Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Victoria and Queensland register deaths as Western Australia flags border closure and federal government acts on childcare and industrial relations concerns. Follow live updates
The PM stresses that the “health advice we have is that there is no health reasons why children can’t go to school”.
Asked if taxes will increase to pay for its massive stimulus funding, Morrison does not address this directly.
Obviously there will be a heightened debt burden as a result of decisions we have had to take. They have been necessary decisions. Otherwise the calamity for Australian households economic will be disastrous. We have taken that decisions of government to step up and to make this commitment to provide people with an economic lifeline over the many months ahead. But you are right, we will have to then work hard on the other side to restore the economy. Now, that’s why we are being so careful not to have things that tie the economy and the budget down off into the future. We do need to snap back to the normal arrangements on the other side of this.
Morrison says schools have been planning for a “balance – a combination of distance learning” and, for those who can’t “provide a learning environment at home, for the children to be able to return to school”.
School will return after the holidays. They just won’t be holidays that most school students have known for a long time. And when they go back, it’s the learning that matters, and we hope to have an arrangement that can return as much to normal as possible.
But we have to accept that there will be, for some protracted period of time, this combination of distance learning, and for those who can’t do that at home, no child should be turned away.
All the banks are offering a similar menu of relief for retail and business customers, although details of what’s available differ between institutions.
What’s set out below is as up-to-date as possible, but what’s on offer changes frequently and you should always check with your bank before making any financial decisions.
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.
New South Wales on the brink of new restrictions with only essential services to remain open as department store Myer stands down 10,000 staff and closes all its stores from Sunday. This blog is now closed
With that, we’ll be leaving the blog for tonight. We’ll be back tomorrow to pick it all up again.
Today:
Voting has just closed in Queensland for 77 local councils, and two byelections for state parliament.
But the results may not be known for some time, given over 570,000 people applied for postal votes due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, overall turnout is expected to be very low, which could speed the physical vote counting process.
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.
From fanning national anxiety with claims of a cyber-attack on MyGov, to a lack of empathy for the jobless, the government services minister has no grasp of the gravity of our times
“It was heartbreaking stuff yesterday Alan.”
“Alan”, naturally, is Alan Jones and our heartbreak town crier is Stuart Robert – the minister charged with rolling out government support to Australians knocked sideways courtesy of the coronavirus pandemic.
Unfortunately for those losing their jobs, their hours of work and their businesses, there is an unseemly delay before most of the measures reach the bank accounts of those in need.
Australians who are laid off as a result of the coronavirus outbreak will be allowed to pull money out of their superannuation, Scott Morrison announced on Sunday.
Withdrawals will be capped at $10,000 this financial year, and a further $10,000 next financial year, and will be tax-free, the prime minister and his treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, said.
Jobseekers can now request appointments be carried out over the phone or online, while Centrelink debt recovery continues despite Covid-19
Welfare recipients will have their mutual obligations relaxed during the coronavirus crisis, but the government has stopped short of heeding calls from Labor, the Greens and social service groups to suspend them entirely.
Facing growing pressure to ease the burden amid a looming economic downturn and increasingly strict social-distancing guidelines, the employment minister, Michaelia Cash, said on Friday the government had adopted a range of measures aimed at making the system more flexible during the Covid-19 outbreak.
A nation supposedly forged in the hellfire of war almost crumbled in the face of a virulent threat at home
Newly federated Australia, with its population not yet 5 million, was still enduring shocking fatalities on the European western front when its authorities began paying attention to the virulent strain of pneumonic influenza sweeping Britain.
Early Australian awareness of the “Spanish influenza” – an epidemic in Britain by mid to late 1918 – came with an acknowledgment that the new states grown of old colonies would need to stick together should the virus reach this isolated continent.
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.
Dealing in shares on the main US indices was frozen within minutes of the opening bell, as circuit breakers were triggered by a 7% fall on the S&P 500. Once trading resumed 15 minutes later, the Dow Jones Industrial Average completed a fall of more than 2,000 points for the first time ever – a fall of more than 7%.
US authorities are planning a flight tomorrow to repatriate Britons on the coronavirus-hit Grand Princess cruise ship.
The UK Foreign Office issued the following statement:
We continue to work closely with the US authorities to repatriate British nationals on board the Grand Princess. The US are currently planning for a flight to leave tomorrow evening, returning to the UK on Wednesday afternoon. We remain in contact with all British nationals on board and will continue to offer support.
Chinese authorities reportedly scrambled to move people out of quarantine hotels which need full safety inspections after the deaths of at least 10 people in a collapsed hotel.
Joanna Davison, an English teacher, and her partner were suddenly placed in enforced isolation in Shenzhen after a ferry trip about 10 days ago. On Thursday, she told the Guardian she endured a “terrifying” experience as five people in hazmat suits came to test them at her home before they were whisked to quarantine.
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. #Estimatespic.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
Australia’s economy is unusually dependent on China, and a coronavirus-driven slowdown could mean billions in lost revenue
Australia could be one of the countries worst affected by the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak as factories in China remain shuttered and millions of people are confined to their homes and banned from travelling.
The Reserve Bank of Australia on Friday stuck to its forecast of strong growth this year thanks to a rising housing market, and the stock market – along with others around the world – has largely shrugged off concerns about the global impact of the virus to remain close to all-time highs.
Philip Lowe says China’s economy is now bigger and more integrated into the world economy so the impact is likely to be greater
The coronavirus outbreak could do more damage to the Australian economy than 2003’s Sars outbreak, governor of the Reserve Bank Philip Lowe has said.
Appearing before the House of Representatives economics committee in Canberra on Friday, Lowe said China’s economy was now much bigger and more integrated into the world economy.
Acoss calls on government to boost the Disaster Recovery Payment after fires destroy more than 2,000 homes
Australia’s peak welfare body is calling on the federal government to immediately boost emergency payments for those affected by bushfires, saying it is concerned the current amount is “seriously inadequate”.
The Australian Council of Social Service chief executive, Cassandra Goldie, has written to the prime minister, Scott Morrison, with a range of recommendations the organisation says are urgently needed to help provide relief to those affected by the bushfire crisis that has destroyed more than 2,000 homes.