Scott Morrison wary on setting ‘reopening’ target

Scott Morrison says his government does not yet have a benchmark on the number of active COVID-19 cases before the economy can be reopened.

Scott Morrison in Canberra on Thursday. Picture: Gary Ramage

Scott Morrison says his government does not have a benchmark on the number of active COVID-19 cases before the economy can be reopened, as he rules out reforming dividend impu­tation to pay off the debt incurred during the pandemic.

The Prime Minister said it “can’t be known at this point” whether the number of domestic COVID-19 cases needed to reduce to zero before restrictions were eased, given the potential for a ­second wave of the crisis.

He also said it was unknown whether Australia’s borders would need to be closed until a vaccine was developed, which experts predict could take six months.

“The thresholds about when you can ease restrictions, whether they be the social restrictions, the closures … put in place or indeed the travel arrangements, these are not things that are known at this point and can’t be known at this point,” Mr Morrison said.

“That’s what the government, working together with all the state and territory governments, our medical advisers and others are constantly looking at.

“I can assure you that if any of these restrictions were not necessary from a health point of view and if there was the ability to ease them without compromising the nat­ion’s health and indeed risk … a taking-off of the virus again, well, we’d have to be very careful about that.”

With medical experts predicting Britain could be facing restrictions for 18 months, Mr Morrison talked up his early warning to Australians that the crisis could take more than six months to resolve.

“That’s why I counselled that going into this, that the restrictions we put in place have got to be restrictions that we can live with each day,” he said. “There were many others who advocated much stronger measures. And I did say you need to be careful what you wish for because we have to live with it for six months.

“We don’t want that frustration (with restrictions) to become so much that (the public) might otherwise walk away from the measures we already have.

“So this is a partnership between governments and the public. It’s a partnership to do things that are sustainable and to make the changes in a manageable way.”

On paying down the massive levels of debt incurred because of the crisis, Mr Morrison said franking credits would not be revisited as a revenue-raising measure.

He also ruled out long-term changes to the welfare system.

“The measures are temporary and they do not provide long tails of expenditure. There are not structural changes here,” he said.

“There is a snap-back there, a snap-back to the previous existing arrangements on the other side of this. There is an intensity of expenditure during this period. And then we have to get back to what it was like before.

“We have exercised a discipline and a measure in this.

“We are very conscious of the size of these commitments.”