Prime Minister
MICHAEL USHER: Prime Minister, there's a great many people across our country who are fearful, a bit scared, uncertain tonight, and the states seem to be going their own way this afternoon. Lockdowns, some school closures or early holidays. Do you think it's now inevitable that we'll move as a nation toward a lockdown of all cities, a national lockdown to stop the spread of COVID-19?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I certainly understand the anxiety of all Australians about the coronavirus. they've seen what's happening overseas and they've seen the escalation, the cases here in Australia, particularly in New South Wales. And so I understand that concern. I know Australians know that in the majority of cases, about 8 out of 10, actually a little better in Australia, and most Australians who would contract the virus would experience a mild illness. But the issue is ensuring that we contain as best as we can and control the spread because that will save lives of the more vulnerable members of our community. Now, we've always said, as a National Cabinet, that we will seek to get standardised and consistent responses. But I've also said that states will need to go beyond that to deal with the specific situations in their state. So that was completely envisaged. I mean, last week we'd actually acknowledged that as a group and we'd tasked the medical expert panel to provide advice about how states could take additional actions, particularly in areas of where there was outbreaks of the virus.
USHER: There is confusion out there, though. I mean, people are saying beaches close, but not schools broadly. I have to admit, I think I'm even unsure tonight and I'd like to think I'm pretty informed in the past few days. Should we be sending our children to school in the morning, Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: The medical advice, my kids will be going to school in the morning and that's important and that school will be open, as I understand. And we'll be following the medical advice, as we always have, and that if our children are not well, then they shouldn't attend school. As long as the schools are open, that is the case. But importantly, as I said, for those health workers and others, a complete closure of schools across the country would take out 30 per cent of our health workforce. Now, you can imagine what the impact would be on running our intensive care units and our emergency departments if we were to get 30 per cent of those workers taken out of there or in aged care facilities. So these are the very difficult decisions that have to be taken when you're looking at these issues individually.
USHER: The 6 month window that you talk about often, can I talk to you about that or the 6 month period? This is looking forward and what we have to get our head around. Is that based on medical advice or is that your judgement call about what we just have to prepare for?
PRIME MINISTER: No, it's based on the expert modelling that we've had done through our medical experts to give us an idea about potential spread and duration of viruses under various scenarios, and I've said it's at least that. It could be a lot longer than that. And that's why I know when people start talking about locking things down, you can't just lock things down for two weeks and four weeks and open it again and think it's all going to be Okay. That would be a foolish decision, because when you open it up again, the virus just takes off. So if you shut things down, you have to understand that if you do that, that you may well be doing that for at least the next six months. And that has to be sustainable. That's why I say the economic impacts of this and the broader health impacts, it's going to break our hearts. I have no doubt. But it must not break our spirit or our resolve to continue to deal with this crisis in a sensible way, in a compassionate way, helping each other to help us all through to the other side.
USHER: And a big chunk, you’ve got $66 billion today was about preserving jobs. Are you worried, though, that the jobs might have gone already? A lot of layoffs already in the past week or so.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there have been and there'll be many more. And that's why we've put in the, we've doubled the job seeker payment. We've basically waived so many of the rules to access it. And that means people also potentially going to, access to rental assistance and family tax benefit provision. This will be important to help them. What we did today was about widening and deepening and strengthening the safety net that is there for people. People will lose work and we know that's going to happen. We will seek to minimise it as much as possible. But I'm going to be straight with Australians. This is going to be the toughest economic situation we've likely seen since the Great Depression and also when it comes to war time, one of the biggest challenges of keeping Australians together and focusing forward since the Second World War. So people need to understand that we are in extraordinary times.
USHER: I want to talk to you about the hospitals briefly, Prime Minister. Health workers are telling us that they're facing shortages of some of the essentials, the masks, the hand sanitizers. They're concerned about access to respirators as well. What can we do to ensure that those essential services, those very much needed products, are accessible?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we’re securing additional supplies for those, including tests. I mean, for example, on testing, we've done, I think about 127,000 tests. We have one of the highest rates of testing anywhere in the world. And we also have the highest, we understand, rate of negative turn backs or comebacks on those tests, some 99 per cent. So our testing is much higher than the United States or many other parts of the world. But equally with what's called the PPE equipment, the masks and things like that, we're ensuring that we've got domestic supplies that'll be able to be manufactured and we're repurposing our manufacturing lines to do that. There's a lot of work being done between the private industry and the government to deliver on that. On sanitizer, it's the same thing. Many, many companies are now changing their production lines to provide sanitizer. And when it comes to the respirator machines equally, that's something the Health Minister is working closely with the states and territories to ensure we get greater access. But the key thing is this, though, if people social distance, that is keep a healthy distance away from each other and don't do what we saw down at Bondi Beach, when people take these messages seriously about self-isolation, what you're doing when you do that is you're saving lives, you're saving people's livelihoods. And that's why it's so important. That is our biggest weapon against this virus, is every single Australian doing the right thing.
USHER: Let me talk to you about the Australian spirit. We saw the best of it during the bushfires. There's no doubt about that. We seem to have taken a complete left turn and gone to some places that have been pretty ugly. What do you... what's your take on that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there's a lot of great stories too, Michael. I know there's a lot of focus on the despicable behaviour we saw in supermarkets and the cavalier sort of disregard of public health that we saw at Bondi Beach, which I suspect people did naively, but innocently, because they weren't waking up to the very real situation we're in. But there are many more wonderful stories about Australians helping each other, particularly elderly Australians who are more at risk and need help getting access to supplies. And we're seeing that in our community and we're going to see more and more of it. People also taking their responsibilities just to socially isolate for 14 days if they're in that situation. People are doing that more and more. And I want to thank them for doing that and need to do more of it, because that, again, that is the weapon that we have to fight this virus and we're all enlisted in that task. So, yes, there have been concerning behaviours and those things need to stop. But equally, we're also seeing the very spirit you're talking about, and that's what I'm relying on to ensure that we can get everybody on this bridge to the other side of the recovery.
USHER: Your reaction to the AFL shutting down its season, that's been announced. No decision for the NRL yet?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, these are going to be things that are going to occur there. This is unprecedented. The fact that the AFL, as you've just told me, is not proceeding. I've been in meetings fairly back to back today. That doesn't surprise me, because now in this new world in which we're dealing with the coronavirus, I must say, nothing is surprising me because we need to take the sort of decisions that we've never even contemplated before. And the NRL, I'm sure, will weigh up their own decisions about what they do, and they'll be seeking to follow the health advice as well. And I'm sure they will follow that health advice because they know that is the most important thing.
USHER: Do you think we should be sending our team to the Olympics in Tokyo?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, again, the IOC will make the decision, but well, the simple answer to that is, is we have a complete travel ban to the rest of the world. So the Smart Traveller advice and the advice from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, I think is pretty clear there.
USHER: And that would apply to our athletes going to the Olympics, yes?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the health of all Australians is the most important thing. And there's nothing more important than that.
USHER: Just one message, if you can, Prime Minister, what do you say to Australians who are really feeling a bit rattled, uncertain, a bit scared right now?
PRIME MINISTER: These are anxious times, Australians are strong and we're going to find out just how strong we are, and I know we're not going to be disappointed. If we rally together, as we always have as a nation, we have the inspiration of those who've done it before us. We will get on this bridge to the other side of recovery. We will bounce back stronger. But it's up to all of us to do the part that we have in ensuring that Australia emerges from this stronger. And we support those most at need, most vulnerable, and we take them with us. And I know Australians won't let us down. That's not who we are as a people. We are people who overcome. That's what we've always done and that's what we're going to do.
USHER: Prime Minister, thank you for joining me.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you very much.