The Covid-19 exit strategy: when will Australia know the coronavirus battle is over?
"Now that the JobKeeper Payment has passed Parliament, this is how it'll work"
A medical professional performs a coronavirus test at the Bondi Beach drive-through Covid-19 testing centre in Sydney. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP
Australia has not yet reached the Covid-19 peak, and experts say if we come out of isolation too early we risk a devastating second wave
by Ben Doherty
Sat 11 Apr 2020 06.00 AEST Last modified on Sat 11 Apr 2020 10.51 AEST
It is a fundamental problem in fighting a war against an invisible enemy, one that hides among us.
When is the battle over?
We know that we are not there yet. That end is months, not weeks away.
We know we have not yet reached the “peak” but that it is coming. Like an invisible wave, we won’t see it when it arrives, we will see only its effects. We have watched it wash over other countries: the grimly climbing toll reported daily, even hourly; the overwhelmed intensive care wards; the shuttered businesses and closed school gates; the empty streets and full mortuaries.
“This health crisis and economic crisis is a battle on two fronts,” the prime minister, Scott Morrison, has warned, “and it is going to be waged in an unimaginable and unprecedented way over the next at least six months and potentially beyond that.”
But it is a balancing act for governments. Weighing lives against livelihoods, the financial imperative to restart shattered economies against the medical necessity to stay home and save lives.
It will now close all schools and most workplaces – only essential services such as supermarkets and banks will stay open – for a full month. It has instituted jail terms for breaching stay-at-home orders, and banned visitors and transits through the country.
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Comparisons between countries are always flawed, too great are the differences in size, development, governance and demographics. Singapore, an island city-state ruled by a single party since independence, with a high-quality public health system and a population broadly adherent to government diktat, was always inherently advantaged.
But the risk of lifting restrictions too early and unleashing a devastating “second wave” applies to countries all over the world, and the international community itself.
“If Australia comes out of our isolation too early, we risk an even bigger peak,” Associate Prof Ian Mackay from the University of Queensland told the Guardian this week.
“This could take six months or more. We cannot lose focus. It’s annoying, it’s hard, it’s very tough for a lot of people, there is real pain and economic hardship in the community. But we have to stick it out, because if we relax too soon, and allow the virus to re-emerge and spread widely, all the pain we have suffered will have been for nothing.”
Medical staff and workers from Riley Street Depot, Surry Hills, April 1919. Photograph: NSW State Archives and Records
But when the flu did break in Australia, it killed an estimated 17,000 people, and it did so in three waves, the first in February, the second in April. The third wave, in July, was by far the most deadly.
JobKeeper extended until March 2021: What it means for you
"Now that the JobKeeper Payment has passed Parliament, this is how it'll work"
Anastasia Santoreneos Yahoo Finance AU21 July 2020
PHOTOS - JobKeeper extension confirmed: What it means for you. Source: Getty
The JobKeeper subsidy has been extended until March, but will operate at a reduced rate, the prime minister revealed on Tuesday.
Businesses receiving the payment will now be subject to a new turnover test, and a different rate will be applied for part-time and casual employees.
“JobKeeper is doing its job and will continue to do its job through the decisions we're announcing today,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Tuesday.
“Already just over $30 billion has been provided in support through the JobKeeper Program to almost a million businesses - 960,000, thereabouts - supporting some 3.5 million employees.”
Morrison said the government’s review into JobKeeper found the scheme needed to continue, but it needed to become more targeted.
What’s changed?
The government’s review into JobKeeper found that around one-in-four Australians on JobKeeper were receiving a pay rise of, on average, $550 per fortnight. Over six months, that equates to a $6,600 pay rise.
It’s this situation that Finance Minister Mathias Cormann referred to as an “adverse incentive”.
“What the review also found was that there were a number of features of JobKeeper that created adverse incentives which may become more pronounced over time as the economy recovers,” Cormann said.
“This formed part of our considerations as we looked at the next phase of the JobKeeper program.”
To combat this, the government will have a two-tiered payments system: from 28 September until 3 January, the top tier will receive $1,200 per fortnight, and the bottom will receive $750. From 4 January until 28 March, the top tier will receive $1,000 per fortnight, and the bottom $650 per fortnight.
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