Australia Covid-19: education minister orders independent schools to reopen – as it happened

My goodness, this video – on how Covid-19 has changed all of our lives so profoundly – is really something.

It’s a must watch, I’d say. Particularly for us in Australia. With the number of new cases dropping and some sections of the media questioning why we’re enduring this lockdown, it’s a timely reminder of how different things could be and how quickly that could happen.

Rugby Australia’s chief executive, Raelene Castle, will take a 50% pay cut as the code continues to work on an agreement over player payments.

No resolution was reached before the start of Easter, as planned discussions with the Rugby Union Players’ Association on Thursday were postponed after a Rugby Australia director fell ill.

AAP reports that both sides are looking to advance the situation and will resume talks on Saturday morning.

Rugby Australia is believed to have asked the players to take a 65% pay cut until the end of September.

The players’ association is still working its way through information-sharing and clarity on Rugby Australia’s cash flows, after last weekend receiving the details it had been asking for.

Players at three of the four Australian Super Rugby franchises are believed to be due payment shortly after the Easter break.

While Castle has taken a 50% pay cut, her executives are taking 30%. The cash-strapped governing body last week stood down 75 per cent of its non-player workforce, after announcing a $9.4m loss.

Western Australia reports 14 new cases of Covid-19 today, bringing the state’s total to 495.

Of the new confirmed cases, 10 are from metropolitan Perth, two from the Kimberley, one from the goldfields region and the other from the wheatbelt.

WA’s department of health says 10 of the new cases are related to cruise ships and overseas travel. Four are close contacts of confirmed cases.

WA has 34 confirmed Covid-19 patients in Perth metropolitan hospitals, and of those 15 are in intensive care.

Via AAP, here’s some detail on the virtual masses that will replace traditional Easter festivities as Christians observe their holiest day on the calendar amid coronavirus restrictions.

Social distancing rules have been eased to allow places of worship to organise Easter service broadcasts and webcasts, but ceremonies will take place in near-empty places of worship across the nation.

Anglican archbishop Glenn Davies will lead prayers for health workers in a televised Easter service at St Andrew’s cathedral in Sydney.

Dean Kanishka Raffel will preach from the pulpit, book-ended by songs performed by the trimmed-down cathedral choir.

The service will air at 9am across Australia on Sunday on Channel 9.

St Andrew’s Sunday mass normally attracts about 400 people, Raffel says. But tourists and devout or irregular church-goers swell those numbers into the thousands for Easter, he adds.

And via social media, Dr Davies’ service is expected to lure many more, curious ears.

Raffel told AAP:

I think people are a bit shy. They’re not ready to make the commitment with their feet but may want to dip their toe in online.

Just around the corner, Catholic archbishop Anthony Fisher will be broadcast preaching Good Friday and Easter Sunday mass on Channel 7.

The archbishop kicked off Holy Week, which marks the end of Lent and climaxes with commemorations of the resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday, with a livestream on Palm Sunday.

He said in a video that to talk about the resurrection and its message of hope might seem crass when people were suffering due to the coronavirus.

Scott Morrison’s church, the Pentecostal Horizon, will be posting a string of videos online over the long weekend, while Orthodox churches have switched to live-streaming mass in the lead up to Pascha on 19 April.

Australian Greek Orthodox was the first church to lock down its congregation in response to the Covid-19 threat.

Here’s Labor’s response to foreign minister Marise Payne’s comments earlier today about flights to bring Australians stranded overseas home.

Payne said a Qantas service from Lima to Australia was scheduled to depart Peru on Monday 13 April, while the government was working on further flights from locations including India and the Phillipines.

Health minister Greg Hunt urging Australians to stay home over the Easter long weekend.

Not even Scott Cam is immune to Covid-19 job losses.

Police in Western Australia will investigate whether Fremantle Dockers star Nat Fyfe breached restrictions by surfing in Margaret River.

After the West Australian newspaper reported the AFL player had been photographed surfing, the WA police minister Chris Dawson said police would investigate.

“I think that’s something for Nat himself to answer, in terms of, whether he’s done the right or wrong thing,” he said.

“Police will investigate that matter but on the face of it there are questions to be answered.

“An essential service is not surfing unless you are a professional surfer, I’ll leave it at that.”

It’s worth noting that policy contradicts other states, where surfing has been classified by police as legitimate exercise.

Independent Schools Victoria has blasted a decision by Dan Tehan to threaten schools’ funding if they do not all open their doors in term two.

The chief executive of ISV, Michelle Green, said:

Victorian independent schools have been placed in an impossible position. They are caught between conflicting advice from state and federal authorities.

This week ISV strongly encouraged the 220 independent schools in Victoria to follow the direction of the Victorian government when it announced that, following advice from the chief health officer, “all Victorian government primary, secondary and special schools will move to remote and flexible learning and teaching”.

The Victorian government’s advice was that all children who can learn at home must learn from home – with exceptions only in extremely limited circumstances.

Many Victorian independent schools had already decided to take this course of action, even before the state government’s announcement.

Today, the federal government told these same schools they had to provide on-site learning facilities for the children of all parents who want it – not just the children of emergency service and health workers.

They were warned that their federal funding was conditional on them following the government’s direction.

This has left teachers, parents and, ultimately, their students confused and frustrated at a time of extraordinary stress.

I have alerted the federal minister to the practical implications of his announcement and pressed him for urgent clarification.

In the meantime, the Tasmanian government has said today that it will use helicopters to monitor people’s movement over the Easter long weekend.

The apple isle has had tough Covid-19 rules limiting movement for some time, but today the premier, Peter Gutwein, told residents that if they left their homes unnecessarily over the long weekend, they could face fines of up to $16,800 or six months’ jail.

Patrols will be increased in the state’s north-west, where an outbreak of Covid-19 has hit two hospitals. Gutwein said:

To be frank, the gloves [have] come off. We are going to police this. The period of education is over.

Good evening. This is Michael McGowan, taking over from Josh Taylor. I’ll get you some more on that Virgin announcement as soon as I can.

Virgin Australia has suspended all its flights except one between Sydney and Melbourne.

The dreams of many were dashed this week when NRL island was taken away from us all, but maybe there’s hope yet for UFC island?

The PM’s Easter message, telling people to stay home.

On the restart of the NRL season at the end of May:

“The details on the competition structure we haven’t got yet because the landscape is changing around government boundaries. That will feed into the complexity structure,” said ARL commissioner Wayne Pearce, who is also a member of the NRL’s innovation committee.

Today what we landed on was a starting date. We haven’t finalised what that [competition] looks like yet. Why we want to firm up a date is to give certainty to players and their schedules, clubs and thousands of people who are out of work through clubs, and millions of fans.

It’s a mark for everyone to work towards that’s associated with the game.

Pearce suggested the proposal to split the league into conferences was off the table.

We’re leaning towards a competition structure that looks more aligned with what we’ve currently got. We’re not going to the conference scenario at the moment.

We’ve currently got support from the NSW government in terms of if we adhere to public health guidelines and make sure our players follow those guidelines, we are able to train and play, provided we have strict measures around testing the players and put other protocols in place to minimise the risk of infection within the playing group and community.

WA premier Mark McGowan is talking after national cabinet.

He says there will be monthly reviews on the restrictions currently in place, but he doesn’t want to pre-empt the outcome of those reviews.

“We’re certainly not guinea pigs,” he says on whether WA could be a test ground for other states.

But he says WA was stronger in its initial response.

Victoria police made 54 arrests in the CBD in the past week of people attempting to rob stores that were shut during the pandemic.

And 110 people caught up on other offences were also given a fine for breaching the stay at home orders.

NBN Co has just put out its latest report on how much internet we’re using while stuck at home.

It’s interesting. You’d think that it would keep going up as more and more people are home, but in the past week there has been a stabilisation, and a slight decline in evening “busy” hours.

NBN Co has taken about 40,000 activation orders in the past two weeks with people seeking to get connected, and a lot of people are upgrading their speed plans. The vast bulk are on 50Mbps, but about 16% of new orders are at the 100Mbps tier.

Let’s see what happens over the long weekend with a lot of people stuck at home and not going away for the break.

Good afternoon everyone.

I’ve been looking into the ongoing conspiracy theory linking 5G to coronavirus. Facebook has already started removing content linking the two, and I’ve observed that YouTube search results are favouring official sources disproving the claims rather than all the conspiracy videos.

The communications minister, Paul Fletcher, even wrote to YouTube expressing concern about it.

But where did it all come from? This from Wired is a very interesting read.

It started with one doctor. On 22 January, Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws published an interview with Kris Van Kerckhoven, a general practitioner from Putte, near Antwerp. “5G is life-threatening, and no one knows it,” read the headline. One scientifically baseless claim in this article, published in a regional version of the paper’s print edition and since deleted from its website, sparked a conspiracy theory firestorm that has since torn through the internet and broken out into the real world, resulting in fires and threats. Van Kerckhoven didn’t just claim that 5G was dangerous. He also said it might be linked to coronavirus.

On that note, I am going to hand you over to Josh Taylor for the rest of today.

Please take care, and try to squeeze in some at-home fun in between all the isolation drudgery this Easter.

Stay safe and take care of you. I’ll be back Monday.

Seems like a particular social service may be getting a lot of calls today. Which goes to show just how desperate people are right now for reassurance they’ll be getting help, and for answers.

Katy Gallagher has responded on behalf of Labor to the commonwealth public servant wage freeze:

This decision will come as a disappointment for the public servants working hard to protect the safety and welfare of Australians through the Covid-19 pandemic.

Across the country, public servants are on the frontlines – from staff working in Centrelink offices and the ATO to deliver economic support measures, to those leading our national health response, to scientists at the CSIRO working on a cure.

We thank public servants for their significant contribution working on the frontline in the ongoing response to Covid-19.

For anyone who may have missed the earlier announcement and needs the information:

Here is one of those flights Marise Payne was talking about:

It seems like national cabinet is about to break for the day (it will regroup after the weekend) but it doesn’t look like we will be getting a press conference from Scott Morrison.

That is not unusual. He has only been standing up when he has something to say, which means the announcement can’t be too big today.

The ACT has recorded one other case, a man in his 50s who contracted the virus while overseas.

The Australian has an update on the Don Harwin story which was broken by the Daily Telegraph this morning:

From the Oz:

Under-fire NSW minister Don Harwin has been hosting a young former Liberal party candidate – who recently returned on a flight from the UK – at his Central Coast holiday home for the past three weeks in spite of strict social distancing and isolation restrictions.

The startling revelation comes as the state’s premier, Gladys Berejiklian, conceded she had been aware her special minister of state had left Sydney for his coastal retreat but had failed to address the situation – before finally demanding he return to the capital on Thursday.

It is understood that lawyer Geoffrey Winters, who contested the seat of Sydney at the 2016 election, made a beeline for Harwin’s $1.3m Pearl beach pad after returning on a flight from London on 17 March.

All returning Australian travellers were required to self-isolate at their own home for 14 days at the time Winters arrived back in the country – little more than a week before the government issued an edict making it mandatory for all newly returned Australians to undergo a two-week quarantine at a hotel.

The Queensland Property Council has welcomed the Palaszczuk government’s decision to refund the last three months of land tax, defer the implementation of the foreign land tax surcharge, and defer the issuing of next year’s land tax assessments for eligible landlords.

Its chief executive, Chris Mountford, said the decision would bring relief to landlords:

“Land tax is often the biggest outgoing for commercial, retail and industrial landowners,” he said.

“By granting this relief, landlords will have a greater capacity to support tenants [who] have been adversely affected, taking pressure off their cash flow at this critical time.

“We know the circumstances that landlords and tenants are finding themselves in vary greatly. A ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to these challenges simply does not work.

“Landlords, tenants and their financiers are going to need to work together to find solutions that suit their circumstances. We know many of these proactive discussions are already happening.”

NSW has introduced $5,000 fines for anyone who deliberately coughs or spits on a healthcare workers.

The health minister, Brad Hazzard, has to actually say these words, because of some incidents in NSW health and hospital services:

These frontline workers are caring for us and the simple fact is, we need to care for them so this on-the-spot $5,000 fine will send a clear message that we are all as one. We are telling you stop it or you will cop it with a $5,000 fine.

In this new social distant dystopia, even the Easter bunny must receive state-sanctioned approval.

Darren Chester and Mike Kelly are continuing their bipartisan friendship, which was cemented during the bushfires (which also feel like a million years ago, but I know are still severely impacting so many regional NSW, Victorian and South Australian communities).

Andrew Wilkie, who visited Julian Assange earlier this year (which seems like it was decades ago), has not forgotten about him.

Bill Shorten spoke to Adelaide radio 5AA this morning (in between documenting his drive back to Melbourne from Canberra) and the transcript has just dropped.

He says the coronavirus crisis has shown how Australia needs to bring manufacturing back home:

Well I think we’ve all had a giant wake-up call: our medical supplies – from ventilators in the intensive care units, right through to masks and hand sanitisers, to medical equipment – is I think what’s really shocked people to begin with. And I feel when you look at those images of older Australians who stand bewildered in front of empty rows in our shopping centres. I know our farmers are doing a good job – I think in food we’re doing a good job – but in some of the manufactured items which we’ve found that we need, we shouldn’t be depending on a shipment from Wuhan for God’s sake.

WA’s health minister, Roger Cook, has announced a new mental health program for the west.

The ‘Be Positive, Be Connected, Be Active’ campaign focuses on wellbeing strategies, and I’d like to thank the [mental health] commission for bringing forward this campaign to the community.

The campaign is for everyone across WA, including those in self isolation, older people, parents and younger members of the community who are feeling anxious at this time.

Ultimately we want to reduce the worry and stress is in the Western Australian community, and we know that this can lead to long-term consequences within our communities and families if we don’t practise good mental health and wellbeing practices.

My hope is that everyone will be able to find ways to be positive, connected and active during this busy time.

Under Covid-19 there are so many things we don’t have control of – so many aspects of our lives which we are giving over to the measures we are putting in place to protect everyone in the community.

But looking after our own mental health and wellbeing is something that everyone can do, making sure that you stay positive, stay connected, stay active, because we know that these are all essential elements of making sure that we maintain good mental health and wellbeing.

Greg Hunt on those numbers I mentioned a little earlier:

While we have been cautious over the last two weeks as we have seen the early data, what we’re seeing now is a genuine consolidation in the 24 hours to this morning’s report: there was an increase of 96 cases.

This is the first time in over three weeks that fewer than 100 people have been added to the list of those with coronavirus.

That’s an exceptionally important development for Australia. Fewer cases, fewer risks, fewer lives at risk.

But we’ve got a long way to go.

Nick Coatsworth says the aim of 7,500 ventilators is part of worst-case scenario planning:

The average number of ventilators in Australia, ventilated beds, is nine per 100,000, so it ends up close to a tripling of that capacity. In terms of another element of your question – is that going to be enough? We saw the modelling released by the prime minister and Prof Murphy a few days ago which demonstrates that with a reduction in the transmission rate we are seeing that that will be more than sufficient to be able to cover any intensive care needs.

Australians on the special chartered flights will have to pay for the flights themselves (as is usual). The Lima flight tickets cost about $2,500 each. Those who can’t afford the flight are being offered access to emergency loans from the government.

The deputy chief medical officer, Nick Coatsworth, says the number of ventilators in Australia is growing:As you are aware, we have been building capacity in the system.

With particular reference to ventilators, we have set ourselves a national target of 7,500 building on the [more than] 4,400 existing ventilators within the Australian system today.

That target is well supported by acquisitions that we have made through Resmed, a company that does undertake ventilator fabrication in Australia, and as I said last week, we have contracted Resmed to support us with [more than] 500 invasive ventilators that can be used with the intensive care unit, and importantly 5,000 non-invasive ventilators.

That can be modified to use in an intensive care capacity and will certainly be a useful option in the event of large cases of severe Covid-19 in the country.

Australia may have recorded its lowest number of coronavirus cases for one day in the past few weeks – 96 new cases is the first time in three weeks we’ve seen figures below 100 – but Greg Hunt says the government acknowledges people are struggling with the restrictions which have been put in place:

Part of this job, though, is also building on what we’ve done with containment and expanding our capacity.

In primary care, one of our critical tasks is the mental health of Australians. People are lonely – they are isolated. Many will be suffering anxiety.

So I’m pleased to be able to say that going into Easter we are now launching our new Beyond Blue coronavirus support program, the coronavirus mental wellbeing support service.

That will be available online at Beyond Blue.

We would urge you to go to the website, coronavirus.org.au, or telephone 1800 512 348 if you are struggling, if you are battling.

It is the most human thing for people who might feel isolated, who might be lonely, who might be alone – they might be widowed or separated or simply living by themselves. So this is a very hard time.

If you can call somebody else and give them the support they need, perhaps do the grocery shopping for them to provide that support, you cannot just help save lives and protect lives but help somebody with the anxiety they are feeling.

Special arrangements are being made to help Australians out of other countries, including the Philippines, India and Nepal, and the deputy prime minister, Michael McCormack, is helping facilitate discussions with Qantas and Virgin.

There are also talks about what to use as the transfer hubs, LA, NZ among them, Marise Payne says.

But the foreign affairs minister includes a reminder that Australia had declared a pandemic and some people still decided to go traveling, so a reminder that yes, this has taken some time, but things got difficult pretty quick on the global scale:

You know, we declared Covid-19 a pandemic two weeks before the World Health Organisation did. We were one of the first countries to restrict travel from the worst-affected nations including China and Iran and as early as 9 March we advised Australians to reconsider taking cruise ship trips at the time.

On 13 March we advised all Australians to reconsider the need to travel overseas.

On 17 March we advised Australians overseas who wanted to return home to do so as soon as possible by commercial means.

On 18 March we raised our travel advice for anywhere overseas to do not travel, and on 25 March the government put in place a travel ban on Australians leaving Australia, except for certain exemptions.

So we have been very clear in our warnings and our advice.

We will continue to work on getting Australians home in a way that is safe for them and also safe for Australians in Australia.

We are very mindful about broader responsibilities as a government and the fact that many Australians need help right now, both abroad and of course at home.

We are getting Australians home, we are harnessing our relationships overseas, we are leveraging our diplomatic network, we are working with our airlines, we will do all of that to take into account the many responsibilities the Australian government has in this unprecedented time.

Marise Payne opens her appearance at Greg Hunt’s daily press conference with an update on cyclone Harold and its impact on our pacific neighbours – Vanuatu, Fiji and Tonga have all been hit.

Australia is supporting a caretaker government in Vanuatu and defence personnel is being sent over to help with the recovery.

The federal government has just taken a fairly significant step in its attempt to boost the number of ventilators available in Australian hospitals. Emergency powers have been enacted allowing the minister to exempt ventilators from parts of the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989 which ensure conformance with safety and performance requirements.

Such exemptions can be made only by the minister “so that the devices can be made available urgently in Australia in order to deal with an actual threat to public health caused by an emergency”. A description of the new powers says:

“The effect of the instrument is to exempt these ventilators from certain requirements under the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989 in order to deal with the threat to public health caused by the Covid-19 emergency.”

The new powers were registered on Wednesday and will cease on 31 January 2021. You can read the full detail on those exemption powers here.

The powers appear designed to allow new suppliers of ventilators to get them into Australian hospitals as quickly as possible to deal with the Covid-19 crisis.

Ventilators are critical in the fight against the virus because they aid the failing lungs of the most seriously ill patients. Australia had about 2,300 ventilators in intensive care units across the country before the crisis, but the government is seeking to dramatically increase that number as it surges ICU capacity.

Only one company in Australia, Resmed, manufactures ventilators and it has been working overtime to increase its output. The government has also been attempting to procure more ventilators from abroad and kickstart new domestic manufacturers by securing existing designs used by foreign companies.

I was curious how the government could just declare that pay rises will be deferred in the public service, because most employees would be covered by enterprise agreements, with pay increases agreed, scheduled and seemingly locked in.
Assistant minister to the prime minister and cabinet, Ben Morton, explained it will be done through a determination using s.24(3) of the Public Service Act.

That section says:”The Public Service Minister may, by legislative instrument, determine the terms and conditions of employment applying to APS employees, if the Public Service Minister is of the opinion that it is desirable to do so because of exceptional circumstances.”

Professor Anthony Forsyth told Guardian Australia the Act “does appear to allow” a determination to overrule enterprise agreements although it “depends on the meaning of exceptional circumstances”.

“[But the] opinion that it is desirable to do so is not the same as necessary,” Forsyth said.

He also noted that according to the Act section 42 of the Legislation Act - on disallowance - does not apply - meaning that one of the “ordinary processes of parliamentary scrutiny ... looks like [it] doesn’t apply”.

The Community and Public Sector Union is upset about the move, but agrees with the conclusion that it is legal.

So there you have it - one of the quirks of working in the public service, maybe better job security than the private sector but employment conditions altered at the stroke of a pen.

The Australian Academy of Science is continuing its great series, where scientists and researchers answer your questions.

They get it fact-checked too, so you don’t have to worry about the Malcolm Roberts of the world delivering your information.

The latest is on whether or not childcare centres are safe.

The national cabinet is about to meet. As we have mentioned, schools will be the big issue.

Tenancies not so much. It’s “fluid”, I’ve been told.

On schools, one of the issues is whether or not they will be prepared for students to be sent back. Officially they are all open; unofficially enrolments are falling, even before the most serious of the physical distance restrictions were in place.

If parents suddenly decide to return their children to school en masse after a month or so of home schooling, that presents its own challenges to education jurisdictions who have just spent the past month preparing for term two to be online.

Very big 28 Days Later vibes going on here:

Labor’s Amanda Rishworth says the government’s childcare package still needs some work:

As an unintended consequence of the new policy, some services have been stripped of so much income their viability is now at risk. With their revenue cut by a minimum of 50%, many providers, particularly family day care and in home services, are reporting they will not be able to continue providing their service.

We are hearing reports that these services are now cutting back on opening hours, turning families away, or sacking early educators to try to survive.

Free childcare will be of no benefit to those families that can no longer send their children to early learning and care because their provider has reduced access. Essential workers in particular need to know they can put their children into early learning.

In addition the viability of centres run by local councils, churches and some large not-for-profits are now at risk as they are not eligible for the jobkeeper payment. The minister made it clear that a combination of the new package and jobkeeper payments will protect the viability of providers, and as such he must ensure services can access jobkeeper.

The Reserve Bank has released its financial stability review April report, and on page 11 it included the tidbit about Australia’s rich withdrawing millions of dollars from their bank accounts in March:

Over-the-counter withdrawals of cash from banks were elevated over the second half of March as some customers with large balances sought to hold precautionary funds. This included a small number of customers making very large withdrawals (more than $100,000, and in some cases into the millions of dollars).

The Reserve Bank worked closely with the large banks and cash-in-transit companies to ensure branches had sufficient cash supplies. The focus of this work was on the logistics of moving cash to the right places as there was adequate total supply.

The elevated demand has since abated.

I guess its the 1% version of toilet paper.

Gladys Berejiklian addressed the Don Harwin issue, after the Daily Telegraph caught the arts minister in his central coast holiday home.

Harwin says he chose to relocate there three weeks ago, because of his underlying health issues and didn’t break any NSW restrictions.

Berejiklian is calling him back to Sydney anyway:

I was advised a few days ago that he had decided to make that his principal place to live some three weeks ago, and he has been there for three weeks, but obviously given what we have asked the rest of the community to do I think it’s entirely appropriate he come back to Sydney.

Police commissioner Mick Fuller says he’ll review the case, and if there have been any breaches, Harwin will get a fine:

I will ask for an explanation, and if it doesn’t stack up, I’ll ask for a ticket. We have evidence in terms photographs, and if the explanation doesn’t stack up we will let you know and give him a ticket for $1000.”

But he’ll keep his job.

Queensland is updating its border measures – which now includes Queenslanders who are seeking to return to Queensland after a trip over the border.

You’ll find the border measures (when they are updated) here

The foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, is joining the health minister, Greg Hunt, and deputy chief medical officer, Nick Coatsworth, for today’s briefing, which will be at 12.30.

And just like in Queensland, where a freeze was put in place last week – after which the government realised it also froze frontline worker pay – the commonwealth public servant union says the Morrison government has just done exactly the same thing:

The union representing the public sector including Centrelink workers and Australian border force officers, the CPSU, has condemned the move to freeze the wages of frontline government service workers for six months.

Communities around the country are looking to our public sector at this troubled time, more than ever before. Public sector workers are delivering for all of us, and the government is thanking them with a six-month pay freeze.

At a time when the government is spending billions of dollars to stimulate the economy and keep people spending, it just doesn’t make sense to be freezing the wages of essential workers.

The wage increase federal public sector is only 0.058% of the government budget. Freezing wages will not help the budget line, but it will affect tens of thousands of family budgets around the country, and the communities in which they spend.

The CPSU is calling on the Morrison government to immediately reverse this decision.

Larger charities still miss out on being eligible for the jobkeeper wage subsidy, despite the drop to 15% revenue loss (it is 30% for other entities under a $1bn and 50% for those over a billion) with government grants making some things tricky: the money is spent, but counted, and funds for future projects and staff is drying up.

Plan International, which misses out, and focuses on international aid, has some other ideas on how agencies like theirs can be helped:

Plan International Australia’s chief executive, Susanne Legena, said although this result was disappointing, there were a range of other measures the federal government could implement in the short term to provide relief.

These include:

• Introduce tax breaks for individuals in a position to donate to charities, including a tax deduction of 150% for the rest of the financial year;
• Lift the cap for fringe benefit tax to help charity employees. This will help alleviate the impact on staff wages in the reduction of employee hours as donations fall;
• Introduce a $300m Australian charities stabilisation fund, including providing flexible grants over at least the next six months of a value of between $20,000 and $100,000 which are rapidly assessed by the commonwealth;
• A fully flexible, 0% government loan facility for charities.

These are still dribbling out:

The Greens senator Rachel Siewert wants the government to check itself when it comes to debt collection over this period:

The government is sending mixed and very confusing messaging about debts.

Debts are supposedly paused but some processing is still going on. Robodebts are supposed to be frozen but people are still having to make repayments on what are likely to be illegal debts and people are being sent notices for the period when income reporting was turned off.

Yesterday the social services minister confirmed in the Senate that debts should not have been incurred during the period that income reporting was not required, yet some people are now getting notices.

This is causing a deep level of anxiety.

For weeks now my office has been inundated with calls, messages and emails from people who cannot use MyGov or contact Centrelink.

Income reporting was suspended because of the huge influx of people attempting to use Centrelink and people simply couldn’t report. Now the system is supposedly able to cope so income reporting is again required but people are telling us they still can’t report.

Now that the payment has been legislated, this should be able to answer your questions about whether or not you are eligible:

NSW Health has released its official update:

As at 8pm Wednesday 8 April, an additional 39 cases of Covid-19 have been diagnosed since 8pm 6 April, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in NSW to 2,773.

The 39 new cases represent the lowest daily count since 16 March.

There are 221 Covid-19 cases being treated in NSW. This includes 31 cases in intensive care units, and 21 of these require ventilators.

A further 3,906 people were tested for Covid-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm Wednesday 8 April, a 32% increase from the 24 hours before (2,945).

There have been 12 new cases at Gosford hospital including two patients and six staff and four family/friend cases. The affected ward was closed yesterday and community contact tracing is ongoing.

Of the 161 symptomatic travellers quarantined in hotels, 36 (22%) have tested positive.

How lucky for Victorians who have holiday homes.

On those additional measures Queensland has put in place, Queensland residents who want to head into NSW will need a permit to return to Queensland. (Previously they did not need that.)

Also they may be forced into the 14-day quarantine, which includes police checks.

So basically, you can leave the state but getting back in is going to be a major pain.

Queensland just did this and is now having to deal with the fact it also included frontline health workers and teachers in the freeze.

‘Public servant” is not a one-fits-all term.

Anthony Albanese also takes aim at some of the “informed” commentary, saying Labor has been very constructive during the 2020 crises.

I think any objective analysis – except for some august publications – have recognised the role we have played, and we have done that consistently since day one.

Some of the absurd opinion pieces frankly, that haven’t bothered to look at what I have said and what Labor has actually said, speak for themselves, and I think do more damage to the authors, then they do to the Labor brand.

“I am not for a ramping up of authoritarian measures,” Anthony Albanese says, on whether road blocks need to be put in place to stop people from travelling into regional communities this Easter.

It should just be commonsense, he says.

“We shouldn’t need for that to be reinforced.”

Anthony Albanese says Labor will continue to try to have more people included in the wage subsidy, including those on temporary visas who are unable to return home because of flight and border restrictions.

“People can’t self isolate if they can’t have somewhere to self isolate,” he says.

He says marginalised people, left without support, are also a health risk to the wider community.

A lot of arts performers have fallen through the cracks of the government’s stimulus packages.

This announcement may help some, but there will be many, many who still need assistance:

“To help the arts sector deal with the devastating impact of Covid-19, which has seen performances cancelled, venues closed and many performers and crew hit by the loss of gigs, the Morrison-McCormack government is committing $27m in targeted support across three particularly vulnerable areas of specific need.

“The government is providing $10m to help regional artists and organisations develop new work and explore new delivery models. The funding will be delivered through Australia’s regional arts fund.

“In remote Australia, self-isolation due to Covid-19 means Indigenous arts centres are unable to receive visitors, and the income that many artists rely on to support themselves and their families has dried up.

“To support Indigenous artists and arts centres, the government is providing $7m in additional funding. The funding will be delivered under the Indigenous visual arts industry support program.

NSW has seen its lowest growth in diagnosis since mid March: 39 people were diagnosed with Covid-19 since yesterday’s update, the state’s chief medical officer, Dr Kerry Chant, says.

Anthony Albanese will address the media in the next 10 minutes or so.

With China lifting the travel ban on Wuhan, residents have been able to leave the province for the first time in almost six months.

And so have planes, including one which landed in Australia overnight carrying almost 100* tonnes of much needed medical equipment.

* Amended from a previous figure

And on schools, Gladys Berejiklian said plans for next term are still a work in progress.

There’s some options we’re considering. But again it will be based on health advice and in consultation with all of our stakeholders, including of course principals and teachers and parent groups as well.

We’ll provide an update on that situation once we make a decision and again that will be based on health advice.

Mick Fuller spoke about just how cooperative members of the NSW community have been in helping the police (as well as the planned traffic enforcement operations for the weekend, to keep everyone home):

In terms of this weekend, we have spoken a lot about double demerits and traffic enforcement will continue.

We’ll be watching the north coast very carefully, particularly those border towns.

We’ve pushed additional police resources up there. But in preparation, we’ve been going through the caravan parks and other holiday spots to make sure we don’t have visitors here.

Anyone who has been here who shouldn’t be has been warned.

From Friday onwards, we’ll be issuing tickets, particularly for those not from NSW.

Be clear: we’ll reach a point when the warnings will be over.

We’ll protect our border towns and we’ll protect our coastal areas during this busy period.

Tickets have been issued again overnight – 24 for non-isolation issues – and many of those are tagged with other criminal behaviours.

But again, there’s been plenty of warnings about the long weekend and we would ask you listen to the warnings.

This is coming from the communities themselves. Up to date we have 5,000 Crime Stoppers reports in relation to people flouting the laws.

From my perspective, that means the community are well behind us on this journey.

Another 24 fines were issued in NSW since yesterday for disobeying physical distancing rules.

And NSW Crime Stoppers has received FIVE THOUSAND calls from people dobbing in their neighbours for allegedly breaking the isolation restrictions.

FIVE THOUSAND.

Gladys Berejiklian today has the unenviable task of telling NSW residents to stay at home, while dealing with a minister who left to hang at his holiday house:

[I am asking New South Wales residents] to really respect the rules, not travel, not leave your home unless you absolutely have to, but also – especially to those of you who would normally attend a church service – I know this would be so difficult for many of you, it may be the first Easter where you have not attended a church service or religious gathering, but we’re all in this together and I appreciate what everyone is going through.

I can relate to it in terms of my own family customs and traditions, but I appreciate how everybody is really stepping up and thank you for what you’re doing to date in relation to sticking to the rules. It’s so important for us to stay vigilant.

We can’t lift our foot off the pedal; we need to stay vigilant and make sure we clamp down on the community-to-community transmission, and the early signs on the restrictions are showing real benefit. But we won’t know the true benefit until a few weeks when all the data is in.

I don’t want to jump to any conclusions but early signs are positive. But we’ll rely on data in the next couple of weeks to give us a signal about what we should be doing moving forward.

Sussan Ley has asked some of the most isolated (by choice) Australians how they handle sitting on the literal arse-end of the world, Antarctic, how they handle the days, as the government tries to convince people to stay home these Easter holidays (unless you are the NSW arts minister, it would seem).

From Ley’s statement:

This week I spoke with the station leader at Davis research station [in] Antarctica, David Knoff. It was -16 degrees and pitch dark at 8am with winter ahead for he and his 23-person team.

“We always say to remain flexible and this year has really tested that,” he said.

“Coronavirus has certainly had an impact in Antarctica and the importance of keeping the station coronavirus-free will mean there will be [fewer] people for me to manage next year as we limit numbers.

“In a lot of ways, we actually had a lot of time to prepare for this [Antarctic winter] through training and talking to our families. In the Antarctic program we’re used to having to be isolated and it’s interesting to see how it’s playing out back home.

“My advice is to really do it your way, don’t get too wrapped up in a routine, focus on what you’re happy to do, mixing it up and staying flexible.

“Make the most of the situation you’re in. If you’re stuck indoors don’t sit there worrying about being outdoors. Just make the most of it.”

In terms of where we are case wise, this latest graph from Guardian data wunderkind, Nick Evershed, gives a pretty good idea:

The next thing on the agenda is schools and what happens in term two.

Teachers have been asked to prepare distance learning for the next semester, but teachers have been telling me they also expect parents who have spent the better part of a month trying to educate their children while also working at home to begin making noises about sending their kids back to school.

Which means schools which remain open but “pupil free” – a wonderfully bureaucratic term – could see students return, meaning teachers once again have to scramble.

These are the sorts of things the national cabinet, along with the nations education ministers, will be talking about today.

With the latest stimulus package passed, parliament is not scheduled to sit again until the second week of August.

Josh Frydenberg held a late night press conference once the Senate passed his latest stimulus bill. The bill passed as the government intended, with Labor’s amendments to include more people defeated in the House, and the Greens amendments, to include those same missing people, defeated in the Senate. Labor had resolved to not support any amendments in the Senate, other than the ones the government put forward, because if the Senate had passed the amendments, the bill would have returned to the House – where it would have been defeated – before returning to the Senate. Katy Gallagher last night described it as “not playing ping-pong” with worker’s futures.

Frydenberg was just happy it was done:

We know already more 730,000 businesses have registered their interest in taking up the jobkeeper payment. That is 730,000 businesses employing millions of Australians and I think for many Australians this will be the economic lifeline they were looking for, giving them the confidence and their employers the confidence to know that despite the difficulties of the times that we face, they will get to the other side. And as you know we have talked extensively about our hibernation strategy, about supporting businesses, whether it’s with the code of conduct between landlords and tenants, whether it is agreements with the energy companies, whether it is with the banks who have been deferring loan repayments, whether it is with insurance companies, this has all been designed to ensure that businesses, and their employees, can get to the other side. I’m confident that with tonight’s passage of the legislation, we have made a massive step forward in the right direction.

Police across Australia are patrolling popular holiday destinations to ensure people do not ignore edicts to stay at home this Easter.

Travel bans have been placed on Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island), Moorgumpin (Moreton Island) and K’gari (Fraser Island) off the coast of Queensland and police are increasing patrols.

Camping grounds across the state are also closed, as are Gold Coast beaches.

“Can I please ask that people actually do comply with the rules,” the police commissioner, Katarina Carroll, told AAP on Wednesday. “It is actually about saving people’s lives and it is incredibly important as we go into a very busy weekend.”

In Victoria, all campsites and caravan parks on public lands, as well as major beaches and all public playgrounds, barbecue facilities and picnic grounds have been closed.

Victoria’s police minister, Lisa Neville, is due to issue a warning about Easter travel alongside police at 9.45am today.

And in NSW, the police commissioner, Mick Fuller, said people should lock down in their “primary home” rather than travelling to holiday homes in regional areas, to avoid spreading the infection and overwhelming local hospitals. But that does not seem to have stopped NSW arts minister, Don Harwin. More on that later.