Yahoo News Australia's major measures to tackle coronavirus are now in place, Scott Morrison says
Australian governments have deployed their major measures to protect “lives and livelihoods” from Covid-19, and now are waiting to see if they have worked, Scott Morrison has said, although the Victorian premier has continued to warn of further restrictions.
On Friday, the prime minister said governments had put “the big rocks in the jar” and the primary role of the national cabinet would be to keep track of relevant data as it moved into what he called the “suppression phase”.
While measures to protect residential tenants by using land tax to encourage rent reductions were further delayed, the national cabinet agreed to impose a code of conduct for commercial tenancies and measures to facilitate Easter religious services.
Speaking in Canberra after the teleconference with federal, state and territory leaders, Morrison said modelling showing the trajectory of the virus’s spread was “promising” and might be released after it is reviewed by the national cabinet next Tuesday.
“Had we not taken the measures we had taken just 12 days ago, there would be 5,000 more people with the virus right now,” Morrison told reporters. He did not exclude further measures, without nominating them.
The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, struck a less optimistic note, warning people not to “get carried away” because although the rate of infection had slowed we were “not out of the woods” yet.
Andrews told reporters in Melbourne he still believed that “there will be a stage four” – a fuller lockdown leaving only essential services such as grocery stores, petrol and pharmacies open.
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Morrison told reporters people should be patient, and ordered families not to go away on holiday over the Easter break.
He said places of worship would be treated as workplaces which respected the four square metre separation rules over the Easter period. Congregations would not be allowed in but could watch online in some cases.
“It means there can be additional people taking part in the celebration of these services, not people going to church,” Morrison said, saying the federal government had consulted religious organisations.
Morrison said national cabinet had agreed to allow working-holiday makers to go to rural and regional areas for fruit picking and harvesting work, if they registered and self-isolated for 14 days before doing so.
On Wednesday, Labor’s social services spokesperson, Linda Burney, wrote to the government calling on it to extend coronavirus support to temporary visa holders in Australia, who she said were “facing hardship and have no other way to support themselves”.
Asked about further measures to support temporary visa-holders, Morrison replied the acting immigration minister, Alan Tudge, would announce further “arrangements” in coming days. Guardian Australia understands these relate to relaxing visa conditions, not a new form of payment or special benefit.
The prime minister also was firm with visitors on visas, telling them to go home, and claiming that Australia “must focus on its citizens and its residents”.
Morrison said national cabinet had agreed to a code of conduct for commercial tenancies, that will be mandatory for businesses with a turnover of less than $50 million that participate in the jobkeeper program.
The code would require a “a proportionality to rent reductions based on the decline in turnover to ensure that the burden is shared between landlords and tenants” and mediation if they could not agree.
Morrison suggested the principle of proportionality could be achieved in many ways, such as rent waivers, varying the term of the lease, or the rent.
Asked why no outcome was announced for residential tenancies, Morrison said the “priority has been on the commercial tenancies given the business issues involved and the many business closures”.
Guardian Australia understands that – in addition to a six-month moratorium on evictions for residential tenants in Covid-19-related financial hardship – the states and territories are aiming to waive land tax to encourage residential landlords to offer rent reductions.
Under the proposal, landlords that offer rent reductions will be able to share the pain 50/50 with the state or territory government, capped at the amount of land tax they pay.
The New South Wales treasurer, Dominic Perrottet, told Sky News it was “challenging in circumstances where every state and territory has different land tax arrangements”.
“We’ve all agreed in principle to provide financial support to landlords who pass on rent reductions to their tenants, whether retail or commercial tenants,” he said.
“But at the same time … we need to make sure we have a national approach.”
While those conducting church services will be allowed to attend their workplace, Morrison signalled that parliament would meet only “as it needs during the course of the crisis and it will be done promptly” when it returns to consider the third economic support package on Wednesday.
Labor is alarmed that parliament has adjourned until August, and the crossbench is increasingly concerned about executive action taken without legislative oversight.
In a letter, seen by Guardian Australia, the Greens and much of the crossbench proposed two joint select committees to examine the health and economic responses to Covid-19.
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Signed by the Greens leader, Adam Bandt, independent MPs Helen Haines, Zali Steggall, Andrew Wilkie and Bob Katter, and the Centre Alliance’s Rebekha Sharkie, Rex Patrick and Stirling Griff, the letter complained they had been “effectively deprived of an important part of our role as parliamentarians”. They warned that “millions of Australians” who did not vote for the major parties were being locked out of decision-making.
The Greens believe they have in-principle support from One Nation, which would be enough to establish a Senate committee.
Anthony Albanese has said Labor is open to a joint or Senate committee, but the manager of opposition business, Tony Burke, has warned it should not be a substitute for regular sittings of parliament.
On Friday, Morrison said the government “doesn’t have issues” with proposals to strengthen oversight of the response to Covid-19, suggesting that the “Senate provides very good mechanisms for doing that”.
