Coronavirus - Overall
-
@JC Cheers. I'm in the same position as everyone else I guess.
I don't know if Kiwi's in OZ will get help from anywhere, to be honest. I have about $30k of employer and my contributions left in my Kiwisaver and AMP will make me jump through infinite hoops to access it.
I'll apply to get the $10k Skomo has suggested we will get access to and so with the Mrs.
-
Excerpt of an article in The Australian by the Dean of Law at the University of NSW:
Extraordinary times call for extraordinary powers. Parliament had this in mind when it enacted the national Biosecurity Act in 2015. In a welcome act of foresight, it introduced special powers and measures should Australia experience a pandemic. The Biosecurity Act is a mammoth 700-page piece of legislation. It provides a formidable and truly remarkable set of powers for the federal government to navigate this crisis.
Government officials can impose a human biosecurity control order on any person displaying one or more symptoms of COVID-19, as well as any other person they have been in contact with. These orders permit the government to bypass the need for personal consent.
Anyone subject to such an order can have their liberty and freedom restricted in numerous ways. They can be compelled to reveal every other person they have been in contact with and to remain at their residence or in isolation at a government facility. They can also be subject to medical examination and be compelled to provide body samples and submit to treatment. Anyone who fails to follow such directions can be detained by the police and jailed for five years.
The government can determine who comes to Australia and can establish human health response zones to restrict who enters or leaves a location within Australia. Areas with an outbreak, including towns, suburbs and streets, can be closed and quarantined. This might involve roadblocks and other means of preventing free movement.
Powers like this are complemented by the capacity of the states to impose their own stringent restrictions and controls. NSW, for example, has used powers under its Public Health Act to ban outdoor gatherings of 500 or more people and indoor gatherings of 100 or more people. This can be applied anywhere, including beaches, parks and other places where people gather. Victoria has declared a state of emergency that activates additional powers, including to detain people or restrict their movement.
Tasmania has begun a push to close its borders. It has already imposed a mandatory 14 days of self-isolation for everyone arriving on the island. Western Australia and South Australia have announced they will follow suit. This runs counter to the guarantee in section 92 of the Constitution that Australians are guaranteed free movement throughout the federation. It is, though, subject to exception, including reasonable measures to deal with a public health emergency.
Even extraordinary powers like this are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how our governments can restrict our liberty to keep the community safe from COVID-19. The most remarkable power lies in the federal Biosecurity Act. It permits the governor-general to declare a human biosecurity emergency to limit the spread of a disease that is posing a severe and immediate threat on a national scale.
Once the emergency has been declared, the federal health minister is vested with unfettered personal power of a kind normally only found in a dictatorship. The minister may determine “any requirement” and make “any direction” needed to prevent or control the disease. These cannot be disallowed by parliament and override any other law. Failure to comply is liable to five years’ imprisonment.
-
@raznomore said in Coronavirus - Overall/Rest of the World:
@JC Cheers. I'm in the same position as everyone else I guess.
I don't know if Kiwi's in OZ will get help from anywhere, to be honest. I have about $30k of employer and my contributions left in my Kiwisaver and AMP will make me jump through infinite hoops to access it.
I'll apply to get the $10k Skomo has suggested we will get access to and so with the Mrs.
You might/should get that cash splash that ScoMO will throw out.
I moved to Melbourne in Jan 2009 during GFC and initially stayed with some fellow kiwis. They all got the $2k or whatever cash amount it was, as it went to anyone who had paid income tax the previous FY. But they wouldn't have got any income support etc if they lost their jobs.
-
has there been anything on Chinas numbers?
Given they supposedly been slowly returning to work and stuff, I even heard some logs started being sent again...
-
From the Prime Minister:
Australians should expect these measures to be in place for at least 6 months. -
@antipodean said in Coronavirus - Overall:
From the Prime Minister:
Australians should expect these measures to be in place for at least 6 months.aaaaand there's the kicker. Entire industries will be decimated. 6 months is an extraordinary amount of time to try and ride this out. The jobless rates will be through the roof
-
-
-
@mariner4life said in Coronavirus - Overall:
@antipodean said in Coronavirus - Overall:
From the Prime Minister:
Australians should expect these measures to be in place for at least 6 months.aaaaand there's the kicker. Entire industries will be decimated. 6 months is an extraordinary amount of time to try and ride this out. The jobless rates will be through the roof
Suicide rates and domestic abuse will through the roof....
-
@Baron-Silas-Greenback said in Coronavirus - Overall:
@mariner4life said in Coronavirus - Overall:
@antipodean said in Coronavirus - Overall:
From the Prime Minister:
Australians should expect these measures to be in place for at least 6 months.aaaaand there's the kicker. Entire industries will be decimated. 6 months is an extraordinary amount of time to try and ride this out. The jobless rates will be through the roof
Suicide rates and domestic abuse will through the roof....
And robbery/burglary. Wouldn't want to be a woman living alone.
-
we're all working off 6 months.
what if it is more?
At what point do the restrictions relax? What is the trigger point?
we're closed now. we may never re-open.
-
@mariner4life said in Coronavirus - Overall:
we're all working off 6 months.
what if it is more?
At what point do the restrictions relax? What is the trigger point?
we're closed now. we may never re-open.
Hope you and your family are all good there mate
-
@mariner4life said in Coronavirus - Overall:
we're all working off 6 months.
what if it is more?
At what point do the restrictions relax? What is the trigger point?
we're closed now. we may never re-open.
I'm going riding across Oz in just over four months. Can't get much more self-isolation than that.
Time for some heartless maths. So far Italy has less than 0.01% of the population succumb to Covid 19. If we applied the same statistics to Australia we'd see ~2,400 people die. Most of them old.
If we apply the figure from @JC of US$7 million, that's less than thirty billion dollarydoos at current exchange rates. And people could go back to work.
The idea that we're going to close down the economy for six months is the stuff of lunatics. Doubly so if they think their economic stimulus will save anything. How can you save the economy if people aren't permitted to go out?
-
the stimulus announces thus far is wildly insufficient for us. It appears targeted at businesses that are down a bit on last year, say 50% of turnover. Our industry as it stands is looking at zero revenue for however long.
Getting to keep the PAYG you should be remitting (up to $50k for 3 months) is not going to cut it. Especially when you are paying $50k in one month.