that we have seen in the last few days have been from international travellers. We've seen some irresponsible behaviour from people who were told to quarantine and have not and they have spread the virus. We now have to be absolutely rigid. If you come back from anywhere, a cruise ship or a plane and you come back to this country, you go home and you quarantine for two weeks, no exceptions. You are putting your fellow Australians at risk if you break that rule. So please, every one of us has to do our bit. We have to save our vulnerable Australians from what could be and we've seen this in other countries, fairly devastating impacts if we get a widespread pandemic in this country. We can control, we can contain and we can, as the Prime Minister said, bend and flatten the curve. But every single Australian has to play their role in doing this. Thanks, Prime Minister. Thank you.
JOURNALIST: With the shutdown of nonessential gatherings, we’re going to see people flood the supermarkets. Panic buying is going to increase. What are you going to say to those people? How can you stop that?
PRIME MINISTER: There is no need for that. There is no need for that. What we are doing is closing down gatherings even in pubs and clubs and things of that nature. We are not putting in place lockdowns that put people and confine them to their home. That is not a measure that has been contemplated at this point and so there is no reason for anyone to do that. There is also no reason for anyone to rush to any of those venues tomorrow before midday. That would be highly irresponsible. And I would just simply ask Australians to get a hold of themselves if they were thinking of doing something of that nature.
JOURNALIST: Right now, shopping centres for example…
PRIME MINISTER: No, shopping centres are not closed. I have not said that tonight. I'll go through the list again - closure of pubs, registered and licenced clubs, excluding bottle shops attached to these venues, the off licence component, hotels in their licenced premises and their venues that are at their hotels but excluding the accommodation, gyms and indoor sporting venues, cinemas, entertainment venues, casinos, nightclubs, restaurants and cafes which will be restricted to take away and or home delivery as any other venue can, religious gatherings, churches and places of worship and for funerals or things of that nature in enclosed spaces, it must be within the four square metre rule to apply to those venues . The point we are making is this - if people move into those shopping centres tomorrow, they would not be observing the distance principles and social distancing principles that we're imploring Australians to follow. And so I would ask them, there is no need for them to do that. There is no need to go and hoard, buy or do any of those things. That is not necessary. And Australians should exercise some restraint when it comes to that, because as we've just made very clear, that when that doesn't occur, then more dramatic measures have to be introduced. So I would just simply ask Australians to be calm and exercise some sensible judgement.
JOURNALIST: There seems to have been a critical conflict here between the advice that’s going to the Victorian government with regards to schools. Victoria, which has one in one in four students in Australia, and the advice that’s coming to you and I'd like you both to answer it. How can you explain the conflict between the advice that you're giving to the nation tonight and the clear view from Victoria that schools should close from Tuesday?
PRIME MINISTER: The position that I've outlined to you tonight has been agreed by all Premiers and Chief Ministers as part of the National Cabinet and it is based on the consensus advice provided by the medical expert panel, which the Chief Medical Officer convenes.
Brendan.
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: So the AHPPC had a long discussion about schools today. We reaffirmed our position that the risk to children of coronavirus is extremely low. We've had hardly any cases in children, in primary school children and the international experience is that it is a very, very low risk of symptomatic infection. We don't know whether children may be transmitters, there isn't good evidence on, and there haven't been evidence of published cases where there's been significant transmission in a school. There are some people who believe that closing schools may contribute to social distancing. Our view, the consensus view of all of the Chief Health Officers that we signed up to today, was that at this time schools should stay open. We are talking about measures for the long term, for several months, and that's why we made that decision.
JOURNALIST: Just a bit of clarity on schools. So, for example, the ACT government said today they were shutting all schools from Tuesday indefinitely and putting in long distance learning. Is it now no longer the case as a consequence of tonight's meeting? And realistically, what chance do you think Victoria will reopen it’s schools at the end of the school holidays? When they said they’re going to, quote, review, unquote, the situation.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'll deal with the second point first. And the Premier has reaffirmed his commitment this evening that is the intention of the Victorian government to reopen schools subject to the health advice at that time. And that's the same for all schools. I mean, this is a matter that's being reviewed on a regular basis, as I think has been evidenced. In relation to the ACT schools, they'll be following the same practise that I've outlined today, and that is where schools do choose to move to some distance learning arrangement, they will also keep the schools open for parents who wish to send their children to those schools. Now, for many parents, for those who may be both parents who are working, those that might be essential occupations, particularly nurses and doctors and police and paramedics and things like this. This is very important, but even more important is we want our children to continue to get an education. There are many things that we're going to have to sacrifice because of this coronavirus. One of the things Premiers, Chief Ministers and I are very keen to try and avoid is having to sacrifice the education of our children.
Michelle?
JOURNALIST: So this, just to be absolutely clear on this, the guarantee from all the leaders tonight was that the schools would reopen after the holidays…
PRIME MINISTER: Subject to the health advice.
JOURNALIST: Subject to the national health advice, not their own health officer?
PRIME MINISTER: What we have continued to commit to tonight as a National Cabinet is to work together on all of these issues. And that means receiving the advice from the AHPPC and to seek to address and resolve these issues amongst the National Cabinet. And that's what we did tonight. So we could stand before you this evening and provide that advice on the issues that were as a matter of discussion today. And I think that's very helpful and I thank them for the ability to come to those conclusions this evening.
JOURNALIST: You mentioned stage two of this shutdown. What is it and what triggers it?
PRIME MINISTER: Well stage two has not been defined and it has not yet even been defined if it will be necessary. Stage one… see, what we're doing here is we're dealing with the principal places of social gathering. Okay. We don't now have any confidence that people would refrain from gathering in those ways, in those places, pubs and clubs and nightclubs, and Dr. Murphy has made it pretty clear that that is principally amongst the younger community. We have no confidence that that will be followed. So unfortunately, because guidelines can't be followed then for public health reasons, we now need to take a further action which shuts those gatherings down. Now, they are the principal places of social gathering which are our greatest risk. They have been identified over the course of today by the medical expert panel. They are been considered by Premiers and Chief Ministers and myself tonight. And that is the list of venues and gatherings that will not be able to take place from midday tomorrow. The states, the territories, the Commonwealth, the National Cabinet reserves its position to take any such further matters into consideration as it needs to. So we will just continue to deal with this in a sensible and calm way through a disciplined process of the National Cabinet, working together and seeking to provide as clear advice as we can. But the key point is this - please cooperate with the health advice. Where that health advice is complied with, then it means that we can take measures which have less impact on the everyday functioning of the community and people's jobs and livelihoods.
Yes, over the back- you’ve already had a question, yep?
JOURNALIST: Professor, the AHPPC met earlier this afternoon. What are these stage one measures were discussed and agreed upon them or were they only brought up after two states came out and said they were going to basically do those anyway and further on that, given that this is in response to people not practising social distancing, the Government's information campaign explaining what social distancing is only launched this weekend. How can you… by your own concession, this is going to be for months, based on something that a lot of people didn’t know about until this weekend?
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: So the National Cabinet tasked us on Friday night to consider these measures and that was planned for this afternoon. The announcements of various governments had nothing to do with that. We did what we were asked to and we considered that as previously scheduled. I agree that social distancing is a concept that people have to get to terms with and the communications have been going out. We've made the message very clear in the media last week and we made it very clear that people needed to keep their distance. We've been talking about keeping a metre and a half distance for a lot more than the last week. So the other thing that's happened over the weekend, obviously, has been the significant rise in cases. And so there is a greater urgency to make measures now that we might have considered a bit later had the rise in cases not occurred.
PRIME MINISTER: Andrew, I'm sorry, you've had several questions... Andrew, I'm sorry, Andrew. I know, but you don't run the press conference, Okay? So I'm going to go to other questions of members of the group. Katharine hasn’t had a question. I'm happy to return to you, but let's just keep it civil.
Katherine?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister I think it's clear but again, just for perfect clarity. New South Wales and schools, they are the same as the ACT. Schools will be open for the remainder of the term yes?
PRIME MINISTER: Correct.
JOURNALIST: And also, again, I think it's clear but I’m checking, because things have moved a bit today. So businesses like hairdressers, beauticians…
PRIME MINISTER: They remain open.
JOURNALIST: All of that remains open?
PRIME MINISTER: The only ones that can't remain open and provide those services are the ones that I've listed to you this evening. Only those ones. Only those ones. I'll come back to you now, Andrew.
JOURNALIST: Dr. Murphy, a couple of weeks ago, you were at the same podium, although admittedly a bit closer to the Prime Minister, it could have been, actually, Greg Hunt, but you said this, that the children were super spreaders. There is an inconsistency, it seems to me, between having kids at school potentially exposing themselves as super spreaders to older teachers, with the statement of the Prime Minister whereby he does not want children who are kept at home wandering through Westfield shopping centres. There is a clear inconsistency. Can you answer that? Are they super spreaders or not?
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: We don't know whether children spread this virus. There is no data on that. I've never said that they are super spreaders. I've said that for influenza they are, they can be super spreaders. There is no data internationally anywhere in the world that shows that major spreading of this virus has occurred with children. We're not ruling that out. That is possible. But we think the risks and benefits are on the other side. I agree with you. And we have been asked again by the National Cabinet to consider next week which members of the workforce, both schools, health care, aged care, who are vulnerable because of their age and comorbidities, should not be required to go to work. That is a very important issue. We need to protect the workforce in every scenario.
PRIME MINISTER: One last one, and then we’ll call it a night.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, tonight you were asked about whether the health system could keep up with the impacts because of this virus. You said it was up to Australians. What did you mean by that?
PRIME MINISTER: I mean if they practise the social distancing, if they follow the medical advice, then that will assist the country, slow the rate of transmission of this virus through the Australian community. When we slow the rate of transmission through the Australian community, that will put less pressure on the health system. This is why I stress to you it is so important that these measures are effectively followed and where they aren’t being effectively followed, then states and territory leaders and myself will have to take further decisions.
But look, I appreciate today has been a long day and I understand and there'll be many more days where there will be issues that need to be clarified and there'll be many questions and there'll be anxieties, there'll be frustrations. And we will address them and we'll come and we'll discuss these issues with you and we will communicate as clearly as we can. The leaders will continue to meet. We are meeting every couple of days. This has never happened before. Premiers and Chief Ministers have never met on this schedule in any of your working lives in this building, I suspect. So it is quite different. It means we're going to have some challenging days and there are going to be some issues that there won't be clear answers to because of the nature of this virus. The medical uncertainties alone present many challenges. But I would ask people just to exercise calm, to just work with us, work with each other. And if we do that, then we will be maximising our opportunities to ensure all Australians get through this as in the best possible position we can be and we bounce back strongly.
Thank you for staying back this evening. Thank you.
Press Conference - Canberra, ACT
20 March 2020
PRIME MINISTER: There is a way through this. We all need to keep going. I need all of you to keep going. And we're going to keep going to keep Australia running. All Australians have a role to play as we make our way through. And there is a way through. There is a bridge over this. And if we continue to work together in the way we are, all around the country, then Australia will bounce back strongly, you will bounce back strongly, your family, your business, your community. There is a way through.
Life is continuing to change. And together we're going to have to continue to adapt to those changes to keep Australia running. Australians, we will all continue to see more information. There will be additional cases. This is something we should be continuing to expect. This is anticipated. The presence of additional cases is not something of itself that should cause alarm, because at the end of the day, you don't stop this virus, but you can defeat it by slowing it down. And that is how we save lives. Today, the National Cabinet met again on our commitment to work together to keep Australians healthy as we can, to protect them, and to ensure that we keep Australia running together. Today, we made further decisions, many of which we've had flagged from our last meeting, that are both scalable and sustainable to ensure that we can continue to implement for the many months ahead. As I've said we're looking at at least six months to be working through over the course of this year. Of course, it could be longer. No one really knows, but we're taking decisions on the basis that we need to move at least through the next six months. At today's meeting, we began with this focusing on the the economic issues and with the presentation of the Reserve Bank Governor, Dr. Lowe, who briefed Premiers and Chief Ministers and myself on the measures that were announced yesterday, as well as providing a general overview of how the Reserve Bank was seeing the economy and the impacts. And this was also done by the federal Treasury through Dr. Kennedy, who provided the same advice.
We were able to share information between states and territories on what we're each doing to provide support in our economies, the various stimulus initiatives that have already been announced and further work we were doing together to ensure that we could provide further support. Now, as you know, as I said here with the Treasurer yesterday, we are working on a package that will cushion the blow over the next six months and will provide the necessary support so people can get on that bridge to get them to the other side. That is focusing heavily on small, medium sized businesses, sole traders, and it is also providing for the income support that will be necessary for those most directly impacted by the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus. I want to particularly welcome the decision which the Treasurer will go into in more detail that was made by the banks today, which showed that they are pulling together with everyone else to ensure that we can get Australians through this. These are important decisions that will provide real and genuine relief. It's a great start and we will continue to work closely with the banks and all others to ensure we all work together to provide the most support to Australians as we can to get them through this over the next six months at least. States also agreed today, and further work will be done on this, are working to identify how relief can be provided for tenants in both commercial tenancies and residential tenancies to ensure that in hardship conditions there will be relief that will be available and ensuring the tenancy legislation is protecting those tenants over the next six months at least. That work will be done by states and territories as it is a state and territory matter, and that work will be led by Western Australia, together with New South Wales, working with all the other states and territories to bring back some model rules that can be applied in hardship cases. So understanding what the trigger might be and how in those circumstances that tenants would be able to maintain their tenancies. Now I know that will mean something for landlords, just as the decision taken today means something for banks, just like the decisions we have already taken as a Commonwealth Government means things for our balance sheets and as a people for the Commonwealth Government as it does for the states. It will also mean something for those, who sadly, might be stood down from their employment and have to look at their annual leave arrangements and sick leave arrangements. All Australians are going to be making sacrifices obviously, in the months ahead, and everyone does have that role to play and that will include landlords, at the end of the day for people who are enduring real hardship.
It was also agreed today that putting Budgets together at this time with the great uncertainty that exists is not something that any Commonwealth or State Government should be doing. As a result, we've already decided that we will not be now handing down a Budget until the first Tuesday in October, on the 6th of October. The Treasurer will be having a bit more to say about that. All other states and territories will be working to similar timetables. The idea that you can actually put together any sort of forecasts around the economy at this time is simply not sensible. And as a result, we will be putting in place the necessary measures with the support of the Parliament on supply and other continuances to ensure the proper functioning of government services and the continuation of vital programs. On Sunday, I will be meeting with the Leader of the Opposition and the leaderships of both the Government and the Opposition. I spoke to him earlier about this today and we'll be working through those practical issues around the functioning of the Parliament, both now and over the next six months. And I think the Leader of the Opposition for his support on those arrangements as we work them through.
On health, and I ask you to bear with me as we go through this, and Dr. Murphy will be joining us to answer questions, also make some statements on these matters. The rise in the number of cases means we need to continue to take action to suppress the growth in these cases and to flatten the curve, which is something more Australians are becoming more familiar with. That means we've got to work even harder to keep a healthy distance between us all. We agreed to further rules today regarding indoor non-essential gatherings. Earlier, I announced the 100 limit on non-essential indoor gatherings and I went through the list of those things that were essential. I won't do that again today. It's the same list. But what we are now moving to is an arrangement for gatherings of less than 100, is that there would be 4 square meters provided per person in an enclosed space in a room. So that's 2 meters by 2 meters. So for example, if you've got a room, you've got premise, if you've got a meeting room or something like that, that's 100 square meters then you can have 25 people in that room. Now in addition to that, you should continue to practice wherever possible the meter, meter and a half of healthy distance between each of us to ensure that we are limiting the contact and limiting the potential for the spread of the virus. Now these are quite practical rules. Out there in the community, whether it's licencing laws or fire laws or anything like this, there are already these types of arrangements. The number of people who can be in outdoors seated areas that relates to noise controls. So these I think are very practical and sensible arrangements that venues and others and commercial premises and in public premises that we can manage. It just simply means understanding how big the room is and then simply advising how many people can be in that room at any one time. And we'd also be seeking the cooperation of patrons and others to ensure that they can do the same thing. If you're looking after your behaviour, you're saving lives. You're helping other people who are more vulnerable. In many cases for the young and the healthy, it is true that the majority of cases, 8 out of 10 people only have a mild illness. But if younger people in particular, and those more generally in the community follows these rules, it won't be all life saving because you'll be fine, you'll be healthy. But by you doing the right thing, you'll be saving the life of someone who is more vulnerable. So do it for your fellow Australians. I know these rules will take some time for people to get used to, but I'd ask people to move as quickly as they can. I know it means a lot of change for a lot of venues, whether they be cafes or restaurants or clubs or any of these other places of public gathering, including in this building here. We'll be working to ensure that people know how many people can be in the various meeting rooms in this place. Next week, the Parliament will have less than 100 people in it at any one time in the Chamber. So even in essential areas, it is practical to try and observe these, but that won't always be possible for... essential gatherings - they have an even higher purpose and in some cases that will be more difficult to implement. But if we do it more broadly, then we're slowing the rate and we are saving lives. I also want to make the point that self-isolation means self-isolation, and Dr, Murphy will be speaking more about that issue. We are hearing reports of some who are saying they're in self isolation and they're out and about. Self-isolation means exactly that. For older residents also, earlier this week, we also provided the advice through the AHPPC, through the medical experts panel, that older residents should be refraining more from public contact than others in the community. That doesn't mean they need to self-isolate. It just means that they should practise greater caution than those else otherwise in the population. Now on travel, there'll be further discussion about travel issues before the school holidays. The National Cabinet is now meeting every Tuesday night and every Friday morning. That's what we've done this week and we think that's a good rhythm of meetings to ensure we can consider all the recommendations that are coming up through our various agencies. The advice is to reconsider the need for unnecessary travel. And if you're unwell, stay at home, unless seeking medical advice. Further advice has been taken to the National Cabinet next Tuesday night, and that will be available before people go on school holidays. And so we'll be considering those issues further, and I'm just flagging that for next week when we consider those issues on a broader scale.
In relation to schools and preschools, the situation has not changed. It is in the national interest to ensure that we keep schools open. I want to thank all of those schools who have been putting those arrangements in place. For those schools who have moved to distance learning for their students, I want to thank those schools who have ensured that even in those circumstances, they have arranged for students of parents who have essential responsibilities, they may be nurses or doctors, child care workers, they may be teachers themselves. They are providing for the students to be able to continue to receive lessons in that facility, and that is what we want to see happen.
On aged care, the Government, the Commonwealth Government, made a number of decisions yesterday and to further support the workforce in aged care. We are providing $444.6 million. I’ll say that again, we're providing $444.6 million of additional funding from the Commonwealth to support aged care facilities. Now, that is on top of the more than $100 million that I announced last week in relation to workforce support across the country for aged care. That includes $234.9 million for a retention bonus to ensure the continuity of the workforce for staff in both residential and home care. There's $78.3 in additional funding for residential care to support continuity of works or supply. There is $26.9 million to supplement the viability of residential aged care facilities, including in the national Torres Strait Islander aged care program, and the multi-purpose services and homeless providers. There's $92.2 million being provided in additional support for home care providers and organisations which delivered the Commonwealth home support program, including for services such as Meals on Wheels and $12.3 million to support the My Aged Care Service to respond to the needs of older Australians. National Cabinet agreed that states and territories will also issue nationally consistent public health directions on visitor restrictions for aged care facilities to complement the regulatory standards adopted by the Commonwealth. This additional funding is being focussed on those who are most vulnerable, to get them the additional support so they can get access to the essential things they need, particularly through things like Meals on Wheels and home care support and the other things older Australians will need going through this time.
Another very significant issue, which I flagged earlier in the week that we’ve been considering is in relation to remote Indigenous Australian areas. Under Biosecurity Act, we'll be using the Health Minister’s powers to ensure that we've taken action to restrict travel into remote Indigenous communities to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The way this will work is states and territories will nominate prescribed areas, that is communities in consultation with Indigenous communities as an emergency requirement as determined under BioSecurity Act that will restrict persons from entering or leaving those prescribed areas. Now there will be a number of exemptions that will apply for the purposes of obtaining medical care or medical supplies into those communities, in the event of an emergency, including the purposes of providing medical care. That would include things like medivac, of cases or others who are seriously ill from those communities, for the purposes of applying or undertaking critical services, such as medical care for mental health or domestic violence support, police and emergency services, food and medical supplies, educational and maintenance and repairs of essential services. And there are a range of other measures there which are done at the discretion also of the relevant exempting authority in those states and territories. So that will be a further important set of measures, and I particularly want to commend Minister Wyatt and Chief Minister Gunner up in the Northern Territory, working together. They've done an outstanding job and working through those issues, consulting with Indigenous leaders where they can, but you'd understand, given the urgency of this issue, that that consultation has had to be quite short circuited. Now, I thank people like Pat Turner and others who've been very helpful in working with Ministers to come to these appropriate arrangements.
As you can see, again another long list of issues discussed today. There are also issues discussed relating to prison populations, as well as coordinating action in relation to supermarket supplies, food chains and supply chains across the community. And that is everything from a consistency of tracking laws to enable deliveries at any time of the day. I appreciate all the states and territories moving on those issues, on trading hours arrangements, and again, the states being very constructive when it comes to those matters.
What's next? Where do we go next? What are we considering? Well as I said on Tuesday night, we'll be considering further decisions on travel advice prior to the school holidays and there'll be further advice on managing critical hospital resources - an enormous amount of work has been done there. There is work we’ve tasked to the medical expert panel about what we would call localised responses. Now bear with me as I just make this point. There will be, as we have already seen, parts of cities or places that will be more susceptible because of quite localised outbreaks. What we've asked for advice on is the density of those cases, how many cases in a particular area that triggers actions over and above what these general rules are that apply to those areas, and that would be staged up according to the level of that outbreak and what needs to be done wherever possible to shut that down. Now, the reason I say that is we need a consistent approach to how this would scale up in the event of outbreaks in particular parts of particular areas, because that means just because you might see under those rules something being done in Tuggeranong or in Tamarama, or anywhere else, that doesn't mean those rules need to necessarily apply in Gymea Bay or down in Hawthorne or anywhere else. Where there are more specific outbreaks, there will be more advanced measures that would need to be put in place. And we want a clear set of rules across the country to support states and territories to make those rules and that advice will be coming forward on Tuesday evening. We'll also be considering the needs of other vulnerable groups. We've been focussed on aged care and remote Indigenous populations, but the Minister for the NDIS has been doing an extraordinary amount of work with the disability community and we're expecting further work to come forward on that, as well as more general discussions about maintaining continuity of supply and essential services in areas like telecommunications and energy and so on. But I must say at this point, the reports and advice that I've been receiving on these issues is at a reasonable level. And better than that, I'd have to say. But as time goes on, we'll keep a close watch on that. So I thank you for your patience again. I'm gonna pass you over to the Treasurer to make some comments on the measures put in place by the banks and then Brendan, Dr. Murphy, will speak on the matters I've raised and they're happy to take questions and I'll get round everybody as best as possible.
THE HON JOSH FRYDENBERG MP, TREASURER: Well, thank you, Prime Minister.
Yesterday, the Reserve Bank and the Australian Government injected $105 billion of new funding into our financial system in a move that Standard & Poor's described as decisive and coordinated action. The Australian people can be reassured that our financial system remains strong and our actions have made the system even stronger.
Today, the Australian banks have stepped up to the plate and are playing their part in Team Australia. Their decision to defer payments by small businesses for six months will be a substantial boost to confidence and the spirit of millions of Australian small businesses. It's a game changer and it's part of our efforts with industry, with the states to build a bridge to the recovery, to the time after the global pandemic, the coronavirus, has hit. We have also seen a need to make some changes around regulation of lending to business. And we'll be cutting some red tape because it's critical that businesses not just have access to capital, but the speed at which that capital is delivered by the banks is as fast as possible.
Finally, the Prime Minister referred to a new date for the Budget. Forecasting for Budgets is difficult at the best of times, let alone when we're in the midst of a global pandemic. And I understand the states are making similar arrangements and it's important that we are able to deliver a Budget at a time where there is more certainty about the economic environment and that is planned for the first Tuesday in October.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, Josh. Congratulations on the work you've done with the banks. They've worked closely with you. And I appreciate your rather determined approach to ensure the outcome. And I think the banks also for stepping up. Brendan?
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: Thanks very much, Prime Minister.
So as the Prime Minister said, we've seen significant further growth in cases of coronavirus in Australia. We expected to see that. That's why we've been taking and announcing measures over the last week. And before that, it's important to note that we are still seeing a large number of imported cases from other countries. We've now stopped foreign nationals coming into the country, but there are still a lot of Australians coming home, some of them coming from countries with a high risk and outbreaks that we think are probably higher than reported and a high risk of importing the virus into the country, as we have seen in the last few days in every state, pretty much, in this country. So this issue of quarantining when you come home is serious. This is not an advisory. This is your civic duty to your fellow Australians to stay home for that entire 14 days if you've come back to Australia, no exceptions. And if you see anyone who is not abiding by that, a recent traveller, make sure they do, because we are really serious about that. Is it such a big impact on our outbreaks in the last few days? But we have also seen community outbreaks in a number of states. Again, we expected them. That's why we put in the social distancing measures first announced late last week and progressively further announced this week. They are expected to start hitting in about a week, a week after they were first announced. We always expected a bit of a delay. But as the Prime Minister's announced, we have to make sure that people are very clear about what they mean. What we mean is that you should be distancing yourself from every fellow Australian where possible. That's why we have guidelines for people in gatherings of less than 100. It's no point having a gathering of 20 people if it's in a tiny room and you're all together, you've got to practise social distancing. Keep that metre and a half away from each other. Practise good hand hygiene all the time and stay away from work or the community if you're unwell. This is also incredibly important. Whilst people who are high risk of contacts and return travellers if they get symptoms must be tested there will be cases of community contact where it's not suspected and they might just get a sniffle or a cold. The sort of thing that many of us have soldiered through and gone to work in recent years. We can't do that anymore. Nobody should be going to work or mixing with society or friends or going out if they're unwell at all. Stay at home if you're unwell, only go out when you're feeling well. Go to work when you're feeling well. Practise good hand hygiene and practise that social distancing at all times.
This is critical now, we have to slow the curve, as the Prime Minister said. We are well prepared. We've had very few deaths so far, they're tragic, and we've had very few people in intensive care. But there is there's a risk that if we don't do what every one of us has to do as our civic duty to control this spread it will grow significantly greater. Thanks, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you Brendan, remain there, if you would mind. David?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister there are, [inaudible] Australians who are very worried about their job, and have to face the prospect of being unemployed, what’s your position on whether you could increase the Newstart allowance by something like $95 which is what some people have called for? But also really to make it easier for people to get it, because there will be so many people who won’t have navigated the Centrelink system before, can it be easier for them to get it? Can it be increased? And can the mutual obligation requirements be waived?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, David, these are exactly the issues that the Expenditure Review Committee, together with the Treasurer and I, that we have been addressing in a great amount of detail as we've worked through those. And indeed, we'll be meeting again this afternoon, be putting the final touches on the package of measures that are designed to provide, to cushion the blow for exactly the blow that you're talking about.
There will be Australians over the next six months who, through no fault of their own, will find themselves with less work, with less income. And in the worst case, without a job, that is that is going to happen. And that's going to happen to quite a number of people. And it's our job to ensure that we do as much as we possibly can to cushion that blow and to put the other arrangements in place, like what has happened today with banks and others and what we’ll seek to do working through the states and territories for landlords and so on, to ensure that we can provide that support to people through these difficult next six months, through this transitional period, through this temporary period. And I can assure you, David, we are giving very close attention to the very things you're talking about, because it will be a difficult time. People who have never known themselves to be out of work will be confronted in some cases with that prospect. And we want to make sure that we can help them as best as we can through what will be a difficult period for them and their family.
Chris?
JOURNALIST: PM there’s the Ruby Princess off the coast of New South Wales at the moment. It had confirmed cases of coronavirus, it let some people off in Sydney. This is the same liner that had the Diamond Princess experience before. So a couple of questions. What are the plans? What do you do with the Ruby Princess? Is there anything that we can do about this company? Has it behaved in an irrational way in continuing to run cruises? And of course, we, like you, are hearing stories from Australians who are now around the world demanding that the Australian government get them home. What's your message to those?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, first of all, I mean, we will apply the same rules in relation to this vessel that have been applied to people getting off planes and things like this. There's the 14 day isolation. There are a small number of cases, my advice is, that were identified on that ship, four I understand. Three individuals and one crew, where there are Australians on that ship were disembarking well they will be going into self isolation, which means self isolation. Just do it. Would be my message on that, to support what the Chief Medical Officer is saying and those who are internationals will face different rules.
So we have got the international ban now coming into place around the country in relation to cruise vessels, and that will be enforced. In relation to those Australians who are in other places, as I said earlier this week, Qantas will continue to be maintaining flights out of a number of key hubs - and that's Los Angeles, and London, and Hong Kong I understand, and Auckland and a few other places around the world. And we thank them for continuing to do that. And we are encouraging Australians to make their way home. Air New Zealand I understand, will continue to operate and the arrangement that Prime Minister Ardern and I came to yesterday means that Australians can transit through Auckland from other places and across to Australia, and likewise Kiwis can make their way home through Australia on the same basis. So we will just continue to respond to each challenge as it comes is my response.
We have a good framework for dealing with it, a clear set of rules and we'll seek to apply them. There'll be some exceptional circumstances and cases here and there, but for those Australians who are finding themselves isolated in parts of the world, well the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, I'm particularly aware of the issue that was raised with me yesterday around Lima, where there are Australians who are in places which have already been cut off and you can't get a flight up to L.A.X. or something like that, then the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Foreign Minister are bringing forward some matters for consideration by the National Security Committee.
We'll just go around, so I’ll go to Phil and then I’ll come back here and then over to you Mark, we’ll get around to everybody.
JOURNALIST: You’re sort of flagged further restrictions if you like on travel pending the school holidays. Should people who have flights booked, domestic flights booked now start seeking refunds in anticipation of what you might announce next week? And just sorry, if I may. Secondly, on the potential lockdown of some neighbourhoods and so forth that you flagged, would that be confining people to their homes, closing businesses, that sort of thing?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, let me deal with the first one. If there were further advice for me to provide on travel today based on the National Cabinet, I would have certainly done that. We are saying that people should reconsider any unnecessary travel. That's what, that is the clear advice. And that comes also with the backing of the medical experts panel but we will consider further advice on that and we know that is necessary in, to do so in time for the school holidays. And we agreed today that we need to do a bit more work on that and we'll be getting that back on Tuesday.
I should stress a couple of things around travel, as I did earlier in the week, as Dr. Murphy has said, the risk of being on a plane is very low. It is very low. The issue is not being on the plane, the issue is moving to different parts of the country and potentially large volumes of populations moving around the country. Now, states and territories are, as you've seen, the, Tasmania has already made their decision about how that will be treated. Other states may take those decisions for particular parts of their states, and that is entirely appropriate that they may consider doing that. And that's why as we work through some of those issues, we'll have further advice after the meeting on Tuesday night.
JOURNALIST: Just on schools, a year 8 student in Adelaide got the virus from a teacher. How can you leave schools open when this sort of transmission is occurring? And what's your concern- what's your response to concerns from teachers, particularly, 40 per cent of which are over 50, that their well-being maybe isn't being considered?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I might let the Chief Medical Officer respond to that question. But in terms of the decision of Premiers, Chief Ministers and myself in taking that advice, that outcome that you mentioned with a single transference, that would not be unexpected when you've got the number of cases increasing. But it still remains the case that the facts are that the incidence of cases amongst younger people is much lower than for the rest of the population. And it is still very much the case that 30 per cent of our health workforce would be compromised if schools were to be shut around the country. Now, we will continue to take advice and we'll continue to monitor the situation closely. But the very clear decision of premiers, chief ministers and myself is that schools should remain open. Did you want to add to that, Brendan?
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: So I think it's really important to recognise that, as we said before, we think the risks to children with this virus is very low. Only 2.4 per cent of all the cases in China in Hubei Province were under 19. And there have been very, very, very few significant cases. Obviously, we do have some concerns that children may have a role in transmission, but most children who get the virus seem to have got it from adults, as you've seen in this case. We think that keeping children at home when there's relatively low community spread is probably disproportionate, given that they probably won't stay at home anyway. They may be cared for by elderly grandparents. There may be circumstances where outbreaks in an area are such that we do need to close schools for a period of time. Our view at the moment that this long haul strategy for the next six months, it is in the best interests of everybody to keep schools open and we think that risk is proportionate.
PRIME MINISTER: I think Mark was next.
JOURNALIST: Dr. Murphy, can I just ask you, and I have a second question, a few cheeky one. But Dr Murphy, what is the latest advice on whether once you've recovered from COVID-19 that you can contract it again and my second question is you talk about indigenous communities being particularly susceptible. What arrangements, if any, are being made in Alice Springs where you do have a particular arrangement with the Americans where they can, Americans can fly in without quarantine or customs to service Pine Gap? What are we doing there? Are we expecting more of the Americans, given that the United States has been a big cause of infection around the world?
PRIME MINISTER: Let me deal with the second question - no, is the short answer to that question. The rules we are applying, we are applying across the board. But in terms of going into more detail about that facility, you wouldn’t expect me to do that. Brendan?
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: So in terms of re-infection, we can't be absolutely sure, but we think it's very unlikely. There have been a couple of cases of people who have supposedly tested negative and then tested positive, been reported around the world, including one in Japan. But they are very isolated cases. We think it's unlikely that a virus like this that isn't mutating a lot, you would be susceptible to re-infection. But we don't know for sure. Our assumption is that once people have had the infection, that it's unlikely they will get it again.
JOURNALIST: What is sort of a tenants relief are you looking at? Would it be rent deferrals? Would it only apply to people who lose their jobs or the businesses are in distress? And when you want the states to have a decision on this, so it can be enacted?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm not going to go into too much detail there because the states are only just commencing the work. New South Wales has been doing already quite a bit of work on this and so I’m going to allow them appropriately to take the lead on that and to define, I think, a lot of the issues you're sitting out there, Mark, and in what circumstances, what would be the hardship triggers? Would this relate to waivers or deferrals? Would it relate to deductions or there are a range of different issues, remembering also that those who become eligible, I should note, this sort of I think goes to a point I think one of you were asking, I think it was you, David, that in those circumstances you would also trigger if you were to go on a Newstart payment or this jobseeker payment, that you also trigger eligibility for a range of other things like the family tax benefit for rental assistance and things like this. So it's not just the Newstart payment, as important as that would be, it is also a range of other payments that you become eligible for. Even if under the Newstart taper rates, your eligibility for the actual Newstart payment is relatively low. You still trigger all the other eligibility to a range of other payments, which can be quite helpful. Michelle, Michelle and then I will keep going.
JOURNALIST: There's been speculation running that the government might be willing to take over, to nationalise large companies if the crisis reaches that point, like Virgin for example. What's your comment on that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we have no plans along those lines, Michelle. I mean, what we are seeking to do and in a number of cases where we've provided great assistance to private companies to support important supply production in Australia, it is essential. And the Minister for Industry, Karen Andrews, has just been doing an outstanding job and in progressing a number of those issues. Those broader questions, Michelle, at this stage, there are no plans from the government. I wouldn't want that to be misinterpreted. I mean, we are in unprecedented times, but we have no plans to be involved in those sort of nationalisation programs. That is a response that is not justified by what we're seeing or anticipating at present. Kath? Make way, clear some healthy space.
JOURNALIST: Will workers be able to access their superannuation savings as an income support measure during this crisis?
PRIME MINISTER: Again, we'll be making further announcements on the next round of measures to cushion the blow for those who are directly impacted, whether they be small businesses or individuals soon. We continue to consider the composition of that package and when we're in a position to make those announcements, we will. Sorry, over here, we haven’t had questions over here.
JOURNALIST: Dr. Murphy, do you mind if I ask a slightly personal question, you've been working on this coronavirus since January. Are you finding the pace of the job exhausting?
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: It is very intense, but it's such an important job to provide advice to our governments collectively. And all of the state's chief health officers, all of the experts we have have been very consistent and unanimous in their advice. So it's a cause that's worth pursuing, but it is pretty intense.
PRIME MINISTER: We’re working hard to keep up with him, that's what we're doing. But also, I want to say this. I want to thank all of those members of the medical expert panel and Dr. Murphy and Dr. Kelly. There's been quite a lot of commentary about them, but by all means, have a crack at politicians. We're used to it, we've got broad shoulders. These guys have got a very important job to do and I would ask you to support them very strongly. We're relying on them so you can rely on the decisions we're making. The medical experts are giving us incredible advice, very timely. They're working very hard and they are carrying great responsibilities. They deserve our great respect and our support.
JOURNALIST: On the charity sector, so the charities and non-profit sector employs around 10 per cent of Australian workers at the moment. They're estimating that their donations and income streams are going to go down by about a third, which translates to potential job losses of around 300,000 people. Is your government going to be doing anything to support them, given that at the moment they're saying that they can't access business grants?
PRIME MINISTER: I understand. A job is a job and we’re going to support people in jobs and if people find themselves out of work, regardless of where they've been working, then obviously we're seeking to support them. But we're taking a very broad view of the economy. I mean, these are not ordinary times. That means the ordinary rules and the ordinary measures that would apply in these circumstances will need to be changed to reflect that. And so that is very much in our thinking here.
JOURNALIST: Just to get a sense of the scale in terms of the indoor bans, this courtyard would be less than 100 metres long and it’s certainly less than 100 metres wide. Are you saying if we put a roof over it, there are too many people in here at the moment?
PRIME MINISTER: Not right now, I wouldn't have thought, on quick maths, but this is an outdoor gathering, so 500 people could technically be here. But let me but let me say this. These are rules that we're putting in place, I think, to support people making good decisions and enforce appropriate healthy distancing, social distancing to slow the rate. But you have a role to play, too, as does everybody in how they congregate together and ensuring that appropriate distance is being maintained between people. Sure, governments have got to put rules in place and we want to see that enforcement in place. But equally, every Australian has a role to play to slow this virus. Don't wait to see a sign. Don't wait for any other specific instruction, do the right thing, do the common sense thing and support each other and you will save lives. Over here.
JOURNALIST: On the testing criteria, is there going to be any discussion around relaxing them? It's still a set of people overseas….
PROFESSOR BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: So we are looking actively at relaxing the testing criteria. We are now testing all aged care workers because aged care is such a crucial area. We will be testing healthcare workers with influenza like illnesses, all people presenting to hospital with pneumonia, in addition to the usual criteria of return travellers and contacts. And we will look at all, as this pandemic develops, we will be continually reviewing the testing criteria.
PRIME MINISTER: I’m going to leave it there because we have some other meetings to get to this afternoon. The key thing we’re saying today is we’re going to keep Australia running. There is a way through this and we need everybody to keep going forward. We need every single Australian to do what they can, whether they're a parent, whether they're a teacher, whether a nurse, whether a member of parliament, whether a journalist, whatever your job is or whatever you're doing. I need you to keep doing it as much as you can, because if we keep doing it, if we keep holding together, then we will continue to make our way through this. We will get to the other side and on the other side, Australia will be stronger. Thank you all very much.
Press Conference - Canberra, ACT
19 March 2020
PRIME MINISTER: Good afternoon, everyone. I'm pleased to be joined by the Treasurer.
Our plan is to ensure that over the next six months, or as long as it then takes, that we can effectively build a bridge to ensure that Australians, Australian businesses, those that are impacted, we can bring them across that bridge and get them to the other side. Which is where on that side the economy is rebounding, Australians health has been rebounding and Australian life can go back to what it was. As a result, there are a range of measures that we continue to put in place. Measures that address both the health issues, matters in our aged care, as I addressed earlier this week. And importantly, there are measures that we have to put in place in relation to our economy and the Treasurer will speak to some of those. As you know, the Reserve Bank has made some important decisions about this this afternoon. The Reserve Bank Governor and the Deputy Governor met with myself and the Treasurer yesterday afternoon. And this notion of the bridge is what we discussed. It was described in these ways by the Reserve Bank Governor, and he's absolutely right. Because there is a period through which we will have to move. That will be difficult. And the best way to get there is the measures that we're putting in place on a sustainable and staged basis. So that we can do them and scale them up as necessary to ensure we bring as many people as possible with us and to ensure that we minimise the impact on their lives. But as I said, there will be impacts and we'll be seeking also to cushion those impacts along that journey. The Treasurer and I will be making further announcements about that in the next few days, and we've had another important day as we've worked through some of those more specific things that the Government will be able to do that will cushion the impact for as many as we possibly can as a result of the economic impacts of what we're seeing with the coronavirus. But let me just announce a number of other measures that we’ll be moving on and then I'll hand over to the Treasurer to deal with the issues that we've already issued a statement on regarding the office of the Australian Office of Financial Management.
After further consultation with the National Security Committee this afternoon, tonight we will be resolving to move to a position where a travel ban will be placed on all non-residents, not Australian citizens, coming to Australia. And that will be in place from 9:00 pm tomorrow evening. We have already seen a very significant reduction in the travel to Australia by non-citizens and residents. It's about a third of what it normally would be at this time of the year. And we've seen reductions, even in the last few days when we put in place the bans which required people to self isolate for 14 days. And so as a result of that decision, we've seen that the traffic reduce quite significantly. And we believe it is essential now to take that further step to ensure that we now no longer will be allowing anyone unless they're a citizen or a resident or a direct family member in those cases, as is applied to all the other travel bans we've put in place previously. Now, this is a measure that I've been consulting also with the New Zealand Prime Minister on. We've been seeking to align our arrangements across the Tasman and I appreciate the consultation that I've had with Prime Minister Ardern over these many months when it deals with these issues.
This arrangement will enable, over the next 24 hours or so, for people to make other arrangements if they were intending to come to Australia. We won't have people then and the vast majority of cases who will find themselves on planes en route here, unless they are going along a rather protracted route, and that means they will be able to make other arrangements. Now for Australians, of course, they will be able to return and they will be subject, as they already are, to 14 day isolation upon arrival back in Australia. Now, the reason for this decision is consistent with the decisions we've already made on this issue, and that is we now have around 80 percent of the cases we have in Australia, that either are a result of someone who has contracted the virus overseas or someone who has had a direct contact with someone who has returned from overseas. So the overwhelming proportion of cases in Australia have been imported and the measures we've put in place has obviously had an impact on that. And this is a further measure now that will ensure that that can be further enhanced. I want to thank Qantas also who are offering to work with us to ensure that they maintain flights from particular parts of the world that can assist Australians to return to Australia. And we'll be working closely with them and those Australians who are overseas. We've been encouraging them to return to Australia. Those that are in more remote parts of the world that could prove more challenging. But for those who are in other places, then it is our intention to ensure that we can maintain flights to enable them to come home as soon as possible.
Now, there are other measures that were announced today by the Deputy Chief Medical Officer to reduce panic purchasing of medicines at community pharmacies. Specifically, what is being provided there is that pharmacists enforce new limits on dispensing and sales of prescription and over-the-counter medicines. I won't go through those measures again. You've heard the Deputy Chief Medical Officer outlined them to you earlier today.
I also want to say to Australians that there are no issues with Australia's food supply. What there is an issue with is the behaviour of Australians at supermarkets. That is what is causing the stress and the strain. The food supply in Australia, from the meetings that we continue to hold, is something that I think we can feel quite confident about. And if Australians can respond to that in a responsible way, then that won't lead to the sort of shortages that they've seen on shelves. And it will mean that all Australians will be able to get access to the things they need when they need it. And I would ask Australians for their cooperation on those issues.
Now, finally, the other matter I'd respond to before throwing to Josh, and enabling others to ask questions, is the actions taken by the Reserve Bank today, I'd simply say we welcome. They are highly aligned, completely synchronised with the actions that we're taking as a Government and that increasingly state and territory governments are also acting to address the issues that we're finding in our economy. Their actions of over $90 billion to support credit within the financial sector in Australia, topped off by the additional $15 billion from the Commonwealth means that this is a very significant injection to support Australians, to support our economy, to support business, to support jobs, as we all go across on this bridge together to the other side, where on the other side we know that the Australian economy will be stronger, Australians will be healthier, and Australian life can return to what we knew it to be. Josh.
THE HON. JOSH FRYDENBERG MP, TREASURER: Thank you, Prime Minister. Well, extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. And today, the Australian Government, together with the Reserve Bank, have injected more than $100 billion into Australia's financial system. It reflects our collective determination to do what it takes to support Australian jobs and Australian businesses. And acting in concert with the prudential regulator APRA, we are not only supporting Australian jobs and businesses, but we are doing what we can to lower the cost of credit and to increase the flow of credit.
Now today the Reserve Bank made four significant announcements. The first was to announce a reduction in the cash rate to a quarter of a percent. The second was to target the yield on three-year Treasury bonds to also a quarter of a percent. That is below what they have been trading at. The third is the $90 billion dollar term funding facility for the banking system, which will focus on lending to small and medium sized businesses across the economy. What the Reserve Bank has endeavoured to do here is not only to increase the flow of credit, but to incentivise the banks to even provide more money to the small and medium-sized businesses across the country. The hairdressers, the mechanics and all the other small businesses that form the backbone of the Australian economy. And finally, they are increasing the interest paid on exchange settlements. Now all of these measures, as I said, are designed to do two things. To decrease the cost of credit and to increase its flow. As the Prime Minister referred to today, the Government has also acted by allocating up to $15 billion to invest in residential mortgage backed securities as together with other asset backed securities. This action, again, in concert with the Reserve Bank of Australia, is totally complementary to what they are doing because it ensures that some of the non-bank lenders are getting support to provide extra finance to the SME sector. This is a very volatile time in global equity, debt and credit markets, but Australians can be reassured that our financial system remains well capitalised and strong. It was referred to today by the Reserve Bank Governor in his statement. The Australian financial system remains strong, but the measures announced by the Morrison Government today and the Reserve Bank and the Prudential Regulator will even enhance this strength further.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, Josh.
JOURNALIST: Just to explain to the viewers, listeners, in easy terms to understand, if you’re say, Betty, a hairdresser, and people, your business dries up. No-one's coming, because they're scared of human-to-human contact or whatever happens in weeks ahead. Betty’s got no customers. How does this, how can she borrow money to pay the employees? How in practice would it work?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, let me make one point and then Josh I'm sure, will make further points. Now and already, what we decided over just over a week ago was through the measures that would enable small businesses to get access to up to $25,000 in grants that will support their small business cash flow. When in the case you're talking about, that business would certainly have eligibility when it comes to those payments and that always can assist. That's not going to cover all the bills. We understand that. But it is going to go some way to provide some assistance, because that payment is actually linked to how many people they employ, ultimately because it's done through the BAS. What today's announcements do, is actually making sure that the banks themselves are in a position to get access to money at a lower cost, which means they're going to be in a better position and stronger position to be supporting small and medium sized businesses in particular, around the country. What they've said today to the banks is we're going to let you get money at a much lower cost, and you know, if you go and help and support small business, you'll be able to get more money at a lower cost. When the banks can get it at a lower cost, then obviously that's good for those who are in a position to seek it. Now, not every business is going to be in that situation. And we will have more to say about the broader measures that we want to put in place to cushion the blow and to support small business and to support individuals directly impacted by the coronavirus’ economic impacts. Josh?
TREASURER: Thanks, Prime Minister. Well, the interests of small business and the banks are aligned. The banks want their customers to be there on the other side of this and the small businesses want to survive and get through this and they want to continue to provide jobs to the millions of Australians that they employ. So the banks are working with their small business customers to ensure that that money is available. What today's announcement makes clear is more money will now be available to the banks to lend. And the best illustration of the significance of today's announcement is that the Commonwealth Bank has announced a reduction of a full percentage point in their small business lending rates, a full percentage point. Now, the bank, the Reserve Bank, has only reduced the cash rate, while significant, by a quarter of a percentage point. Commonwealth Bank has gone four times bigger than that today with small business lending, and that's a direct result out of the announcements today.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister can you ensure all COVID-19 pathology requests from GP’s are being processed and tested and that everyone who needs a test is getting one?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we've had some, we've had 85,000 tests that have been conducted, and I think that's a good indication of the answer to your question, because people are getting tested. Those presenting for tests who need tests are getting tested. And the Health Minister has been working with industry and others to ensure that the supplies continue to be made available for those who need tests. But I would say this to people, have a test where you need to have a test. And the rules for that, have been well set out, I think in recent times. And these testing resources are not ubiquitous, nor are they designed to be. They’re there for those who need them most. And so we would continue to encourage both the medical profession and others to use those testing kits where they are most needed.
Phil. I’m going to Phil, thanks for your question, I’m going to Phil.
JOURNALIST: There's been speculation in the banking sector about the prospect of the government even possibly underwriting a proportion of existing small business loans, a bit like the Bank of England, is that something you were entertaining or that, have you drawn a line through that?
TREASURER: We are talking to the banks about a number of measures to continue to support their activity. No decisions have been taken. But what our focus is on, is supporting those small and medium-sized businesses, get through this health crisis, which is having a significant economic impact. So we continue to look at a range of measures. And as the Prime Minister has said, our second package will be substantially different to the first package. In fact, since that time, we have seen the economic impact globally as well as here in Australia become much more significant than was evident even just a week, or two weeks ago. And so our second package is designed to support, in the words of the Prime Minister, to cushion, you know, the challenges being faced by many Australians, to support them through this. And that includes backing small business.
JOURNALIST: I appreciate this is a work in progress and you will have more to say, but for the Qantas workers today they're probably worried about their incomes in future. So are you working on income support and Treasurer, obviously, are you talking to the banks about not foreclosing on people's mortgages?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the answer to both of those questions is yes. That's exactly the sort of thing we're working on. That's what cushioning the blow is all about. Now, my understanding of the arrangements that Qantas have gone into, when I was able to speak to Alan Joyce, there is a period still for many of these employees, about four weeks at the very least, in which their existing entitlements and things of that nature will mean that they'll be in a position, at least for that short period of time. For others, that can be up to three months. One of the things that Qantas, I understand is doing, is seeking to keep people on and connected to the company. Because they want to ensure that on the other side of this, that when the business returns and the flight's return, then they can quickly activate their workforce on the other side and that's very important. What we're seeing here, as I understand, as it's been explained to me, is the stand down of quite a number of staff simply for the obvious reason that Qantas planes aren’t flying anywhere. And what this means is for a period of time, they won't be drawing a salary from Qantas, for those who have exhausted their leave under their leave arrangements.
So what that has meant for the government is when we say we want to cushion the blow, we're looking at those issues around income support. We're looking at the issues around people's obligations and working really constructively, whether it's with the banks or whether it's with businesses or others, to ensure that we're putting them in a stronger position to look after people and where they're not in a position to be able to do that, then the government is stepping up where they can, to try and cushion that that impact as much as we responsibly can. Josh?
TREASURER: Well, thanks, PM. Chris, talking to the banks, day and night, about what can be done to bridge the circumstances that many Australians find them in, themselves in to that point of recovery, and that includes for the banks to be very generous towards their customers at this difficult time, because it's in the banks interests, it's in the economy's interest. It's in Australia's interests that the bank stand by their small business customers.
JOURNALIST: New Zealand's also announced it's closing its border to non-citizens. What does this mean for a million Kiwis living in Australia? And did you discuss this with Jacinda Ardern before you made this move today?
PRIME MINISTER: The New Zealand arrangement, in the same way as it has in the past, doesn't apply to Australians living in New Zealand as New Zealand residents and equally for New Zealanders who live in Australia as Australian residents. They are the same rules that have applied to all of those travel bans whether they were imposed for China or Iran or South Korea or Italy. These are the same rules that apply in both countries and we have worked today to align what we're doing. And I appreciate that openness. Sorry, just one for everyone if we can?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister yesterday, you were as blunt as you could be about hoarding in supermarkets and you've said, you’ve shared your thoughts on this again today. I mean, this morning here in Canberra, we saw a huge queue of people waiting for Costco to open. Is it that people are just not heeding your message? Is this because of the lack of trust in democracy we've seen over the last couple of years? What more can you actually do?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I think it's because people are anxious and we all need to work hard together to reduce people's anxieties. And I think we all need to sort of encourage all Australians to act responsibly. There are not supply issues that relate to these items and nor, as I said yesterday, is there a need to hoard them. That is just simply not necessary. And we will just each and every day, calmly go about the business of assuring people about these supplies. And what I'm very pleased about, though. And while I did have a few stern words to say - and my daughter said to me yesterday, it sounded like that's what you sometimes say to us, Dad. And it was a bit like that, I gotta say.
But what I am pleased about, some of you may have heard me make remarks on this in morning radio today. I'm also seeing amazing acts of generosity and kindness. And I'm hearing those stories and I would encourage media to, it's not a criticism, I just encourage you to tell more of those stories. You know, neighbours looking after elderly neighbours and making sure they've got things that they need, or if they need meals cooked for them, and that's being provided that wonderful story about the note in the lift; if you need help, call this number, I live on this level - I think it was something like that. These are the wonderful stories of Australians.
Yeah there's some Australians who, frankly, aren't giving Australia a very good name at the moment with their behaviour. I understand they're anxious. I understand all that. But for the next six months at least, we need to work through this together. So we do need to moderate our behaviour. We do need to understand that things have changed. Things are different. Life is not like it was before. But the phones still work and they will, the power still goes on, the buses still run, the hospitals are open, the shops are open, the trucks are getting to the shops. All of that is there. What we're dealing with here is a virus, and the virus will slow the country down. It will mean people will have to self isolate. It will mean we’ll have to behave differently. And that will happen for quite a period of time. Six months, I believe, based on the advice I have, at least. So we can do it. I have no doubt we can do it. We just have to apply ourselves to it and encourage each other to do the right thing. Kath?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister it's obvious from what the government's been saying for a couple of days and what, certainly what you’re saying today, that income support is on the table for the next tranche of economic support. I deduce from what you, the answer you gave me yesterday that it'll be delivered within existing programs, so for current beneficiaries, people who are currently on Newstart before this, before this crisis hit. Will, whatever the new arrangements are, also apply to current beneficiaries or only to a cohort of recipients who have lost their jobs temporarily as a consequence of this economic shock?
PRIME MINISTER: When we've completed the important work we're doing at the moment, and we're working through very carefully the design of these measures, what I know is that for those Australians who have been on what has been known as Newstart, going to the job seeker payment is that one of the things that has always been available previously in the economy with the very strong growth we've had in employment, is that the task of the government is to get people off the job seeker payment, off the Newstart payment and get them into a job where they are much better off. Now, we understand that certainly over the next six months, that is a very different looking economy. And when the facts change, when the circumstances change, you need to adjust your packages and the way you're delivering support in the community to reflect that. So we'll have a lot more to say about these things in the not too distant future. But just like last week, we're working hard to get the detail right. So when we say something is going to be done, it will be done and it can be done and it won't be attendant with lots of other different new forms and new processes and things that can go wrong. And we can ensure that the support and the cushioning impact of this can get to people in the best and the most effective way that is possible. But Josh did you want to add to that?
TREASURER: Well, obviously, the details of our package are being finalized right now. But as I said earlier, the situation has changed and it's got much more difficult across the economy since even two weeks ago. But our focus has always been on getting to the other side and getting Australians to the other side.
PRIME MINISTER: Last one here.
JOURNALIST: PM are you aware of the situation of Australians stuck in Peru and some other countries where there are local lockdowns?
PRIME MINISTER: I have become aware of that issue. And there will be Australians in many places around the world who will find themselves finding a lot harder to get back to Australia than otherwise. The coronavirus has been a matter of public record now for several months, and many Australians have taken wise decisions to get back home sooner. In a number of occasions, Australia has had to put in place flights that have brought people back obviously from Wuhan but as well as from the Diamond Princess up in in Japan. We're working with Qantas to ensure that we continue to get a flow of flights and keep flights open for a period of time so Australians can make their way back. But those who find themselves in an, a more remote location than we're obviously going to have to work closely with them through our consular offices, like our very professional consular officials do on each and every day. So there are no specific responses on that matter just now. It was only brought to my attention very recently, but what our DFAT, wonderful DFAT team, has been doing, they will continue to do and they'll seek to assist Australians wherever they practically can.
But there are obviously limitations to what can be done. But we would hope they were safe and, but they are finding themselves around the world in circumstances that all people around the world are finding themselves. And I think people hopefully will be able to provide assistance in those, in those settings. But we're going to leave it at that because the Reserve Bank Governor, I understand, is making a further statement. I think he's made an outstanding point on us all getting to this bridge from here, where we are right now to the other side. Where on that side the economy comes back, people's health comes back, and Australia bounces back stronger than ever.
Thank you all very much.
Press Conference - Canberra, ACT
18 March 2020
PRIME MINISTER: Good morning everyone. Life is changing in Australia, as it is changing all around the world. Life is going to continue to change as we deal with the global coronavirus. This is a once in a hundred year type event, we haven't seen this sort of thing in Australia since the end of the First World War.
But together we are, of course, up to this challenge. All Australians, governments, health workers, teachers, nurses, journalists, broadcasters, mums, dads, kids, grandparents, aged care workers. We're all up to this. We're all able to deal with this, but we just need to continue to keep our heads, focusing on the right information, making good decisions, helping and supporting each other each and every day to make the changes that are very necessary as we deal with this very real situation.
We are going to keep Australia running. We are going to keep Australia functioning. It won't look like it normally does but it is very important that we continue to put in place measures that are scalable and sustainable. There is no two-week answer to what we're confronting. There is no short-term quick fix to how this is dealt with in Australia. The idea that you can just turn everything off for two weeks and then just turn it all back on again and it all goes away, that is not the evidence. That is not the facts. That is not the information and it's not our way through this. And it's not what you see in the measures that we've already announced and the measures that we will continue to announce.
They need to be scalable and they need to be sustainable. As I said on the weekend, we are looking at a situation of at least six months for how we deal with this. It could be much longer than that. It could be shorter. That's unlikely, given the way we're seeing events unfold. So what we're doing you've got to be able to keep doing and you've got to be able to sustain that. And that has to be something that is achievable for all Australians, so we can keep our country running in the best possible way in the interest of all Australians.
We also need to continue to work together and I want to thank again in particular the State and Territory Premiers and Chief Ministers - I'll come to their decisions in a moment. But the cooperation, the collaboration, the support, the candidness and the way people are working together in a true spirit of national unity is exactly - exactly - what you would hope to be seeing from all of your national and state and territory leaders. And I thank them very much for their support and their leadership as we work through these difficult decisions and as we seek to relay them to the Australian people in the most simple way that we possibly can.
We are taking action across a broad range of issues. Obviously, the first of those is the health response, which is comprehensive, and every resource that is necessary to support that health resource at a Commonwealth, State and Territory level is being provided and I think Australians can be very confident about that and we're continuing to coordinate the deployment of that resource. That includes into aged care facilities and other areas where health services are being provided.
But we're also dealing very seriously with the very significant economic impacts. And as the measures that are put in place, as the protections are put in place to protect people's health, they obviously have, in some cases, quite severe economic implications as Australians sadly are already experiencing, particularly in areas that are in the most hit sectors, in the travel, the tourism sector, the aviation sector, places like this, the external sector which has been feeling it first because they were the first to impact from the travel bans and the shut down of global movements. But that is spreading more broadly across the economy. In essential and critical services is another area where the national coordinating mechanism, what's that? That is the Department of Home Affairs working with the states and territories, working across everything from supply chains into supermarkets, to ensure the continued support of telecommunications and essential services and energy and fuel supplies and all of these issues. My ministers have been working on those issues for days, working with the sectors to ensure we're on top of all of those issues and the reports there, so far, are encouraging.
And thirdly, in workforce management. This is critical. Wherever possible, we need to keep Australians working. Working on the essential services and the economy that Australians need to get through this. And this is a critical - a critical - issue in ensuring Australia can keep functioning and importantly keep delivering the important services that are necessary, which at the end of the day mean that we can support the most vulnerable in our community who are at most risk from the effects of the coronavirus.
Now, as you've heard me say many times and you've heard Dr. Murphy say on many occasions, for most people, those of us who are blessed with good health and are in good condition, then this is a mild condition. For the more vulnerable, for the elderly, for those who have other health challenges, this is a far more serious condition for them. And so it is important that we who are healthy, those of us who will contract this and experience a mild illness, that we do what we can to limit the spread to ensure that those who are more vulnerable are not affected. If we slow the spread then we do save lives, and that is very much the strategy the governments of Australia are following as we move through this crisis.
Now, the National Security Committee met yesterday, before the National Cabinet. They made a number of decisions, one of those has been enacted this morning by the Governor-General, and that is that a human biosecurity emergency was declared under the Biosecurity Act by the Governor-General, and that regards the recognition of the threat, the coronavirus, and the need for the Federal Government to take actions under the Health Minister and myself as Prime Minister in relation to limiting that spread. Now, I don't want people to be alarmed about this. This is what these measures in the Biosecurity Act are for. You have already seen, as I said on Sunday, that states and territories have been enacting the similar powers that they have under their various public health legislation to put similar arrangements in place. All of those arrangements are now in place in the states and territories and we have rounded that out this morning by ensuring that those measures are now in place and approved by the Governor-General.
Secondly, we are upgrading the travel ban on Australians to level four for the entire world. That is the first time that has ever happened in Australia's history. The travel advice to every Australian is do not travel abroad. Do not go overseas. That is a very clear instruction. For those of you who are thinking of going overseas in the school holidays, don't. Don't go overseas. The biggest risk we've had and the biggest incidence of cases which we've had, which Dr. Murphy can go into, has been from Australians returning from overseas. From many countries that you wouldn't have expected that to be a source. And so it is very important that Australians do not travel abroad at this time. And that is an indefinite ban, but as you are seeing from other countries around the world, they're putting similar restrictions on entry, just as Australia has on others coming into Australia, and you would expect that to be in place now and that's the stage we've reached.
Thirdly, yesterday, and you would have seen this announced last night, we put in place waivers of a series of aviation-related charges and they'll be waived out over the next six months from the 1st of April with a rebate on those that have been paid back from the 1st of February. This will provide much-needed support for our aviation sector who has been the hardest hit from these arrangements, as you've seen from the various announcements from our major airlines, but don't forget the smaller regional airlines as well. They're also hit by this. So things like regional security fees in regional airports on those regional airlines, they are being waived as well. They don't necessarily change the world for those airlines, but they do provide some support at a very difficult time for those airlines who are dealing with issues of staffing in their organisations and how they're supporting those staff at this time.
We have also made a decision yesterday to lift the restriction on work constraints on student nurses who are in Australia. That's some 20,000 international student nurses who are in Australia, have been in Australia for some time. We're not importing the nurses into Australia, that would obviously be against the travel advice and bans that already have been in place for some time. But those 20,000 student nurses that we have in Australia, they're going to be available to help and support the health effort right across the country, as directed by our health officials and they can be engaged for that purpose.
Now, the National Cabinet met last night, as I said, til quite late in the evening, it was a late night here and for them around the country. They received advice from the AHPPC and they've made the following decisions and there will be further decisions to come at the next meeting of the National Cabinet, which is on Friday. The decisions they have made is to put a ban on gatherings, for non-essential gatherings, a ban on non-essential gatherings, of persons of 100 or greater. So a ban on non-essential gatherings of persons 100 and greater in indoor areas. So in outdoor areas, it's 500. Indoor areas, it's 100. And that is effective now, as of today, and those arrangements in terms of the legal enforcement of those measures are being put in place by the states and territories.
Now, fair question is, well, what is an essential gathering? So as to define what is a non-essential gathering. Well, there is a baseline that has been established amongst the National Cabinet, which reflected in a lot of the legislation that was put in in relation to the outdoor ban. And that's an airport, public transportation, which includes public transportation facilities such as stations, platform, stops, trains, trams, buses, etc. These are essential. Medical and health service facilities, emergency service facilities, disability or aged care facilities - I’ll be coming to aged care and the constraints we're putting on aged care shortly. Correctional facilities, youth justice centres or other places of custody, courts or tribunals, Parliaments, food markets, supermarket, grocery store, retail store, shopping centre that is necessary for the normal business of those premises, office buildings, factories, construction sites, mining sites necessary for their normal operation.
Now, particularly when we're talking about workplaces, I want to commend the employers of Australia, whether they're in the offices of our capital cities or elsewhere, who are already putting in place quite sensible rostering arrangements in their workplaces, as indeed public service employers are doing as well, and I'm quite sure that amongst the media you're doing similar things, which is sensible. That does two things. It ensures social distancing practices are being followed in the workplace, but equally it is changing the strain and providing for greater social distancing on essential travel, particularly in public transport and things of that nature. This also relates to schools, universities, education facilities and child care facilities, hotels and motels and other accommodation facilities, which can include things like mining camps and other places where people are transiting. So, in the Bourke Street Mall, Federation Square, Martin Place, those types of places. They are essential places, where there are essential gatherings. Non-essential is everything else. States and territories have the ability to add to those lists as they see fit based on the advice, and we're obviously seeking to coordinate that.
I apologise for the length that I've got to go through here, but there's a lot of things that were decided and it's important that we convey that information. Further measures on gatherings indoor of less than 100 people are being worked on by the states and territories in terms of their practical implication. I want to commend the Premiers and Chief Ministers for this. We together want to be very sure that when we say there will be a limitation, then we need to be able to explain it to ensure that the rules are very clear for people to follow. We can put in place a rule for 100 indoors. It's fairly straightforward. We can also put in place a rule for 500 people outdoors, that can be followed. But the other issue that we need to follow is the principle of social distancing, whatever gathering you're in. As you can see, Dr. Murphy and I are practicing social distancing right now. I'd suggest the rest of you might want to think about that as well. It's important that we try and observe those social distancing practices, which is a metre and a half apart, wherever that is practicable to ensure that we can contain and limit the spread of the virus. So those principles are very important.
On travel, what we have agreed is that the advice is that air travel, domestic air travel, is low risk. We have, as Dr. Murphy will be able to I'm sure tell you, we have not seen a lot of evidence of people contracting this virus on aircraft. It's when they've arrived, or where they brought it from. And so the issue is not people, necessarily, being on planes as a great risk. The issue is people moving around the country. Now, to that end, states and territories working together with their health advisors, there are parts of this country that it would not be wise for people to visit. Just as it is important for people not to be visiting aged care facilities in large numbers, it is also important that they’re not visiting remote indigenous communities or remote parts of the country. And there are other parts of the country that are similarly sensitive. Now, we are working on a list of those areas that can be declared with the states and territories, and that will be driven by the states and territories because they have the best information on what the sensitivities are. So it's not about going on a plane or not going on a plane. It's about where you are going to. And there'll be further advice and there'll be further information on that that will be provided in the days ahead as those issues are finalised. But in places like the Northern Territory, Minister Gunner, the Chief Minister, there is already taking action on those issues appropriately and I commend him for doing that.
In relation to schools. Schools… so on public transport, I should say, that remains essential travel but social distancing should be sought to be practiced wherever possible, and that also means that the states are already putting in place proper hygiene processes in terms of cleaning of public transport. If you're getting in a cab or in an Uber, sit in the backseat, don't sit in the front seat. These are just sensible things that people should be following and Dr. Murphy can talk more to those or if you have any further questions on that.
The health advice is that schools should remain open. That is the health advice. Interestingly, this is also what Singapore has done. Singapore has been one of the more successful countries. In Singapore, the schools are open. In Singapore, they've been quite effective in managing and limiting the transmission of this virus in that country. The health advice here, supported by all the Premiers, all the Chief Ministers and my Government is that schools should remain open.
Now, there are a number of reasons for this, and Dr. Murphy will particularly go into this. The first one is that the virus operates very differently amongst younger people. It has a different manifestation amongst younger people and that presents a very different health challenge to the broader population. And so in terms of the health and welfare of our children, many of us here are parents and obviously we are concerned about the health of our kids. And the health advice that I'm happy to follow for my kids, for Jenny and my kids, is the same health advice I am asking all other parents around the country to follow. We all love our kids and there's nothing we wouldn't do for them. And I'm telling you that, as a father, I'm happy for my kids to go to school. There's only one reason your kids shouldn't be going to school and that is if they are unwell. And as parents you are in the best position to know if your children are unwell. Don't leave it to the teacher to work that out when they arrive, or the school administrator, or whoever is on drop off. Make sure if your child is unwell, that you are taking action to keep your child out of school. That's your responsibility. Schools will obviously try and operate to their best ability to limit children who may come who are unwell, but let's not forget our responsibility as parents in this process. And Brendan can say more about that.
So, that's the health issue. There are also, please know this, whatever we do, we've got to do for at least six months. Six months. So that means the disruption that would occur from the closure of schools around this country, make no mistake, would be severe. What do I mean by severe? Tens of thousands of jobs could be lost, if not more. The impact on the availability of health workers? A 30 per cent impact on the availability of health workers is our advice. That will put people's lives at risk. So let's keep our heads as parents when it comes to this. Let's do the right thing by the country and by each other and follow the proper advice. There is a national public interest here in keeping schools open, and our advice is that is not being done at the detriment of the health of any child. If that was different then obviously, and if that became different, then Premiers and Chief Ministers and I would certainly come to a different view. But right now that is the advice and we need to ensure that when we're putting these scalable and sustainable measures in place that we are doing things that improve the situation, not worsen the situation and lessen our capacity to deal with this.
Now, aged care. Some very sensible recommendations, and I know these will be difficult. Having been through this experience in my own family recently, I know this could be very difficult for families. The following visitors and staff, including visiting workers, should not be permitted, will not be permitted to enter an aged care facility:
Obviously, those who’ve returned from overseas in the last 14 days.
Those have been in contact with a confirmed case of COVID-19 in the last 14 days.
Those with fever or symptoms or acute respiratory infection symptoms.
Those who have not been vaccinated against influenza after the first of May.
The facility must also implement the following measures for restricting visits and visitors to reduce the risk of transmission to residents:
Limiting visits to a short duration.
Limiting visits to a maximum of two visitors at one time per day. These may be immediate social supports, family members, close friends or professional service or advocacy workers.
Visits should be conducted in a residents room, outdoors or in a specific area designated by the facility rather than communal areas where the risk of transmission to other residents is greater.
There should be no large group visits or gatherings, including social activities or entertainment, to be permitted at this time.
No school groups of any size should be allowed to visit aged care facilities.
Visitors should also be encouraged, as all Australians are, to practice social distancing where possible, including maintaining the distance of one and a half metres.
Children aged 16 years or less should be visiting only by exception, as they generally, it says they, kids won’t necessarily follow the hygiene measures all the time like adults will.
Any parent will understand that, but also children can be asymptomatic and so they may be no knowledge of whether the child has been exposed to the virus or has the virus or not. And so that is just a sensible thing, it's about protecting the residents at the end of the day.
Now, in cases of end of life, I know that people will want to see their elderly parents or relatives or others. I totally understand that. And aged care facilities will have the discretion to put in very strict arrangements to enable people to visit their loved ones if that's the situation that that resident finds themselves in. Those rules will have to be done on a facility by facility basis and obviously it needs to conform with the general principles around social distancing and the other measures that I've outlined. But in those cases we all know how distressing that can be and so the aged care facilities will be asked to put in place sensible arrangements to facilitate those types of visits on a compassionate basis.
ANZAC Day. It was a busy night, as you can see. ANZAC Day, well, this has largely already been determined by RSLs around the country, but ANZAC Day events and ceremonies should be cancelled due to the high proportion of older Australians who attend such events. But there will be a televised national event here in Canberra, at the War Memorial. States and territories may also do one without public gatherings as well, which can also be available for broadcast, and that will enable people to be able to join those services at least remotely on what is one of the most important days, if not the most important day of the year, for Australians as we honour those. And it will be quite a solemn day because the last time, as I said, we're in a situation like this, it's after our diggers returned from World War One.
Now, on bulk purchasing of supplies. Stop hoarding. I can't be more blunt about it. Stop it. It's not sensible, it's not helpful and I've got to say it's been one of the most disappointing things I've seen in Australian behaviour in response to this crisis. That is not who we are as a people. It is not necessary. It is not something that people should be doing. What it does is it is distracting attention and efforts that need to be going into other measures to be focusing on how we maintain supply chains into these shopping centres. There is no reason for people to be hoarding supplies in fear of a lockdown or anything like this. As I've said, we're putting in place scalable and sustainable measures. I'll read you specifically what the AHPPC has said to ensure that there is absolutely no confusion. “The AHPPC advises against the bulk purchase of foods, medicines and other goods. We discourage the panic purchase of food and other supplies.”
I am seeking Australia's common sense cooperation with these very clear advisory positions. Stop doing it. It's ridiculous. It's un-Australian, and it must stop. And I would ask people to do the right thing by each other in getting a handle on these sorts of practices.
Also, do not abuse staff. We're all in this together. People are doing their jobs. They're doing their best. Whether they're at a testing clinic this morning, whether they're in a shopping center, whether they're at a bank, whether they're at a train station, everybody is doing their best. So, let's just support each other in the work that they are doing. And I encourage you please, if you see someone who's doing that, just call it out and ask them to just refrain from doing that. That's the right thing to do.
Now, moving on to the other matters that I had to raise today, then I’ll throw to Brendan. The Government is considering, quite extensively, further economic measures that will deal with the strength and the strengthening of our safety net and cushioning the even greater impact of the coronavirus on the Australian economy, particularly on small businesses and individuals. Last week, we focused very much on the stimulus-type activity. Encouraging investment, encouraging demand into the economy, providing support to small business. The measures that we are focusing on now are of a different nature. They are focused more on the cushioning impact of the safety net for individuals and on small businesses. The Reserve Bank has been involved in our discussions on those issues. They’ll obviously make those decisions independently as is appropriate, but we are putting in place further measures and we will announce them once they've been properly designed, and they can be properly implemented. We are not delaying, we are moving with great haste on this. But we're doing it carefully to ensure we get the design of those measures right so they can be implemented as quickly as possible and provide that support.
On the health side of things, 80,000 tests have now been completed, and we've been able to source additional supplies of tests, testing kits, which is very welcome and further supplies are being secured, and that includes having domestic solutions to the supply issues that relates to the testing equipment. The same is true for personal protective equipment, and that does include and I want to thank those in the Defence Forces, they have also been very helpful with supply chains and logistics and other measures that we're working on now. As we found during the bushfires, they are an amazing group of people who are able to come up with some incredibly innovative solutions and they have been worked on particularly when it comes to supply chain measures around personal protective equipment. All of that means though that while, yes, we may have been able to successfully secure additional supplies, when it comes to medical supplies, when it comes to personal protective equipment, when it comes to testing, it's important to follow the rules around these. These are critical resources, they shouldn't be used where it's unnecessary to use them, and I would encourage people to continue to follow those practices.
Finally, you'll be pleased to know, there's a lot of misinformation out there. There's a lot of ridiculous stuff circulating on text messages and the internet about lockdowns and all of this and sadly, there's even been cases of wilful fraud and misrepresentation and fraudulent preparation of documents, even recordings, alleging to represent Cabinet meetings and things of this nature. Don't believe it, it's rubbish. Go to health.gov.au. Go to the relevant state health websites to get your information on what's happening. Avoid all that nonsense that you're seeing on social media. There are a million experts, it seems, but the experts that the Government is relying on, one of the most important is standing next to me here and now, all of the state Premiers and Chief Ministers and myself are working with those experts, whether it's in supply chains, whether it's in workforce management, whether it's in health, whether it's in power or telecommunications, they're the people we're getting our information from. We’ll continue to update you as regularly as is possible with clear decisions on what we're doing, but on the misinformation - just ignore it. If you hear it from me, if you hear it from a Premier, if you hear it from Dr. Murphy, if you hear it from those official sources and websites, that's the information you should follow. If you’re hearing it from someone just saying whatever pops into their head or whatever their opinion is on a particular topic - opinions are interesting but everybody has them. Facts are important. Information is what we need to make proper decisions on and you need to make property decisions on, and that's why we'll give you the information as best we can and as regularly as we can. I thank you for your patience and I'll now pass over to Dr. Murphy.
DR. BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: Thanks, Prime Minister. So there are now about 454 cases of COVID-19 in Australia and we do, we have increasing numbers each day. But it is important to remember that the majority of cases in Australia, majority of new cases, are still imported cases or direct contacts of imported cases. And our focus for those is still the same. We are getting on top of them, identifying them, isolating them, contact tracing, that remains a very, very important part of our response across every state and territory.
But we know that there is community transmission. It is low level at the moment and we know that the way to control community transmission is social distancing. The AHPPC meant for two days this week, and like the Prime Minister said, we have a unanimity of opinion across this country. Every state and territory Chief Health Officer, plus our invited experts, plus our advisory technical committees are united on our approach.
Social distancing is really important to prevent delay transmission in the community of this virus over coming months. But be clear, a short term 2-4 week shutdown of society is not recommended by any of our experts. It does not achieve anything. We have to be in this for the long haul. As the Prime Minister said, it could be six months, more, that we have to practice these new ways of interacting. So therefore our measures have to be sustainable. There is no way that we can lock down society, make everyone stay home, and then in a month’s time undo that because the virus will just flare up again without any real long-term benefit. So we have to have sustainable measures, but they have to be serious measures. They have to be effective and that's why we've put in a range of measures that the Prime Minister has outlined with more information to come later.
But the first thing I would say is that it is every individual Australian’s responsibility to practice good social distancing. Keep away from each other where possible, practice really good hand hygiene, wash your hands with soap and water at every opportunity you get, if you've been on public transport, if you’ve been touching things that in a common area, if before and after going to the toilet, if you've been having a meal. Social distancing and hand hygiene is really, really important. But we also have to do things at a societal level, and that's why we've put in those recommendations that governments have accepted to restrict non-essential gatherings. We know that the actual numbers of infected people in our society is very low now, but if you get a lot of people together in close contact that's the way you can spread the virus. So we need to avoid those large gatherings and limit them, but we also have to keep society functioning. So we are very focused on these measures being sustainable and allowing us to keep going as a nation whilst this virus is with us.
I'd like to specifically address schools. In China, only 2.4 per cent of the cases reported in Hubei province were in people under 19. Children have very, very few instances of clinical disease and even if they do, of even more severe disease. This is quite different to influenza and other respiratory viruses which have quite severe disease sometimes in children. We know that if, even in influenza, school closures are a controversial issue. We believe very strongly that it's in the best interest of our children and the nation at this time to keep schools open. There may be occasions when there's a big outbreak in a community that some local school closures might be necessary, but at this time across the community our view is that schools should stay open.
Now, there obviously are measures that we can take to reduce potential transmission in schools. It's interesting in China that, again, most of the children who are infected were reported as having picked up the virus from adults in their household. But we don't know whether children may be a vector of asymptomatic or transmission with low levels of symptoms. So we need to make sure that our schools are made as safe as possible. We need to make sure that no sick child goes to school. We need to make sure that no sick teacher goes to school. We need to try and avoid large assemblies and other gatherings at schools. We know also that it's not really possible for children in a classroom to keep 1.5 metres apart from each other and we know that we've got to be practical about that. But schools should practice very good hand hygiene too. Very hard to do in the school, but we can trust our teachers to do it. Children should be washing their hands regularly, particularly when they're eating, and particularly when they're touching common areas. So it'll be hard for schools, but it would be much, much, much harder for society if our schools were closed. We want our children to be looked after in schools, if they were at home, we know that they probably wouldn't stay at home, they would probably congregate anyway and if transmission were occurring it would happen, or they may be looked after by vulnerable elderly relatives who are the people we are worried about.
As the Prime Minister has said, most people with this virus have a mild disease. The people we worried most about our elderly. That's why we've taken these measures in relation to restricting visits to aged care. But there’s no sense in completely locking down aged care. Again, things you could do for a month and then stop would have no long-term benefit. We've got to protect our elderly for the long haul, for six months, and you cannot completely deny access to an elderly person in a residential facility to their closest next of kin, but we've got to make sure that those interactions are safe, very limited, and again with good social distancing.
So my final message is every citizen now has to think about every interaction they have with another person during the day. No more handshaking, no more hugging, no more - except in your family, you can do that in your family, because you're already close to your family - no more scant attention to hand hygiene, wash your hands all the time, use hand sanitiser, and just practice sensible practices. And also, as the Prime Minister has said, we are in a situation now where there are mainly important cases, small numbers, there is no need for us to be in a state of heightened anxiety, but we do need to be prepared, and we all need to practice this social distancing. Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you.
JOURNALIST: Could we get a bit of clarity for religious groups, churches, synagogues, mosques, on how these rules pertain to them? And also, what's your view of the footy, should it go ahead with empty stadiums, both the AFL and NRL?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, first of all, the rule is quite clear. Internal gatherings of no more than a hundred people. And so churches, mosques, synagogues, or others, should comply with that. Before the end of this week, we'll be considering further the rules that are established amongst smaller gatherings. There are very practical issues that we have to work through there, and the states are working on that right now. We would also suggest, as I'm sure Dr. Murphy would agree, that you would practice the sort of appropriate social distancing in those types of arrangements, and that means they're having separation and distance between people who are seated, except for amongst family groups, that might be in any of these places.
I know church, I know in my own experience, my church is putting in place practices. I mean, some are moving to online type services and things like that, and that's a sensible practical measure I think that people can put in place. When it comes to the, whether it's the AFL, the NRL or any others, that's a decision for them to make in accordance to the rules that have been established - no gatherings of more than 500, no internal gatherings of 100 or more, and there'll be other measures that will follow. So they need to make their own decisions about how they manage that. We'll focus on our responsibilities as Prime Ministers, Chief Ministers and Premiers, and the Commissioners of the NRL and the AFL can make their decisions based on what they believe is best for their game. But they must comply, obviously, which they will, with all the health rules and guidelines that are being established.
Sorry, can we just everyone, just… yep.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, is it necessary for the states to enforce new laws to stop hoarding?
PRIME MINISTER: To..?
JOURNALIST: Hoarding. To stop hoarding.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, look we'll continue to... What I want to welcome is the practical responses that have been put in place by the supermarkets themselves. I think that's sensible. I think putting in the arrangements for elderly to be able to visit shopping centers and things like that and supermarkets. That's just good common sense and I would encourage them to continue to do those sorts of things. I would at first appeal to Australians to do the right thing. Obviously, there are measures that could be moved towards if we had to do that, but to be honest, I'd be very disappointed if we had to do something like that. I think Australians are better than that.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you’ve said that this is going to go for about six months, maybe more, can you rule out there's not going to be any widespread school closure in that time?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, no, we can't do that. Right now schools should remain open. That is the clear and crystal health advice from the AHPPC and that is the clear and unified position of all the states and territories, Premiers, Chief Ministers and myself. These situations will be monitored on a regular basis. The AHPPC meets every day. Premiers and Chief Ministers at this week will have met on three occasions. My Ministers are meeting every day on these types of issues. I'll be having further discussions today with independent schools, Catholic schools, and others, about these arrangements and talking them through with them. School holidays are coming up soon, and then schools will reopen after school holidays, that was the clear position of the Premiers and Chief Ministers and so this is an issue we’ll constantly continue to monitor but when it comes to managing this, it is about being scalable and sustainable. Any measure you put in place, you must be prepared to put it in place for at least six months - it could be longer, and that means you've got to do it and make sure that you continue to to have a functioning country. Phil.
JOURNALIST: Travelling overseas, is it likely or possible you may tighten the restrictions on people entering the country, either citizens abroad or non-citizens beyond the 14 day isolation period?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, that is possible, and I frankly though, practically it'll largely do that on its own, because the whole world is doing basically the same thing we are. So the great risk now and the actions that we have taken on our borders to-date have been very effective, and that has put us in the advantaged position we are in right now. But this challenge now, as it inevitably was going to when you reach global pandemic phases, remember we called a global pandemic, and it was particularly Dr. Murphy you did more than two weeks out from the WHO. So we started on that basis. Now the challenge now is moving from the border to the community, and managing how this is done in the community. So things about the 500 limit, the 100 limit, and other rules that would come from that. That’s about managing this in the community, and that's where a lot of the focus is and that's why the National Cabinet has become so important, because up until the other week, well issues of borders and so on is the clear province and domain of the Federal Government, but once you start moving to managing issues in the community, it needs much greater coordination between the states and territories. And I can't underline to you enough how important the Premiers and Chief Ministers feel it is to have a consistent application of what they're doing across all their jurisdictions. They're very committed to this and they're very committed to supporting each other in this, and I think that is to be commended. Yeah, Andrew. And I’ll come over -
JOURNALIST: You talked before about hardening up defences of remote Indigenous communities. Pat Turner, she’s on the Indigenous Advisory Board of COVID-19, she's been saying that the system chronic shortages of PPE equipment, swabs and test equipment, and there's a lack of advice on combating the disease. Perhaps this one's for you Dr. Murphy, but what can you, what assurances can you give that suppliers will get that? And I also want to flag that when you've exhausted questions about, on COVID-19, I would like to ask about 4 Corners and the SAS video, but we can do that -
PRIME MINISTER: Well I might come back to that on another occasion Andrew, to be honest, I mean, I think there's a lot of questions on COVID-19, and I have a Cabinet meeting to go to. So I'm happy to deal with those issues outside the press conference.
DR. MURPHY: So on PPE, we know that internationally there are shortages. We have a very aggressive procurement program, the Minister for Health has been driving that. We are getting significant new stocks of PPE and we will make it available as necessary. Some people are anxious that they don't have reserve stocks, but we're obviously have to keep control of our stocks, and we have an active program with an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander response led out of the Health Department by one of our senior doctors, and there's a lot of work that's been happening. And Pat Turner and her team have been involved with that. So we know that there's anxiety about PPE, but we are getting lots of PPE in, and we are even looking at the Prime Minister's direction, at local manufacturing. So we need to be prepared, but we cannot waste what we've got at the moment.
PRIME MINISTER: Sam.
JOURNALIST: Obviously, have symptoms or not have symptoms and be contagious as well.
PRIME MINISTER: Sorry?
JOURNALIST: Adults can obviously be asymptomatic as well, and we've seen in the last 24 hours confirmation that a Liberal Party donor who attended a Liberal Party fundraiser last Tuesday night, with you and Peter Dutton, before Peter Dutton was exhibiting symptoms, has now contracted the illness. Now of course, he doesn't know exactly how that occurred, but the only known contact he had, who had the coronavirus was Mr. Dutton. Do you think now out of an abundance of caution that it is worth yourself being tested, Cabinet being tested, just to ensure that you know, there is nobody who is actually spreading that within the community, having potentially contracted it from Peter Dutton?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the Cabinet is following the same rules as every other Australian. I mean, last night I had a medical checkup and my health is being checked on a regular basis, by one of the doctors here. And that involves the normal things that you’d expect and if I'm advised by my doctor to get a test then I will. What I'm saying is, is that there can't be one rule for me, and another rule for the rest of the country. Our testing equipment is an important resource and I'll follow the rules like everybody else. I've already put in place arrangements with the Cabinet. We're meeting now virtually, and we're not gathering the Cabinet all together in one room. The contact tracing on that event has already been undertaken and so where that has led to the need for tests to be undertaken where people are exhibiting symptoms and have had contact, then people will undertake those tests. There have been a number of Cabinet Members who have had tests, not in relation to that incident specifically, but where they have satisfied the case definition, which has been set out by the Chief Medical Officer, and I can assure you in all of these cases where there has been a question arise as to whether that should be done, we’ve consulted either the Chief Medical Officer or the Deputy Chief Medical Officer, and I'll just keep taking their advice on what's the most important thing to do, and I’d encourage all Australians to do the same thing. But I was pleased that I got a good tick last night from the doc, and I appreciate that, but I intend to see him fairly regularly in the weeks ahead, because I intend to stay as fit and active as possible.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, how do you characterise the number of cases in Australia? And how do you characterize the future trajectory? Are you seeing what you expected?
DR. MURPHY: There is no clear expectation. I think at the moment, our, as I said, we are seeing a growth in case numbers, and they are obviously concerning, but as I also said, they are still largely fueled by important cases. We expect imported cases, as international travel declines to drop significantly. The challenge is to reduce those community transmission that we're seeing, in small pockets at the moment, and that's what the social distancing is about. So obviously every increase in cases concerns us. We would be more concerned if the increases were all community transmission, but even with imported cases, that presents opportunities for further communities transmission and we are concerned in getting on top of it. But there's no right, there's no one prediction that you can make.
PRIME MINISTER: Let’s go to the back here and then over here, and then over to Kath. We’ll try and get through as many questions as possible.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you mentioned six months. We're already seeing industries struggle. We're seeing parents anxious, people lose their jobs, people fighting in supermarkets, mental health charities are saying they're seeing a spike in services as a direct result of this virus.
PRIME MINISTER: Sure.
JOURNALIST: How as the Federal Government, can you as your primary job, keep Australians calm?
PRIME MINISTER: This is what we're doing here right now. Making good decisions based on good advice and communicating them as clearly as we possibly can, and to keep focusing on the issues we need to make decisions on every day. We are meeting every day in either in full Cabinet or groups of Cabinet Ministers and Ministers, and working with industry groups, working with all the bodies that you're talking about, identifying the issues that are starting to present. This thing that is moving very, very quickly. Engaging with international leaders, and we've had quite a bit of progress in the last couple of days, particularly on moving towards a meeting of the G20 Finance Ministers meeting and central bankers. The Reserve Bank is considering measures over the course of the next sort of 24-48 hours. We're staying on this. We got ahead, but you've got to work very hard to stay ahead. We’re learning from every bit of advice we can, we can, we can get, and we're keeping people together. And again, the National Cabinet is so important in a coordinated national response to these events. I hope, and it is certainly all of our hopes, as members of that National Cabinet, that Australians would take confidence from that. That all issues of politics, and doesn't matter, what party you're in in that National Cabinet - there are five Labor members and there are four Liberals - and we are working together as one united team to do with the issues that are, that we have been sworn in to deal with. You know, when you go down to the Governor General, or you go to your State Governor and you take an oath to say you're going to do the right thing by the people of your state or the people of your nation, that's what we're doing, and you're seeing that exhibited in the way that this National Cabinet working together.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, on communication, you've acknowledged that false information is gaining significant momentum online. Do you actually have, and would you implement some kind of proactive coordinated communications strategy to target and basically refute some of those claims, or are you still relying on people just finding their way through the health.gov.au that, which by most accounts, is fairly un-user friendly?
PRIME MINISTER: Well that's your view. What we will continue to do is upgrade our communications campaign and ensure that we're getting the best possible information to people out, and that campaign is being upgraded on a daily basis in terms of how it can respond to some of the issues. It's disappointing that we would have to try and refute and correct a lot of the information that is out there, and I just simply appeal to media to ensure that they're going to the official sources of advice, and not reporting Twitter as if it's news or anything like that, because it's not. It's not real. It’s gossip and nonsense in most cases, and it's important that we report the facts on these things. So everyone's got a role to play, I think to help ensure that people are getting the right information. And we will seek to counter those things directly as I've done here today. But whether it's in the part of the social media campaign that's been run by the Government or indeed the direct communications campaigns we're doing, it's all designed to get that information out to people.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, will you now consider direct payments to all Australians following Donald Trump's moves in the US overnight? Or do you still prefer a much more targeted approach to social payments?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we have a far more wider and more effective social safety net than most countries in the world. I think it's one of the I think the great boasts of Australia, it’s not just our medical system, our health system, and the way that operates, equally our social security system, it is a well-developed one. And it's both targeted in nature, but also has a broad safety net benefit to the population, and we'll be announcing further measures on these matters once they're finalised. Kath.
JOURNALIST: Just sticking with the stimulus, and I’ve got a question for Dr. Murphy as well. But you said, I think, that before that round two would be announced once it's properly designed. Does that indicate that you're looking for round two? That there might be new programs that round one you delivered all within existing programs, tax transfers etc. Are you looking at new programs for round two? And also Dr. Murphy if I may, you said that your group the AHPPC, is that right? Sorry. Met for two days this week and there was a unanimity of views. Did anybody within your group express a view at any point that the crowd limit of 100 should have applied before today? As in a couple of days ago. Should have been applied a couple of days ago?
PRIME MINISTER: Let me deal with your question first. The same principles that applied to the policies we announced last week on the economic stimulus measures are applying to the measures that we're now working on. And there's a very practical reason for that. They work. If you deliver them through existing systems and mechanisms, they get to people quicker. And so those design principles are the same ones we’ll be applying for those arrangements. The task is different to the one that the Treasurer and I spoke of last week. The task of this next set of measures is really about trying to cushion the impact. I can't understate the significance of the gear change that occurred last weekend. The gear change, when we were moving to far more widespread social distancing and bands on gatherings and all of this, this has a much more profound impact on the economy. And there are many things that will be hard to predict going forward, but as we adjust and upgrade and scale our response, then that will also require adjustment to other responses that we're making. And I think in the area of the economic impact, what we're seeing here is we haven't seen this for a very, very long time. Certainly in living memory and that's for some who have lived a very long life. As I said, we haven't seen a pandemic on this scale globally of something of this nature going back to a 100 years ago, and so it was a very different world back then, and today that puts us in quite unprecedented response territory. But I'll allow Dr. Murphy to deal with the other matter.
DR. MURPHY: So, last Friday, AHPPC was strongly of the view that it was time to really up the ante on social distancing, and we have been since then talking about both internal and external gatherings. At the time on Friday, our recommendation to the National Cabinet was to implement the mass gatherings for 500 people externally and we were instructed to come back and look at internal gatherings in this meeting over the next two days, and that was what we did.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, can you guarantee at this point that the Budget will be held on May 12?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, we, that that is the current plan Shane, but if that changes then we'll make a decision on that. These are things that, I mean all of these issues are up for review right now. Right now, the key economic package that I'm focusing on with the Treasurer, and the Finance Ministers, and the other members of the ERC, we spent quite a lot of time together, some, most of us by telepresence, on working through those issues. And so that is that is the package that we're most focused on at the moment. And when it comes to the Budget, there are no plans to change that at the moment, but if that changes then we'll let people know.
JOURNALIST: Doctors have said that, have asked the Premier in WA to consider closing off WA, trying to limit the spread in our state, you know it’s very far away from everywhere else obviously. Does that have merit, in your opinion? And Mr. Morrison I understand this may have been brought up by Mark McGowan yesterday.
PRIME MINISTER: Sorry?
JOURNALIST: To close off WA, if that’s something that would be considered?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, first of all, that's not something the Western Australian Government has supported, and that's not a measure that is being recommended by the AHPPC, or any medical officers. The only issue of closing off particular areas, is a sensitive area. So you know places where essentially there's remote Indigenous communities and this already happening in parts of the Northern Territory. And that if anything in some of those communities, it's about keeping teachers and others in those communities, and ensuring that people don't leave and come back. So, you know, the issues that have to be addressed here are principally around health, and if there's a health reason that you'd want to isolate particular areas of the country, well the powers exist for that to happen now. And as I flagged in my opening statement, the Premiers and Chief Ministers are working together with the Commonwealth to identify what areas of the country need to be subject to such an exclusion zone. As I said, it's not being on the plane that's the issue, it's where you might be coming from and going to. Now take that as a general rule, next week the Parliament will resume. There'll be 60 less members in the House of Representatives and there'll be 22 less or thereabouts in the Senate. That means there will be less than 100 people in the main Chamber during the course of next week's sittings. And those pairs, which is basically 30 each, for both the Government and the Opposition - I thank the Opposition for their agreement to these arrangements, and I spoke to Anthony Albanese yesterday morning - that will mean that we'll be able to deal with the essential legislation, but those particularly relates to this event and both the economic and health measures that need to be passed. We will have a Question Time. The Opposition have asked for that. Happy to have a Question Time on the days that the Parliament is sitting, but the intention is, is to get through that legislation as quickly as possible. But the people we are saying not to come to Parliament next week, are particularly those for some of those more remote areas like the Northern Territory, North Queensland, parts of a remote, South Australia or Western Australia. We're encouraging those members, particularly those who may be more elderly members of the House or the Senate also not attend, and obviously those who are in self isolation or things like that. Brendan.
DR. MURPHY: It is impractical to fully isolate a large part of the country. This virus will spread, but as the Prime Minister said it is really important to isolate vulnerable people. So our focus is on trying to protect age care facilities, remote communities, anywhere where there are vulnerable people getting this virus coming in. To protect a large part of the community, isolation might delay entry of the virus or community transmission, but it will not prevent it.
PRIME MINISTER: Okay. Thank you very much.
Press Conference - Canberra, ACT
15 March 2020
PRIME MINISTER: Good afternoon everyone, today was an historic gathering and I welcome Dr Kelly as well to be with us here today, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer.
An historic gathering of the first ever National Cabinet, bringing together the Premiers and Chief Ministers of our States and Territories concurrently, together with myself as a part of the national response, the coordinated national response to the spread of the coronavirus here in Australia. The many things that we have to do to continue to contain the spread of the virus here in Australia, it goes across both federal and state governments. And so ensuring that we're working incredibly closely together, that we are highly aligned both in the information we're receiving, it’s understanding the actions that we need to take is incredibly important as we implement the measures that will keep Australians safe into the future, and ensure that we come through this together.
It's always important to be extremely clear and up front with Australians, and that's certainly what we've sought to do as a government. I commend Dr Kelly and Dr Murphy, who have been doing an outstanding job in providing regular briefings to the Australian people about the issues in relation to the coronavirus and indeed their state and territory colleagues as well. They've been providing that information. As you know, the National Campaign, Public Information Campaign is out in newspapers and televisions and things today and social media has already been in place now for several days and we initiated. Several weeks ago, I announced that we were putting in place and activating the Australian health sector emergency response plan for the novel coronavirus COVID-19. We've commenced that plan with the initial phase and today the National Security Committee met before the National Cabinet, and we've moved now to the next phase, which is the target action stage. And there are major decisions that were taken today that reflect changing where we are heading. The facts and the science, the medical advice will continue to drive and support the decisions that we are making as a National Cabinet, as indeed as a federal Cabinet at the Commonwealth level. But the truth is that while many people will contract this virus that it’s clear, just as people get the flu each year, it is a more severe condition than the flu, but for the vast majority, as I said last week, for the majority, around 8 in 10 is our advice, it will be a mild illness and it will pass. However, for older Australians and those that are more vulnerable, particularly those in remote communities and those with pre-existing health conditions, it is a far more serious virus, and that is our concern. Our aim in all of this is to protect the most vulnerable. The most at risk. And I want to take you through again the decisions we're taking today and we have been taking.
We know that the virus cannot be absolutely stopped. Of course not. No one can do that. But we can slow the spread and we anticipate that will be what our task will be over about the next six months. No one can know for certain how long this will run. It could be shorter than that. It could be longer than that. But the measures that we're putting in place as a government is making those types of assumptions. But that is being updated on a daily basis.
Now what I have here, this is, there are a range of different scenarios that are pulled together by modellers around the country and none of them is a prediction, all of them just simply show the possible spread of the virus and what that could mean ultimately, when we work through things like ICU beds and ED presentations, and GP’s and so on. If you don't take measures that seek to contain the spread, and mitigate the spread, then you have scenarios that look like this. You have scenarios where you get a very severe effect on the spread of the virus. You may move through it much more quickly, but what happens is the virus reaches more people, and that puts maximum pressure on your health system. And that obviously has far more drastic implications for the most vulnerable in our community.
Now the extent of that peak depends on the rate of transmission you might see in some countries where there's a much higher rate of transmission by any one person then the peak would be higher. And the impact will be more severe, but in other scenarios like this, it is still significant, but it can be less in terms of how many people it reaches. The job of our plan, the job of working together is what we call a flattening the peak, and to get this result as opposed to that result, what we're looking to do is manage the flow so we suppress the demand on our health systems and ensure that we can continue to provide the care that Australians need.
In this sort of scenario, which is what we're working to achieve, this means with some changes to the way that ICU departments are managed and things of that nature. The advice we've had to date and the excellent work that's being done by the chief medical officer working with the states and territories, means that that can be dealt with. That doesn't mean there won't be busy times in our hospitals. It doesn't mean there won't be stresses on the system and there won't be days where patience will be required, and there won't be frustrations. It's not what it means. What it means is, if we continue to manage the spread of how the virus impacts in Australia, then we will be able to ensure that we can continue to provide the services and support, particularly to the most vulnerable Australians who are most at risk from the Coronavirus. So slowing the spread, you free up the beds. That's what happens when you get this right and we've seen other countries going down this path. Australia has also been going down this path and the way we've been managing everything from travel bans to the way we've had quarantine arrangements in place and self-isolation, these arrangements have been ensuring that the number of cases we’ve had in Australia up until now, and they are growing now, they have been kept well below what we've been seeing in many other countries.
We have a first class health system here in Australia, but no hospital system on its own can deal with this at its most extreme position, whether that's in the United Kingdom or anywhere else. And last night, I had the opportunity to talk to Prime Minister Boris Johnson and we were talking through these very types of scenarios and and it was important for us to be swapping notes on those issues as I was with Prime inister Arden yesterday, as we discussed the arrangements that she put in place yesterday in New Zealand. And indeed, we've been considering ourselves.
We're going to have to get used to some more changes in the way we live our lives over the next six months or so, there will be further intrusions. There will be further restrictions on people's movement and their behaviour. But the point is, you do it in a timely way. You do it in a managed way. You do it in a careful way. Just because something is not necessary today doesn't mean it won’t be necessary in 3 weeks from now or 3 months from now, just as something we're announcing today wasn't necessary 2 months ago.
Today, as the rate of community transmission starts to pick up, then new measures are put in place. And what you simply do as I’m explaining, as you put these new measures in, as you see these curves unfolding, then you can flatten the curve as you move forward. Some places, schools, workplaces, others will make various decisions along the way. And they can work off the best advice that they have available. Australians are smart people, they're commonsense people. Occasionally, in recent weeks and months, we've seen some examples, not of that behaviour, and that's regrettable. But for the vast majority of Australians, they’re commonsense people and we have to rely on their judgment as well. The government can't manage every hour of your life and tell you what to do every hour of the day, but we can't ask you to listen to the information and make your best judgments as you care for yourself and your family and those around you. We're relying on that Australian spirit of looking after each other, as we get through the difficult months that are ahead.
Today, I now want to move to the decisions that we have taken that were consistent with the plan that I’ve outlined to you. First of all, the National Security Committee met before the National Cabinet today and we resolved to do the following things; to help stay ahead of this curve we will impose a universal precautionary self-isolation requirement on all international arrivals to Australia, and that is effective from midnight tonight. Further, the Australian government will also ban cruise ships from foreign ports from arriving at Australian ports after an initial 30 days and that will go forward on a voluntary basis. The National Cabinet also endorsed the advice of the AHPPC today to further introduce social distancing measures. Before I moved to those, I just wanted to be clear about those travel restrictions that I've just announced. All people coming to Australia will be required, will be required I stress, to self isolate for 14 days. This is very important. What we've seen in recent, in the recent weeks is more countries having issues with the virus. And that means that the source of some of those transmissions are coming from more and more countries. Bans have been very effective to date. And what this measure will do is ensure that particularly Australians who are the majority of people coming to Australia now on these flights, when they come back to Australia, they're self-isolation for 14 days will do an effective job in flattening this curve as we go forward. Similarly, the arrangements for cruise ships will have the same effect in specific cases where we have Australians on cruise ships. Then there will be some bespoke arrangements that we put in place directly under the command of the Australian Border Force to ensure that the relevant protections are put in place. We're seeking to assist Australians to come home by ensuring that the flights continue to run, but when they come home, they'll be spending another 14 days in self isolation. And so I’ve covered also the issue of the cruises.
When it comes to social distancing I want to read to you the key sections of the advice that we've provided today to the National Cabinet. The AHPPC believes that social distancing measures are now required and will need to be introduced progressively to reduce disruption. This has the most benefit in delaying transmission. The AHPPC advises, as we flagged last Friday, that in general non-essential gatherings of more than 500 people should not occur. They also advise that at this early stage, not to prevent the operation of essential functions, including schools, universities and workplaces, or prevent the operation of public transport. However, the principle of social distancing should still apply in these settings. The AHPPC advises, is for static non-essential gatherings of persons that they should not go ahead, if there are more than 500 people you'll be in such a gathering. Now what do I mean by that? A static gathering is when you're sitting as you are here in this room for prolonged periods. That would occur at a stadium, it would occur in a theatre, that would occur in events such as those where people are together in close proximity for a sustained period of time. The advice is that those gatherings should not continue at that scale. The AHPPC advises and Dr Kelly may wish to touch on this, but that includes how you can mitigate those events, when they are in much larger rooms that obviously reduces the risk. If the gathering is outdoors in much more open gatherings, well, obviously that reduces the risk.
There are a lot of common sense principles which should be fairly obvious, I think. And the way people respond to those I think will be very helpful. So what the National Cabinet has agreed today is that we will adopt that recommendation and we will be preventing non-essential static gatherings of more than 500 people occurring across the states and territories. The states and territories will be moving to put in place the appropriate arrangements under their state based legislation to ensure that is supported. They’ll be doing the same thing in relation to the self-isolation requirements of Australians and others coming to this country by air to support the decision of the National Security Committee. Now that legislation is a matter for the states and territories. They'll be working on that promptly. But from here on in, from Monday, it's important that people act in accordance with that advice. Now, the obvious question is, how would that be enforced? Well, the states and territories wisely are not going to create event police or social distancing police or things of that nature. That would not be a wise use of police resources around the country. But the legislation impact would mean that if a person did fail to observe the 14 day self-isolation or if an event was organised, that would be contrary, once those provisions are put in place to state law, and there'd be nothing preventing I’m sure the states from ensuring that that was dated from Monday. But they will be specific details that the states will naturally work together on and ensure as much consistency as possible across their jurisdictions.
A few other things that were decided today, was about the priorities of what we must be addressing as a National Cabinet in the days and the weeks ahead, having addressed the issue of mass gatherings of 500 persons or more And let me be clear. That obviously doesn't mean, as I said on Friday, it doesn't mean train stations, it doesn't mean shopping centres. It doesn't even necessarily mean markets like Salamanca down in Hobart or things of that nature. These are static mass gatherings where people are together for long periods of time. For large events, very large events like the Royal Easter Show, which has already been here in New South Wales, cancelled, I mean that is an event which was cancelled, as the Premier reminded us this morning, to prevent people coming from all around the state into t Sydney and potentially being exposed to the virus through that type of an interaction and within the Easter Show you are together with large groups of people for long periods of time. So there will still need to be a lot of judgement exercised at a state and territory level in relation to specific events. That will include Anzac Day. We will be putting out specific guidelines working together with the RSL about those gatherings and particularly regarding the participation of more vulnerable Australians out of our more elderly veterans community. We had a long discussion about what the most important priority is now having made that decision about mass gatherings, the first of those is putting in arrangements and restrictions around the visiting of aged care facilities and the AHPPC is working on that today and they'll be providing us with further advice about how that will work. They are also doing work on remote communities, particularly that is going to affect the parts of South Australia, Western Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland especially. And so they're doing some important work there about the arrangements and protocols that would need to be in place. They are also doing work on further restrictions on gatherings in enclosed spaces. And the National Cabinet will meet on Tuesday night and consider that advice so I can stand here before you on Wednesday and provide you with further announcements in terms of the further decisions that are made in relation to aged care and gatherings involving enclosed areas.
We also had some wide discussions today about schools, and I can totally understand, as a parent of two daughters in school here in Sydney, that people are naturally anxious about the issue of schools. As the British chief medical officer observed just over the last couple of days, the issue of wide-scale closure of schools, it might be anti-intuitive, but the advice is this could actually be a very negative thing in terms of impacting on how these curves operate. That happens for two reasons. When you take children out of schools and put them back in the broader community, the ability for them to potentially engage with others increases that risk. And that's the understanding we have. There's also issues of herd immunity that relate to children as well. And Dr. Kelly, might want to touch on those issues. The other issue is the disruption impact that can have and put at great risk the availability of critical workers such as nurses and doctors and others who are essential in the community because they would have to remain home and look after their children. And so while it may seem counter-intuitive, there is very good reason why you would not be moving to broad scale closures of schools that could actually make the situation worse, not better. And so the states and territories are not moving in that direction. We will consider this again further on Friday at our meeting, after Tuesday night, to consider further advice on those issues. So for now, the continuing practice, which is especially being put in place in New South Wales and Victoria, where they've had the most experience of this, individual decisions are made on particular schools based on the cases that are presented there and the circumstances that exist in those communities. And that is done in conjunction with their state health officers to make the right decisions in those very specific locations.
So with all of those matters, I think I've touched on all the decisions that we've made today as a National Cabinet and as a meeting of the National Security Committee, and we will continue to meet regularly. There was a very strong spirit of unity and cooperation. And again, I want to thank the premiers and the chief ministers for their support in bringing together this national cabinet. It has now been established formally under the Commonwealth government's cabinet guidelines. And it has the status of a meeting of Cabinet that would exist at a federal level, as does the meetings of the AHPPC and the national coordinating mechanism, which is feeding up into those arrangements.
So some important changes today. There will be more changes in the future. We'll be seeking to forecast those for you as much as possible. Remember, when we're taking these decisions, we're taking them to allow time for people to adopt them. These are not absolute measures that if they are introduced today then, if I were introduced the day before, that Australia was put at risk that's not the case. What we're doing is implementing the measures well in advance of where they might have otherwise been done. What we've seen overseas with some of the restrictions that you've seen in many of those other countries, they were introduced when the number of cases and the amount of spread in their communities was far more advanced than where we are in Australia today. And so what we're introducing today means we're getting well ahead of where those other countries have been when they've had far greater numbers of cases. So we'll continue to stay ahead of this. We'll continue to keep our heads when it comes to this. And we will continue to take the medical advice which will guide what is first and foremost a health crisis in this country.
One last point I should have made, is the states will also be considering moving their movement to public health emergency status under their various state arrangements. in some places like Queensland they've already moved to that some time ago. Now, the other states are now working over the next few days to make their own decisions on that. That is entirely a matter for those states and territories. And they'd be seeking to align how they do that over the next few days. And I think that's a productive thing they can do and ensure we’re getting on a consistent footing. But with that, I'm gonna hand over to Dr. Kelly.
DR. PAUL KELLY, DEPUTY CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: Thank you, Prime Minister. So that's a lot of information there. I won’t give too much more, just to reiterate the Prime Minister's statement that what we are doing and as we've always been doing throughout this, as we've learnt more about the virus, how it spreads, the effect it has on people's health, and particularly the issues that are pertinent to Australia as distinct from other countries in the world. This is a proportionate response. And so what we are doing is the proportionate response, staged and informed by the information as it progresses. So things are changing on a daily basis. And as the Prime Minister has said, that doesn't mean that it was wrong yesterday. It was right for yesterday, today is a new day. And the next day will be another new day. We'll have more information and we'll be able to go forward. The Prime Minister has mentioned the modelling that is being done. It is continuing to be redefined and and be more accurate as it goes forward. But it is not, it's not the definite future it is to guide the decisions that are being made, that the graph that we see on the right hand side, your left, is the graph we see when there is a new virus entering our community where no one has immunity against that virus. That is the issue with this coronavirus. It's not like flu. It's not like any other viruses and diseases where we have vaccination. And that important issue of herd immunity that we talk about a lot in vaccination is exactly the challenge that we have at the moment. There is no herd immunity. Everyone is susceptible to this virus in Australia. And so that's why these unusual and proportionate measures that we are taking now to prevent the worst case scenario, which is that very high peak, is really important. And as we go through, there will be other measures that may need to be introduced depending on how things work out in the coming weeks or months.
What is different about Australia, of course, is that we're not yet in winter. All of the places where we're seeing this virus really escalate very quickly now through other parts of the world, are in the northern hemisphere. They’re in the in the in the later part of the winter months, they have flu seasons as well. And all of the environmental elements that allow viruses to spread quickly are actually there in North America, in China, in other parts of northern Asia and across to Europe. We've seen exactly what has happened there, and in particular, not taking enough action, probably early enough in most of those countries. And we can see the effects on the healthcare system and the unfortunate death rates that we're seeing around the world. In Australia, we now have almost 250 cases. That doesn't sound like a lot. But if you think back just a week, that's quite a few more than we had last week. Next week we'll have more. At the moment it’s mostly in relation to travel. And so those new restrictions and new measures that have been put at the border in terms of 14 days quarantine for everyone coming back from overseas, from whatever country is the next proportionate step to take to decrease those travel related illnesses. But we are also starting to see, particularly here in Sydney, but also in other other cities and into our regional areas, some human to human transmission in Australia, not necessarily related to travel. That will be the next step, more proportionate measures will need to be taken as that develops. So these are difficult times and the disruption to society is very much felt by us in the health side of government. But we are continuing to give our measured advice to government and we're very happy that that's being listened to and put it into account with the other measures in terms of social, economic and other considerations. So Prime Minister I might leave it there.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you Dr. Kelly. And just on social distancing also, that means that the social distancing practices that we're encouraging are being expanded. So there's no more handshakes. That is a new move we've moved to, and that's something that I'll be practicing, my Cabinet members, that you expect to see leaders and others now practicing. This was not something that was necessarily a key requirement weeks ago, but it's just another step up now. It's a precautionary step. And we'll be practising that. The Cabinet itself will now be meeting more regularly by video, by video conferencing, rather than all Cabinet members being in one place that will apply to the national security committee, and National Cabinet, as it did today, met through video conferencing, similarly leaders and other politicians you can expect to see not travelling as much as they were before. Not engaging as many public events. I’ve cancelled a number of events for next week. That is just simply to try and manage the normal process- as you'd expect, too, as we move into this next phase which we’ve agreed to do today. I'll be working particularly with the Speaker and the President of the Senate to look at the, they've already been working on that for some time, actually, about the arrangements we’ll put in place, obviously consulting with the Leader of the opposition on those issues. We have important work to do when Parliament resumes on Monday week. We can focus on that and get that done in very practical arrangements to achieve that. Questions?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, how long will this travel, new travel arrangement last this ban?
PRIME MINISTER: It's indefinite. It's reviewed every week.
JOURNALIST: Explain to us how does it work? How do people self isolate? They come off, out of the airport. They get in a taxi they stay in a hotel room for two weeks? And an Australian goes home and stays in their bedroom for 2 weeks?
PRIME MINISTER: That's it. And Australian Border Force will be moving over the course of this weekend to ensure that people statutorily declare that if they're entering the country, that they understand that that is the requirement. What will happen, Chris, and this is what we've seen in other countries that have done this, is that the visitor traffic will dry up very, very, very quickly. And it's important that the flights keep going because they bring Australians home. I should also note that Pacific Islanders who are on their way home, to their home country, will be allowed to transit through Australia. They won't be allowed to remain in Australia, they're allowed to travel. Otherwise, they have no way of getting home and that's us being part of the Pacific family and helping them. New Zealand put exactly the same set of arrangements in place for Pacific Islanders coming home by New Zealand. The arrangements I’ve announced today are those that were put in place by New Zealand yesterday, and they in fact will come into effect at the same time.
JOURNALIST: Will there be a central database Prime Minister, that state authorities can access so they know who's been overseas. And if they should be self isolating, I just don't understand how it's going to be policed?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, again, I mean, this has been in place now for many months, for over a month now in terms of travellers coming from China and other places. And the truth is, the self-isolation has worked out in practice quite well because Australians have followed the instructions. And up until now, that has been a voluntary arrangement. There has been no potential sanction that might apply against a person for not following that requirement. Once state authorities are in a position to give that its legal enforcement then that will be a change. I mean, so if your mate has been Bali and they come back and they turn up at work, and they're sitting next to you, well, they'll be committing an offence. And so I think it's up to all of us to ensure that, we are ensuring this is put in place.
I mean, Australians will exercise common sense. They have been to date, and this provides the backstop of a legal enforcement but the the idea that there'd be significant resources dedicated to that task would not be practical, because remember, when you get an overwhelming number of people following that advice, then you're getting the effect which you want, which is that.
JOURNALIST: What's the penalty for committing the offence of not self-isolating?
PRIME MINISTER: That will be a matter for the states and territories under their own public health [inaudible].
JOURNALIST: [inaudible] What would would look like though? Would that mean fines or is it jail time?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes. Again, it's a matter for state authorities as to what penalties they place on that. The National Cabinet ensures that we have some coordination, but ultimately states and territories will make their own decisions.
JOURNALIST: Sorry, will there be any screening at borders of temperatures or anything like that? Or just all be self-isolation?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes. No no there will be. And there has been already. And for those for those, for those persons who come back and present with symptoms, they will be directed through the Australian Border Force to be given protective equipment. This group that we're now applying this requirement to is low risk. And we also do think, and the health advice is, is this that to provide the PPE equipment to everyone who comes through our airports would be an unnecessary depletion of that resource. We know those resources from our stockpile for health workers, those working in aged care facilities and so on. And so they will be able to return home. They are at a low risk, is the assessment. But for those who may be presenting with some concern or symptoms then they'll be provided with that equipment at the airports, as we already are for those who are coming from Iran or those who are coming from China, from South Korea and Italy.
JOURNALIST: What measures will the government be taking to prevent the spread by public transport?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, already the state governments have been doing a fair bit of that. And that is a matter that I know will be sort of worked on through the national coordinator messages which feeds up to the National Cabinet about what experience and best practice can be shared. The National Cabinet, yes, it's making decisions on things like I've talked about today to support with legislation, self-isolation arrangements and things of that nature. But the other thing that the National Cabinet is doing is sharing this practice information about how state governments are just practically dealing with; whether it's transport or indeed the very helpful discussion we had with both the New South Wales and the Victorian Premier sharing their experience about how they're dealing with schools. The Northern Territory Chief Minister, Michael Gunner, has some very specific issues that he has to deal with about access of essential services and workers going into remote communities in the Northern Territory. And he's already working with us. And so the Northern Territory and the arrangements that are there will become the model for what is done in remote indigenous communities in many other states and territories. So this is a highly collaborative process and we're all learning from each other and all supporting each other.
JOURNALIST: How will social distancing be instructed to schools and kids in schools. Will schools be given specific advice to tell their kids or will it be up to schools. How this health, social distancing, as you mentioned, is going to work?
PRIME MINISTER: The national information campaign is already running with information that will be available to all Australians, but it's pretty straightforward. A metre and a half. We're about a metre and a half away. Ensuring that, you know, you refrain from that sort of physical contact, which might be the handshake or even something a bit more intimate unless you’re with your close family and friends. It's all common sense. You know, we don't need to tell Australians how to get out of bed in the morning and how to put their shoes and socks on and things like that. Australians understand. And I'm not making light of this, I'm not. These are important, normal, common-sense social interaction measures that people can take. And they are very intuitive. And it's all about reducing the amount of direct physical contact that you have with others. That's a clear principle, which I think Australians can understand. And I would expect teachers, or those at preschool, or in churches or wherever. I know I got a message from my church during the course of the week after Friday and they were putting measures in place and good for the. School clubs and others are doing the same thing. It's just Australians getting together, working out how they're going to adjust. See, I really want Australians to get on with their lives as commonly as possible. But there will be disruptions and they will adjust. Australians, of course, can adjust. But what I hope won't happen, and I'm sure it won’t, is that we won't lose our sense of Australian-ness in all of this, we will support each other. If you've got someone who's in self isolation particularly, there might be an elderly person who might live in your apartment or down the road, and they would be wisely exercising even greater precautions about their social interactions. So make them a casserole and leave it on the door or things like this. I think just Australia's helping each other out over the next few months. You know in the shopping centre aisle, you know, make sure someone who might be a bit more vulnerable than you can get what they're looking to get as well and I think just being good to each other is the right thing to do.
JOURNALIST: PM on the new travel arrangements, have you had a chat to, I know you said you spoke to Boris Johnson last night, but have you spoken to any other world leaders and specifically the White House? Because we're seeing a lot of cases coming from the US?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah well it’s our major source now coming out of the United States. And yes, we have had a lot of interaction with the United States and we will continue to, the Foreign Minister was only there this week. She returned yesterday. And so we've had a lot of interaction with the United States with the UK. The Five Eyes groups, and New Zealand I speak to the Prime Minister almost every other day. And one of the things I should mention that I spoke to Prime Minister Johnson about is when it comes to the G20, I'm also aware that Prime Minister Modi is keen to organise a link up between all the G20 leaders. I think that's, I think that's a commendable initiative. Australia obviously supports that. I've communicated that. That's a matter for the Saudi government who’s the President of the G20 this year. But the Prime Minister and I agreed last night that an even more urgent meeting that could be needed would be a further meeting of the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors. This is a health crisis, but it has very serious economic impacts. Those economic impacts have been clearly affecting financial markets. To date, that has been managed, but we've seen some highly volatile and quite disruptive activity on our financial markets. We want to be assured through our cooperation, as occurred through the GFC amongst that very G20 group, that we can make sure that there is no further damage or undermining of financial markets and the Central Bank Governors and Finance Ministers are the best place to do that. Truth is that they only had a meeting a few weeks ago and at that meeting, things were at a very different stage as they are today. And I think that demonstrates I mean, there's a lot of wisdom in hindsight at the moment. But what we have to realise is this has been a very fast moving event. And so far, the decisions we've taken has put us in a good position. But you've got to stay in that position by constantly making additional decisions. And that's what the National Cabinet was set up to do.
JOURNALIST: When it comes to shopping and gathering supplies, what's the advice there? Because Victoria's Chief Medical Officer said 14 days of supplies are required. The federal chief medical officer said this morning, two to three days. What is the official advice?
PRIME MINISTER: I refer you, I understand, to the comments of Premier Andrews, made this morning that the medical officer in Victoria, I understand, has been misrepresented in what he said about that. And what you've heard from Dr. Murphy this morning is consistent with what the view is around the states and territories. But I'd refer you to, I understand Premier Andrews brought this to my attention today. What was said has been misrepresented about that 14 day arrangement. And I mean, people should exercise common-sense. See, the thing is, the shops are going to remain open. You know, the electricity companies will still be selling the power. The phones are still going to work. The lights are going to continue to come on. The schools will continue to come together. The trains will continue to run. The airports will continue to function. This is not a cyclone or a physical event like that that shuts down parts of our cities in terms of a physical sense. It is something quite different. This is a biological virus that is affecting human to human transmission. And so I think we just need to get that into some sort of perspective in terms of how we moderate our response.
JOURNALIST: The NRL, though, says that it is actually not in that category that is in danger of being closed down. And they're now asking for potentially hundreds of million in support from your your package. But is that something you'd entertain?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, we’ll look at all of all of those issues. I understand that already today, I think over half a million they’ve put into the clubs, and there’ll obviously be a lot of disruption, whether it's the NRL or the AFL or any of the large sporting competitions, but equally in the cultural community as well. They'll be there'll be events that won't be able to go ahead, there’ll be cultural events that won’t be able to go ahead. And it's important that what we're saying on the banning of gatherings of more than 500 persons, that is going to be supported by state legislation. So it's it's not an advisory. It's not, there's no discretion. There'll be requirements. And that has obvious implications for things like insurances, things of that nature. But we'll deal with those issues one after the other. Right now, though my real focus is on the further mitigations we have to put in place. The most important, having made this decision about further isolation of people coming to Australia. That does ensure that we have the strongest borders anywhere in the world when it comes to these sorts of issues. Australia has always been well known for its border protection on all matters and it’s certainly the case when it comes to managing this issue. But in addition to that, it's also about ensuring that as a government, we keep taking decisions which keep us ahead of the curve.
JOURNALIST: What happens to, people who are going on domestic life, reconsidering that travel is a domestic flight, one of these static locations that you're talking about?
PRIME MINISTER: That's not our advice. Dr Kelly you might want to talk about flights?
DR. KELLY: Yes. So that wouldn't be the advice at the moment, but as I said before, we'd be looking at all measures as they go forward. There are both, domestic flights and generally short although there are some further destinations which are longer. But at the moment, there is no advice about restricting domestic travel.
JOURNALIST: When you have a look at those graphs, and the feeling in the community at the moment is, is one of anxiety, should Australians be afraid?
PRIME MINISTER: Australians should be careful. Australians should be listening to the advice that is provided, Australians should be exercising their common sense. But the thing I'm counting on more than anything else to achieve that outcome rather than that outcome, is that Australians be Australian. Now Australians can deal with this, we can deal with some change to our daily lives. We can deal with the surprises that may come as we get further information. We can deal with making common sense judgments every day. We can deal with looking after each other. We can deal with having to show a bit of patience from time to time. And the odd frustration or disappointment Australians can deal with all of that. So long as Australians keep being Australian we'll get through this together.
Thank you all very much. Ta.
Press Conference - Parramatta, NSW
13 March 2020
PRIME MINISTER: Welcome everybody. Earlier today the Council of Australian Governments met amongst first ministers. But the events of the day, I think, has produced a series of considerations by premiers, chief ministers and myself, which is leading to a number of announcements we'd like to make to you this afternoon.
Firstly, I'd note that the communique for COAG has been agreed and that's been circulated. We've dealt with a number of important issues today. Obviously the most significant of those was the briefings we took earlier today on the issue of the national response to the coronavirus, considering both the significant health issues that are associated with that response, as well as the the economic issues, and you'll be familiar with the announcements that have been made on those matters.
We were joined, of course, by the Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Brendan Murphy, but as well, the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Dr. Phil Lowe. And in addition to that, Dr. Steven Kennedy, the head of Treasury, as we worked through the many issues that were associated with the national response to the coronavirus. Paul Grigson from the Department of Home Affairs also joined us this morning. The Department of Home Affairs has been bringing together the national coordinating mechanism, which is the process through which all state and territory governments are working together with the Commonwealth to coordinate our response to the many issues that are related to the management of the coronavirus and its impact in Australia.
In the course of today, a number of things became very clear based on the advice that we received from the the Australian Health Protection Principals Committee, which is the health officers, chief medical officers of each of the states and territories, and of course, the Chief Medical Officer from the Commonwealth. There was growing evidence, as we were receiving, particularly overnight and over the course of today, of greater community transmission of the coronavirus throughout Australia. There has also been, as a result of what has occurred in the United States and across Europe, the disruption of some international supply chain, matters that deal with some of the medical equipment, which we now will be addressing over the course of the next few days. These issues are not constrained to Australia. They are impacting around the world. And they are matters that now need to be addressed here in Australia like they are in many other countries.
As a result of the advice which was pulled together today by the HPPC, what we have resolved to do is to form a national cabinet to deal with the national response to the coronavirus. The national cabinets will be made up of the premiers, chief Ministers and myself. We will be meeting on a weekly basis to ensure that we get coordinated response across the country to the many issues that relate to the management of the coronavirus. First and foremost, that is about the health and wellbeing of Australians and managing the health response. In relation to the key goal of that group, it is really to ensure that at first we seek to contain, but then we seek to manage how the coronavirus impacts across Australia.
There are many measures that can be taken, and the Commonwealth government, together with the states, have already been taking, to both contain and slow the transmission of the virus in Australia. Now, this is incredibly important because as we slow it, as we manage it, that ensures that the national health system, health systems run by states and territories will be able to accommodate the increasing demands that we'd expect to see as a result of the coronavirus spread throughout Australia. That goes to issues about how you managing ICUs, how you're managing emergency departments, how you're managing it in terms of GP presentations and the like. The goal here is very straightforward, and that's why we've been going about it in a very careful way and there's been an abundance of caution in our approach. It is simply to slow the rate of transmission of the coronavirus within Australia. And that is done through the containment mechanisms that have already been put in place, whether in New South Wales, Victoria or anywhere else.
The containment processes of self isolation, identifying and tracing of contacts, all of these measures worked to successfully slow the rate of transmission of this virus. And that's why Australia right now is in a position where we have low rates of this virus and the number of cases that have presented. But we've always known that the number of cases will rise. And as we continue to work together to slow the rate of transmission, then that means we will get through this. Australians will get through this and we'll be able to get through this with the support of a health system, a world class health system which will seek to minimise the level of disruption that would be seen by the Australian population.
Now in relation to that in particular and based on the advice we've received today about the increasing number of cases and the evidence of community transmission, it has been recommended to us that we move to a position by Monday where we will be advising against organised, non-essential gatherings of persons of 500 people or greater from Monday. Now, that, of course, doesn't include schools. It doesn't include university lectures. It doesn't mean people getting on public transport or going to airports or or things of that nature. These events that we're seeking to advise against and restrict is for non-essential, organised gatherings of persons of 500 or more. Now, there will be many issues to work through between now and Monday as we get the precise advice about the implementation of that advice to Australians around the country. And that is what the HPPC will be working on, the national cabinet, which will be providing and managing this response now on a weekly basis. We will be meeting again on Sunday to consider that further advice on the implementation of those arrangements, and we'll provide further advice at that point once those recommendations have been considered.
Now, as we go forward from this point, it has been timely for us to meet today, because clearly the coronavirus requires responses from all governments at all levels. And it is important that we act together. And I want to thank the premiers and chief ministers today for their strong sense of unity, cooperation and purpose that has been present all the way through, as we've seen over what has been a very difficult summer, where we've been working together on many other issues and that has now transferred into the issue of the coronavirus.
And so the members of that cabinet is who you see before you here today and we are going to be working very closely together to ensure there's a consistency of response, that there's a coordination of response. And we simply say to the Australian people that we will manage this carefully in your interests. What we're announcing today is just another step. It's precautionary. It's getting ahead of this to ensure that we can minimise the impacts on your health and we can ensure with confidence the ability for people to be accessing the health services that they and their families will need.
The national coordinating mechanism, which I referred to before, will be feeding up to the national cabinet every week, issues that can then be coordinated between states and territories. It will deal with issues such as schools and universities and all of these types of things that prisons which we even discussed today, practical issues about the management of the national response to the coronavirus. Each and every state and territory that is represented here is completely sovereign and autonomous in the decisions that they make. But what we've agreed to do together is to work together and be unified and to be as consistent and coordinated as possible in our national response. That means from time to time sharing resources, it means if there is a need to assist each other with various needs, then this group will work closely together to achieve that end.
The principal advising body to this national cabinet will be the Australian Health Protection Principals Committee, which are those medical officers. There will be many others who will be advising through to the group on the other matters that I've referred to. But that medical advice, the best medical advice, will be the basis for the protocols and the guidelines and the decisions that will be made by premiers, chief ministers and of course, myself as prime minister together with our respective cabinets.
So with those matters, I'm going to ask Brendan Murphy to speak to this arrangement today and provide some further explanation. I also want to say that we've also decided today through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade that we now advise all Australians to reconsider your need to travel overseas at this time, regardless of your destination, age or health. If your travel is not essential, consider carefully whether now is the right time. So we're effectively putting in place what is called a Level 3 Travel Advice for travel of Australians overseas. This is done to protect their health and to limit their exposure, given we have so many countries now that are affected by the coronavirus. Only essential travel should be considered if you're going overseas from this point forward. And we would encourage Australians to heed that advice. And if you need further information, then you can look to the SmartTraveller website where you will find further information on those issues. With that, I'll pass you over to Professor Brendan Murphy. Thank you, Brendan.
DR BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: Thanks, Prime Minister. So Australia has always remained ahead of the curve in this coronavirus outbreak. We certainly introduced very aggressive measures early on in the exported cases from China and have been very effectively responding to the second wave of imported cases.
But as the Prime Minister has said, there is now early evidence of community transmissions, very small cases, not widespread. We're still not saying that there is a significant risk at all to the Australian community. But all the international evidence suggests that if you have some community transmission, the way in which it can be spread more rapidly is in very large events. You might only have one or two people at a very large event who might be carrying the virus, and the chances of that being spread at those large events accelerates the rate of progression of this virus. So this is a precautionary measure on the basis of the numbers slowly increasing over the course of the last week in Australia. We have seen increases in numbers every day and we feel that they will be at such a point over coming weeks that it's time to take precautionary advance measures to limit those large events where the incidence of transmission can be supported. We're not suggesting that people should interrupt their normal daily work. It's just avoiding those particular circumstances where transmission can be accelerated.
This is the unanimous advice of all of the chief health officers. We understand that there will be a range of implications of that advice. But as the Prime Minister said, it's advisory and we are suggesting this at the moment. We'll work through the implications of that over the coming days and present them to ministers. The risk to the Australian community in general still remains low. Most of our cases still are imported, but we know that some of those imported cases have led to some communities spread. We want to be as far ahead of the game as any country and control the spread of this virus and make sure that we keep its outbreaks in Australia to as limited as possible. Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you. Well, we’re happy to take some questions either to myself or any of my colleagues here. The normal process of a COAG press conference I think we’ll suspend with today, but I commend to you the communique, because there were very many important agreements today One of which I should particularly note is that the national partnership agreement on the COVID-19 health response was agreed today as was a matter in relation of emergency management and waste management, but I’ll refer to those documents to you for later reference.
JOURNALIST: Professor Murphy, why 500? And also would people travelling through a large train station come in contact with a range of different people? Why is that any different to going to a footy game?
DR. MURPHY: Generally speaking, we're talking about a static gathering where people together for a period of perhaps up to two hours is generally where you have a high risk of exposure. Casual exposure, walking through a train station or an airport is much, much lower risk. So we're talking about those constant periods of contact. 500 - the epidemic modellers around the world have suggested that at the state that we are, and other countries are, that is a reasonable number. There is some arbitrariness about it, but other countries around the world have chosen that number. It's based on the best available scientific modelling.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, is there a reason why this ban is not, why the recommendation is not for, gatherings over 500 people was just a recommendation why its not compulsory?
PRIME MINISTER: Because this is a scalable response. What we're doing here is taking an abundance of caution approach as we have all the way through. What we're seeking to do is lower the level of overall risk and at the same time ensure that we minimise any broader disruption that is not necessary at this stage to engage in. So what that means is this is why we've said non-essential organised gatherings of 500 or more people. Now there are a range of those and you'll be very familiar with what they are and those not proceeding at that point, and that's an advisory, will reduce that risk. In the same way introducing travel bans, reduce risk. It doesn't eliminate all risk. This is not an absolute measure. We are still in the early phases of this and community transmission is still at a very local level. And as you've just heard from the Chief Medical Officer, that remains the case today. This is a matter of state and territory governments, together with the Commonwealth, exercising an abundance of caution in the interests of Australians. It's also why we have agreed today to join together in a national cabinet. A national cabinet for an emergency response to these issues that enables us to manage this on a day to day, week to week basis. And where further measures need to be considered and where further advice comes forward than we can do that on this basis and we can take the decisions that are necessary in Australia's national interest, and particularly to protect the health and wellbeing of Australians.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, why does this recommendation come in on Monday and will you still go to the footy?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I do still plan to go to the football on Saturday as I said, because this is an arrangement we're putting in place for next week as a precaution. This is an early stage action that we're undertaking to make sure we get ahead of this. And I would be going along on Saturday because I had previously planned to. And these are measures we're putting in from next week. And there'll be further measures that will come in overtime, I would expect. I said last night that there will be many challenges when I addressed the nation, and there will be. And we’ll respond to those challenges. And we together, as a cabinet of leaders from around the country, will be taking those decisions together to assist and support each other in managing the response. And so that's why I think there is every reason for calm. There is every reason for people to go about their usual business. And the national cabinet working together with each of the constituent governments, their cabinets will continue to do all of their jobs. I know mine will. I know all of my colleagues’ will as well. But it's important that we see this as just a further common sense precaution to ensure we can manage the transmission of this virus in the most effective way possible.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you’re willingly going to a game this weekend, which from Monday a mass gathering which you recommend people don’t attend and they are not held. How is that responsible?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I think you misunderstand the point of what we're doing on Monday. These are stepped responses. We are not of any great concern right now in terms of where those gatherings might be today. But in the weeks ahead, in the weeks ahead, this will change. This is a matter of scaling our response. The fact that I would still be going on Saturday speaks not just to my passion for my beloved Sharks. It might be the last game I get to go to for a long time. And that's fine. In the future, I suspect we might be watching them on television, and that's okay as well. My point is there is, there is absolute reason for calm. There is absolute reason for proportionally responding to the challenges that we have here. I'm very comfortable about it. My colleagues are very comfortable about it. Governments will take decisions, sports bodies, other organisations, will take sensible decisions. But right now, there is not that great risk. There is not that immediate threat. But these are things that will be scaled up in the weeks ahead.
JOURNALIST: Professor Murphy, was Your advice to Government that there should be this two-tiered approach, things that are essential to go ahead above 500 and then non essential [inaudible]. And Prime Minister, will Parliament need to change? Up to 6,000 people in a sitting week coming up. Is there a concern that there could be a spread there?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I would consider Parliament essential. And it certainly will be when Parliament resumes at the federal level, because we'll be passing the many measures that relate to the economic stimulus package as well as the health response that we've articulated this week. I think there will be issues to work through between now and then regarding the public galleries and things of that nature - that's just common sense planning - and that will be done as I imagine many venues will do the same thing. And over the course of the next couple of days, the AHPPC will be providing further revised that so we can provide further guidelines and instructions to the community about how this will be worked out on the ground. But Parliament's essential. Going to school’s essential. Going to work’s essential. Going, and going and getting about your normal business, taking your kids to preschool, all of these things will continue. Going to university lectures. This step we're taking today, we're flagging for Monday, is just about a scalable, precautionary response. Brendan, did you want to -
DR. MURPHY: Yeah, and the recommendation was very much non-essential. This is a proportionate, early response to get ahead of the curve. And so that the AHPPC was strongly of the view that it should be non-essential.
JOURNALIST: what is the threshold though? You see things like schools closing down in lockdown, like we have seen in Italy. When is the time when that would need to be done?
DR. MURPHY: Well, that sort of measure would be considered when there's much more widespread community transmission.
PRIME MINISTER: And that type of the decision would be made by the states and territories. But helpfully, that decision, because of their strong determination and commitment and unified support today, would enable them to make that decision based on a consistent approach that you can see right across the country.
JOURNALIST: Gladys Berejiklian, if going to school is essential, what does that mean for the schools that in your state that, in your state Daniel Andrews as well, that have shut down because people have tested positive. Will schools now remain open or should all schools be shut?
THE HON. GLADYS BEREJIKLIAN MP, PREMIER OF NEW SOUTH WALES: Certainly today’s announcement or decision from Monday doesn't change at all. What's been occurring in New South Wales, and I daresay in other states, if someone, if a student is identified as having the virus, we’ll go into the normal process we've been adopting, which is shutting down the school until we've contained, contacted all the close contacts of that person and reopen the school when we're ready to do so. That doesn't change. But what is really critical is, is school is essential. It's safe to go to school. And when it's not, we'll shut down that particular school and work with the school community to reopen at the appropriate time. And the other important thing is I do want to commend our authorities that the feedback we've had from parents and the school community is about the communication is critical. It's really important during this process to make sure that if there is an identified case, that's dealt with appropriately. But today's decision from Monday doesn't impact at all our existing policy. In fact, it puts all of us on alert to make sure that we continue to be strident and vigilant. We're managing the spread appropriately. We want to reduce it further. And that's why today's announcement is so important.
JOURNALIST: So you’re not considering any further mandatory shutdowns of schools, particularly in some of those hot spot areas, like North, North West?
PREMIER BEREJIKLIAN: No. There's no reason for us to do that. But I do want to stress this is an evolving situation. If we feel that anybody's health is compromised, if we feel there's a great risk to the community, we'll take those decisions. What we decide today may be different from next week and the week after. We have to make very clear that it's an evolving situation. But at this stage, there's no reason for us to change the existing policy we've been adopting in New South Wales. But again, that's really advice we'll take from the health experts. And to this point, we'll continue to maintain that policy.
PRIME MINISTER: We've got a question over here.
JOURNALIST: In hot spots, should people be avoiding busy shopping centres?
PRIME MINISTER: Well again, people can go about their normal, essential business that they do each day. That's the advice we're receiving from the AHPPC. We will continue to maintain a very pragmatic, but cautious approach to manage what is occurring with the virus in Australia. You take incremental steps. You take those based on the best medical advice and the best way, I said last night, everyone has a role to play in this. And one of those roles is to ensure that people just remain calm about these things. Take the advice that has been provided about when it's being put in place and to work cooperatively with that, to be patient, to understand that we understand that this would mean there will be some events scheduled into the future which will be disrupted and that will cause some inconvenience. And we understand that. But this gives people the time to respond to this, to plan for it, to organise for it. That's why it's not a snap decision that all comes into effect on one afternoon. It's not that nature of a health sensitivity. It's not that nature of a position that has been put in place that requires immediate effect. It's about a scaled-up effect that can enable an easily administerable transition.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what advice has Treasury provided about the impact that this will have on the economy? Just yesterday you announced $17.6 billion worth of stimulus. Is that now enough?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we had always anticipated, well yes, we believe that the, what we've put in place just this week was designed to deal with these types of impacts. We've always known that the economic impact of this health crisis is going to be significant. And that's why the measures that we've put in place, that we've announced this week are important. But as we discussed today, and indeed and Dan might want to speak to this, but the the Governor of the Reserve Bank made it very clear this morning that the levers of fiscal policy need to do their job here, and that the automatic stabilisers that kick in to your Budget - which is the welfare spend and these sorts of things, which will put great pressure on all of our budgets, they should be allowed to do that job. And the additional investment that needs to be made by governments at the moment to support the economy, to support jobs, to keep businesses in business, to see us through this period, that is all very important. And there was a very clear and resounding advice that came both from Dr. Lowe this morning and Dr. Kennedy, that that's what our Budgets need to do at the moment. We need to put our Budgets to work to keep people in work. But Dan you might want comment -
THE HON. DANIEL ANDREWS MP, PREMIER OF VICTORIA: Yeah, I think the Prime Minister summarises very well, the presentation that we got from senior officials, at both the Governor of the Reserve Bank and the head of Treasury level, all of us have to keep on investing in roads and bridges and hospitals and schools and all the kind of stuff that we do each and every day. That's how we will try and stabilise what will be a really big shock to the Australian economy, to the global economy. That's why the stimulus package announced yesterday was such good news. That's why the health partnership that we've been able to agree to today. All too often we squabble about health, not at this COAG. We are all united. We are all absolutely determined to work together to make sure that we keep people well, that we have less incidence of this virus and this disease than would otherwise be the case, and therefore have less people die. That's what's driving this unity. And I think it's a credit to this forum that we're able to do that.
PRIME MINISTER: Hang on, we've got another question down here. We’re just sharing them around.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you’ve touched on this potentially being your last NRL game, does that mean that they will be behind closed doors after this weekend?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm sure that Todd Greenberg, and others from the AFL, I'm sure they've been considering various scenarios that they would have to work through as to how their competitions would run under this type of an arrangement. And I'll leave those decisions to them as to how they put those in place. You know, we run many things, standing, sitting at this table at the moment, but the NRL and the AFL aren't one of them. And we'll leave them to make their decisions about how they manage those issues. But we'll set the ground rules about how these events can be run in the future. And I have no doubt that there'll be strong cooperation from all of the codes as to how they manage it.
JOURNALIST: What about churches? There are some churches that have a lot of people, well over 500 every Sunday, are they essential or non-essential?
PRIME MINISTER: I know. Well, again, that is an organised gathering. And while I always consider it essential for me to go along, I think any of those social gatherings that are organised, that don't involve your daily work, or your education, or things of that nature, then obviously I think church organisations and church groups are going to have to make arrangements as well, in relation to how large their gatherings are. Now, I know because I go to one of those churches where there are a lot of people that go along. I suspect they'll do something common sense, like hold multiple services at different periods of time, over the course of a weekend, so all of their parishioners can come along. But having more than a particular amount in one place at one time, I would have no doubt that they would honour the advice that is being given to them about how many people should get together in one place on an organised basis, as Brendan says, for several hours.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister does that mean that you won’t go to your normal church service?
PRIME MINISTER: No. I have no doubt that the church services that I go to regularly will be able to comply with the instruction that will be given, and I am pretty sure that our pastors would put some pretty common sense arrangements in place.
JOURNALIST: Why Monday? And Brendan is that the day that you advised?
DR. MURPHY: It was the advice of this, as we said before, we are getting ahead of the curve. We think that by that time we'll start to see again a few more cases of community transmission. We’ve, there's no immediacy about this, but we need to get ahead of the curve. And so the recommendation was Monday, and the Premiers and the Prime Minister agreed with that. It wouldn't have mattered if they'd made a decision one or two days either side. It was felt that that was a reasonable time to progress.
JOURNALIST: Has the advice been passed on to the NRL and the AFL and other codes yet?
PRIME MINISTER: We've just literally made these decisions in the space of the last hour. And so the first people that we've communicated that to is directly to the Australian people.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what are the factors that might lead to this ban coming to an end? Or the recommendation coming to an end?
PRIME MINISTER: Medical advice. I mean, this is how we're making these decisions. We're making decisions on the basis of the best expert advice and that it will, certainly the case when it comes to the medical issues and the health issues we have to consider. But as the National Cabinet continues to to meet week on week, I have no doubt we'll be receiving recommendations, and advice, and policy advice across a whole range of issues that need to be managed in response to the coronavirus; Supply chain issues, economic issues, things of that nature, we'll be sharing a lot of information. I mean, each of the Governments obviously still have to make all their own decisions, which they're all incredibly competent to make. But what we're doing here through this National Cabinet is ensuring that we're getting a genuinely national response. That we're getting a consistent response. And I think, and importantly for Australians, to reassure you that everybody is working together to keep you safe and to try and disrupt your daily life as little as is necessary.
JOURNALIST: Can we expect a mass public education campaign on this? And is it acceptable that there hasn’t been a large-scale in the past two months?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, this, this coronavirus event has been scaling up over the course of the last few months. That is true. Every single day you've seen the Chief Medical Officer, or his, or the Deputy Chief Medical officer providing this advice. I thank the media for the way that they've been reporting this information. Social media campaigns on behalf of, on a public information basis, have already commenced. The Federal Cabinet has already put $30 million into a campaign that won't be too far away when it comes to public advertisements and information packages. The website health.gov.au contains very clear advice at what people can and can't do. The travel advice when it relates to Smart Traveller has also been very clear. The public information and messaging you've seen at airports have also been very clear, and I do thank businesses and others, who have been displaying this sort of information in public areas, and I think that's been very helpful. So this will continue to scale-up. And this will still be many months ahead of us, as we work through this. And what you've seen, is governments right across the country getting ahead, working together to stay ahead. And I can tell you, we've all going to keep our head.
JOURNALIST: PM, you announced a sizeable stimulus package to combat the impacts of this, the virus yesterday at the federal level. Here in New South Wales, the most populous state and the one with the most cases of COVID-19. Should the New South Wales Government be putting in its own stimulus plan? And in your view, Premier Berejiklian, is that something you can do?
PREMIER BEREJIKLIAN: Certainly. Today can I say, we were very grateful to learn about the details of the Federal Government's package, but also to hear directly from the Governor of the Reserve Bank, the head of the Federal Treasury, and to get up-to-date information, which myself and my colleagues were appraised of. And they gave us good direction on the type of initiatives we should be looking at. So we will now take back that advice to our State Treasuries, to our State Treasurers, and formulate our respective responses. But all of us are committed to doing our bit. All of us want to make sure we get it right. And it is more important for us to get it right than pond resources where it's not going to make a difference. And the key thing for us as an economy, at a state level, and obviously at a national level is to keep the jobs going, to make sure that if there is any downturn in activity, that we keep jobs growth there. To make sure that at the end of this process we can have a sustainable growth projection because we know the next two quarters will be very difficult.
JOURNALIST: Will you, will you follow Donald Trump –
PRIME MINISTER: Hang on, I think John had one. He's been very patient there.
JOURNALIST: Thanks. [inaudible] Premier, with respect, coming along here today you’ve only just discovered that there might be a need to stimulate the economy?
PREMIER BEREJIKLIAN: Not at all. And can I just say New South Wales, we've recently put in an extra $2 billion of stimulus in regard to the bushfire recovery. We also have in place already payroll tax cuts which cut in and give back $400 million to business. We have already a number of things in place. However, off the back of the advice we've received from the federal stimulus package, because the really important thing is for us not to be working in counter to each other, but together. So now that we have a good picture of what the federal stimulus package looks at, we can now then make our own assessments as to how best we can put our additional resources. But if you're talking about the existing arrangements, we have in New South Wales, let me assure you, we've probably spent over and above in excess of $2 to $3 billion in the last few months alone which in itself provides some level of stimulus, but clearly with the new developments will consider more arrangements as well.
JOURNALIST: [inaudible] are we going to [inaudible] travel ban to Australia?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that's not the advice that we have at present from the AHPPC. What we're saying today is that Australians should reconsider any need they have to travel overseas for non-essential travel. I think that's, given the spread of the coronavirus to so many countries now across Europe, including to the UK, the United States and throughout the world, I think this is a very common sense measure to put in place at this point. Up until this time, that has not been the advice. But, you know, even a couple of weeks ago, we were talking about the number of countries through whom the coronavirus had spread was less than 50. It's well over 100 now and more are added each and every day. And so as you see things move to a pandemic phase, then these are the sorts of measures you put in place and you do it at the right time.
Australia called the need for a response to a pandemic situation more than two weeks ago. The World Health Organisation called it yesterday. So we have been ahead of the curve on this. And what Dr. Murphy is saying today in the advice that we've had from the AHPPC is you've got to stay ahead of the curve. And it's much easier to implement what we're talking about today, which is for non-essential, organised public gatherings of 500 or more. Much easier to do that right now where the level of risk is very, very low, very low. And you can get that practice in place. People can become accustomed and used to it, because in the months ahead, that issue would become, you know, more acute and more urgent. And we will already have those arrangements in place, and whatever other measures are considered necessary.
JOURNALIST: Do you anticipate you will ban travel from Europe as the US has?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the advice we've had from the AHPPC has been not to do that. See, after a while, what happens with incoming travel is we're seeing the level of travel around the world significantly reduce. And we have moved very quickly to ban travel from areas that were most affected. Obviously, firstly, it was Hubei and then mainland China and then Iran and South Korea and Italy. Those issues, as Dr Murphy I'm sure would explain after time, have a diminished return on them. I mean, to give you an idea, when we started this process, there was about 10,000 people coming from China every day. That number today is around about 100 or less. And they are Australians and residents returning. That significantly reduces the risk of people who may be exposed to the virus coming into Australia. So what we've announced today is no different to that. If you don't have a large number of gatherings of people of more than 500, that is not essential, and that is organised, then that just reduces the amount of opportunities there are for the virus to be able to spread. So it's just quite a practical precautionary step that is a very common sense thing to do at this stage of the cycle where it is much easier to do, where the sensitivity and the acute need is very low.
DR BRENDAN MURPHY: So I think travel bans only affect non-citizens and permanent residents, and you can't stop your own citizens coming back. And most of the people now travelling to Australia are people coming home. So they're all, most of the cases were imported from Iran and there've been a number, have been Australian citizens coming back. So as the Prime Minister said when you've got well over 100 cases, if you're just putting bans on all of these countries, would do very little to stop importation because most of the importation we're seeing is Australians coming home.
JOURNALIST: Does that mean Donald Trump is wrong [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER: He's been making decisions for the United States. We'll make decisions for Australia. It's not our job to do commentaries and what other countries are doing. It's our job to protect the health of Australians, to keep Australians in jobs, to keep business in business, and to ensure that as a nation we bounce back strongly on the other side. That's what this National Cabinet is going to do.
JOURNALIST: Can I clarify what medical equipment is, you mentioned there was supply chain disruptions to medical equipment [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER: I'll ask Dr Murphy to speak to that.
DR BRENDAN MURPHY: So there is an issue with some of the consumables, a temporary issue with what are used to do the COVID-19 testing at the moment across the world. There's been a huge call on it. And so we in part in Australia, that's been precipitated by the fact that we've done a lot of testing in the last few weeks on people who probably didn't meet the testing criteria. They were worried, people who hadn't been returned travellers. So we're working through that. We're working through a new testing paradigm so that we can make sure that doctors only refer those people who have a reasonable prospect of having a positive test. And we're also working through ways to significantly improve that supply chain issue. It's a temporary issue, but it relates to the fact that a number of countries have, where these consumables are made, have probably put export controls over them to keep them for their own use and we'll work through it. We've got world leading medical technology and we will fix that issue. But it has caused a temporary issue with the scale of the testing that we can do at the moment.
JOURNALIST: Professor Murphy, does what has been announced here differ in any way to what you recommended behind closed doors? And secondly, what will be the test or the threshold for community transmission that would see mass gatherings banned rather than making a recommendation they don't go ahead?
DR BRENDAN MURPHY: So the recommendation is exactly as decided by AHPPC before I went to meet the premiers and the Prime Minister. Their recommendation is that we state that mass gatherings of 500 should be encouraged, as the Prime Minister has said, to be not proceeded with. We are going to work, as the expert advice, over the weekend to work out what the implications of that are and to give advice to governments on the finer details of that. We haven't thought that through fully yet and that work is going on and we'll be presenting that to governments. In terms of, there is no magic figure about what would precipitate further advice. One of the things we have learnt in any pandemic we learnt in the swine flu pandemic, is that every outbreak is different. It will manifest itself differently in different cities. You might take decisions in one city or state that are different from others at a particular time. There's no magic number. We have to look at the proportionate risk. That's why we meet every single day. We have met every single day for the last two months and as has the CDNA, the technical advisory group, meeting every day. So our governments expect that and they expect us to respond according to the changing circumstances.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm going to wrap it up there. Can I again, thank all of my colleagues here today? Can I thank you for your commitment to the national project here and the national task. And as I said, we'll be meeting each week as a National Cabinet to address these issues. And obviously we'll be providing further information as we make decisions and as each jurisdiction makes their own decisions in their own areas. So thank you all very much.
Address to the Nation
12 March 2020
Good evening Australia.
Tonight I want to talk to you about the global coronavirus, what it means for you and your family and what the Government is doing to see Australia through. This virus began in China and has now reached some 114 countries. More than 124,000 have contracted the virus, including 140 here in Australia. The medical experts tell us that for most Australians in good health, who contract the virus, they will experience a mild illness. That said, this virus is also highly transmissible and for those Australians whose health is more vulnerable, especially the elderly, the risk is more severe.
While this is a global health crisis, there are very real and significant economic impacts. For all of these reasons, we have been taking the Coronavirus very seriously. I want to assure you and your family tonight that while Australia, cannot and is not immune from this virus, we are well prepared and are well equipped to deal with it, and we do have a clear plan to see Australia through. Our plan has three goals.
Protect Australians’ health
Secure Australians’ jobs and livelihoods, and
Set Australia up to bounce back stronger when the crisis is over.
Firstly, to protect Australians, we were one of the first countries to recognise the seriousness of the coronavirus.
We quickly established travel bans from the most affected countries, and scaled up screening on our borders.
We evacuated Australians from virus hotspots and set up quarantine facilities
And we have funded a $2.4 billion national health response plan to
set up more than 100 pop up clinics
and to provide support for aged care
Increase funding to Public hospitals, and
boost our National Medical Stockpile of essential medicines and masks.
Secondly, to keep Australians in jobs and businesses in business we have today announced a $17.6 billion economic stimulus plan:
we’re subsidising half the wages of 117,000 apprentices in small businesses
providing one-off $750 payments to more than 6 million Australians to spend in our economy now. Almost two and half million pensioners will receive this support.
there’s direct cash support of up to $25,000 for small and medium sized business that employ over seven million Australians, to boost their cash flow
And we’re backing businesses to keep investing by increasing tax incentives to help them buy new equipment now.
And thirdly, once the virus has run its course, we are making sure Australia can bounce back strongly. For the most affected regions and industries, like tourism and Upper North Queensland, there is a special $1 billion fund to support targeted local recovery plans. And as our economy bounces back, which it will, so will our Budget, because we have not loaded up spending off into the future. We can take this action now because we have worked hard to bring the budget back into balance, to maintain our AAA credit rating and work with State Governments to provide a world-class health system.
Now I know, many Australians are anxious about this and we still have a long way to go. But be assured we are taking action and we have a clear plan.
The months ahead will present many challenges, and we will respond to them. We will continue to keep you updated and take decisions based on the best possible medical advice. And if you have questions please visit health.gov.au or talk to your local GP.
We’ll get through this together Australia. We all have a role to play. Employers, nurses, doctors, teachers, scientists, friends, family and neighbours. I know we’ll all do our bit.
Thank you for listening tonight and good night Australia.
Press Conference - Canberra, ACT
12 March 2020
PRIME MINISTER: Well good morning, everyone. Jobs. Australians in jobs. This is something our government has had, and continues to have, a vibrant passion for. More than one and a half million jobs have been created over the last six years or so since we first came to government. Our policies are designed to get people in jobs, to get young people into jobs. People as they move through the years, and they go even in the older years, getting them into jobs, as careers change and transition. Jobs provide people with choice. Jobs are just so important. And as we confront the challenges of the Coronavirus, as its impact is felt, not just here in Australia, but around the world, jobs are so important as part of our plan to ensure Australia moves through these difficult months ahead. Yesterday I was here with the Health Minister and we announced and outlined our plans to deal with the health challenges associated with dealing with the Coronavirus, some $2.4 billion, in a series of well-thought through measures dealing with everything from the needs of remote Indigenous communities, to the pop-up clinics, and the testing procedures and facilities that were available. It is a health crisis, but it's a health crisis with very significant economic impacts. We set this out very clearly two weeks ago, when as a Government, I stood here in this courtyard and said we were preparing for pandemic. Today, the World Health Organization has made that declaration. We called that two weeks ago. Back in January, we also called the Coronavirus as an issue that warranted and needed our very careful attention. And ever since that time, we have been planning, preparing and responding with the travel bans and the other actions that the Government has taken. But the fiscal stimulus that would be necessary, and is necessary, to deal with the economic challenges that the country will face in the months ahead has been an important part of our plan for Australia to move through the challenges of the Coronavirus in the months ahead. This plan is about keeping Australians in jobs. This plan is about keeping a business in business, particularly small and medium sized businesses, and this plan is about ensuring the Australian economy bounces back stronger on the other side of it, and with that, the Budget bounces back with it. Today, we're announcing a series of measures. Those measures are designed to achieve those outcomes. They are heavily focussed on understanding that it is businesses that keep people in jobs. And those businesses will confront challenges when it comes to cash flow and and demand impacts, particularly in the short term that need to be addressed by this package. I'm going to ask the Treasurer to go through the specific measures, but to say that simply that this package over the course of the Budget and the Forward Estimates will inject some $17.629 billion into the Australian economy in a series of measures which are designed to support cash flow, boost investment and provide immediate demand stimulus to the Australian economy. More specifically, both this financial year and in the next two financial years, the gross impact of that stimulus is $22.9 billion - that's 1.2 per cent of GDP. This is a significant investment. We have taken the decision to put this stimulus in place that has the obvious impact on the Budget outcome for 2019-20. And Australians understand that, Australians know that this needs to be the priority, and our Government agrees with that priority. And that's why we've taken the decision to put these measures in place. The measures deal with supercharging the instant asset right off, backing business investment with an accelerated depreciation scheme, which the Treasurer will work through. A cash flow boost for employers, this is small and medium sized employers and making sure that they can get grants for up to $25,000, and that will support some 690,000 businesses across Australia. Wage assistance for apprentices and trainees, 117,000 apprentices who are out there on the tools today will be getting the support of that payment to their employers to keep them in their apprenticeship, and that that support will run over a period of nine months. Households will receive a stimulus payment of $750 right across the full gambit of those who receive all sorts of benefit payments. The biggest beneficiaries of that will be pensioners, and they comprise around half of those who will receive those payments. But they also will be extended to those in family tax benefits, which obviously goes to those in earning households. And there will be a coronavirus regional and community fund. There are businesses across this country that will be more impacted than most and there will be regions and communities across this country that will be more impacted than others. Those in particular are in more remote areas. Those who are particularly exposed when it comes to the external sector of our economy; the tourism sector, the travel sector, parts of our export sector, in cray fishing, in places where that is a predominant activity and there is a significant exposure. We’ll be establishing a one billion fund, which will be led by the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, Minister Birmingham. And that will include things like waiving marine park fees and national park fees at Kakadu and other places. But these will be targeted measures and I'll be looking forward to discussing that fund with the Premiers and Chief Ministers when we meet together tomorrow. Everyone has a role to play here, to get us through this. I particularly want to acknowledge the way big business have responded over the course of this week.
You've heard me referred to what Qantas has done and what the banks did to pass through the rate cut. Yesterday, I was advised that Telstra are also going to be supporting their casual employees, should they be in a position where they're affected by Coronavirus or self-isolation. I also want to provide this assurance to Australians, already under our welfare system, a casual employee who would be impacted by the coronavirus and for medical reasons, who would need to self-isolate or indeed contracted the coronavirus, and would not be able to work, they can access what is currently called the Sickness Payment. That payment is going through a change of name, but it's the same payment. And what we'll be doing is waiving the waiting period for people to access that, what is currently called the Sickness Payment, will be called the Jobseeker Payment, but it is a Newstart level payment. And people who are casual employees that wouldn't be able to go to work or because they have to self isolate or indeed have the virus, they would be able to access that payment. The normal assets test rules apply to those as they do to these payments, but the waiting period will be waived to enable them to access that payment. And that will provide that support. Many other countries don't have that in their system. I note that the UK has made some announcements on that. We already have a system that deals with that and we're going to make sure that that payment is more readily able to be supported. The Treasurer and I have also indicated today that there's been changes to the deeming rates, that is not technically part of the stimulus package, that is a response to the early decision by the Reserve Bank. But that will also, I think, come at a welcome time for the arrangements we've put in place to date. So it is a comprehensive package. It's one that we, we believe, is well-targeted. Importantly, these measures do not extend beyond the 30th of June next year. And that means that gives the the Budget and the economy the opportunity on the other side to ensure that we can bounce back strongly. How long the virus runs for, well that is a matter that is still, scientists and health professionals are advising us on. But it does have a finite life. There is another side to going through this issue, and it will be stronger on the other side, and the global economy will recover on the other side. And the Treasurer and I, and the Government, want to be in the best possible position for our businesses, holding onto their employees, ensuring they're continuing to train up, ensuring that they are maintaining their investment plans, because on the other side, they're going to do well. And we're going do everything we can to ensure their best positioned to bounce back strongly on the other side. Thanks, Josh.
THE HON. JOSH FRYDENBERG MP, TREASURER: Well thank you, Prime Minister. This is a substantial package in response to a significant economic challenge. The package is designed to support confidence, to encourage investment and to keep Australians in a job. The package is worth $17.6 billion, $11 billion of which will go out the door before June 30th. And as the Prime Minister said, this is on top of the recent health package, which we announced of $2.4 billion in measures.
Importantly, $3 out of every $4 spent will go to backing business and keeping Australians in a job. $3 out of $4 being spent is going to backing business and keeping Australians in jobs. There are six key measures. Each measure is temporary. Each measure is targeted. And each measure is proportionate to the challenge that we face. There are two measures that are directly supporting investment. Both measures apply from today and to 99 per cent of Australian businesses, namely those with a turnover of up to $500 million. The first is an increase in the instant asset write off from $30,000 to $150,000. Any such purchase from now until the 30th of June, including a truck, a tractor, a shop fitout, can be written off immediately.
The second is a 50 per cent accelerated depreciation deduction over and above what businesses can already deduct in the first year and is available for 15 months to the 30th of June 2021. These two measures cost $3.9 billion over the Forward Estimates and are designed to keep Australian businesses investing, as well as rewarding them for investing more. We want to keep Australian businesses investing and we want to reward Australian businesses for investing even more. There are two measures that are designed to boost cash flow to small and medium sized employers. The first is a payment of up to $25,000 to businesses that employ people and have a turnover of up to $50 million. The payment will be delivered automatically through the tax system, so no new forms will be required. And these payments are tax free, so they'll be delivered automatically, and these payments are tax free. The second is a 50 percent wage subsidy for apprentices and trainees in businesses with less than 20 employees. Employers will receive up to $21,00 per apprentices and 117,000 apprentices will have additional job security as a consequence of this measure. These two measures, which cost around $8 billion, are designed to keep businesses in business and Australians in a job. The Government will also deliver a one-off stimulus payment to households with six and a half million Australians receiving a payment of $750. This includes recipients on Newstart, the Disability Support Pension, Carers Allowance, Youth Allowance, Veterans Support Payments, Family Tax benefits, the Commonwealth Senior Health Card Holders, and 2.4 million aged pensioners. This one-off payment, which cost $4.8 billion will flow automatically from the 31st of March and provide additional income to millions of Australians that will be spent across the economy. A new regional and community support fund is also being established with an initial allocation of $1 billion. And this will be designed to target those areas and provide assistance that are most heavily affected by the spread of the Coronavirus. This will include the waiver of certain fees and charges for tourism businesses operating in Commonwealth National Parks and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, increasing domestic tourism promotion and additional assistance through Austrade to help identify alternative export markets and address supply chain breakdowns. As occurred with the bushfires, the ATO will also be providing relief for those significantly affected with the deferral of various tax obligations by up to four months. In addition, as the Prime Minister foreshadowed, in addition to the stimulus package, the Government is lowering the deeming rates at a cost of $600 million to reflect the recent changes in interest rates. Both the lower and the upper deeming rates will be reduced by half a percentage point, benefiting around 900,000 Australians, including 560,000 age pensioners.
These are challenging times, but the Australian people and the Australian economy are up to this challenge. Our economy has continued to grow and our economy remains resilient. The genesis of this economic shock was outside of our control, but our response is not. And our disciplined and careful budget and economic management over the last six and a half years has put us in a position that we now have the fiscal flexibility, we now have the financial firepower, to respond to this economic shock. This package of measures is both substantial and considered, and it stays ahead, it assures Australia stays ahead of this global challenge as it does continue to unfold.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, Josh. Kieran.
JOURNALIST: Will this package be enough to save the nation from recession?
PRIME MINISTER: We have worked carefully Kieran, to make sure that we have got a proportionate response here to meet the challenge. Now, this is, as I said 1.2 per cent of GDP. To give you some comparison, when the initial stimulus was done for the GFC many years ago, those payments equated to some 0.88 per cent of GDP in that first package, which, as you know, was supported by the Coalition. And that used quite similar measures in that first stimulus. It was payments through the payment system. That was 0.88 per cent of GDP. The difference with this package is A. about $3 out of $4 of what's going into this is, is actually going into business cash flow. It's going into keeping people in work. It's going into ensuring that investment continues to be made in the economy with purchasing of new equipment, and the wheels of the economy turning. This is, I think, a key difference, is that we understand that for the Australian economy to continue to move forward, businesses need to continue to go forward and do what they do each day. But that also requires the support of a demand stimulus as well that is effectively and very efficiently delivered. And that's what the $4.6 billion payment is doing, sorry $4.7 billion payment is doing. And it's going through to those people, which we know from past experience, are most likely to churn that into the economy quite quickly.
So as Josh said, we can't control the source of this problem, being the Coronavirus, which has come from elsewhere, but we can control our response. This response, as I've said as a key principle, is also scalable. The Budget will be in two months time. We believe these measures are the measures that can do the job and we will continue to monitor events as we go forward. But we've, we got ahead of this early. We've worked very hard to stay ahead and that challenge grows each and every day. And I think Australians are really starting to come to terms of what the economic implications of this are. I believe very strongly that they will support our decision to actually make this stimulus the priority at this time for the Australian economy, because it's about their jobs, their livelihoods, and it's also about their future, because on the other side of this, we will bounce back stronger. Mark.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the Budget now is obviously back in the red. What's your promise on a surplus? When will Australia see one?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we’ll update the Budget when it's handed down in a couple of months time - But hang on. Can I answer Mark's question? The Budget is obviously updated in May, Mark. And what we need to look carefully at over the next few years is how the broader global impacts will impact on the Australian economy out over the next three or four years. But importantly these measures are designed to ensure that at the end of this next financial year, then there is actually a positive impact that comes from the bring forward of expenditure on accelerated depreciation. So we have positive impacts on the Budget in 2022-23 of $1.6 billion based on this and $3.7 (billion) in 2023-24. The way we have designed this stimulus is to ensure that it doesn't have a fiscal hangover down the track, that it doesn't bury the Budget for a decade. This is all designed to put the stimulus in now, in a very efficient and effective way to deal with the problems that are here and now, and I've got to say, problems that we know to be the issue here in Australia. We're not looking to cut and paste from people's problems in other economies. This is based on our diagnosis of what is happening in the Australian economy and the best way to deal with it. Lanai.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister given the level of panic around coronavirus, how can you ensure that people will actually spend their $750, rather than just banking it?
PRIME MINISTER: I believe their common sense is if they’ve demonstrated in the wake and in response to previous situations like this sort of speaks for itself. I mean, the advice that we have on this has been proven by these experiences in the past. I think what's important is Australians go about their business, is that they know and they can see through what we've announced today, that this is a very comprehensive, a very well thought through, a well-targeted plan, which is designed to support the Australian economy and jobs and businesses through the difficult months ahead. And in addition, the health plan that we've announced, and the support we're providing to the states, so people can go about their lives in response to the Coronavirus, can give them that confidence. This is a very clear plan to see us through. And the plan is based on Australians also working together. We all have a role to play, whether it's the Commonwealth Government. I'm looking forward to discussing these measures with the states tomorrow and looking forward to their responses as to what they would do in addition to this. With this information, they can now add to this with their own plans. But the health side of this is also critically important. The health plan, working together with the economic plan, I think can give Australians the confidence they're seeking. Phil.
JOURNALIST: The payments to the welfare top-ups are going out at the start of the June quarter. Is that a recognition that the March quarter is cooked or that the June quarter is what the focus is on now? And could you just explain how the $17.6 billion becomes 20 -
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, sure.
JOURNALIST: ...I think 22, or whatever it was over ...?
PRIME MINISTER: Well and Josh you could do that as well, I mean, but it's $22.9 billion for 19-20, 20-21 and 21-22. Now, that includes some $9.2 billion in fiscal impacts of the instant asset write off and the backing business investment measures. And when you bring forward investment, if you're writing that off, investment, a lot quicker, then obviously you can't be making depreciation deductions for the same investment 3 years from now. And so we're bringing forward the benefit of those depreciation, those tax measures to businesses now, that means down the track when the economy is improving, then we can expect to see some improvement. And that's the difference between the two. It's the timing issue of the impact of the depreciation and the instant asset write off measures. But Josh did you want to have a go?
TREASURER: Well, Prime Minister, I mean, the money will start to flow to these households from the 31st of March, $750 going to 6.5 million Australians, Australians who are on Newstart, Australians who are on the carer's allowance, Australians who are getting family tax benefit. These-
PRIME MINISTER: Commonwealth Seniors Health Card.
TREASURER: Commonwealth Senior Health Card holders. 6.5 million Australians will be getting a check for $750. Now, it's not for us to tell those Australians how to spend their money, but what we do know from experience is that they will spend that money and that money will encourage economic activity. And the more economic activity that we see through the June quarter in particular will be important, because in the June quarter, just as we've seen in the March quarter, the spread of the Coronavirus has had an impact, has had an impact across the economy. It's disrupted, end to end supply chains. It's obviously had an impact on the tourism sector, on the international education sector and more broadly.
PRIME MINISTER: The cash payments, the cash payments have two purposes. And they're both important. Of course, those who receive it, that is obviously a benefit to them. But but more importantly, frankly, it is about a cash injection into the Australian economy, which supports small businesses and supports medium businesses. So the cash payment works together with the cash flow support that we're putting in to small businesses. And that in turn supports the jobs, which means people can continue to participate positively in the economy and have greater confidence going forward. Katherine?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister can you explain a little more about how this fund for tourism and other businesses work, do people have to apply for it? Are there particular criteria around what people can apply for it or not? I just don't understand how it works?
PRIME MINISTER: This fund is one that we will have to work through with the states and territories. I'm not saying that means it's a dollar for dollar fund, I'm, what I'm saying is that there's a lot of work being done at the moment to identify those areas which are most critically impacted. And look, and this is an unfolding story day by day. We're obviously concerned about the impact in places like north Queensland, for example, and that's why we've made the decisions on things like the marine park fees and things of that nature. What we envisage is that the same type of assistance that you've seen provided in the most affected bushfire areas. And there is a range of grants and other payments that have been paid into those environments. In those circumstances, then we would look at how those same types of grants and supports could be provided in to designated areas that are more affected as a result of this Coronavirus. Now, on top of that, as the Treasurer has said, there's things like domestic tourism promotion and things of that nature. And so far, at least in relation to the bushfires, we've seen some positive results from that investment we did out of the National Bushfire Recovery Fund. So it is applying a similar type of process that you would see in a disaster recovery arrangement, being applied in specific areas that are particularly affected, but that has to be properly defined. I want to work closely with the states and territories on that because there are measures that I'm sure they would be looking at in their more affected areas. It's creating a fund to draw those initiatives out of and for them to find, particularly working in close consultation with those sectors themself. I mean, Geraldton, that's where that's where the crayfish are exported to Chinese restaurants in China. They've obviously had a big impact on on that town and on that sector. Now, Austrade has already been working with them to try and diversify their markets, to get their product into other places. But they're also impacted by the fact that there are fewer planes going between Australia and China and you need the bellies of the planes to put the crayfish in. So that means that we're going to need quite targeted plans working closely with people on the ground. And this billion dollar fund is creating the resource to fund those initiatives. It works different to the others. It has less of an immediate stimulatory impact. And that's why it is talked about as a community fund. It's about relief, but it is also about recovery.
JOURNALIST: Treasurer, the Reserve Bank Governor, had an urgent meeting with central bankers from around the world into the early hours of this morning, do your concerns around the ineffectiveness of lower interest rates bear much on the size of the stimulus that you're announcing today?
TREASURER: Well, I think one important aspect of all of this is the alignment between monetary and fiscal policy. And that's really important because as the Prime Minister said, this is a $17.6 billion package, the bulk of which is going out the door before June 30. And we did welcome the fact that the interest rates were passed on by the banks. I've spoken to Phil Lowe actually today and he continues to watch very closely what's happening with debt yields. What's happening with bond yields, what's happening with credit spreads, what's happening with liquidity in global markets. He's made some comments about that. And obviously, monetary policy is the is the remit of the independent Reserve Bank of Australia. But I think it's important to understand that this is very different to the GFC in a number of respects. This is not a financial system problem. This is not a liquidity crisis. This is a health crisis. But one of the other differences is that with the GFC, there was a lot more room with monetary policy to respond, this time monetary policy globally is pretty much exhausted, and we did see the Bank of England substantially reduce their rates down to I think a quarter of a per cent overnight. So it's a different situation. But there is an alignment between this government and the Reserve Bank about getting money out the door to support jobs and growth.
PRIME MINISTER: David.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you said you believe this will do the job. Is the job to avoid a recession? And is the advice of Treasury that this is enough to avoid a recession?
PRIME MINISTER: The job is what I outlined when I stood here with the Treasurer just 10 minutes ago, and that is to ensure that we keep Australians in jobs, that we keep businesses in business, and that we ensure the Australian economy is a position to bounce back strongly on the other side. That is the task. That's what we've designed this package to do. If more is required, more will be done. And we'll watch that closely like you do with any plan and you get the best information and you continue to make good decisions. I think we've made some very good decisions here. And this boost, as I said, 1.2 per cent of GDP, particularly in the initial phase. And even stronger than that actually this year as you look at, it was about $11 billion going out the door effectively by the 30th of June. That's when it's needed. This is very front end loaded. It's done that, we've done that on purpose because, you know, we anticipate that particularly over the next three months or so, then that's when we're really going to see the most significant impacts of the Coronavirus. Now, the medical advice may extend that, and and we will address that in due course. But take the apprentice's measure, for example, the apprentice's measure that is going to support people who are an apprentice on the 1st of March and they will get a backdated payment from having that apprentice in in in work from the 1st of January. And that will run out over a nine month period, which takes us to the end of September. Now that's a pretty significant period of time. And I think if you're a young apprentice at work today, I think you're gonna feel a lot better about that. And if one of them is one of your kids, you're going to feel a lot better about that. I've got a nephew who works as an apprentice for a plumber down in the Shire. And, you know, Warren or Wazza as he’s known, he he has a small business. It's a plumbing business. And I think it's great that small businesses take on apprentices. And at a time like this, the best way for me and the government to thank those small and medium sized businesses for those decisions is to back their decision to back these apprentices.
JOURNALIST: Is Treasury telling you they reckon this will stop the recession?
TREASURER: Well what, David, we've done throughout this process and the Prime Minister has been very focussed on having a considered response, not rushing out a response. We've been working on this for a couple of weeks. And in that process, we've been working very closely with Treasury and taking their their best advice. Their preliminary estimate is that this $11 billion dollars of injection of funds through to June 30 could add up to 1.5 per cent to growth to GDP, to GDP in that June- in that June quarter. But of course, the unknown is how does the virus evolve from here? And you heard from the Deputy Governor of the RBA just yesterday, I think, to to the to the conference at the AFR, he said it's too early to be definitive about what the impact is on the June quarter from the evolving impact of the virus. Now, that's also Treasury's view. But what we have done here is to put a significant amount of money into the economy, to support businesses, to support jobs and to support people with those cash payments.
PRIME MINISTER: Sarah.
JOURNALIST: Can I just clarify, when you say more is required, the Government is prepared to spend as much as necessary to avoid Australia falling into recession?
PRIME MINISTER: The government will always engage in responsible financial and economic management. And if we believe that what is in the interest of the Australian economy, which is why we're investing 1.2 per cent of GDP in this package over the next couple of years, then they’re the actions that will take but we will always be measured about it. This package wasn't sort of cobbled together over a weekend in response to events, two weeks ago I said that we would need to have a fiscal package and we've carefully gone about the work and it has been an exhaustive process over the last couple of weeks. And there are plenty of ideas as to how you might do this. And, but you've got to test them all, and you, and the tests that we set for this package were very strong. And one of the most important was, not coming up with, you know, fancy new schemes that would have to be set up with application forms and there'd be integrity issues and they had the potential to spin off into all sorts of directions. That would have been a very careless action and a reckless action. We knew that the package would need to have a significant volume to it. As you've, you can see here in what we've announced today, but it also needed to be carefully targeted and designed and we've taken the time to get that right and we will continue to monitor this situation every day. And the Budget, as I said, is in two months time and we'll continue to to be working on these issues and we'll continue to take the responses in the best interests of Australian jobs. I've got to share it around a bit Kieran,
JOURNALIST: Can you explain how the cash flow payments to businesses that employ workers. How will that help the 1.5 million sole traders, small businesses that don't employ anyone?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we're focussed on businesses that actually employ people. We're not making, we're not making any sort of bones about that. We're supporting some 690,000 businesses that employ Australians. And because, as I said, it's about keeping Australians in work. That's what it's about. It, and what the $4.7 billion dollars of demand stimulus that's going into the economy is going to be supporting sole trader businesses. That's what it's there for. It's designed to actually improve the cash flow that is going in the economy and that, of course, supports those sorts of businesses. On top of that, the instant asset write off is equally applied to those sole traders as well. In addition to that, though, so is the 50 per cent write off rates that we've put in place for all those businesses, but the cash flow boost we're targeting towards businesses that employ people because our goal is to keep people in work. Shane.
JOURNALIST: On the instant asset right off, you've both mentioned that there's a supply shock to the economy. How will a business get capital equipment out of China, South Korea, Japan, which is almost all where our capital equipment comes from? Is there a problem there that you might run into that the businesses themselves may not be able to get the capital in to take advantage of the..?
TREASURER: So working through this with Treasury, obviously there are inventories that are in existence. And so this will, car dealers will have cars to be sold today and people will go out and buy them now and write them off directly. The other bit of good news is that we're hearing from particularly Australian businesses who have got a presence in China that people are starting to get back to work, now that's more so outside of Wuhan, of course but you know, talking to some Australian business-
PRIME MINISTER: And including in Wuhan for some businesses.
TREASURER: Yeah, exactly. But talking to some Australian businesses with thousands of employees in China, are talking about having 95 to 97 per cent of their workers now back into the factories and supply chains starting to pick up. So I don't want to understate the significance of the disruption to supply chains, but I also want to point out that there are some positive signs that are coming out now out of China, as people get back to work.
PRIME MINISTER: On the instant asset write off too I’d note this, I mean, of the many things that have happened over the last few months, which have been, you know, very hard for Australians. One of the things that has been a bright spot in the last couple of weeks has been what we've seen with rainfall in the areas that have needed it to and the fact that people are going to be putting in winter crops, there’s a lot of activity that goes around putting in a winter crop and you've had drought affected farmers, that just wouldn't have been a position to take on I think some of those investments, they're now looking forward and they're now looking forward at that activity. And I'm looking forward to seeing some of this, really supporting those drought affected communities that finally have a have a bright spot on the horizon and now this comes where they can write up $150,000 per item and get it done as they're seeking to get these crops in. And that's that's contractors coming and working with them, this is this is a welcome, a welcome development and for people, frankly, who've been doing it so incredibly hard, it's just so pleasing. They sent me a picture from Quilpie up at the Tully's property where I was at, you’ll all remember, it was a dust bowl when I was there and it is now green, and they promised me it would be green again. And so to all of those out in rural and regional communities which are looking out on a very different landscape today. We are so pleased for you. Yeah John.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the Treasurer's just said that this package in the June quarter alone, Treasury expects, will add about 1.5 per cent of GDP to the economy. So by admission, that must be about the approximate estimate that Treasury must think that is going to be detracted from growth from the Coronavirus?
TREASURER: Well, John, it's very -
PRIME MINISTER: That’s quite a leap John. Nice try though.
TREASURER: It's unclear, to be honest. It's unclear what the full impact will be in in the June quarter from the spread of the Coronavirus. This thing is developing you know, quite quickly, obviously. And so this is obviously a very substantial package. And if you look at $11 billion dollars, that's equivalent to just over 2 per cent of of GDP in that quarter.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, just on casuals. Are you confident that Centrelink is actually going to be able to handle all of those requests if people do get sick? And what is the timeframe once people have to go into quarantine or stay home from work, what's the timeframe they're actually going get that money from Centrelink on those sickness payments?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, what we're doing is we're waiving the waiting period. There's the normal processing timeframe, which the Minister for Government Services tells me is about five days in terms of the processing time and that would apply for someone going on to Newstart or anything like this.
JOURNALIST: [inaudible]
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm saying it's about a 5 day period for processing in order, you put your application in, and then it takes about five days, I'm told, by the Minister for Government Services. Now, previously there was a waiting period that you would have to wait out and then make that application. We'll be waiving that waiting period and that will be applied to waiving that for Newstart as well, by the way, for those who find themselves in a position of having to access Newstart. But this is a good element of our system. I mean, there are many other countries in the world that don't have this, and I can understand the concern that casual employees would have had. I'm encouraged by the early response from large businesses, and I would hope other large businesses will follow the lead of Telstra, and I suspect they will from some of the some of the messages that I've had. But the government will be doing its bit by supporting that program and waiving the waiting periods to provide that support at the Newstart rate. Just behind you, Michelle, and then we'll come to you.
JOURNALIST: South Australia has already announced $350 million dollars as a stimulus package. Do you expect this level of investment from all of the states, and it's based on a construction agenda so is this the kind of projects you hope all the states will invest in?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm not surprised at the leadership of Steven Marshall and the South Australian government, he's always been on the front foot on these issues. And and I commend him for that. And I have no doubt that when the Premiers and Chief Ministers gather tonight, as we do for our traditional dinner before the COAG meeting, this will be the topic of conversation. I spoke to all the Premiers and Chief Ministers last weekend as we were preparing these, these packages. And nothing in here is being done on a dollar for dollar basis. What we're doing here, fully funded by the Commonwealth, fully administered by the Commonwealth. This is us doing the heavy lifting when it comes to addressing the the the the real tough months ahead when it comes for the Australian economy and businesses. But I would expect that state governments would be looking at what they can do to complement that, and I think that's what businesses and and their own citizens in their states would be expecting them to do, so a big shout out to Steve Marshall for the message- for the measures he's already taken. I'd also note that in Queensland was it about a week ago, they announced they would have a payroll tax deferral. That's not a payroll tax relief, by the way. You just still got to to pay the money, and what we've done with our measure, which effectively is like a payroll tax type of relief, is to provide them with an actual grant. And so that's tax they won't have to pay. And where we can give greater support to small and medium sized businesses than that does two things, it keeps people in jobs and it keeps businesses in business. And I'll be looking forward to working with the states. This is this is a time to work together. Michelle?
JOURNALIST: One of the features of this crisis, distinctive features, is that a whole lot of activities and events are going to be cancelled for health reasons and we're starting to see that. Do you have any forecasts of how extensive the effect of that could be? And do you have any advice to those looking to whether events should go ahead or should not go ahead?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's very simple. You follow the health advice. I'm going to the footy this weekend and I'm looking forward to it. And I'm sure many Australians would. And I encourage you to, unless you're ill and unless there's reason that with your own, if you're in self isolation for medical reasons or you're actually ill, that I wouldn't suggest you go. But the health advice is not for that to happen at this point.
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible]
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the organisers should take the health advice both from their state health officers and that is available and certainly at a Commonwealth level. Then Dr Murphy has been providing advice on those issues and there have been no suggestions from those body of health advisers for that to occur at this point. Now, we can't know the future and at, if at some point in the future the health advice were to change then I'm sure they'd give that advice. But right now, I would continue to say I think there's 120 odd people who have contracted the Coronavirus in Australia. About a fifth of those have already cleared the virus and almost half are close to clearing the virus. Those numbers are low compared to what we're seeing in other countries. But that's not to say it'll stay that way. But as Dr Murphy has said on numerous occasions, for most Australians who might contract Coronavirus, then they are likely to have a mild effect from that virus. Those who are more at risk, of course are the elderly, particularly those who are in aged care facilities and potentially those in remote indigenous communities. And that's why we put in place the health measures that I announced yesterday. But I think, Michelle, it's it's helpful not to speculate until things are known. And at this point, the health advice is not ad vising that. But obviously down the track, depending on how events unfold, then that advice might prove to event organisers having different plans.
JOURNALIST: When you declared the Government, when you declared the budget was back in black, do you believe maybe you were counting your chickens before they hatched?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, which of you understood the Coronavirus was going to occur when we handed down the Budget last year? A quick show of heads, of course of course, no one did.
JOURNALIST: [inaudible] Labor after GFC?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, let's be clear about what happened with Labor's 4 ‘surpluses we announced tonight’. That was in 2012. The GFC had passed, Labor promised 4 surpluses based on an iron ore price of US $180 a tonne, forever. They didn't achieve a surplus because their forecasting and their estimates and the construction of their Budget was flawed. What is occurring here is the government has made a clear choice, having brought the Budget back to balance, which was demonstrated in the mid-year statement, and the mid-year statement showed even with more conservative forecasts that we were on track. We were right on track. And the coronavirus has had the obvious impact and it has required the decision the Government has taken to put in place this significant economic stimulus. And I believe Australians agree with those priorities. We will always do what is right for the Australian economy. What is always right for the Australian people, their health, their wellbeing, their livelihoods. And to ensure that whatever we face as a country, we will always bounce back stronger.
Thank you all very much.
Press Conference - Canberra, ACT
11 March 2020
PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, everyone.
I said yesterday, in 2020 is one focus: the health and wellbeing of Australians, their livelihoods, their jobs and ensuring that Australia bounces back better on the other side. That's our focus. That's what the Government is intently been working on. From the outset, back in January we moved to get ahead. We've been working hard to stay ahead, and it's important that we keep our heads as well when it comes to how we're addressing these issues. Every Australian has a role to play, whether you’re in a government, federal, state, local, whether you're an employer, whether you're an employee, wherever you happen to be. We all have a role to play. To stay together, work together, to work through this very challenging time. And importantly, on the other side, because there is another side, that we bounce back stronger than ever. The health response has always been our first response to the COVID-10 crisis that has been enveloping the world. It's a health crisis. It's a health contagion. It's a virus. And that's the first thing that around the world countries are working hard to address and to ensure that the health responses are in place to support our people. There are many other implications of this and the economic consequences of this are very serious, as I've already outlined on numerous occasions. And tomorrow the Treasurer and I will be making announcements in relation to that response. But today it is to outline the first response, which is always on the issue of our health preparedness and what we're putting in place to protect people's health. Today, $2.4 billion is being committed in substantively demand-driven programs to support the health and wellbeing of Australians. Just under $1.2 billion of that will actually, we anticipate, be spent this financial year, particularly as the virus and its impacts ramp up in the months ahead. That health response covers the areas of primary care, support in aged care, support in the hospital system, which I announced last week with the Health Minister, that $500 million in shared support with the states and territories matched 50/50, which the Premiers and I and Chief Ministers will be discussing again on Friday. And investing in research, everything from telehealth to testing, to clinics, hotlines, ensuring people can get access to the medicines, ensuring importantly that the most vulnerable parts of our community are very much in our attention and that not just means those who are elderly or frail and in care facilities, but those who are in remote parts of the country, particularly those in Indigenous communities. And there are specific measures that we're announcing today that go to those issues.
We have a world-class health system. That is one of our great advantages. We have an economy and we have a balance sheet that enables us to address this crisis, both in terms of providing for the health response as well as the many other responses, in particular the response that is needed to address the challenges in our economy. Of course, this system will come under stress and it will come under strain. That is to be expected. These will not be usual times and usual demands on our health system. And so I anticipate there will be times where that will come under great stress. That is not a reason for alarm or concern, because a plan and the resource and the preparedness and the professionalism of our health system will attend to those needs. And so it's important that as we go through the months that are ahead, that we all have confidence in that plan. I have great confidence in those, particularly, obviously, Dr. Murphy, and the tremendous advice that he’s provided, together with all of his state and territory colleagues over these many weeks now. The state governments are also very focussed on this, the Premiers, the Health Ministers, of course our Cabinet led in the health area by Greg Hunt is doing exactly the same thing. It doesn't mean there won't be stresses and strains. It won't mean there won't be difficult times or days, and waiting from time to time. But the surging of these resources into our health system, some 2.4 billion. And as I said, the majority of this is demand-driven. And that means if the demand is greater than the resource will be provided.
One other point I'd make today is we received advice from the AHPPC today regarding Iran and sorry, regarding Italy. And that advice is that the situation in Italy is now commensurate with the other countries where we've previously had travel bans put in place. And so we'll be extending that travel ban to Italy now. That ban will come into effect at 6PM this evening. That's what Border Force has advised me. And effectively though, I think it's important not to overstate this, I mean, Italy itself has effectively put itself into lockdown with travel now, and this largely closes that loop. We already had the enhanced screening measures that are in place. This of course will mean that any Australians, residents or others who are obviously exempt from those travel bans, would be subject to the same 14-day isolation period that applies to the other countries for which there are travel bans. So health first. That's always been our focus. This is a health crisis. We have to address the health issues and that's what this package of measures is designed to do today. I’ll hand you over to Greg and then to Brendan.
THE HON. GREG HUNT MP, MINISTER FOR HEALTH: Thanks very much, Prime Minister and Brendan. Today's package is the next step in supporting and protecting the health of Australians. It flows from the medical advice and it's designed to cover the four pillars of the Australian health system: primary care, the aged care system, the hospital system and research; as well as providing national support underneath all of those. In terms of the primary care system, it's a $615 million package, but as the Prime Minister said, uncapped in its elements. And that is focussed on expanding the capacity of people to have treatment, diagnosis and testing. And at present, people ordinarily have access to their General Practice or to the Emergency Department at a hospital for those in more serious circumstances. This is adding to that existing capacity. And so in particular, we will be creating a Medicare telehealth item. What that means is that you will be able to get telehealth for coronavirus patients up through, from the home. And by being able to get telehealth from the home, it both deals with the situation of patients who are isolated, but it also protects the health system. There will in fact be two groups who can qualify for this. Those that are in isolation, but also on the medical advice, those that do not have coronavirus, but are vulnerable patients. And I think this was a very important piece of advice that came out of the primary care roundtable last week by working with the medical community. They were able to give us that additional advice, and Brendan, I want to thank you and everybody involved in that, and that means for our elderly, for Indigenous Australians over the age of 50, elderly over the age of 70, for people with chronic conditions, and either pregnant mums or parents with young children who are isolated at home, they can also receive advice over the phone. That means that they don't necessarily have to go into a General Practice or hospital environment if they are immune-compromised.
The next thing is, of course, we'll be expanding the respiratory clinics, so these are what are sometimes called pop-up clinics. They will be there in addition to the General Practice, the Emergency Department and the telehealth. Just over $200 million will be provided, but if more is needed, more will be provided, and that is to develop 100 clinics across the country. And in addition to that, there will be many General Practices that simply seek to have a drive through or another entrance and we'll be able to assist them as well. So we're expanding the ways in which people can seek assistance to make it easy for people and to support our magnificent, magnificent doctors and nurses.
We're also creating a new Medicare pathology test, that's a specific test for coronavirus. It will be delivered in conjunction with the flu tests. So it will add approximately $170 million of support, again that's uncapped, and that will include both the capacity for individuals to be given those tests on the advice of medical professionals and we will be testing in aged care homes. And so these two things come together to provide that maximum support. We've spoken with the pathology companies overnight and that's been very well received. Upgrading of the national hotline up provision of home medicine services, which is an important system, I mean we're expanding that capacity and that will assist people who are isolated. And then also remote community preparedness and retrieval, where you might have an Indigenous community, for example, where if the virus were to break out, we have the capacity to treat, and to transport, and then to assist. And so those are extremely important things. In aged care, we'll be providing additional workforce support of just over $100 million. That's to ensure if there are temporary shortages or additional costs over and above those which they would ordinarily have. The hospitals, the Prime Minister announced last Thursday, of a 50/50 share with the states on their in-hospital coronavirus-related health activities and their public health and related activities in the community.
In terms of research, we will invest $30 million in research into vaccines, antivirals and immunotherapy or respiratory treatments - that's a very important step, and we'll be working with the research community on that. And then finally, we'll be investing over a billion dollars in national support across the country, and that funding goes to the national medical stockpile, to the incident room, to modelling, in particular to workforce and communications, so all of those things go together. The last thing is, today's goal is very simple. It's to support our magnificent doctors and nurses and to allow the public to have multiple avenues in, to receive the advice and the care that they need, they deserve and they will get.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, Greg. Dr. Murphy.
DR. BRENDAN MURPHY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: Thanks, Prime Minister and Minister. So these packages are really important. And as Minister Hunt has said, they were designed in partnership with the sector. We've had very good engagement with this, this is what the sector has been asking for. So they're very important to respond to the current demand. But even more important to be prepared for future demand. And I do want to briefly talk about demand. We have seen over recent days a number of people seeking testing who don't need it. We are, it's clear that there is some anxiety in the community with over 100 cases. But I say, as I've said on many occasions, a couple of things. Most of these cases are related to imports from overseas. There is only one element of significant community transmission and that's small and controlled in Sydney.
There is no point being tested at the moment if you have not travelled or if you've not been in contact, even if you have flu-like illnesses, we are not saying to people who get acute respiratory symptoms, a cold or flu, to go and get tested for COVID-19. We are saying that if you've come back from a return traveller or you've been in contact with someone, who has been a confirmed case, then you should be tested. But other Australians do not need testing, and all they are doing is putting an unnecessary burden on the testing. But the testing is being expanded and the new package will substantially increase our capacity to test with the clinics and the new pathology service. The only other people we are looking at now is whether health care workers who have significant febrile illnesses might also be tested simply because of the impact of a sick health care worker, but we're seeking further advice from AHPPC on that. So the number of Australians who should be tested at the moment is well within the capacity of current testing, but we are expanding and getting ready, and I'm just trying to tell people to stay reasonably calm about this. We've got small numbers of cases at the moment. We do expect more, and I've also said on many occasions, for most people who get this virus, it is a very mild illness. Certainly we are worried about the elderly. Certainly we are worried if we have a large outbreak, that that would put pressure on our hospitals, as the Prime Minister and Minister have said. But at the moment, there is no reason for community panic in Australia.
JOURNALIST: When will these pop-up clinics appear and who will be responsible for building them?
MINISTER HUNT: Already we've seen the states establish clinics. We have, for example, four out of Melbourne hospitals up, which the Victorian Government has established. South Australia has pioneered a very innovative drive through model, I think featured on the front of one of the papers today. We have the Royal Adelaide Hospital, and New South Wales, Queensland, and other states are already doing that. So we'll be building on those. And we're now working through what are called the primary health networks on identifying those practices that wish to be part of this. And so we'll continue to roll them out as soon as a practice is ready. We're in a position to support.
JOURNALIST: [inaudible] going to be based in existing GP clinics, or they’ll -
MINISTER HUNT: So there’s a number of options here. So we're, what we're doing is entering into a flexible situation. Some General Practices may choose to become dedicated respiratory clinics, and in that situation, there'll be very significant funding. Some, such as the example of the great innovative Dr Mukesh Haikerwal, have established a drive through clinic, and we’ll provide funds for that. He'll continue the ordinary practice work in his practice, but where funds are needed to assist with that supplementary work. So we're creating flexible models. And that's why the primary health networks will work with GPs across the country.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, a few weeks ago, I think it might have been a fortnight ago, we were being told that the expectation was it was going to peak in about April, coronavirus. What's the latest? What are the latest modelling on how many people might be infected at its peak in Australia, given that states like Victoria are preparing for tens of thousands?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Andrew, I’m not sure what that April figure is you’re referring to because the Government has not been providing that type of information.
JOURNALIST: It was being discussed at an international level.
PRIME MINISTER: Okay, fine. But in terms of what the Australian government has been saying, we have not indicated those types of horizons. The government is continuing to do modelling on these issues and working closely with the states and territories, because the profiling of how the virus extends in the weeks and months ahead obviously has implications for ensuring that you can deal with any sort of peak capacity requirements. And that is the, that is the very planning phase that we're currently engaged in. One of the challenges to date has been that the data that has been available and these models depend on the data that goes into them, and so it's important that when you're making those sorts of decisions, you're getting a quality of data. And more recently, I'm sure Dr Murphy would agree, the sort of information was seen coming out of Korea where you've got a very wide scale testing program where you have a much better handle on what the level of, number of people who actually have the virus, and that relates also to the mortality rates. I mean, the mortality rates we're now seeing in Korea are much less than what we've seen based on other data. And I think that's as a result of the better read that you're getting on this. So at this stage, we're looking for the best data to make those assessments. But the government is not making any public statements on that at this point. I think that would be speculative at this point. But the government is working on the various scenarios that would ensure that we can work with the states to meet the demands that we would anticipate. But Dr. Murphy, did you want to add to that?
DR. MURPHY: Yeah so modelling is a very tricky science. And one of the things that we've had in Australia is that we have, by very early and quite aggressive containment methods, we’re behind the curve of many other countries and we are still in containment mode. How long we stay in that mode depends on the success of our public health interventions over the next few weeks. If we develop sustained community transmission, then the models can predict how long it might take to develop a peak. And again, those models depend on how well you contain during the development of the sustained community transmission. So there are a variety of potential models, but a pandemic or an epidemic in Australia could last as short as 8 weeks, or as long as 14 to 16 weeks. But we don't actually know when we are going to enter that stage if we do have sustained community transmission. So it's really hard to predict and certainly it's very unlikely that we will peak in April.
JOURNALIST: Dr Murphy, how far away are we from a vaccine? Are there any encouraging signs that you've seen?
DR. MURPHY: A lot of research scientists are very positive about getting candidate molecules. The challenge is taking a candidate molecule through animal testing into human testing and the best estimates that that would take a year or more. Some researchers are much more optimistic. Researchers, I used to be one, we're always optimistic. And you never know what might happen. But I think it would be very unrealistic to expect a vaccine is going to be here to do anything to impact on the current phase of an international outbreak.
PRIME MINISTER: There’s also a lot of work that’s being done on anti-virals as well which support the treatment, so there's the issue of the vaccine, which deals with the virus. But then there's also the issue of the treatment that can be available, which can moderate, obviously, the severity of the impact. And that's important, particularly when you're talking about older patients as well. So, and the private sector equally is investing quite a lot on that front as well.
JOURNALIST: Minister Hunt, the spike in general, members of the general public getting tested unnecessarily was somewhat sparked by a misinterpreted comment of your own on Sunday. The line, ‘If in doubt, get tested’, which was obviously specifically in the context of if you were one of the at risk groups or a medical professional, does that in your mind highlight the importance of very clear public messaging and as a result of that, when can we expect the public health campaign to launch?
MINISTER HUNT: Look I think that's a very important question on two fronts. One as you've noticed, a particular news agency, not yours, had to issue a clarification that they had excluded the very conditions which Professor Murphy set out, that if you've been in a high risk area or if you've been in contact and you have symptoms, then that's appropriate and that's the time to to seek the advice and the testing. Unfortunately, that organisation excluded that. It took a while but we got the clarification. And I, and so this is a message to all of us. And it wasn't intentional, by the way. It's a message to all of us to make sure that we're reporting carefully and fully, but equally for us, we've already begun our communications in terms of what we're providing online and the advice, but that will roll out progressively over the coming period in terms of further online, radio and electronic and other means of communicating with Australians. So that's that's an ongoing process.
PRIME MINISTER: Mark?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister can pensioners and other welfare recipients expect to get some form of cash payment or other benefit from your stimulus?
PRIME MINISTER: I’ll have more to say about that tomorrow with the Treasurer, and that's when we'll announce those measures. We're still finalising some of those measures after what was a very lengthy meeting yesterday. The Treasury, together with other departments, have been working very solidly on pulling together what is a very well balanced package. Obviously, stimulus will form part of that. I've been very clear about that. And those who've been around this place for a long time will know that the Coalition actually supported stimulus back in the first round, in response to the global financial crisis. And that's exactly what we did. There were two tranches to that stimulus at that time, the first one acted and worked through the existing payment mechanisms, and that was able to be able to put through fairly quickly. The Coalition supported those measures at that time.
So, you know, these are measures that the government has been looking closely at. I have said from this platform and others that we need to address the demand side and supply side. But what the package is all about, is keeping Australians in jobs, keeping business in business and ensuring that the Australian economy and the businesses that form that economy bounce back stronger on the other side of this. It's important to understand the economic impacts of this are highly connected to the health crisis and the life of the virus. These viruses have a trajectory. They have a life cycle. And that is not indefinite. How long that is is still not clear. But it is clear that these have finite lives and it will have a finite impact on the economy. And that's why the principles that I set out yesterday, that there is a clear fiscal exit strategy, that the measures are timely but targeted, that they're proportionate. This is what has been carefully weighed up by the government as we prepare to put that in place. And what will happen is we'll announce those measures tomorrow. I'll have the opportunity then to take specifically the Premiers and Chief Ministers through that on Friday. State governments then will make their own decisions, as some already have, about what role they want to play and what role they can play. I mean, they have payroll taxes, they have a range of other things and levers that they can pull. They have local governments, they have roadworks, maintenance programs. They have a range of things that they have available to them. And I'm sure they will consider those in the same way. But I think it's important that they can do that after they've seen the totality of what the government's response has been.
The legislation that will support all of those measures, that will be developed over the course of the next week and when parliament returns, we’ll be able to move quickly to take that through the parliament. We might go over here? Sorry Michelle.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, or I don’t if this is for you Dr. Murphy, but do you think it's likely that America will become the next big problem country with this disease?
DR. MURPHY: I think America has significant, has more more cases than we have. And I think they were, by their own admission, a bit slow in getting testing. But they have a very good, robust centre for disease control and public health systems. And they're working very, very actively now at trying to contain the outbreaks in America. So it's a little hard to predict at this stage, but obviously we're watching that closely.
MINISTER HUNT: I will just add one thing there, Dr. Murphy referred to testing. The latest advice we have from the National Incident Centre this morning is that we have now had approximately 20,000 tests in Australia, which puts us very much at the global forefront.
PRIME MINISTER: That's right. Michelle?
JOURNALIST: Senator Rex Patrick has suggested that the parliamentary timetable should be changed. Can you envisage any circumstances in which you think that should be done?
PRIME MINISTER: We have no plans to change the parliamentary sitting schedule based on the information that we have. Andrew, you’ve had one go, I’m happy to come back to you but there’s lots of people here.
JOURNALIST: Just on your aged care package, there are some reports of insufficient personal protective gear in aged care centres. Is there specific funding for that, or will they be prioritized in terms of the national stockpile?
MINISTER HUNT: So I can answer that, so we have capacity to assist through the national stockpile and where there any organisations that do have issues, there's the capacity to work through the primary health networks. And if they do have shortfalls, we'll be assisting them.
PRIME MINISTER: Andrew? He’ll burst if he doesn't get it out.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister what do you say to employers who believe that a declaration of isolation, self isolation, perhaps a declaration by Brendan Murphy himself, lifts the obligation of them paying a wage to their employees?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, look everyone's cases will be different depending on what their health situation is. I think that's fair to say. I'm just going to repeat what I said yesterday, when I spoke to the business group in Sydney, all of us have a role to play. And large businesses in particular have an important role to play. Large businesses have much stronger balance sheets, they're in a position to take actions to support their employees. I've highlighted I think the example of Qantas is a very positive one, and one that is seeking to make use of the flexibility it has, when that's whether people are taking leave or things of that nature, where people are in a position where they have to isolate, either have an obligation to or otherwise, I'd be encouraging employees to take a flexible and forward leaning approach in supporting their employees during this process. They'll need their people on the other side. And businesses, particularly large businesses, they will be watched closely I think through the months ahead. You know businesses spend a lot of time talking about the value and integrity of their brands, well their brands will be defined in these months ahead.
The government will be leaning heavily on its balance sheet that we've taken great care to put in good order in bringing the Budget back to balance to be able to to respond to this. Equally, large businesses are in a similar position. And that's why, again, I give credit where it's due in terms of the banks passing on the 25 basis point rate cut, the first time all four of them have done that in five years. And I think that is a demonstration of, I think, their willingness to do that. So I look, I would urge people to be practical about these things, to be sensible about these things, to act with a sense of good faith to both towards employees and towards employers, about how you manage these issues.
Getting through this is all of our responsibility, acting with a sense of common sense. I think, with a sense of patience, with calmness and having, I think an assurance about the arrangements that are being put in place, whether at the government level or otherwise.
JOURNALIST: Dr. Murphy, what is Australia's testing capacity? How many tests can we get through in a day or a week? And can you explain a little more about the plans to extend testing, please, to aged care and doctors?
DR. MURPHY: So at the moment, most of the testing has to be done in our public health labs. But with these measures announced today by increased Medicare funding, all of the private laboratories, many of whom have already started doing testing, they are all scaling up rapidly to do testing. And they will do as many tests as we require. They have huge capacity, these can be automated assays and they can scale up enormously as needed. So we haven't set a number on that, they'll do as many as needed. What we want to have is the capacity for people to get a test with essentially a same day turnaround. And that's going to be our aim throughout this. In terms of aged care we will be specifically looking, because we don't want to have difficulties in aged care getting testing, we will be looking at pathology companies, possibly going into aged care facilities, taking the tests and coming out to make it easier for the facility and for the residents. But we're working through those measures.
JOURNALIST: What about symptoms in aged care?
DR MURPHY: No we're not testing people without symptoms at the moment. There is no value in testing people without symptoms. Currently our approach is testing - and that's the international approach - is testing people who have respiratory symptoms and who have been a return traveller or who are a contact.
JOURNALIST: So just to clarify, your efforts to limit the number of tests is not about sort of a limitation on the number we have available? It's about the same day turnaround, is that correct?
DR. MURPHY: So same day turnaround is important. But what I'm saying, we're not testing asymptomatic people is because there's no value. If you if you think you've been in contact with someone and you have a test that’s negative, it doesn't mean at all that you're not incubating the virus because you may not shed the virus until you're symptomatic. So that's why we're not favouring doing tests on asymptomatic people so that the challenge- we want to test the people for whom it's appropriate to test and to get quick results.
JOURNALIST: Just on Indigenous Australians, just on Indigenous Australians, can you explain why those specific measures are being taken to target those at risk groups?
PRIME MINISTER: I’ll just ask Greg,
MINISTER HUNT: So one of the things which is is very clear, is that we know that in many indigenous communities in particular, you can have health challenges and also in a close community, transmission can occur easily. The primary health systems have emphasized the importance of that. The chief medical officer and the deputy chief medical officer and also working with the states and territories, so we've all recognised that. That's why we're providing two additional forms of support. One is the telehealth capacity for the over 50 indigenous Australians based on the relative health position, and then secondly, the preparedness and retrieval and treatment support for remote communities.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, will the government in the stimulus package -
PRIME MINISTER: Sorry couldn’t quite hear you Katherine?
JOURNALIST: Sorry, just referencing your answer before about business, and stepping up and doing the right thing. Will the government provide any support to businesses in the stimulus package to cover entitlements for work, for casual workers, for people who are not not, you know, don't qualify for sick pay?
PRIME MINISTER: Tomorrow the Treasurer and I will -
JOURNALIST: I'm sorry Prime Minister, I have another one.
PRIME MINISTER: Sorry, yep?
JOURNALIST: Another one, sorry. Bridget McKenzie says she made in her statement on Thursday night, says she made no changes to either the ministerial brief or the spreadsheets in relation to the sports grants after April 4, the audit office told Senate estimates that changes were made to the spreadsheets on April 10 and April 11, one at the request of your office. So who made these changes after April 4 and on what legal authority, given that my understanding is ministerial advisers cannot cannot make decisions in the way Ministers can make decisions?
PRIME MINISTER: Ministerial authority for the program was with the Minister for Sport, that is the position. On the other issue that you raised, tomorrow I'll be back here with the Treasurer we’ll be outlining what I believe will be a well-targeted, proportionate, appropriate response to address the very real economic challenges that are being presented by the coronavirus here in Australia. Importantly, it will be a response that is focused on the challenges we have here in Australia. We're not trying to solve problems that are occurring in other countries or in the dimension of the economic challenge there in other countries, we’re tailoring this to deal with the challenges that we face here in Australia. And that program is comprehensive. It addresses both supply and demand side issues, it deals with investment issues. It ensures that we can put Australia in the best possible position to bounce back, to bounce back strongly economically, to support people's jobs, to keep business in business, and to ensure that we are even stronger on the other side. Thank you very much.