Morrison pushes for earlier reopeningPhillip Coorey
Political editor
Apr 29, 2020 – 7.28pm
Scott Morrison and state and territory leaders will soon discuss a wide-scale lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, including the resumption of community and professional sport, and the reopening of cafes and restaurants, news of which has buoyed the sharemarket.
At the same time, the Prime Minister said the economic outlook was set to worsen dramatically and the government left open the prospect of extending the JobSeeker unemployment benefit beyond its original time frame of six months.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison will meet with the states on May 11 about easing restrictions on Australia's people and businesses. Alex Ellinghausen
While there is no more money to pour into the $14 billion welfare top-up, a possible "underspend" on what is a demand-driven program may allow the government to taper payments beyond the cut-off or keep people on the full benefit for a bit longer.
Declaring that a freer lifestyle was "not too far away'', the Prime Minister said restrictions could be lifted faster if more people downloaded the COVIDSafe app, which enables authorities to quickly stamp out what will still be inevitable outbreaks of the coronavirus.
Thus far, 2.8 million people have downloaded the app but Mr Morrison said "millions and millions and millions more'' need to follow suit to make it effective.
The government is aiming for at least 8 million downloads, which is 40 per cent of the population, for the app to be effective in contact tracing.
"If you want to return to a more liberated economy and society, it is important that we get increased numbers of downloads when it comes to the COVIDSafe app,'' he said.
May 11 meeting
Mr Morrison said the national cabinet would meet the week beginning May 11 to discuss the removal of the baseline restrictions which have been in place for over a month.
While some states have eased a handful of restrictions, the S&P/ASX 200 index rose 1.2 per cent as Mr Morrison spoke of a broader, nationwide easing. The market finished the day 1.5 per cent up at 5393.4 points.
"It won't be exactly like it was before. I can't see international travel occurring anytime soon,'' Mr Morrison said, with the exception of New Zealand.
"But outside of that ... I look forward to the time when Australians can travel again within Australia.
"I look forward to the time where they can sit down to a meal at a restaurant or a cafe or in a pub again. I look forward to the time where they can see, whether it is the AFL, the netball, or the NRL, or whatever code it is they support, and being able to watch that again."
Channel Nine CEO Hugh Marks, ARLC chairman Peter V'landys and Foxtel boss Patrick Delany.
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He said fans would not be able to attend games and while there may be opportunities "for those seeking private prayer in a place of worship'', there would not be large services.
The government has committed $130 billion to the JobKeeper scheme, which pays wage subsidies of $1500 per fortnight, and $14 billion to the JobSeeker scheme, which has doubled the maximum unemployment benefit to $1100 per fortnight.
While insistent both schemes will end on October 1 as legislated, the government is especially under pressure not to allow JobSeeker to revert back to the old dole payment of about $40 a day.
Mr Morrison and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann are adamant the schemes will not be topped up. But amid speculation all the money may not be spent, due to the economy recovering faster than anticipated, Senator Cormann flagged flexibility with JobSeeker beyond the cut-off date.
"There is a supplement that is in place specifically to deal with the impact of the COVID-19 crisis,'' he said of the $550 fortnightly top-up.
"That COVID-19 supplement would not continue to be in place when we are on the other side of the COVID-19 period.
"The initial period that this is in place for is about six months. There will be capacity to adjust depending on how long this continues to go for."
'I fear worse statistics coming'
Mr Morrison also indicated some flexibility with timing but stressed there would be no additional money because the budget could not afford it.
"These emergency measures come at a great cost. And clearly that level of cost is not a sustainable level beyond what we've flagged,'' he said.
Mr Morrison said the worst was yet to come in terms of the hit to the economy, and the government's focus was to get people back into work as soon as possible to help grow the economy.
People on JobKeeper won't be counted as unemployed.
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"I fear worse statistics coming forward on the economy in the months ahead,'' he said.
"That's why JobSeeker and JobKeeper were put in place to deal with the heavy blow that the COVID-19 pandemic is going to have on the Australian economy.
"But that's why we also need to move as quickly as we can, getting these protections in place, to ensure that our economy can grow."
Mr Morrison said success would not be judged just by defeating the virus.
"This is the success we're seeking, to be able to have the protections in place, to enable Australians to go back to as normal a life and an economy as possible."
Phillip Coorey is the Political editor based in Canberra. He is a two-time winner of the Paul Lyneham award for press gallery excellence. Connect with Phillip on Facebook and Twitter. Email Phillip at
pcoorey@afr.com 
