Australian PM Focussed on Restarting the Economy, Flattening Unemployment Curve

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison addresses the media and the nation during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia on March 24, 2020. Lukas Coch/Pool/Getty Images

Keeping social distancing measures in place is costing the Australian economy $4 billion a week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison revealed at a press conference on May 5. Over 5 million people are on the Jobkeeper payment, with another 1 million claiming their superannuation retirement fund.

“Thousands of Australian lives have been saved, when you look the experience of how the coronavirus has affected so many countries around the world, but we now need to get 1 million Australians back to work, that is the curve we need to address,” Morrison said at a press conference on May 5.

Morrison lauded the cooperation and combined efforts of the national cabinet in softening the economic fallout from the spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus.

“Those decisions that we have taken have been incredibly important, and no doubt had we not taken them, not only with the health impact have been disastrous, but, the economic cost would have been even greater,” Morrison said.

The national cabinet is working on creating a “COVID safe economy” where people can return to work with the assistance needed to deal with a virus outbreak if it happens.

“And it is important that businesses, employees, and employers have the tools to deal with the COVID-19 environment and ensure they are all working together to support a COVID-19 safe workplace,” he said.

To help businesses get up and running a new toolkit has been added to the Worksafe Australia website. It contains tips on how to reduce the risk of CCP virus outbreaks.

Morrison said that decisions on lifting restrictions will be discussed by the national cabinet on May 8.

“But our hope is that where we get to on Friday, we can layout much more of the road map for Australians so they can see what is happening for weeks and months ahead,” Morrison said.