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Construction calls for 'short and sharp' stimulus hit
By Rachel Eddie
Simon Butt, national president of Master Builders Australia, says stimulus for the construction industry would provide a "short and sharp" boost to the struggling economy.
Master Builders yesterday called for a $13.2 billion stimulus package for the industry to save jobs.
Mr Butt said it would provide a "short and sharp, punchy hit" to boost.
"We're really trying to get a level of confidence back in the industry," he told ABC's Radio National this morning.
Mr Butt said the support could keep apprentices in jobs, who have "absolutely" been losing their employment.
"Unfortunately they are seen as being dispensable for many people, yet they're really the future of our industry."
Yesterday, Housing Minister Michael Sukkar brushed off the industry's request for a lifeline.
He said the government already had economic support in place, "[Of] which the construction industry is a massive beneficiary, particularly through JobKeeper and our support for apprentice wages," he told AAP.
"We are continually monitoring the effect that COVID-19 is having on the economy, and I am in constant contact with key stakeholders and the states and territories to ensure new homes can still be built and tradies stay in jobs."
Master Builders has pointed to economic modelling showing $13.2 billion in stimulus would result in $30.9 billion in gross domestic product while creating 105,500 construction jobs.
They claim it would also lead to $17.6 billion in construction across housing, renovations and commercial construction.
with AAP
JobSeeker and JobKeeper provide 'significant support' for arts: Fletcher
Arts Minister Paul Fletcher has claimed the JobKeeper and JobSeeker payments are injecting "between $4 billion and $10 billion" into the arts industry.
Speaking on ABC Television this morning, Mr Fletcher said the welfare payments were providing "significant support" to the industry, which has criticised the payments for excluding a number of its workers.
He said the government's current focus was on restarting economic activity, rather than expanding payments.
"If you're a performing arts company, if you can't perform, you're not earning any revenue. Clearly what we now need to be thinking about is, based upon the public health advice, how can we restart activities?"
Mr Fletcher said he was meeting with state and territory arts ministers this afternoon to discuss the logistical issues with reopening theatres across the country.
Speaking in his role as Communications Minister, Mr Fletcher said he expected to see working from home normalised in the future, saying the NBN has held up "reasonably well" despite traffic levels during the day increasing by 70 per cent.
"We've tried now as a nation to see if it works, and the responses have been, I think, quite positive," he said.
PM to announce skills and training overhaul in speech today
Prime Minister Scott Morrison will address the National Press Club in Canberra today, flagging the $7.7 billion training sector is set for a federal overhaul.
Chief political correspondent David Crowe reports Mr Morrison will name skills and training as a key target for reform in a "JobMaker" policy plan that will also take a new approach to industrial relations in the hope of gaining support from unions and employers.
He will renegotiate what he terms a "fundamentally flawed" national skills and workforce agreement with the states to apply stricter rules on the way it spends $1.5 billion in federal funding every year. There is no indication that the amount of federal funding for the state-based skills and training sector will be changed.
In the speech, Mr Morrison will announce three key problems to be solved "in the coming months":
- Firstly, he says, the system is too complex and is "unresponsive" to industry demand for skills
- Secondly, it does not offer clear information about the skills needed for the future
- Thirdly, the system is full of "inconsistencies and incoherence" and poor accountability over the way money is spent.
Sydney restaurants and gyms could be given access to footpaths, parks
Restaurants and other businesses in Sydney could be allowed more access to footpaths, streets and parks under a post-lockdown plan put forward by the NSW treasurer.
Dominic Perrottet says he and NSW Planning Minister Rob Stokes have discussed lifting restrictions on businesses to help them adhere to social distancing measures.
"Lifting restrictions on businesses could be in the form of giving them more space on footpaths, allowing pop up shops or markets to operate in public spaces (such as parks) - we've got to move on from a nimby approach that strangles economic growth," Mr Perrottet told the Daily Telegraph.
"We want to work with businesses so they have the ability to flourish."
The NSW treasurer also flagged loosening restrictions to make it easier for gyms to use parks and for streets to be turned into outdoor markets.
Restaurants, cafes and pubs will be allowed to open for 50 patrons from June 1, up from their current 10-diner limit. However, there have been no announcements about when indoor gyms might be allowed to reopen, with Premier Gladys Berejiklian saying she was "working with the industry" yesterday.
with AAP
Three weeks after lifting lockdown, Pakistan's cases doubled
Pakistan may reinforce its lockdown to stem the spread of the coronavirus, officials say, amid a spike in infections and deaths three weeks after restrictions were lifted.
Health authorities and regional governments expressed alarm as Pakistan's confirmed coronavirus caseload surged past 56,000, with nearly 1200 related deaths.
The number of confirmed cases has more than doubled from 23,000 on May 6, when the country lifted its lockdown. New reported cases appeared to spike over the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr this weekend.
"We might go for a nationwide lockdown again because the virus is spreading rapidly," Pakistan's Special Assistant for Health Zafar Mirza said, blaming the fresh wave of infections on the population not adhering to social distancing.
"All warnings by the government were not heard," Mirza said.
AAP
Victorian children head back to school
Victorian children are heading back into classrooms today for the first time in nearly three months.
Students in prep, years 1 and 2, and years 11 and 12 will resume lessons on campus as part of a staggered return to regular schooling.
Yesterday, some students in the ACT and Tasmania also had their first days back. In the nation's capital, years 3, 4 and 10 joined kindy, years 1, 2, 7, 11 and 12 in classrooms in the second stage of the territory's plan. Just Tasmanian primary schools and year 11 and 12 went back this week, to be joined by other years if things go well.
Meanwhile, students in Queensland and NSW started learning in classrooms full-time yesterday, so it could be today and tomorrow – when kids remember that, yes, you do have to go to school more than once a week – which is the real test for families.
Seven of yesterday's nine cases were in hotel quarantine
Hotel quarantine has been hailed as crucial in allowing the economy and community life to return to normal after the coronavirus pandemic.
Out of the nine new cases recorded on Monday, seven were travellers returning from overseas who were compelled to isolate.
A family of four Victorians returning from Doha were on Western Australia's tally on Monday.
The two new cases in Victoria were also returned travellers and in NSW, one new case was a traveller and the other two were locally acquired.
"We continue with our border measures and the importance of those is emphasised by the fact that a significant proportion of new cases are those that show up in hotel quarantine," Health Minister Greg Hunt said on Monday afternoon.
"Border protection and hotel quarantine is literally saving lives and protecting lives, and will continue to be a fundamental part of our national health and strategic defence going forward."
AAP
Johnson's top adviser protects him from scandal by fronting media solo
By Bevan Shields
Dominic Cummings has moved to insulate Boris Johnson from a rapidly worsening political scandal, convening an extraordinary press conference to slap down demands for his resignation and reveal damaging new details of his trip to regional England at the peak of Britain's coronavirus lockdown.
The Prime Minister's powerful chief adviser refused to apologise for driving 400 kilometres from London to Durham even though he and his wife had coronavirus, and dismissed warnings from the government's own scientific advisers that the saga undermined social distancing rules by creating a perception that government officials could circumvent the rules with no consequences.
"The legal rules inevitably do not cover all circumstances, including those that I found myself in," Mr Cummings claimed.
Today's front pages
Good morning, this is Mary Ward taking over the blog.
Overnight, we've had news of easing lockdowns in Spain, the UK and Japan, as well as heard two people in power defend some questionable behaviour: US President Donald Trump has defended himself for taking a golf day as his nation's death toll nears 100,000, and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's chief adviser Dominic Cummings has said he "respectfully disagrees" that he did the wrong thing by taking a trip to regional England with coronavirus symptoms.
Here's the local news on the front page of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age this morning.
French nursing home employees take to streets in protest
Employees of a major group of French nursing homes have taken part in protests across France to call for better pay amid the coronavirus crisis.
The government is formally opening two months of talks with healthcare workers on Monday over changes to France's public health system, which has suffered from decades of cuts.
A woman holds a sign reading in French "Macron's government medals: lies, incompetence, endangering the lives of others, cynicism, dictatorship on the move" during a protest in Marseille's Old Port, in France.Credit:AP
You can read more about the protests here.
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2020-05-25 21:39:00Z
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