Coronavirus Australia: No early end to six-month lockdown, says Morrison government

Government pushes back on business leaders, sports chiefs who want country reopened quickly.

Scott Morrison in question time on Wednesday. Picture: AAP

The Morrison government is pushing back at business leaders and sporting code chiefs who want the country to reopen more quickly than Scott Morrison’s six-month deadline, saying social-­distancing restrictions will be lifted only when chief medical officers say they can.

Leaders of Australia’s key small and medium business groups are also warning their members not to expect normal trading to resume until the six-month timeframe, even though they are hoping for a gradual lifting of restrictions.

AFL Commission chairman Richard Goyder told The Australian on Thursday that six months in lockdown “feels too long”, and ARLC chairman Peter V’landys has signalled that he wants rugby league matches to start again as early as May 21.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said on Friday there would be no changes to social-­distancing rules in the next six months unless the Prime Minister was given medical advice that it would be safe to do so.

“Nobody would be more excited than us if restrictions could start to be lifted sooner … the only way that would happen is if the medical advice indicates to us that it is safe to do so,” he told Sky News.

“We are not in the business of gratuitously shutting down parts of the economy, gratuitously shutting down parts of our everyday life, just for the fun of it.

“If that is no longer required based on expert medical advice, then of course we would be making relevant adjustments at this time. The sooner the better, again, of course. But we are not going to do this unless the advice is that it is safe to do so.”

Business groups this week did not follow Mr Goyder and former Business Council president Tony Shepherd’s call for an early end to the shutdown.

Council of Small Business of Australia chief executive Peter Strong told The Weekend Australian the six-month timeframe was best for preparing businesses for the longer-haul ramifications of the virus.

“I think a three-month hard lockdown would have been worse. The six-month timeframe has given us flexibility and breathing space to prepare for all options,” he said.

“We’ve got some areas, some states, where they might be more lenient with lockdowns in that six months … it would be fantastic if businesses could reopen in one month, four months.”

“If everything stays the same for six months, we will have to do it all again and there will be bigger problems.”

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive James Pearson said he did not expect the restrictions to be fully lifted in six months.

“We have been telling our members to plan for the six months the Prime Minister has outlined. We’re knuckling down,” he said.

“We all hope that the restrictions will be lifted before then, but I do not expect that in six months will be back to normal … even when things do go back to normal, it will be a new normal and we’ll need to be focused still on lifting the economy.”