Coronavirus Australia: CBA backs suppression claiming elimination ‘very difficult‘

The CBA boss has picked a side when it comes to the suppression versus elimination debate and said the Melbourne lockdown will impact recovery.

The head of Australia’s largest bank has said he supports suppressing COVID-19 rather than attempting to eradicate the virus.

Speaking Thuursday morning in Sydney, Commonwealth Bank chief executive officer Matt Comyn said elimination was “practically very difficult” to achieve. He also said Melbourne’s lockdown was a “setback” for the Australian economy.

With a surge in new coronavirus infections in Victoria lately and an outbreak in Sydney, there have been calls for Australia to abandon its strategy of suppressing the virus which involves jumping on localised outbreaks as they emerge.

Instead, some virus watchers have looked to New Zealand and said Australia should do a nationwide second lockdown and aim for elimination. If successful, this would allow the country to open up while keeping all international borders closed.

However, yesterday New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian swatted down the idea saying suppression was “the only option”.

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Commonwealth Bank CEO Matt Comyn has said suppression, rather then elimination of coronavirus, is the right strategy. Picture: William WEST / AFP.

Ms Berejiklian said there would always be an element of risk because of the state’s large population and its obligation to welcome home returned travellers.

“Suppression is the right strategy, especially for a state the size of ours. You might be able to do it if you have a small population, but we don’t have that.”

Mr Comyn said despite the second Melbourne lockdown, suppression had been “very successful”.

“I’m very supportive of the suppression strategy – eradication is practically very difficult.

“I think the way the federal government is managing the (suppression) strategy and some of the comments the NSW Premier made yesterday (means) they are absolutely in the right,” he said.

“Up until now it’s been a very successful suppression strategy. How successful that is (we’ll know) in the next few weeks – whether we can limit community transmission – I’m still optimistic it can but the difficulty is there is some uncertainty.

“We’ve just got to do what we can to implement all those measures to minimise community transmission.”

Mr Comyn conceded that the six-week lockdown in Melbourne would have an impact on the economy just as it was beginning to flicker back to life after the initial restrictions.

“We were feeling quite good. There was better than expected levels of spending activity and we could see people in increasing numbers returning to workforce and the number of our customers getting Jobseeker was reducing.

“There is no doubt Melbourne is a setback.”

He said mortgage holders were overwhelming looking to reduce or defer repayments, even those who could afford their usual payments.

“Customers are not sure what’s around the corner which is entirely rational and expected.

“Unfortunately, they will still see some uncertainty for a time and we just have to hope that we restore as much confidence as we can through a very difficult period.”

RELATED: NSW Premier says suppression ‘only option’

Commonwealth Bank boss Matt Comyn said the Melbourne lockdown was a “setback” for the economy. Picture: William WEST / AFP.

RELATED: Consumer spending plummets as Melbourne lockdowns bite

Earlier this week, CommBank released credit card data that showed that just the first week of Melbourne’s lockdown had seen consumer spending plunge.

It wasn’t just in Victoria either; the lockdown there had spooked shoppers in other parts of the country.

“Spending growth turned lower in most states and territories last week,” Commonwealth Bank senior economist Kristina Clifton told news.com.au.

“Coronavirus cases rising in Victoria has shown that this isn’t necessarily over and that’s put a dampener on overall consumer sentiment.”

Nationwide, total spending last week was seven per cent higher year-on-year. Which sounds good, until you realise that the week before it was up by a healthier 12 per cent.

In Victoria, spending went into negative territory last week, with residents putting three per cent less on their cards than in 2019.

“It’s hard to spend if you can’t go to movies, you can’t take the kids to Luna Park or go to all those places you would normally go to,” said Ms Clifton.

In mid-April when we were all staying at home, spending fell off a cliff, slumping to around 20 per cent less than in 2019.

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