Australia coronavirus live update: education minister orders independent schools to reopen – latest news | Australia news

There’s due to be a car convoy on the Sydney Harbour Bridge this afternoon – organised by the Maritime Union of Australia Sydney branch and the NSW CFMMEU construction division, among others – protesting against jobkeeper leaving millions of workers out.

It’ll cross the bridge at 4pm and head up to NSW parliament and NRMA headquarters.

Not sure how NSW police will respond to this and if it will consider it an activity within the guidelines for people to be out of the house. We shall see.

The unions want jobkeeper extended to those left out, and for sackings and stand downs of workers in the private ferry business in Sydney to be stopped.

They also say it is racist and unacceptable to direct international students and migrant workers to leave Australia, and they should get support, too.

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.

Marise Payne’s office has released some more information on those flights:

“A Qantas service from Lima to Australia is scheduled to depart Peru on Monday 13 April. Subject to confirmation of regulatory and operational approvals, the details of commercial services to Buenos Aires and Johannesburg will be confirmed in the coming days.

“This is in addition to a flight organised by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade with South American airline LATAM, which departed from Lima, Cusco and Iquitos in Peru today. We are pleased that 280 Australians and four New Zealanders are scheduled to arrive in Melbourne tomorrow morning.

“We are also working on facilitated flights from further destinations in the coming weeks, including to India and the Philippines.

“Border closures and internal restrictions on movement in many countries around the world, along with the complexity of arranging such flights, should not be underestimated. Australian officials are working closely with relevant governments to support Australians to travel internally to major airports and gain the necessary flight approvals and airport clearances in locations where Australian airlines do not typically fly.

“These further flights are the latest outcome of the hard work of Australia’s consular and diplomatic staff and Australia’s airlines to assist Australians overseas. It follows the return of more than 280,000 Australians in recent weeks, including more than 6,200 Australians who have safely disembarked 45 cruise ships around the world.

“Details for these latest flights will be confirmed in coming days, with information provided directly to registered travellers. As they are commercial services, passengers are responsible for purchasing tickets.

“The Australian government will, where possible, support non-scheduled commercial services to further locations to bring Australians home where there are few other options to depart.”

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.

Not sure we should be making coronavirus a friend, but if it helps your kids understand whats going on, you’ll find some materials here:

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.

Josh Frydenberg has released information on small and medium business loans:

“Under the scheme, the government will support up to $40bn of lending to SMEs with turnover of less than $50m, including sole traders and not-for-profit organisations, with the government guaranteeing 50% of new loans issued by eligible lenders until 30 September 2020.

“The government will make offers to 29 banks and five non-bank lenders in response to expressions of interest which will total $34bn of potential lending to SMEs. Applications from a range of other lenders are currently being assessed for the remaining $6bn in the scheme.

“The legislative and scheme rules have also been finalised following consultation with lenders and key stakeholders to ensure the scheme provides the required support to SMEs during this period.

“The scheme complements other initiatives undertaken by the government and the Reserve Bank of Australia to support lending to SMEs, including:

• $15bn to allow AOFM to invest in wholesale funding markets used by small ADIs and non-ADI lenders;
• The RBA’s $90bn term funding facility for ADIs with a priority for SME lending;
• Cutting red tape to ensure SMEs get access to credit faster.

“The scheme will also support the jobkeeper program to help businesses get access to the necessary working capital to continue operating when their revenues have been significantly impacted by the coronavirus.”

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