IBISWorld analyst Yin Yeoh has taken a look at the Australian Covid-19 economic recovery: The second wave of Covid-19 cases in Victoria is a threat to overall Australian recovery. It underscores just how quickly this virus can return, and should make other states and territories wary of relaxing quarantine measures too quickly,” she said. ...While Victoria has been the first Australian region to experience a second wave of Covid-19, it is unlikely to be the last. Local outbreaks and lockdowns are likely to be the new normal for some time. Yeoh’s report includes this breakdown: In 2018-19, Victoria contributed 23.7% of Australia’s national GDP, with most of this productivity occurring in the wholesale (18.7%), retail (13.7%), construction (13.5%) and manufacturing (12.8%) divisions. Overall, Australian GDP is expected to decline by 1.0% in 2020-21, before recovering by 4.3% in 2021-22. If you are looking for international Covid-19 news, you can find it here: Victoria is the latest state to see additional infrastructure funding. The state and federal governments are adding $525m to money already announced to bring forward projects ranging from intersection and highway upgrades to pedestrian projects. During his regular slot on the Seven network this morning, Labor’s Joel Fitzgibbon was asked whether or not he was “happy” with the Victorian Labor government response to have police lock down residents in nine public housing towers in Melbourne: Well, I certainly wouldn’t use the word happy, Kochie. The circumstances are terrible. I’ve no doubt the police would have the powers, but I would look at the sort of analogy with the Ruby Princess. Gladys Berejiklian was in trouble for letting people off the Ruby Princess, and now Daniel Andrews is in trouble for doing something similar, or in other words – sorry, doing the opposite – and keeping people in the tower block and locking them in. So it seems you can’t win in politics. But something’s gone terribly wrong in Victoria and accountability will be important, and it’ll be interesting to see how that runs out. The 2020 global Sustainable Development report is out. Australia has ranked third for its Covid-19 response (South Korea and Latvia were the only countries judged to have done better) but on overall progress on the United Nations’ sustainable development goals we rate 37th. You won’t be surprised that we are brought down by our (lack of) climate and environment action. You can read the report here. Pauline Hanson is trending on social media, after she was asked on the Nine network about the residents of the public housing towers which have been placed under an extreme lockdown. Keep in mind that there were other outbreaks during the pandemic – including people who returned from skiing holidays and reportedly flouted self-isolation rules – who were not placed under police lockdown. Hanson has responded exactly the way you would expect Hanson to respond. I am not going to add her comments here, because she wants the outrage. There is a Queensland state election in October, and she is looking for oxygen. (Her social media accounts are already retweeting the segments, which make a point of highlighting she has said “a lot of controversial things”.) All I am going to say is that maybe we should stop asking Hanson for her opinion on things she has no expertise in. It’s damaging, ill-informed and does nothing but inflame situations. Feelings are not fact. Dr Tony Bartone continued: Let’s see what happens in Victoria over the next two to four weeks. If we can got those numbers right become down, if we can get the confidence that we have got these outbreaks under control and then assess, indeed, whether there has been any other outbreaks or any other failures in the process around the nation. I think it is a real salutary measure to just look at and assess what we have achieved, assess what we have done in the last month or so and then slowly and sensibly continue to progress forward. It is a fine balance. We can’t be in lockdown forever, absolutely not. But let’s not have to go back in reverse and then absolutely run the risk of a second wave and then really all the unnecessary harm and damage it will do to the society as a whole here in Australia. Australian Medical Association calls for pause in easing of restrictions nation-wide The Australian Medical Association has called for a pause in the easing of all Covid-19 restrictions across the country. The doctor lobby group wants all the states and territories to just take a breather and wait to see how the Victorian situation plays out, before moving forward with planned restriction easings. It’s president, Dr Tony Bartone, said the next two weeks would be critical: In such a wide country like Australia, an island continent, different geography in different parts of the country, it was going to be that the response was always going to be at different paces along the way. Clearly, what we have seen is that there is almost this sort of competitive tension to be the first state to get back to full pre-covid ways and that sort of pressure, that sort of anxiety to get back to pre-covid normal behaviour has seen things like we saw on the weekend, the Queensland nightclubs when social distancing went right out the window, you might say. If we forget all of those measure, all of the advice from the public health authorities and medical authorities about social distancing, hand washing, cough etiquette, staying away if you even have the remotest of symptoms. Getting yourself tested and having the Covid app on your phone. If we forget that and become complacent we will see what happened in Victoria happen in other parts of the country and it was an appropriate point to pause and say, “Let’s just see how the hotspot outbreaks come to under control”, because clearly we are at an important juncture. The next week or two will be critical in understanding how the response to our measures is actually coming out and, indeed, how we are able to go back to some sort of certainty about progressing forward. Sussan Ley is on the ABC talking about this story: Asked why it is taking so long and Australia has to wait until 2024 to act in a lot of these areas, Ley says: Because there is different processes in different states ... We want to work with them so they are part of this and already they [are] reinvesting for new plans for bottles and containers, for soft plastics and consumers, too, as part of the kerbside collection. The point I come back to is clean streams of waste. Developing the way that we do that so that we actually make use of it and not see it as a problem to be dumped in the ground. For first-hand accounts of what is happening in the communities which have been placed under the strictest lockdowns we have seen throughout the pandemic, you can find some views here: Now that the Eden-Monaro byelection is over, we should be getting some sort of insight into what the government plans on doing with the wage subsidy, jobkeeper and the unemployment benefit. Treasury has handed a report to the government, but we don’t know what is in it, as yet – we’ve been told we’ll learn that in “July”. The government is working on “phase three” of its support, which will be more targeted to industries which need it. But as we know, the economy is not great. As AAP reports: Deloitte’s quarterly Business Outlook released on Monday says Australia’s economy will shrink by 3% this year, while Victoria is set to be the hardest hit of the states. This could have broad implications given Victoria makes up one quarter of the nation’s economy. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says Victoria’s spike in cases shows the need to be vigilant. “We will continue to do all that is necessary to ensure Australia bounces back stronger on the other side,” he said. Deloitte’s Chris Richardson says some sort of wage subsidy like jobkeeper will be needed that is limited to a smaller range of businesses – such as those tied to international borders – and the size of the benefit may need to be smaller, labelling it a “jobtweaker”. He also argues for keeping the jobseeker dole benefit “stronger for longer” as an emergency safety net to fill the cracks in the economy caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Antoun Issa has taken a look at the future of remote working: One of the residents who lives in one of the towers locked down by the Victorian government and police, has had a chat to the ABC this morning. Yuqub Hashi said there was no warning, and unsurprisingly, “feels like jail”. It caused a lot of confusion in my building specifically. We were basically rushed. We were caught by surprise. We didn’t know what was going on. We have a lot of people who live in our houses. Talking about myself – there’s nine people who live in my home with a three-bedroom apartment. So it is very confined in my home. We’re being told to stay at home, even though it’s confined. Like, it kind of gets the feeling that we’re in jail. And also, another thing would be – if you can see, like those are the public housing buildings that are in lockdown in Flemington. Over there, that building, that’s in North Melbourne as well, and that one in Flemington, both of them as you can see, they’re privately owned buildings. They are living in North Melbourne and Flemington. They are under normal restrictions but there’s no police presence there at all whatsoever, and there isn’t any stay at home where you can’t come outside. They can go outside whenever they want to, but we can’t. It’s given us the feeing that basically, because we live in public housing, it’s easier. Like, it’s easier to shut you up, and like, it’s not fair. Meanwhile, there is still talk of a trans-Tasman travel bubble – but not with Australia as a whole. New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, said it’s something which could be considered on a state-by-state basis – but she is waiting for Australia to make the call. Ardern told the AM Show: It comes down to decision-making by Australia itself. We’ve got our criteria for what we need to see – either as the country as a whole or state-by-state – in order to open up. Whether they choose to go state-by-state is a matter for them.” Good morning It’s been a very rough weekend in Victoria, particularly for residents in nine inner-city public housing blocks who have found themselves locked down with police outside their homes – a response that has one officer for every six residents. It’s intense and uncomfortable and there are still questions over why some of the city’s most vulnerable residents, many who escaped war-torn countries or abuse, are being subjected to what the Victorian government has termed a “hard” lockdown. Yesterday the state recorded another 74 cases of Covid-19. The day before it was 108. It has also meant the mask question is once again being asked. As AAP reports: The outbreak has prompted Victoria’s public transport union to call for all passengers to be required to wear face masks in Melbourne. Acting chief medical officer Paul Kelly said the use of face masks was discussed at Sunday’s Australian health protection principal committee meeting. “Masks can be part of the solution in times where there is community transmission and there is no other way of protection,” Kelly said. “There are certain circumstances where they could be used ... [in terms of] out in the community, there will be further information from the Victorian authorities on that in coming days.” Kelly cautioned that wearing low-grade masks could put people at greater risk. “You can actually be more likely to get an infection in the respiratory tract, so masks are not without their problems,” he said. “They need to be used properly.” Meanwhile, a full lockdown is not out of the question for Victoria. We’ll keep you updated with the situation as it unfolds, as well as all the Covid-19 and political news from across the country. You have Amy Remeikis with you for most of the day.