Coalition wants to introduce app within fortnight as part of pandemic ‘road out’ strategy but PM says easing of restrictions still many weeks away
Australia soon will adopt a sophisticated mobile phone app that tracks coronavirus victims and the people they come in contact with.
The federal government wants to introduce the app, now being used in Singapore, within a fortnight and will outline the plan to premiers during the next meeting of the national cabinet on Thursday.
Continue reading...The government’s coronavirus response is working, however there is a growing view the cure has been worse than the disease
Worrying and at times nasty themes are seeping out of the national insecurity produced by the coronavirus pandemic.
It’s not just the strange grocery hoarding, the ignorance of street-level racist rants, or the emergence of coughing as an assault weapon.
Continue reading...Dan Tehan wants all schools to provide in-person teaching to children whose parents want it. Follow live
The NRL season will recommence in late May, but it’s still unclear in what form it will happen.
#BREAKING: The NRL has announced a competition restart date of May 28. #9News pic.twitter.com/e5uwbe0fAj
Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson is calling for road blocks on the Great Ocean Road to force people to stay home this long weekend. @Kieran_Gilbert
Continue reading...Australian prime minister Scott Morrison speaks to the media in Canberra about how Australia is tracking in dealing with the spread of the coronavirus. "We are making significant progress," Morrison said before urging continued vigilance over the upcoming Easter holiday. "We must keep the tension in the cord".
Continue reading...The RBA begged the government for stimulus to kickstart the economy – to no avail. But coronavirus has seen a radical change in thinking
On 12 March Scott Morrison came to his courtyard with $17.6bn. A week later the Reserve Bank of Australia cut the cash rate to 0.25% and pumped more than $100bn into the financial system in an effort to keep struggling businesses afloat and stave off substantial job losses.
On 22 March Morrison returned to his courtyard with another $66bn. Then on 30 March, Monday, the prime minister came back with $130bn for wage subsidies. Monday’s $130bn will be spent not over the four-year forward estimates, which is the budgetary convention. It will be spent over the next six months.
Continue reading...Australian prime minister Scott Morrison announced further restrictions on Sunday, including limiting public gatherings to two people. Follow all the latest Covid-19 updates
Passengers onboard the Ocean Atlantic have begged Scott Morrison to help bring them home via a YouTube video.
The passengers, who include about 150 Australians, embarked on what was supposed to be an Antarctic cruise in February/early March.
Queensland will also be issuing on the spot fines for people who ignore the social distancing rules. As AAP reports:
In Queensland thus far, no more than 10 people - other than residents - will be allowed inside a home at any one time, with homeowners and occupants now obliged to ensure they and visitors practice social distancing as much as possible.
Queensland Police now have powers to issue infringement notices for breaches of quarantine directions of up to $13,345 for individuals and $66,672 for businesses.
Continue reading...In a deeply ingrained reflex, Australians have looked to government in this crisis. Will it prove its worth?
We are all off balance. From the moment I open my eyes in the morning, I feel the discomfiting sensation of being suspended between the set of propositions that existed before the pandemic and the set of propositions that exist now.
I suspect everybody is encountering this out of kilter sensation frequently in normal life. Thousands and thousands of Australians were employed last week but aren’t today. Businesses have gone bust, or teeter on the brink. Kids are not at school. Socialising is curtailed. Unless you are young and sanguine enough to believe coronavirus is either a beat-up or a “boomer remover” and therefore it’s business as usual, you are either ill or deeply anxious about getting ill and infecting others.
Continue reading...Australian prime minister has announced a mandatory 14-day quarantine for all arrivals into the country from midnight on Saturday. Morrison also said Australian Defence Force personnel would assist state and local authorities in policing those who will are already isolating at home
A significant spike in cases and state lockdowns are signals that life has changed. It’s all now on the health system
Anyone watching events on Sunday will know the coronavirus story is now moving so fast it is hard to keep on top of what’s happening.
So let’s keep this simple. Let’s be very clear what happened.
Continue reading...Prime minister Scott Morrison and chief medical officer Brendan Murphy say schools should remain open despite calls to restrict gatherings of more than 100 people. NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian says schools remaining open is the 'best option from a health perspective'
Continue reading...Scott Morrison says massive step-up of the government’s response to the Covid-19 outbreak likely to be in place for at least six months
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has told Australians to “stop hoarding” as he announces sweeping new measures to try to slow the spread of coronavirus, including a ban on indoor gatherings of more than 100 people, a global do-not-travel order, and strict new rules for visiting aged care homes.
In a massive step-up of the government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak, Morrison announced that a national cabinet of state and federal leaders had agreed on Tuesday night to an indefinite new ban on indoor groups of 100 people or more, with exemptions for schools, public transport, universities, prisons, courts, supermarkets and worksites.
Continue reading...State says virus ‘is no different’ to floods, cyclones and bushfires as it prepares to ramp up pressure at Coag meeting
Queensland will use the upcoming meeting of state leaders and the prime minister to appeal to the federal government to open up its natural disaster assistance payments to local industries impacted by the coronavirus.
Scott Morrison has previously rejected Queensland’s request for the disaster recovery funding arrangements to be made available for businesses knocked by the economic slowdown resulting from Covid-19 on 4 February, and again on 28 February.
Continue reading...Prime minister says ‘ministerial authority’ was with Bridget McKenzie when asked about changes she says she did not make
Scott Morrison has sidestepped a question about whether changes to a spreadsheet of sports grants on 10 and 11 April last year – including a change sought by his own office – were made with proper legal authority.
The former sports minister Bridget McKenzie reignited the sports rorts controversy late last week by insisting she made no changes to the brief and attachments outlining successful projects funded under the sports grants scheme after 4 April 2019.
Continue reading...LNP candidate advertised one of the grants on Facebook a month before election without specifying source of funds
Six taxpayer-funded grants were approved in the key marginal seat of Longman through the Department of Social Services in the month before the last federal election, including $177,000 for the Bribie Island and Districts Junior Rugby League Club.
Continue reading...Exclusive: senior officials claim no ‘specific recollection’ of a hastily convened teleconference to discuss colour-coded spreadsheets
Sport Australia defied a Senate committee request to respond to questions about its role in the Morrison government’s controversial sports grants program, while senior officials involved in the administration of the grants claim to have no “specific recollection” of a hastily convened teleconference to discuss the government’s colour-coded spreadsheets.
Sport Australia had been ordered to respond to 40 questions its officials had taken on notice following a 28 February committee hearing examining the $100m sports grants program by 6 March.
Continue reading...If we care about integrity in government, the Coalition must be held accountable for the grants saga
Before we go forward, just for a minute, I want to look back. Let’s track back to last April when the Morrison government was mulling the grants at the centre of the “sports rorts” scandal.
Politics was hurtling towards a federal election that the Coalition (well, perhaps everyone apart from the prime minister himself) fully expected to lose. Believing there were five minutes left to live, the government went into hyperdrive. There was a rush of appointments and decisions – in the press gallery it felt like a volcano was erupting in our inboxes.
Continue reading...The economy holds the headlines as government inches closer to releasing its stimulus package in response to coronavirus. All the day’s events, live
I missed this yesterday:
Mathias Cormann reveals that he personally intervened to chose the colour of the new fleet of Comcar vehicles, which will shift from their traditional white to dark grey. #Estimates pic.twitter.com/PqsJCQFOBC
*Grandstanding*
*Actually evidence from officials*
Don’t be misled by Senator Carr’s grandstanding & fear-mongering. The Bushfire & Natural Hazards CRC has funding until mid-2021 & the Govt is considering future funding for its work to continue. We’re actively engaging with the CRC, including a meeting with the PM last month. https://t.co/xZgEyqH2g7
Continue reading...The prime minister has presented himself and his office as bystanders, but all the evidence points to their deep involvement
Given the intricacies of the sports rorts controversy can be bamboozling, let’s keep this really simple.
Scott Morrison has spent the weeks since the Australian National Audit Office completely eviscerated his government’s administration of the $100m sports grants program presenting himself and his office as a bunch of breezy feedback brokers, just lurking about periodically to give the sport minister a hand.
Continue reading...PM has dismissed opposition’s concerns but Penny Wong says it could be used to ‘cover up decision-making’
Labor has labelled a cabinet committee with just one permanent member – Scott Morrison – an “abuse of process” that would enable Morrison to call meetings protected by cabinet confidentiality, even if no other cabinet members are present.
The cabinet office policy committee was the focus of questioning in both Senate estimates and question time, where Morrison defended the committee responsible for his policy “deep dives” and dismissed Labor concerns as “trivial Canberra politics”.
Continue reading...The New Zealand prime minister was justified in taking Scott Morrison to task over a policy that is both spurious and damaging
We’ve seen this movie before.
Then, in Love Actually, Hugh Grant played the unlikely prime minister of Britain, standing up to an oleaginous Billy Bob Thornton as president of the US.
Continue reading...