Coronavirus live news Australia: Scott Morrison says lower trajectory of coronavirus infection rate is ‘encouraging’ – latest updates | Australia news

Something I missed from Scott Morrison’s press conference earlier (sorry, lots happening) was chief medical officer Brendan Murphy’s comment that the true number of Covid-19 cases worldwide was likely to be “five or 10 times higher” than the global figure of 1 million cases recorded on Friday.

As I wrote earlier, Murphy said he was only totally confident of infection rates in Australia because of our high rate of testing. He said the US in particular was likely to have a much higher rate of infection than the 236,000 cases currently being reported.

The government has announced a six-month “pause” on Centrelink debt raising and recovery, the minister for government services, Stuart Robert, has announced.

The government had previously suspended mutual obligation appointments for jobseekers, but on Friday Robert said it would also pause debt recovery

Robert says the debt recovery pause will “allows Australians to focus on their personal situation during these difficult times, and supports the government’s priority to get assistance to people as quickly as possible”.

However, the pause will not come into place automatically and people in existing repayment arrangements will need to contact Services Australia.

“During disaster events, such as the recent bushfires, debt raising and recovery activities are routinely suspended within the affected areas. The coronavirus pandemic falls into this category, however its impact is nationwide,” Robert said.

“Pausing certain debt activity also enables the redeployment of staff to assist in areas of critical need, like claims processing for those Australians impacted by the pandemic.”

A flagged change to Victoria’s Public Health Orders is now confirmed. People are allowed “to visit a person with whom they are in an intimate personal relationship”.

Police in New South Wales have charged two men in relation to two separate coughing incidents yesterday.

Police say a 22-year-old man from Plumpton near Mount Druitt in western Sydney “allegedly ran at the officers and coughed towards their faces” after they attended reports of a domestic-related incident.

Police will allege in court that the man assaulted a 13-year-old boy inside the Plumpton home before the coughing incident. He’s been charged with intimidating a police officer, resisting an officer, damaging or destroying property and common assault.

Separately, a 48-year-old man has been charged after allegedly coughing at supermarket employees and shoppers on the Central Coast. Police say that at about 4.40pm yesterday officers were called to a shopping centre in Lake Haven “following reports a man was coughing on people”.

A few highlights from the prime minister’s press conference this afternoon:

• The government will begin releasing modelling on its projections of the likely spread of the virus in Australia from next week. Morrison said that had the virus kept growing at the same rate it was 12 days ago, there would now be an extra 5,000 cases in the country.
• Local government employees will not be eligible for the government’s Jobkeeper program but will have to rely on support from state governments.
• On the government’s six-month moratorium on rental evictions, Morrison said the government was working on a mandatory code between landlords and tenants but did not want to be “prescriptive” about arrangements.
• He also said national cabinet’s priority had been on commercial tenancies, not residential leases. He said the moratorium on evictions “doesn’t mean there’s a moratorium on rents”.
• Morrison suggested the government would have more to say on various visa holders in coming days, but asked about international students who may have lost employment he said: “If they are not in a position to support themselves there is the option for them to return to their home countries.”
• Asked whether he trusted low infection rates being reported in China, chief medical officer Brendan Murphy said the only figures he had total faith in were Australia’s, because of our high rate of testing. He said infection rates in the US were likely higher than those being reported.

He’s asked about reports in Queensland that renters have had to use the state’s administrative tribunal on rental claims because their landlords say the eviction moratorium is not law. Morrison tells landlords to “do the right thing”.

We are in in this together. Sit down with your tenant who has been paying you rent, working in their business week after week after week. Respect each other’s livelihoods and support each other’s livelihoods whenever you can. This is going to be a tough time. Whether you’re a tenant, and I know landlords will feel it as well.

It is not about picking sides but making sure Australians work together to solve a problem that they share together.

Asked about historic unemployment figures being reported in the US and whether he’s concerned about their impact in Australia, Morrison says it’s why the government announced the $130bn Jobkeeper program.

This is going to save tens and tens and tens of thousands of jobs immediately and hopefully millions more as we go through the many difficult months ahead. Now, our scheme was designed for Australia. It is Australian-made forAustralian circumstances.

Brendan Murphy is asked whether he trusts the very low infection rates being reported in China. He says he only trusts infection rates in Australia.

Look, I think the only numbers I have total faith in are the Australian numbers, frankly. Because we have the highest testing rate in the world. I think China is in a really difficult position. They did clamp down incredibly hard and they stopped transmission. But their population is not immune. They still have a lot of people in their population and they are, obviously, trying very hard to prevent second waves. I think they have been pretty transparent but as I said, I’m only confident about our numbers. I’m certainly not confident [that] even the numbers out of the US aren’t much higher than being reported because nobody else in the world has been doing testing like we have.

Asked about residential renters, Morrison says the government has been more focused on commercial tenancies given the pressure on the business sector.

“The priority has been on commercial tenancies … that’s where the national cabinet has put its first attention … On residential tenancies we’ve already announced a moratorium on evictions – that doesn’t mean there’s a moratorium on rents. We won’t have anyone thrown out of their homes.

Morrison is asked whether his comments about national cabinet moving into a new phase suggests future updates will be more focused on progress reports than major changes, such as stimulus measures like the Jobkeeper program.

Says “as a general rule that’s a pretty reasonable summary”.

Doesn’t rule out further measures, however.