Household covid contacts will not have to isolate in any state
Tasmania has now changed its household contact restrictions, as AAP reports:
Household contacts of people infected with COVID-19 are no longer required to isolate in any Australian state.
Tasmania on Monday became the last jurisdiction to eliminate the requirement for people to isolate for a week if a member of their household had the virus.
There are around 330,000 active coronavirus cases around the country, with more than 3000 in hospital with the virus.
Meanwhile, NSW and Victorian health authorities confirmed last week they had detected evidence of two new sub-variants of the Omicron strain – BA.4 and BA.2.12.1.
The World Health Organisation has declared the BA.4 strain a highly transmissible variant of concern.
Peter Hannam
It will be the rate decision that stops a nation – well, at least the political campaigns – when the Reserve Bankmeets Tuesday to decide whether to lift its cash rate target from a record low 0.1%.
As things stand, investors are pretty confident the RBA will lift the rate to 0.25%when it declares the results of its board meeting at 2.30pm AEST.
A similar verdict has been declared by the ANU’s Shadow RBA Board, which attempts to apply the central bank’s approach to anticipate the outcome. Key to that view, of course, is the spike in the CPI for the March quarter to 5.1%, a level not seen for more than two decades. (Here’s more on inflation, in case you missed it, from last week.)
The key obstacle to lifting the rate is probably the “red line” drawn by RBA Governor Phil Lowe just last month that he wanted to see both inflation and wage trends before lifting the cash rate. ABS wage data won’t be out until 18 May, which of course, would mean the RBA waiting until June – after the election – before acting.
As we explore here, the RBA will shed some credibility whatever Tuesday’s verdict. It’s certainly not being helped that the most recent public comment by Lowe or any other senior RBA official was March 22.A signal either way would have taken some of the sting out of tomorrow’s decision.
A rate rise would, of course, be quickly passed on by commercial banks (which have been lifting fixed-interest mortgages for half a year). That’s likely to add to the mounting downward pressure on property prices that is already appearing in Melbourne and Sydneybefore the RBA moves.
According to data from CoreLogic released this morning, the Victorian capital’s ‘home values’ were basically flat in April, and down 0.2% in the Harbour City for a third month of declines in a row. Nationally, the increase was 0.6% for the month, or the slowest growth pace since October 2020.
Cities with growth, though, include Adelaide, at 1.9%, Brisbane (1.7%), Canberra (1.3%) and Perth (1.1%).
The press conference ends with Anthony Albanese saying he “can’t keep 10,000 people waiting” (the Labour Day march is about to begin).
There are some very frustrated journalist faces as he walks away.
It seems the Covid cough is hanging around for Albanese – he demolished a bottle of water during that press conference.
There have been no questions on interest rates, so Jim Chalmers steps up to give a stump speech:
Whether the Reserve Bank raises interest rates this week or next month, Scott Morrison’s economic credibility is in tatters. This is the third wave of Scott Morrison’s cost-of-living crisis.
This is a triple whammy of falling real wages, skyrocketing inflation and interest rates are about to rise as well. Australians can’t risk, and they can’t afford another three years of being absolutely punished by Scott Morrison’s failures on the economy. Everywhere you look amongst this march today, are you sealing people, as Albo said, be unwilling victims of Scott Morrison’s cost-of-living crisis all around you.
The workers of this country deserve better than another three years of being absolutely punished by skyrocketing inflation, falling real wages and now interest rate rises as well. These workers have kept the wheels of the Australian economy turning throughout this pandemic. The thanks they get can’t be another three years of falling further and further behind.
Q: One of the biggest issues in housing affordability is the price of housing. Do you think the housing, price of housing is too high? Do you think the price of housing should come down to better help people on lower incomes afford housing? And in relation to your comments about Dominic Perrottet, he’s got a policy on the table to replace stamp duty with ongoing property tax that needs federal government buy-in. Would you look at that if you were elected on May 21?
Anthony Albanese:
We’ll determine our own policies and we will put them forward as we did yesterday. I note that Premier Perrottet is considering a very similar policy to the one that we’ve put forward. He is considering it. WA have it. Tasmania increasing theirs. Premier Perrottet is looking at a similar policy of Help to Buy, effectively. And the UK government under the Conservatives has it. Canada has it.
This is a sensible plan. We know the cost of housing is very high. What we need to do is to have a whole-of-government approach as well as working with state governments and working as well with the private sector.
That’s why our housing supply and affordability council we announced yesterday is an important component of what we’re putting forward, working with the states and territories to work constructively but also working with the private sector on areas hike land release and those issues.
That’s why we have a plan for increased social housing. We have a plan for increased affordable housing. We have a plan for increased emergency funding as well: $100m. We know that tonight in every capital city in Australia, women with kids will get turned away, will get turned away, because there is not somewhere for them to go. We know in terms of these issues, there aren’t simple solutions. What we are doing is trying to create a circumstance whereby everyone can have the possibility of a secure roof over their head.
That’s why we have a change of these measures which are there. We know that the housing issue is one whereby the great Australian dream is out of reach for too many Australians, and Jim will make a comment about interest rates and then we have to go join the march.
Q: You spoke here about working with the premiers, Mr Albanese. So I have a question for you about the premiers and also premier Palaszczuk, if you’d like to comment on this question as well. It’s about health funding. We have a comment from Daniel Andrews in Victoria today about the need for 50/50 federal/state funding for growth funding for the public hospital system. This is a significant issue for all premiers and I think for premier Palaszczuk as well. Would this be part of your agenda in government? You say you’re going to work with the premiers. Would you work with the premiers on 50/50 funding for public hospitals?
Anthony Albanese:
What we’re doing during this campaign – and I’ll take one more question after this, because the march is ready to go off – what we will do is sit down with premiers constructively and work these issues through. We know the pressure that’s there on the hospital systems. It’s one of the reasons why we’ve put forward, for example, urgent care clinics. Urgent care clinics are aimed at taking pressure off emergency departments, because we know that emergency departments are under such pressure. The other thing that we’re doing is being upfront in our discussions with the premiers.
We’re not promising things in advance and then we’ll say say something different after the election campaign. What we’re doing is being very clear. I’m aware that premiers would like increased funding. Premier Palaszczuk has raised it with me, all of the state premiers, Labor and Liberal, wrote to the government, I think it was last year.
So it’s nothing new about this what we’re doing, though, our policies are measured. We’re inheriting, we’re inheriting of a government that doubled the debt before the pandemic, $1tn of debt. So that is why we are being very responsible, very measured, in the proposals that we have put forward.
Annastacia Palaszczuk:
I’ve had this conversation with Anthony and I’m sure a lot of other premiers have as well. Let’s say this is no secret – that all of the health ministers across the country are calling for increases in health funding. All of the health ministers of both political persuasions. It is no secret that all of the premiers and the chief ministers from all political persuasions are calling for more health funding. We’ve had two years of a global pandemic. It’s put pressure on our hospitals. I know with Anthony, he will listen. He will listen and he will conduct a listening exercise and look at those gaps and we’ll be able to work with him, not someone who won’t even allow it to be on the agenda at national cabinet.
Q: Mr Albanese, what work has the Labor party done to ascertain whether or not your …
Albanese:
Sorry. It’s difficult to hear. I’ve got a bit of a cough.
Q: No worries. What work has the Labor party done to ascertain whether or not your housing affordable initiative will drive up housing prices? And can you give a guarantee standing here today that it will not?
Albanese:
Our housing policy is good policy. How do we though that, because we know that it works. In Western Australia they’ve had a similar plan now for 30 years. What it’s done is enabled people to get into housing who wouldn’t otherwise get there and it’s also produced a return to the government. It is a very, very positive plan which is why it’s been welcomed by the Housing Industry Association, by the Master Builders Association, and it’s why as well I note that in the past Scott Morrison has been positive about it.
Q: Mr Albanese, on the government’s announced extension of the seniors’ health card, your health spokesman has called it an election bribe of the prime minister, says it’s to address cost-of-living pressures and it’s an embedded increase so it’s a structural change to a cyclical problem for people who have disposable income of $144,000. If it’s a bribe and it’s not right, why support it?
Anthony Albanese:
We support the measure. We know that people are under cost-of-living pressures and where there’s a good idea, we will support it
Q: Does Labor commit to the current super arrangements for self-funded retirees and other superannuants? And do you rule out increases to super taxes and changes to caps?
Albanese:
We have no intentions of making super changes. One of the things we’re doing in this campaign is we’re making all of our policies clear, clear. We’re putting them out there for all to see. I had my campaign launch three weeks in advance of the election campaign so that it can be scrutinised.
Q: The prime minister has just been at an Eid event and he has had delays with humanitarian and family reunion visas directly raised with him at this event. What would Labor do to speed up visa processing and would you lift the cap on humanitarian visas?
Anthony Albanese:
One of the things that we have from this government is a gutting of the public service. In so many areas there are just longer and longer and longer delays. It doesn’t matter whether it is migration, it doesn’t matter whether it is veterans’ affairs and veterans trying to get payments, it doesn’t matter whether it is in the areas of Centrelink, whereby people can’t get through to a human being to talk, one of the things that has occurred with all of this government’s gutting of the public service is that across the board, people are not getting the service delivery that they need and that they deserve. That is why one of the reasons why we have said we will have increased support for the public service, that was part of Jim and Katy’s announcement that they made last Wednesday.
Q: Mr Albanese, yesterday you were with the South Australian premier, the WA premier and today with the Queensland premier. Given 60% of Australians don’t think at the moment you are the better prime minister, isn’t your appearance with Labor state premiers a concession you can’t do this on your own?
Anthony Albanese:
I tell you, what it says is I want to work with premiers of all persuasions – all persuasions. If you ask Dominic Perrottet about his view of Scott Morrison in private, you might get it.
Into the questions.
Q: On real wages, what is your benchmark to raise wages and what would be considered a failure should you take government?
Anthony Albanese:
I will ask Tony to make some comments on that as well but can I make this point, really simple point: There are aged care workers here with us today. The royal commission makes it very clear that unless we give aged care workers a pay increase, the crisis will get worse. This government can’t even be bothered to put in a submission saying they deserve a pay increase. Any pay increase – no submission whatsoever, they are silent. They are silent on all of the workforce issues. The government did put some increased funding in their budget for aged care post the royal commission, but they ignored all of the workforce recommendations. They ignored the recommendation about 215 minutes of care. They ignored the clear recommendation about 24/7 nurses in aged care.
Tony Burke:
Whenever things are going up except pay, there is a simple benchmark. People can’t keep going backwards. People cannot keep going backwards.
Q: … Wages [growth] is just over 2%…
Burke:
I have made it pretty clear, people cannot continue to go backwards in their pay and conditions. From the government’s perspective, this is not an accident, this is a deliberate design feature that now people are living in their cost of living.
