Key economic related points from the PM’s conference yesterday 03/05/2020:
- Just over 1.5 million Australians have applied for JobSeeker – 900,000 claims have been processed in the past six weeks
- Unemployment is expected to rise to 10 per cent
- 650,000 businesses have applied for JobKeeper
- 950,000 Australians have requested early super access
- 340,000 businesses have received a cash flow boost ($6 billion)
- 6.8 million Australians have received the one-off payment
- Net overseas migration to fall by a third on the 18/19 levels in 19/20 – and much more the following year
This morning 04/05/2020:
- US Secretary of State Pompeo claims ‘enormous evidence’ that virus originated in Wuhan lab, and that it was ‘man-made’.
- Contradicts official US intelligence community assessment that Covid-19 ‘was not man-made or genetically modified.’
- Pompeo has also claimed that ‘China has a history of infecting the world’
- Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson says all virus research with foreign nationals should be halted until a safety and national security review is done. (Australian).
- South Australia set to remove intrastate travel ban within days, and encourage citizens to stay in beach towns, wine regions and holiday homes. (Australian)
- Spending per person has declined 20 per cent since pre-pandemic levels, and spending has reduced as the crisis has progressed, according to AlphaBeta. (SMH)
- ALP Home Affairs shadow Keneally’s call for reduced migration has received cautious support from unions but some internal criticism for moving beyond party position (SMH):
- the issue had been discussed within shadow Cabinet but no policy decision had been made, according to multiple senior sources.
- Michelle Grattan says that the speech was cleared with Labor leader Albanese’s office.
- Centre Alliance Senator Rex Patrick has written to Minister Cormann urging that government procurement rules be changed to favour Australian suppliers. (SMH)
- A group of countries including Australia have been discussing building business and tourism ties post-crisis, including opening up their borders to each other to each other over time. (WSJ)
- They are deemed to be countries that have made progress in combating the virus – Australia, Austria, Israel, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece and New Zealand.
- Austria’s Chancellor Kurz initiated the discussions; their first virtual meeting was last week, and they will meet every two weeks by teleconference.
- British Cabinet Minister Gove says the government is looking at staggered work shifts to reduce load on public transport at any one time.