Step three of the plan, is the road back to a ‘Covid-safe economy’ which is not actually a thing until we get a vaccination, but I suppose someone got paid a lot of money to come up with that term, or at the very least, received a gold star, so get used to hearing it. In these extraordinary times, the Guardian’s editorial independence has never been more important. Because no one sets our agenda, or edits our editor, we can keep delivering quality, trustworthy, fact-checked journalism each and every day. Free from commercial or political bias, we can report fearlessly on world events and challenge those in power. Your support protects the Guardian’s independence. We believe every one of us deserves equal access to accurate news and calm explanation. No matter how unpredictable the future feels, we will remain with you, delivering high quality news so we can all make critical decisions about our lives, health and security – based on fact, not fiction. Support the Guardian from as little as $1 – and it only takes a minute. Thank you. Stuart Robert then gets a shout out, for...reasons, I suppose, because while the department and its staff have done a great job, I don’t think there would be a lot of people who would claim the minister has done the same. But hey - he did pray for righteousness during the leadership spill, so I suppose there’s that Scott Morrison: Step 2 of that plan has to extend an economic lifeline to Australians throughout the course of this crisis. JobKeeper, JobSeeker, the cashflow lifeline to small businesses, the additional payments that have gone to pensioners and to others on welfare benefits and will happen again in July. Making sure that we understand that during this emergency time, we have emergency responses. That is entirely appropriate and our government did not shrink from that. Our government responded to that in an effective and well-planned and well-considered way consistent with the principles that we set out in early March, that we don’t commit Australians across the generations to high levels of spending into the future, but we do it for the time that is necessary to give the support that is necessary to help Australians through this crisis and that’s what we have done. And to you, Josh, and to your entire economic team with Mathias Cormann and others, it has been a very effective program brought together in record time. Scott Morrison: In the last four months, we have been fighting this virus, and we’ve been doing it with some success, particularly when you look at it internationally. And over the course of this period, we have been following a very clear plan as to our response to the Covid crisis that has enveloped the world. And step 1 of that plan has always been to fight the virus and we are winning. But we have not yet won. That virus is still out there. That virus still has the great potential to do enormous harm to the livelihoods of Australians and the lives of Australians and we need to continue to fight that battle, and I want to commend Greg Hunt on the tremendous job that he has done in leading that part of the health fight. Hunt gets applause. We"re back at work, Scott Morrison tells Coalition as parliament resumes Scott Morrison is addressing the Coalition in parliament’s Great Hall. He opens with some brilliant double speak: We’re back at work. We’ve never not been at work over these many months. We’ve been hard at work but here we are back today in Canberra for the sittings today. Getting people back into their workplaces, back into jobs, getting our economy moving again. That’s our task now. All the MPs are here for this sitting, but there will be a rotating roster for who gets to sit in the House to ensure social distance requirements are met. So keep an eye on Twitter because you are bound to be getting a lot of “watching it from the office” tweets with various books and items moved in front of the TV in an approximation of a personality. The budget tree is ready, but today’s second Tuesday in May will pass without a budget (it has been delayed until October). Instead you’ll hear a lot about how there is no “money tree” in Australia, as Josh Frydenberg hands down the budget update at about midday. Spoiler – it is not great. The Queensland chief health officer, Dr Jeannette Young, says she has sent an email to the NRL regarding some of the players who refuse to get the flu vaccination: I sent a letter to the NRL yesterday in which I did exempt them for medical contraindications, no different to the exemptions that I provide for children who are attending childcare or for people going into aged care. So those have those same exemptions. If they’ve got medical reasons for not being vaccinated. So they’re very clear. If you’ve had an an anaphylactic reaction to a previous flu vaccine or to any component of a flu vaccine, then you do not need to be vaccinated. So I’ve provided that exemption. Queensland records no new Covid-19 cases for second day in a row Victoria has recorded 17 new Covid-19 cases, including eight from the Cedar Meats facility. Queensland has added another six cases to its total – all people who were diagnosed interstate, and have recovered, but are Queensland residents, so it is added to the Queensland total. But in terms of new cases, there have been no new cases of Covid-19 diagnosed in Queensland for the second day in a row. Dan Tehan has welcomed the news Victorian schools will be returning – via a written statement, which I think is the only way he is allowed to comment on Dan Andrews issues now, after his “personal frustrations” spilled forth in his guise as a minister of the crown. Tehan: Today’s announcement is a win for Victorian students. The evidence is clear that nearly half of Australian children and young people are at risk of adverse effects on their educational outcomes by being physically disconnected from school. If online delivery were to continue, low SES, students with complex learning needs including students with disability, and Indigenous students would lose weeks of learning in numeracy and reading. It is party room meeting time in Canberra, which, in the age of social distancing, means the Coalition has to go into the Great Hall so everyone can stand 1.5m away from each other. In the Nationals’ case, it is known as the “ego buffer” and accounts for about a third of the space Barnaby Joyce needs. “You’ve always spoken your mind, to everybody, including me one or two times, but you have always done the right thing by your country,” Scott Morrison, who represents the electorate of Cook, which takes in Cronulla, says to Alan Jones. That sound you hear is my never-ending eternal scream. Anyways, we are going to have a day of people with brains talking about what a great man Alan Jones is, presumably with a straight face, while ignoring the massive damage he has inflicted on minorities, anyone he disagrees with, and Australian politics at large, so awesome. But at least 2020 has some redeeming qualities. Gladys Berejiklian has also managed to pay respect to the man who once told her her head was “in a noose” over a mining licence: I think anyone who commands such a strong following deserves our congratulations and our respect.” I mean, you could say the same thing about Charles Manson. Design of some of jobkeeper scheme "has been wrong", Albanese says The Labor leader is then asked about the economy: Josh Frydenberg has been trotting out the line that Australians know there is “no money tree” in preparing for just how bad the budget bottom line has become (there is a money tree – it’s called quantitative easing and we have been doing it since the pandemic began) as well as laying the groundwork to change the jobkeeper wage subsidy scheme. Anthony Albanese says there have been issues with the wage subsidy from the (delayed) beginning: Well, what I say is that some of the design of the treasurer’s scheme has just been wrong. If you’re a mum with three kids who has been in a job for 11 months, you don’t get any support, but many students out there working their way through uni, working half a dozen hours a week, earning $100 have suddenly found themselves earning $750. There is a whole lot of people who have missed out. The entire arts and entertainment sector has been forgotten. The 1 million casual employees, visa holders – they have been left behind. What happens when you leave people behind is that it delays the recovery. That’s the whole basis of the jobkeeper program, keeping that relationship between employers and employees, and it is a pity that the government has left so many people out of the scheme at the same time as others have benefited more than they should. Anthony Albanese is asked about the Alan Jones news in his interview with ABC Breakfast: Look, Alan Jones – it’s fair to say that we’ve had the odd different opinion, but I certainly respect his contribution to the media over such a long period of time. For him to win the ratings as he has, for not years but a couple of decades is an outstanding achievement. One of the things about Alan that I’ve had a bit to do with him is our South Sydney connection. I know that he raises a lot of money for charity and a lot of the things that he has done, no one knows about it, he just quietly goes about making a [contribution] to many charities and I’m sure he will continue to do that. I wish him well.” Not mentioned – his comments about Julia Gillard, Jacinda Ardern or any other woman who dared to exist in a way which didn’t meet with Jones’s exacting standards, the Cronulla riots, or any of the many, many scars the man has left in his wake. It is also International Nurses Day. Expect to hear A LOT about that today (and rightly so – our health system would be broken without them) NSW records no new cases of Covid-19 for the first time since the pandemic began Gladys Berejiklian says there have been NO cases of Covid-19 diagnosed in the last 24 hours. That is the first time since the pandemic was declared that no new cases have been reported in Australia’s largest state. NSW did 6,000 tests in that 24 hours, so it is a great result.