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Coronavirus, Greens Larissa Waters we must leave no one behind in this crisis

Sam Bernardo
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Coronavirus, Greens Larissa Waters we must leave no one behind in this crisis

Senator Larissa Waters 1 1

Senator Larissa Waters (Queensland—Leader of the Australian Greens in the Senate) (8 April 2020) Coronavirus Economic Response Package (Payments and Benefits) Bill 2020,


Senator Waters: I rise to speak to the package of coronavirus bills that have come before us today. This is not an easy time for anyone. I’d again like to acknowledge and commend the immense efforts of our nurses, our doctors, our paramedics, our cleaners, our pharmacists, our aged-care workers and our supermarket staff—all of those who are helping us get through this most challenging time. We recognise the immense risk that healthcare workers, in particular, are taking to save others, and we will be pushing to make sure that they’ve got the personal protective equipment and the ICU beds that they need to tackle this crisis. We’ll be proposing changes to allow healthcare workers to access workers compensation if they test positive for coronavirus, without having to prove that they contracted it at work.


Our hearts go out to all those who have lost loved ones, to people who have the virus and to those who have family members or friends who are unwell. To families and friends who are separated by isolation and those who are struggling without the social interactions that usually sustain them—again, we are thinking of you and we are you. In these uncertain times, the financial difficulties and anxiety continue to put a strain on support services. So I’d like to acknowledge the social workers, the mental health support teams, the frontline domestic and family violence workers, the child support agencies and others who are working tirelessly to keep people safe in this pressure-cooker environment. Experience in other countries shows that these services, sadly, can expect to be stretched for many months to come. And whilst I welcome the announcements made to date for increased family violence crisis accommodation, support for referral services and a funding reprieve for the crucial WESNET safe phones program, it’s still not enough to meet increased demand and keep everybody safe from family and domestic violence. I urge the government to provide the significant extra funding that’s needed to allow frontline family violence services to actually keep up with demand and make sure no-one is turned away.


The Greens also acknowledge teachers, who’ve borne the brunt of policy uncertainty for weeks and who’ll spend their Easter break working on ways to deliver classes remotely in term 2, often whilst homeschooling their own children at the same time. We acknowledge the early childhood education workers, who have been at the forefront of our collective response to this pandemic.


This crisis has highlighted the essential link between accessible and free child care and workforce participation, and the Greens will push for child care to remain free once this pandemic has concluded. But we also recognise that the risks to those workers are immense, and we will continue to insist that early childhood teachers have options to protect their health and have access to appropriate personal protective equipment.


The Greens would also like to acknowledge the millions of parents who are struggling to work from home whilst homeschooling their kids and mediating between warring siblings trapped indoors, caring for elderly relatives and negotiating changes to shared care arrangements whilst maintaining their own mental health.


As the Greens spokesperson on women and a proud feminist, I would also like to reiterate my colleague Senator Faruqi’s observation at the last parliamentary sitting that this is also a gendered crisis. Women are disproportionately represented in the frontline roles needed to respond to this crisis. Eighty per cent of our healthcare workers are women, 70 per cent of pathology services are provided by women, and the majority of teachers, carers, cleaners and social service providers are women.


Women are disproportionately represented in the short-term casual roles that are currently ineligible for the JobKeeper support, especially those in the hospitality, healthcare and retail sectors. They are also disproportionately at risk of domestic and family violence whilst in isolation with an abusive partner, and women will, sadly, also bear a disproportionate load of the caring required to see us through this crisis.


We will be proposing amendments today that address some of those issues, but as a society we have a lot to do to address this gender imbalance in the future. After a summer of bushfires and now a pandemic, it’s clearer than ever that Australians are all in this together, and we need to support each other.


CHAMBER


Wednesday, 8 April 2020 THE SENATE 38


On transparency, I want to touch on the importance of democratic institutions in a crisis. Some decisions need to be made efficiently, and decisive actions need to be taken in an emergency, but the scale of this crisis and the response that’s required means we need more transparency and not less. We need more oversight and more debate to make sure that we’re making public health decisions that are informed by the best expert health advice and to make sure that we’re targeting funds to those who need them the most. This can make sure we come out the other side of this crisis in the strongest, fairest and most equitable and sustainable position possible.


The Greens support the oversight committee that was established earlier today, although we are disappointed that our amendments, which would have allowed the Prime Minister and ministers in the other place to be called, were not supported. But we also believe that parliament should continue to sit during this crisis, and we’ve called on the government to find ways to make that happen.


Critically, given the limited oversight that’s available outside of parliament, we must make sure that any regulatory actions enabled by these bills are strictly confined, and I’ll be moving an amendment to restrict the rule-making powers given to relevant ministers.


The country’s response to this crisis will be judged on how well we managed the health risks but also on how well we helped those who needed help to survive in this difficult period. Whilst we welcome the increase in Newstart, now called jobseeker allowance—something which my colleague Senator Siewert has been championing for 10 years and which we probably wouldn’t have seen happen without the efforts of her and the sector—we will be fighting to make that increase permanent once this pandemic is over.


From the outset of this pandemic, we have said that a wage subsidy was the most equitable way to offer security to the people who are most affected, and we’re pleased that the government has finally come around and supported this intent behind the JobKeeper scheme. But we are concerned that those schemes still fail to cover a number of critical and vulnerable sectors of our society: casual workers, migrant workers and international students, and people receiving the disability support payment and the carer payment. So my colleagues and I will be proposing a number of amendments to plug those holes in the safety net and make sure that no-one is left behind.


On casual workers, every job that we’re able to keep through this crisis is a job we don’t have to re-create when we get through the other side. When large-scale events were first being shut down, the arts and hospitality industries were the first to ring the alarm bells. They warned that this crisis wouldn’t put just their jobs in jeopardy but would risk the stability of their entire industry. Festivals, concerts, music halls and theatre productions have been shut for weeks. These closures have pushed arts workers to the brink, but, despite being some of the worst off, they’re getting nothing from today’s package.


We’ve heard from a flood of people that have been working in the service industry for years but have been shut out of the support because they’ve recently moved jobs. By limiting the jobseeker and JobKeeper payments to people who’ve worked for their current employer for more than a year, the government has shown they don’t understand the modern workforce. If they’d spoken to young people or people who work in hospitality or arts or the tourism industry, they’d know that many industries rely on seasonal and irregular work. Bartenders, tour guides and even teachers are now expected to move through several workplaces and are just as important to the success of a workplace whether they’ve been there for two months or two years. The arts, hospitality and tourism sectors have high levels of seasonal unemployment, and this package has done nothing for them. My colleague will be moving an amendment to address that and we hope to receive support, although sadly we are not expecting that to occur. Last time we were here, the government made a mistake by refusing to accept the Greens amendments to include wage and job guarantees in their stimulus legislation. We acknowledge that they have now redressed that, but today they are making a mistake by leaving over one million casual workers behind.


On temporary visas, over a million people have chosen to make Australia home, helping make our country stronger by contributing their skills and paying taxes here. They’ve been contributing like any other person here, but, when they’ve needed help, this government has turned its back on them. Many work in sectors that are essential to our survival during this time: health, aged and disability care, agriculture and child care.


The government has made changes to visa arrangements in order to gather a workforce to help our farmers, acknowledging that these visa holders fill a critical workforce gap. Despite this, the government refuses to extend eligibility for JobKeeper to them. Many of these folk are also ineligible for Medicare, and that is a very scary thought during a global pandemic. How does the government think these people will get by? They aren’t eligible for any support for being out of work, they can’t get any support to stay in work, they’ve got bills piling up and,


CHAMBER


Wednesday, 8 April 2020 THE SENATE 39


with international flights being cancelled across the board, many will find it difficult or impossible to go back home. This isn’t just a betrayal of the workers who put their faith in Australia; it’s a betrayal of the businesses that choose to employ them. If an employer has chosen to employ migrant workers, today the government is punishing them for that decision. This will particularly harm the service and hospitality industries.


Universities have also been left out in the cold. Many universities these days rely on a casualised workforce. They are trying their best to get through this crisis but they’ve been hit for years by declining government funding. They’ve had their enrolment numbers hit hard through bans on international travel and they’re now being told by the government that their employees aren’t worth keeping on. What an insult. Universities are incredibly important and should be protected. They taught the scientists who are working around the clock to find a vaccine and save people’s lives. And they’re not only places of learning but also play a massive role in our communities. Think of the important community radio stations that are run out of universities, of the fact-checking units that keep us all accountable, and the contributions that they make to local business and community programs. These institutions will provide vital recovery opportunities from this crisis. We’re going to need highly skilled workers to pull us out of this recession, and without universities we’re going to find it a lot tougher to find them.


Under the JobKeeper scheme, charities are only eligible for the subsidy if they estimate that their turnover has fallen by 15 per cent relative to a comparable period. And while this helps some charities, those that rely on large government grants won’t be able to demonstrate the 15 per cent decline in revenue if tied grants are included. That’s why my colleague will be moving an amendment to address that.


Now, on to disability support payments and carers. The COVID-19 supplement has been a welcome relief for many recipients of income support, but two key groups continue to miss out—carers and those on disability support pensions—and yet the living costs that they face are higher in these self-isolation days. Instead of the extra $550 a fortnight that has allowed so many Australians to be pulled from poverty, many carers and DSP recipients are still living with the threat of eviction, hunger and worrying about keeping the lights on. The Minister for Families and Social Services was given extraordinary powers in the last sitting of parliament to extend the supplement to other categories of income support recipients. With the stroke of a pen she could help DSP recipients and carers survive this crisis, and the Greens urge her to do just that.


On renters, housing is a human right. Keeping a roof over people’s heads during this crisis is surely the most fundamental thing that we could do. The government can’t tell people to stay at home, but it looks the other way when this crisis puts people in a financial situation so tenuous that they don’t know if they can pay the rent. The Greens have heard from so many people who’ve been threatened with eviction by their landlord in the same week that they’ve also lost their job. We’ve also heard stories of landlords who’ve reduced or waived rents, and we commend that, but leaving it to the goodwill of individual landlords is not enough. National cabinet met yesterday and again failed to come up with a national plan to support tenants. We’ve had broad aspirational statements but no legislation from this government. We need a solution. Our Greens’ colleagues in several state parliaments have secured temporary bans on eviction to give tenants security during this crisis. That’s fantastic, but we need a national eviction ban and we need rent holidays for tenants who are struggling to meet payments during this crisis.


This crisis has highlighted the extent to which Australia’s safety net has been picked away at for 30 years. We’ve decimated the public health system and the social security system, we’ve become over-reliant on so-called corporate responsibility, and we’ve hollowed out the manufacturing sector. That means we weren’t as well set up to face this crisis as we could and should have been. In just a few short weeks we’ve seen the beginnings of a stimulus that could set us up for better things and play to our collective strengths. We’ve seen the importance of a strong social safety net, and it’s my hope that the structures that we are rapidly rebuilding in this crisis will be retained. It’s a chance to think how we want this country to go forward, and hope to dream for a better future. We are all in this together, so let’s not leave anyone behind.


I will be moving the Australian Greens second reading amendment on sheet 8950, which has been circulated in the chamber in my name. This amendment would ensure that all casuals, people on temporary visas, those in the gig economy and those in universities and charities can fully access JobKeeper. I want to flag that we’ve heard some statements by the government that they won’t be countenancing any amendments. Well, shame on them. That is the job of this parliament: to scrutinise this legislation, to seek to improve it, to make sure that no-one is left behind. That is precisely what the Greens’ amendments will be doing today, and we urge folk in the chamber to give them serious consideration and to act on them—if not today, then at least to use those discretionary powers which various ministers have been granted under these laws to close those gaps, to genuinely not leave anyone behind. If we are indeed all in this together, then that’s the least we can do. Source Parliament of Australia Website

Labor supports ScoMo $1,500 fortnight to six million eligible workers

Sam Bernardo
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Labor supports ScoMo $1,500 fortnight to six million eligible workers

ScoMo Scott Morrison 1

We gather again today in unusual circumstances, during extreme times to consider extraordinary responses to the twin crises our nation faces – to our nation’s health and to our economy. What we do today is what Governments have always done in such circumstances, when our nation is under threat that previous generations of Australians have done before us.


Today we act to protect our nation’s sovereignty. When Australian lives and livelihoods are threatened, when they are under attack, our nation’s sovereignty is put at risk and we must respond. As a Government, as a Parliament, as a nation, together.


Nurses, teachers, drivers – cleaners, doctors, police, and paramedics – factory workers, engineers, bankers – grocers, miners and farmers –  pastors, priests and imams – politicians, union officials, even lawyers – mums, dads, grandparents, kids, families. All of us.


Our sovereignty is measured in our capacity and freedom to live our lives as we choose in a free, open and democratic society. We are not a coerced society. We act through our agreement and our willful support of the national interest, through our many institutions, including this Parliament and the many others around this country. And we will not surrender this.


Our sovereignty is enabled by having a vibrant market economy that underpins our standard of living that gives all Australians the opportunity to fulfil their potential. To have a go and to get a go. And we will not surrender this. Our sovereignty is demonstrated by the quality of life we afford Australians, with world-class health, education, disability, aged care, and a social safety net that guarantees the essentials that Australians rely on.


We will not surrender this.


And above all, our sovereignty is sustained by what we believe as Australians, what we value, and hold most dear, our principles, our way of doing things. We will never surrender this. So make no mistake, today is not about ideologies. We checked those at the door.


Today is about defending and protecting Australia’s national sovereignty. It will be a fight. It will be a fight we will win. But it won’t be a fight without costs, or without loss.


Protecting our sovereignty has always come at a great cost, regardless of what form that threat takes. And today will be no different.


So today, we will agree to pay that price, through the important measures we will legislate today. But today, as a Government, I want to commit to all Australians as Prime Minister, that once we have overcome these threats – and we will – we will rebuild and restore whatever the battle takes from us.


As a nation we are working together nationally, especially through the National Cabinet. And I wish to again place on record my thanks to all of our Premiers and Chief Ministers. We have come together to lead together in a new way through these crises.


I thank all my Ministers, who I lead together with the Deputy Prime Minister and the Treasurer, and we are all together ably advised by our experts and officials in the Australian public service, and I particularly want to acknowledge Professor Brendan Murphy and his team.


I thank all of my colleagues on the Government benches for their input and leadership in their communities, as I do all members of this House and the other place. I thank the Opposition leader and his parliamentary team and all of his staff.


And I extend my thanks to businesses large and small, to unions, to the banks, to the media, to the not for profits, welfare and charitable organisations, indigenous leaders, and churches and other faith groups for their prayers, support and the many efforts they are making.


Together, we have now established the key baseline supports and protections that have bought us much needed time in this crisis, to get us through in these place. And I will speak of those actions today. But there is a long way to go in this fight.


This has been our road in. We will now lead the country on the road through. And then the road out and beyond.


Mr Speaker it’s been 16 days since the House last met. As of this morning, 5,956 Australians have contracted the coronavirus. Thankfully, thankfully 2,547 have recovered. 294 are hospitalised. 92 in intensive care and 36 are on respirators. Sadly, there have been almost 50 deaths in Australia. Tens of thousands more have died across the world.


One of those was the Member for Cooper’s father-in-law. On behalf of the Government, and the Parliament, I extend our deepest sympathies to the Member for Cooper and her family – as they are with all who have lost loved ones, both in recent times here and overseas and are fearful of that event occurring in the future. And as a nation we especially send our best wishes to our good friend Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson. Get well soon Boris, we need you.


When the House last met, new cases were growing at more than 20 per cent a day. In recent days, it has averaged two percent a day. This is very encouraging.  We are flattening the curve. We are buying ourselves precious time in this fight.


And I want to thank the overwhelming majority of Australians for doing the right thing, you are saving lives, you are saving livelihoods. But we have to keep up our efforts. Progress can be easily undone as we have seen in other places around the world.


We are only days away from Easter. The time that should give us great hope. And the message is clear though. Stay home. Don’t travel. Don’t go away. We can’t let up now.


Mr Speaker, as I’ve said many times, we are facing twin crises. A health crisis and an economic one. And we must deal with them simultaneously – and in real time and so often they work against each other. But that is the balance we must achieve.


Since the Parliament last met, we have taken many action on many fronts.


People coming back from overseas now have to self-isolate for 14 days in a designated facility. The National Cabinet has further tightened restrictions on public gatherings. And these are taking some time to get used to. We’ve expanded the coronavirus testing criteria to include people with fever or acute respiratory infection under key categories.


Australians should be proud, very proud, that we have one of the most comprehensive testing regimes in the world. We have one of the highest rates of testing in the world.


Today some 313,000 tests for the virus have been conducted across Australia – this is more than double the number since we last met and I commend the Minister for Health on his efforts in this respect. Since the Parliament last met, we have strengthened the preparedness of our hospitals and are working with the states to triple our ICU capacity.


We’ve changed medical indemnity rules to encourage retired health workers to return to practice. We’re supporting up to 20,000 registered nurses to get online training to better prepare them to deliver care in high dependency and intensive care units. We have finalised an historic partnership with private hospitals – ensuring that over 30,000 hospital beds and 105,000 skilled workers are mobilised to work in conjunction with the public hospital sector. 


The Government will guarantee the viability of all 657 private and not-for-profit hospitals across Australia through these challenging times. Because we need them. To preserve critical resources, we’ve acted to suspend all non-urgent elective surgery. Of course, we know many Australians still need to see their doctor during this time, and they should, and to get the medicines they depend on for their health.


So we’ve expanded Medicare-subsidised telehealth services. And we’ve given extra incentives for GPs and other health practitioners so that their practices can stay open for face-to-face services where needed. We know Indigenous Australians are at great risk from COVID-19 and we are making $123 million available for targeted measures to assist Indigenous communities and businesses. 


We are supporting those Australians with a disability through the efforts of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.


We’ve taken action against those who would seek to profiteer from this health crisis. By buying goods like face masks, hand sanitisers and medicines and re-selling them at big mark-ups, or exporting them in bulk overseas. It’s not on. These products should be for Australians, first and foremost. We have invested an initial $74 million for mental health support. 


And to counter the greater risk from domestic violence, we have committed an additional $150 million to support Australians experiencing domestic, family and sexual violence.


And while we have continued to build our National Medical Stockpile. All this time, over 30 million masks have arrived over recent days, with great help from groups like the Minderoo Foundation, with more than 500 million masks on order, and domestic production also underway. 


Mr Speaker, our Government has moved decisively to address the economic storm that also confronts us. This is the greatest economic crisis to afflict the world in many generations.


We have responded with the biggest economic lifeline in Australia’s history that we will consider today.  And I want to thank the treasurer for his leadership as these measures have been brought together. Working together, I should say also, with the treasurers of the states and territories on so many other measures.


So far, more than 200,000 additional JobSeeker claims have been finalised over the past few weeks. With the COVID-19 supplement doubling our safety net support. Thousands of extra workers have been recruited to ensure we can move through the claims still outstanding as quickly as possible.


Today, we will put before the Parliament our JobKeeper package. JobKeeper will keep Australians in jobs and it will keep the businesses that employ them in business, both now and into the future. The $130 billion economic life-line will provide payments of $1,500 per fortnight to an estimated six million eligible workers through their employer.


As of yesterday afternoon over 700,000 businesses have registered for this support, and this number continues to grow. It is the equivalent, this payment, of around 70 per cent of the national median wage. For workers in accommodation, hospitality and retail services, some of the most affected by this economic crisis, it equates to a full median replacement wage.


We also have extended the partner pay income test for those on JobSeeker. The partner test is being changed from about $48,000 to just over $79,000. As well, we want those working with children – and particularly our essential workers – to have confidence in their child care arrangements.


The Government is providing business continuity payments to support child care services to stay open. This means around one million Australian families will be able to receive free child care. The investment complements the more than $1 billion the Government expects the sector to receive through the JobKeeper payment. Managing our workforce is a critical part of keeping the economy going. So we have announced changes to temporary visa holders – including for international students, temporary skilled visa holders, and working holiday makers. 


We are also relaxing the visa conditions for our Seasonal Worker Programme and the Pacific Labour Scheme so that participants can stay for up to one more year. This is essential for our agricultural sector, who for the first time in a long time are seeing rain.


These extensions are subject, of course though, to labour market testing, allowing local job seekers, Australians, the opportunity to work. The Government knows that many Australian businesses are under pressure – and we won’t allow a fire sale of Australian businesses to foreign interests. The Treasurer has announced temporary changes to the foreign investment review framework to protect Australia’s national interest. This means all proposed foreign investments will now require approval, regardless of the value or nature of the foreign investor.


With businesses and families under stress, the National Cabinet has agreed to a moratorium on evictions over the next six months for commercial and residential tenancies in financial distress.


Yesterday, the National Cabinet agreed that states and territories would implement, legislate and mandate, a mandatory Code of Conduct for commercial tenancies. The Code sets out the good faith leasing principles for these tenancies. It means that businesses will be able to emerge on the other side and start trading again, not weighed down by disabling debts that would otherwise keep their doors closed forever.


We are all in this together. I know that some families coming into this health and economic crisis were already doing it tough. That’s why we are providing an additional $200 million to help vulnerable Australians pay bills, food, clothing and petrol. Additionally, we are providing almost $60 million to assist older Australians with food and other essential items.


To mobilise the full resources and talent of the private sector behind this national mission, we have established the National COVID-19 Coordination Commission under the leadership of Nev Power and I thank all of those commissioners for their service.


This is about government and the private sector working together to solve problems for our nation. All the measures I have detailed today are measures that we have announced since we last met over the past 16 days.


Mr Speaker, we have a long way to go. Through the actions we have taken to date, we have bought valuable time, to chart a way out over the next 6 months. 


But there are no guarantees, and it could well take far longer. Our country will look different on the other side. But Australians will always be Australians.


We have now navigated the road in and we now can see some encouraging signs.


We do stand in a place, today, far better than most nations around the world, because of the efforts of all Australians. Flattening the curve. Buying more time. Time other countries haven’t had and we’ve seen the devastating effects on those nations and their people.


Preparing our health system for the challenges to come.


Putting in place the big economic lifeline and buffers for Australians in this, their toughest ever year in 2020.


We are charting the road through. We are all in. Our institutions are strong. Our people are strong. Australia is strong and will continue to be strong. 


We will respond to this challenge, and we are up to the fight. We will pay the price needed to protect our sovereignty, and we will chart our way out. 


We will get through this, together, Australia.


Source: Licensed from the Commonwealth of Australia under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.


The Commonwealth of Australia does not necessarily endorse the content of this publication.

Roberts COVID-19 has exposed Decline In Productive Capacity Exposed

Sam Bernardo
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Roberts COVID-19 has exposed Decline In Productive Capacity Exposed

Senator Malcolmn Roberts 1 10

Senator Malcolm Roberts (Queensland) (Senate Speech Ministerial Statement 8/4/20): I seek to make a statement in response to the minister’s statement. We acknowledge that there is no manual for dealing with this virus and we empathise with the government’s challenge. That is, though, all the more reason for the government to openly share data, future projections and information with the people. As pressures mount regarding personal security, as well as emotionally and financially, on people across our nation, any shortage of data is being seen as an absence of trust by the government in the people, and that, in turn, will make it difficult for Australians to trust the government and the parliament. Government honesty and trust in the people will be met with trust from the people.



At this time, One Nation would also like to thank everyone who is caring for us and keeping us safe, including healthcare workers, police, defence and emergency workers, and everyone serving others, including those helping to supply and feed us, teach our children, generate electricity, collect garbage, clean, supply water and much more. They are people who are keeping services working for us all.


COVID-19 has exposed as severely lacking in our current economic and industrial structures the productive capacity and economic resilience that were once part of Australian culture and history. We need to take this opportunity to take stock and then rebuild our society on the values, systems and cultures that ensure a return to personal enterprise, instead of the creeping dead hand and suffocating blanket of a large and ever-growing central government. History shows that the secret of human happiness and human progress is nothing new and has been discovered, lost and rediscovered for millennia—and, more recently, lost in our country. We need to bring back Australia’s economic sovereignty, productive capacity and economic resilience, based on restoring personal enterprise and compliance with a constitution that enshrines competitive federalism and individual liberty. We all need, as representatives of the people and servants to the people, to ensure that the people’s government is held accountable for what it does and does not do during this emergency.


We are giving the government a blank cheque, and rightly so, because there are many uncertainties in this. There is such a complex system that we are already trying to amend. But ministers have the power to make these changes through regulations, and that is given to ensure that cracks in the legislation are closed quickly to ensure people are covered fairly right across our country. It is a blank cheque, but we must do our job as senators to make sure that we review that and the progress of it. What many Australians, looking beyond our health and financial safety, want is to make sure that we leave COVID-19 behind us, and that we are left with better freedoms and liberties and a stronger, freer economy than before.


Source Parliament of Australia Website

WHO 1 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported including 50,000 deaths.

Sam Bernardo
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WHO 1 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported including 50,000 deaths.

WHO: Good morning, good afternoon and good evening.

As Tarik said, we’re delighted to be joined today by Kristalina Georgieva, the Managing-Director of the International Monetary Fund. Welcome, my sister.


Kristalina will say more in a few minutes about the economic impact of the pandemic and what the IMF is doing to support countries and the global economy.  


More than 1 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 have now been reported to WHO, including more than 50,000 deaths.


But we know that this is much more than a health crisis. We are all aware of the profound social and economic consequences of the pandemic.


The restrictions many countries have put in place to protect health are taking a heavy toll on the income of individuals and families, and the economies of communities and nations. 


We are in a shared struggle to protect both lives and livelihoods.


In the short term, countries can ease the burden on their populations through social welfare programs to ensure people have food and other life essentials. 


For some countries, debt relief is essential to enable them to take care of their people and avoid economic collapse. This is an area of cooperation between WHO, the IMF and the World Bank. 


But ultimately, the best way for countries to end restrictions and ease their economic effects is to attack the virus, with the aggressive and comprehensive package of measures that we have spoken about many times before: find, test, isolate and treat every case, and trace every contact. 


If countries rush to lift restrictions too quickly, the virus could resurge and the economic impact could be even more severe and prolonged.


Financing the health response is therefore an essential investment not just in saving lives, but in the longer-term social and economic recovery.


There are three main areas for countries to focus on.


First, we call on all countries to ensure core public health measures are fully funded, including case-finding, testing, contact tracing, collecting data, and communication and information campaigns.  


Second, we also call on countries and partners to strengthen the foundations of health systems. That means health workers must be paid their salaries, and health facilities need a reliable supply of funding to purchase essential medical supplies.


Third, we call on all countries to remove financial barriers to care. 


If people delay or forego care because they can’t afford it, they not only harm themselves, they make the pandemic harder to control and put society at risk.


Several countries are suspending user fees and providing free testing and care for COVID-19, regardless of a person’s insurance, citizenship, or residence status. 


We encourage these measures. This is in an unprecedented crisis, which demands an unprecedented response. 


Suspending user fees should be supported with measures to compensate providers for the loss of revenues. 


Governments should also consider using cash transfers to the most vulnerable households to overcome barriers to access.  


This may be particularly important for refugees, internally displaced persons, migrants and the homeless.


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The pandemic is also having an effect on the fight against other diseases, like polio.


As you know, in recent years we have driven polio to the brink of eradication. This has been a massive global effort, started by Rotary, supported by many other partners, and led by thousands of health workers, vaccinating children in some very difficult and dangerous areas. 


Many of those health workers are now supporting the COVID-19 response.


They are tracing contacts, finding cases and providing public health information to communities. 


To reduce the risk of increasing transmission of COVID-19, the polio oversight board has made the hard decision to suspend house-to-house vaccination campaigns, knowing that this may lead to an increase in polio cases. 


To reduce this risk, we will support countries to maintain essential immunization for all vaccine preventable diseases.


WHO has published guidance for countries on how to maintain essential health services even while responding to this crisis.


The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is working to ensure that once it is safe to do so, countries can be supported to rapidly restart polio vaccination campaigns. 


While all our energy may be focused on COVID-19 now, our commitment to eradicating polio is unshakeable.


Sadly, there are reports from some countries of an increase in domestic violence since the COVID-19 outbreak began.


As people are asked to stay at home, the risk of intimate partner violence is likely to increase. 


Women in abusive relationships are more likely to be exposed to violence, as are their children, as family members spend more time in close contact, and families cope with additional stress and potential economic or job losses.


Women may have less contact with family and friends who may provide support and protection from violence.


We call on countries to include services for addressing domestic violence as an essential service that must continue during the COVID-19 response.


If you are experiencing or at risk of domestic violence, speak to supportive family and friends, seek support from a hotline, or seek out local services for survivors. 


Make a plan to protect yourself and your children any way you can. This could include having a neighbour, friend, relative, or shelter identified to go to should you need to leave the house immediately.


There is never any excuse for violence. We abhor all violence of all forms, at all times. 


Finally, the global response to COVID-19 would not be possible without the generosity of countries and partners.


Two months ago, WHO issued its Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan, with an initial ask of US$675 million to support the response.


I’m delighted to say that almost US$690 million has now been pledged or received. Of this amount, US$300 million has been given to support WHO’s work, and the rest has been given on a bilateral basis, or to other organizations involved in the response. 


I’d like to thank the State of Kuwait, which today is becoming one of the largest donors, with a total of US$60 million.


WHO’s Solidarity Response Fund has now raised more than US$127 million from more than 219,000 individuals and organizations. I’d like to thank Tencent for its contribution of US$10 million. 


I’m also pleased to announce that I have invited Unicef to join the Solidarity Response Fund. Unicef has extensive experience both in fundraising and in implementing programmes, and our partnership will help us to work together closely to save lives. Thank you so much, my sister Henrietta, for accepting my invitation.


We still have a long way to go in this fight. WHO is working every day with all countries and partners to save lives, and to mitigate the social and economic impact of the pandemic.


The IMF is a key partner, and I’d now like to hand the floor to my sister Kristalina to make a few remarks. Thank you so much for joining us Kristalina.


The WHO Headquarters: World Health Organization [2020]. Licence:  CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.

Coronavirus is there a link to New World Order totalitarian world government

Sam Bernardo
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Coronavirus is there a link to New World Order totalitarian world government

So many conspiracy theories around at the moment because of the Corona Beer Virus, I thought I would check if it’s true or False. Below is some of the information I dug up. Down the Bottom, On the Australian Greens Website, the Dream of a Global Governance. Hate to think what that is and how it Could be Archived

The New World Order or NWO is claimed to be an emerging clandestine totalitarian world government by various conspiracy theories.

9781840468106
Offbeat travel writer Dixe Wills nails down the essence of every single country on the planet. Say goodbye to sleepless nights fretting over the average number of puls to the Afghani, or wondering what’s in Bhutan today and whether it will still be fresh by the time you get it home. With a handy grading system to reveal who are the globe’s real top nations and which ones are letting the side down on a monumental scale, it’s no wonder that experts are declaring New World Order the most important book to be written in the last 500 years

The common theme in conspiracy theories about a New World Order is that a secretive power elite with a globalist agenda is conspiring to eventually rule the world through an authoritarian world government—which will replace sovereign nation-states—and all-encompassing propaganda whose ideology hails the establishment of the New World Order as the culmination of history’s progress. Many influential historical and contemporary figures have therefore been alleged to be part of a cabal that operates through many front organizations to orchestrate significant political and financial events, ranging from causing systemic crises to pushing through controversial policies, at both national and international levels, as steps in an ongoing plot to achieve world domination.

Before the early 1990s, New World Order conspiracism was limited to two American countercultures, primarily the militantly anti-government right and secondarily that part of fundamentalist Christianity concerned with the end-time emergence of the Antichrist. Sceptics, such as Michael Barkun and Chip Berlet, observed that right-wing populist conspiracy theories about a New World Order had not only been embraced by many seekers of stigmatized knowledge but had seeped into popular culture, thereby inaugurating a period during the late 20th and early 21st centuries in the United States where people are actively preparing for apocalyptic millenarian scenarios. Those political scientists are concerned that mass hysteria over New World Order conspiracy theories could eventually have devastating effects on American political life, ranging from escalating lone-wolf terrorism to the rise to power of authoritarian ultranationalist demagogues.

Conspiracy theorists believe that the New World Order will also be implemented through the use of human population control in order to more easily monitor and control the movement of individuals. The means range from stopping the growth of human societies through reproductive health and family planning programs, which promote abstinence, contraception and abortion, or intentionally reducing the bulk of the world population through genocides by mongering unnecessary wars, through plagues by engineering emergent viruses and tainting vaccines, and through environmental disasters by controlling the weather (HAARP, chemtrails), etc. Conspiracy theorists argue that globalists plotting on behalf of a New World Order are neo-Malthusians who engage in overpopulation and climate change alarmism in order to create public support for coercive population control and ultimately world government. Agenda 21 is condemned as “reconcentrating” people into urban areas and depopulating rural ones, even generating a dystopian novel by Glenn Beck where single-family homes are a distant memory.

9781921351501
From the award-winning, internationally bestselling author of A Short History of Progress comes another fascinating, eccentric and essential book.
The USA is now the world’s lone superpower, whose deeds could make or break this century. For better and worse, America has Americanised the world. How did a marginal frontier society, in a mere two centuries, become the de facto ruler of the world? Why do America’s great achievements in democracy, prosperity and civil rights now seem threatened by forces within itself?

Sceptics argue that fears of population control can be traced back to the traumatic legacy of the eugenics movement’s “war against the weak” in the United States during the first decades of the 20th century but also the Second Red Scare in the U.S. during the late 1940s and 1950s, and to a lesser extent in the 1960s, when activists on the far right of American politics routinely opposed public health programs, notably water fluoridation, mass vaccination and mental health services, by asserting they were all part of a far-reaching plot to impose a socialist or communist regime. Their views were influenced by opposition to a number of major social and political changes that had happened in recent years: the growth of internationalism, particularly the United Nations and its programs; the introduction of social welfare provisions, particularly the various programs established by the New Deal; and government efforts to reduce inequalities in the social structure of the U.S. Opposition towards mass vaccinations, in particular, got significant attention in the late 2010s, so much so the World Health Organization listed vaccine hesitancy as one of the top ten global health threats of 2019. By this time, people that refused or refused to allow their children to be vaccinated were known colloquially as “anti-vaxxers”, though citing the New World Order conspiracy theory or resistance to a perceived population control agenda as a reason to refuse vaccination were few and far between. Wikipedia

The Australian Greens believe that:

  1. Global governance processes must be reinvigorated to advance global peace and security, justice, human rights, poverty alleviation, health and environmental sustainability. Because there is no one system of global governance.

  2. Major structural reform is needed to provide stronger, more effective and more representative multilateral institutions.

  3. The leading role of the United Nations in the maintenance of international peace and security must be recognised and respected by all countries.

  4. The international financial institutions that govern aid, development, trade and transnational financial movements must contribute to global economic justice. Read More

Wondering if all this is a link to the Corona- Virus, Well I would not have a Clue but I do know Alex Jones Info Wars who was removed by facebook and YouTube on the same day last year has been preaching and preparing US Citizens for a Globalist take-over for a Decade. Alex has been calling on Americans to Arm up, Buy up his special foods and Vitamins to last years and Warns not to take any Force Vaccinations.

Image by CounterDarkness from Pixabay

DFACT 10 cruise ships with around 600 Australian passengers on board.

Sam Bernardo
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DFACT 10 cruise ships with around 600 Australian passengers on board.

Marise Payne 10


The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is in direct contact with 10 cruise ships with around 600 Australian passengers on board. This has reduced from 38 affected cruise ships with over 5,500 Australians just two weeks ago.


This is a result of co-operation with cruise lines and host countries. We appreciate this co-operative effort and acknowledge the patience of many passengers as these complex arrangements are determined.


Yesterday, about 800 Australians disembarked the Vasco Da Gama in Fremantle. In the days ahead, we are working to see more Australians disembark cruise ships at ports around the world.


In most cases, disembarkation cannot occur unless passengers have onward flight arrangements and are able to travel directly to the airport via a so-called sanitary corridor, put in place by host countries.


Therefore, arrangements of disembarkation and onward travel have required consistent and careful advocacy by the Australian Government, and co-operation with cruise line operators and host countries.


We welcome cruise operators’ constructive efforts to organise charter flights for many passengers.


Our consular officials in Canberra and diplomatic missions around the world have also regularly updated and advised affected Australians on cruise ships about the evolving situation, through email and various social media channels. We are providing consular assistance as necessary.


DFAT continues to work closely with cruise line operators and international authorities to resolve the remaining cases. We realise this is a stressful time for the affected Australians and their families.


In some cases, Australians disembarking cruise ships may be subject to local quarantine restrictions. As a result, it may be necessary for some to remain where they are overseas and, as far as practicable, remain safe and comfortable, including by following directions of local authorities.


Australia’s consular officers are doing all they can to support Australians overseas at this difficult time. The health and safety of Australians both at home and abroad is the Government’s top priority.

Vladimir Putin had conversation with US President Donald Trump

Sam Bernardo
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Vladimir Putin had a conversation with US President Donald Trump

Telephone conversation with US President Donald Trump

Vladimir Putin and President of the United States of America Donald Trump had a lengthy conversation during a call initiated by the US.

The two presidents expressed serious concern over the scale of the spread of the coronavirus in the world and informed each other about measures taken in Russia and the United States to counter this threat. Opportunities for closer cooperation between the two countries on this problem were discussed.

They also exchanged views on the current state of the global oil market and agreed that Russian and American energy ministers should hold consultations on this topic.

Certain bilateral issues were also addressed.

Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump agreed to maintain personal contact.

Source President of Russia Website

Queensland border restrictions will be tightened in the streets of Coolangatta

Sam Bernardo
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Queensland border restrictions will be tightened in the streets of Coolangatta

Annastacia Palaszczuk 1 2

Queensland border restrictions will be tightened across the state from Friday to prevent the spread of COVID-19.


Anyone who is not a Queensland resident or considered exempt from the restrictions will not be able to enter Queensland from 12.01 am Friday, April 3, 2020.


And it’s important to note that people with an exemption must have a border pass prior to crossing the border.  


If they don’t have a border pass then they will be turned around


Freight transport services are exempt and will be allowed through without a border pass permit.


The restrictions will replace the current arrangements which enable people to cross the border provided they self-quarantine for 14 days. 


Additional barriers will be erected in the streets of Coolangatta to further enforce border controls.

Police Minister Mark Ryan said strengthening border crossings and reducing the number of people travelling to Queensland would assist in minimising the spread of the virus.

“Now is not the time to be travelling interstate unnecessarily,” Minister Ryan said.

“Unless you are a Queensland resident or have an exemption such as you work here or are required to travel for medical reasons, or are involved in freight transportation, you will be turned away.

“We are giving people plenty of warning about the stronger border controls that are being put in place.

“We are doing this in the interests of community safety.”

Since Queensland implemented border restrictions on Wednesday, 25 March, 19,760 vehicles have been intercepted and police have issued 1,451 quarantine orders to people crossing the border.

Commissioner Katarina Carroll said police were appreciative of the cooperation shown by the majority of motorists during the border crossing process.

“We know the border controls have caused some delays on the roads, however, we are very grateful for the majority of drivers who have been cooperative and followed police directions,” Commissioner Carroll said.

“The stronger measures will reduce the need for police to conduct follow-up quarantine checks for those who are directed to self-isolate when crossing the border.

“Importantly, penalties may apply to any non-Queensland resident without an exemption who enters the state.” 

For more information about border restrictions and exemptions visit: https://www.qld.gov.au/about/newsroom/queensland-border-restrictions.


Attribution: Minister for Police and Minister for Corrective Services
The Honourable Mark Ryan

Morrisons 6 Million Workers will receive $1500 Per Fortnight explained

Sam Bernardo
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Morrisons 6 Million Workers will receive $1500 Per Fortnight explained

PM Scott Morrison 10


ScoMO: The Morrison Government will provide a historic wage subsidy to around 6 million workers who will receive a flat payment of $1,500 per fortnight through their employer, before tax.

The $130 billion JobKeeper payment will help keep Australians in jobs as tackle the significant economic impact from the coronavirus.

The payment will be open to eligible businesses that receive a significant financial hit caused by the coronavirus.

The payment will provide the equivalent of around 70 per cent of the national median wage.



For workers in the accommodation, hospitality and retail sectors it will equate to a full median replacement wage.



The payment will ensure eligible employers and employees stay connected while some businesses move into hibernation. 



Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the JobKeeper payment would bring the Government’s total economic support for the economy to $320 billion or 16.4 per cent of GDP.



“We will give millions of eligible businesses and their workers a lifeline to not only get through this crisis, but bounce back together on the other side,” the Prime Minister said. 



“This is about keeping the connection between the employer and the employee and keeping people in their jobs even though the business they work for may go into hibernation and close down for six months.



“When the economy comes back, these businesses will be able to start again and their workforce will be ready to go because they will remain attached to the business through our JobKeeper payment.”



Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the country was about to go through one of the toughest times in its history.



“Businesses will close and people will lose their jobs. That is why we have doubled the welfare safety net,” the Treasurer said.



“However, today we are going even further. Australians know that their government has their back.



“That is why we are delivering an historic $130 billion JobKeeper payment to support businesses and to help Australians in a job.



“This will keep Australian workers connected with their employer and provide hope and more certainty during these difficult and challenging times.”



JobKeeper Payment



The JobKeeper Payment is a subsidy to businesses, which will keep more Australians in jobs through the course of the coronavirus outbreak. 



The payment will be paid to employers, for up to six months, for each eligible employee that was on their books on 1 March 2020 and is retained or continues to be engaged by that employer. 



Where a business has stood down employees since 1 March, the payment will help them maintain connection with their employees.



Employers will receive a payment of $1,500 per fortnight per eligible employee. Every eligible employee must receive at least $1,500 per fortnight from this business, before tax.



The program will commence today, 30 March 2020, with the first payments to be received by eligible businesses in the first week of May as monthly arrears from the Australian Taxation Office. Eligible businesses can begin distributing the JobKeeper payment immediately and will be reimbursed from the first week of May. 



The Government will provide updates on further business cashflow support in coming days. 



Eligible employers will be those with annual turnover of less than $1 billion who self-assess that have a reduction in revenue of 30 per cent or more, since 1 March 2020 over a minimum one-month period. 



Employers with an annual turnover of $1 billion or more would be required to demonstrate a reduction in revenue of 50 per cent or more to be eligible. Businesses subject to the Major Bank Levy will not be eligible. 



Eligible employers include businesses structured through companies, partnerships, trusts and sole traders. Not for profit entities, including charities, will also be eligible.



Full time and part time employees, including stood down employees, would be eligible to receive the JobKeeper Payment.  Where a casual employee has been with their employer for at least the previous 12 months they will also be eligible for the Payment.  An employee will only be eligible to receive this payment from one employer. 



Eligible employees include Australian residents, New Zealand citizens in Australia who hold a subclass 444 special category visa, and migrants who are eligible for JobSeeker Payment or Youth Allowance (Other). 



Self-employed individuals are also eligible to receive the JobKeeper Payment.



Eligible businesses can apply for the payment online and are able to register their interest via ato.gov.au 



Income support partner pay income test



Over the next six months the Government is temporarily expanding access to income support payments and establishing a Coronavirus Supplement of $550 per fortnight.



JobSeeker Payment is subject to a partner income test, and today the Government is temporarily relaxing the partner income test to ensure that an eligible person can receive the JobSeeker Payment, and associated Coronavirus Supplement, providing their partner earns less than $3,068 per fortnight, around $79,762 per annum. 



The personal income test for individuals on JobSeeker Payment will still apply.



Every arm of government and industry is working to keep Australians in jobs and businesses in business, and to build a bridge to recovery on the other side. 



The Government will continue to do what it takes to ensure that Australia bounces back stronger. 



The Commonwealth’s preference is that you attribute this publication (and any material sourced from it) using the following wording:



Source: Licensed from the Commonwealth of Australia under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.



The Commonwealth’s preference is that you attribute this publication (and any material sourced from it) using the following wording:



PM Scott Morrison 12

Trump' Navy 70,000-ton Hospital Ship USNS will embark for New York City,

Sam Bernardo
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0

Trump’ Navy 70,000-ton Hospital Ship USNS will embark for New York City

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you very much, Mark.  And you’re doing a fantastic job, and our country appreciates it very much.

And thank you, everybody, for being here.  Today, I’m deeply honoured to be at Naval Station Norfolk — the largest naval base anywhere in the world, and the home to the most powerful fleet that has ever sailed the seas.  I just passed some of the most beautiful and, frankly, the most highly lethal ships that I have ever seen in my life, and there are a lot of them.  And they’re in better shape now than they have been for many, many decades, with what we’re doing.

We’re grateful to be joined by Commander of the U.S. Fleet Forces, Admiral Christopher Grady, and Commander of the U.S. Second Fleet, Vice Admiral Woody Lewis.  Thank you both for being here.  We appreciate it very much.

As we gather today, our country is at war with an invisible enemy.  We are marshalling the full power of the American nation — economic, scientific, medical, and military — to vanquish the virus.  And we will do that.

Today, I’m here to express my profound gratitude to the dedicated service members who will soon be on the frontlines of this fight.  In a few moments, the crew of the Navy Hospital Ship USNS Comfort — which is really something — will embark for New York City, where they will join the ranks of tens of thousands of amazing doctors, nurses, and medical professionals who are battling to save American lives.

This great ship behind me is a 70,000-ton message of hope and solidarity to the incredible people of New York — a place I know very well, a place I love.  We’re here for you, we’re fighting for you, and we are with you all the way, and we always will be.  You have the unwavering support of the entire nation, the entire government, and the entire American people.

After being rushed out of maintenance with historic speed — it was supposed to be here for four weeks, and they did it in four days — the Comfort will arrive at Pier 90 in Manhattan on Monday, three weeks ahead of schedule.  Its crew will begin treating patients on Tuesday.  It will be met in New York Harbor by Governor Cuomo, who I just spoke with; he’s very excited — and they need the help.

The skilled sailors and civilian mariners aboard this ship will provide a critical surge capacity for the New York metropolitan area.  Their mission will be to care for New Yorkers who do not have the virus but who require urgent care.  In other words, they’ll be using this — people will be coming out of hospitals who don’t have the virus, and they’ll be on the ship where they have great operating rooms and great facilities.  And the places inbound, on land, will be where people that have the virus will be.  So the people with the virus will not be on a ship.  The ship will be used for people having operations and other things other than that.

By serving these emergency patients away from the hospitals, beds will be opened up all over the city for those who are infected.  This ship can handle a lot of people, so it will open capacity all over the city.  And it will be ready to address any life-threatening medical emergency.  It is stocked.  It’s stocked to the brim with equipment and medicines and everything you can think of.  Importantly, by treating non-infected patients remotely on the ship, it will help to halt, very strongly, the transmission of the virus.

The Comfort’s sister ship on the West Coast, the USNS Mercy, arrived ahead of schedule, substantially, in port yesterday.  Governor Gavin Newsom was very thankful for it.  They’re working very hard in California.  It’s performing a similar mission for the people of Los Angeles and the people of California.

As the USNS Comfort gets underway, it is fully loaded with 12 operating rooms — and they are fully equipped — 1,000 hospital beds, a medical laboratory, a pharmacy, an optometry lab, digital radiology, a CAT scan, two oxygen-producing plants, and a helicopter deck, which will be used very actively.

It also bears our military’s greatest weapon of all: a crew of nearly 1,200 outstanding members of the United States Navy.  And I thank them very much.  Among the sailors departing today are some of the finest doctors, nurses, technicians, orderlies, and medical staff anywhere in the world.  These are true professionals.  And no one performs better under pressure when lives are on the line.  These are incredible people.

We will stop at nothing to protect the health of New Yorkers and the health of the people of our country in their hour of need.  I also want to remind everyone about the CDC’s latest guidance: If you are from the New York metropolitan area and you travel elsewhere, we need you to
self-quarantine for 14 days to help us contain the spread of the virus.

And I am now considering — we’ll make a decision very quickly, very shortly — a quarantine, because it’s such a hot area, of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.  We’ll be announcing that, one way or the other, fairly soon.  This does not apply to people such as truckers from outside the New York area who are making deliveries or simply transiting through.  It won’t affect trade in any way.

The Army Corps of Engineers and FEMA are racing to build temporary hospitals — which are now completed, by the way, in record time — four hospitals, four medical centers.  And in speaking with the governor this morning, we’re giving them an additional four large tents, which they need very badly.  And the emergency medical stations in New York are top of the line.  You have them in not only New York, but in California and Illinois.  We’ll be adding some to other states also.

I’ve empowered our nation’s governors with the resources to call up the National Guard and authorized the activation of Ready Reserves.  Two big words: Ready Reserves.  FEMA has shipped or delivered 11.6 million N95 respirators, 26 million surgical masks, 5.2 million face shields — and a lot are being made of all of the things I just named right now; we have millions and millions of new medical items being made as we speak, and purchased — 4.3 million surgical gowns, 22 million gloves, and 8,100 ventilators.

We have moved rapidly to mobilize every instrument of American power.  This week, I invoked the Defense Production Act to compel General Motors to carry out federal contracts for ventilators.  And I think they’re going to do a great job; I have to say that.

We’re also working with the major ventilator companies in the United States — all big-name companies, all companies that do ventilators, so they won’t need extra time, and they’re gearing up and they’ll be working 24 hours around the clock, and they have been; they’ve been doing a fantastic job — to accomplish a historic ramp-up, and a ramp-up in the kind of numbers that we’re talking about.

And if we make too many, that’s going to be okay, because I spoke with the Prime Minister of the UK yesterday, Boris Johnson.  He tested, as you know, positive.  And before I even was able to get a word out of him, he said — I said, “How are you doing?”  He said, “We need ventilators.”  The UK needs ventilators.  A lot of countries need ventilators badly.  It’s a tough thing to make.  It’s a very complicated and expensive piece of equipment.  I would say more so than a car.  You’re talking about expensive, complicated equipment.  So I hope we, soon, will have enough that we can help other countries with ventilators.  A lot of countries need them.

In the next 100 days, America will make or acquire three times more ventilators than we do in an entire year.  We are so geared up.  At Boeing, Ford, Honeywell, 3M, Hanes, and other great American companies, factory floors and manufacturing lines are being converted to produce the respirators, protective masks, face shields, and other vital equipment.  And those companies have been amazing.  And Boeing is giving us their cargo-moving planes.  They’re the biggest cargo movers anywhere in the world, and we’re going to be using them to ship certain types of equipment to various states.

Hundreds of millions of Americans are also making tremendous sacrifices on the home front.  In a historic drive to support our great workers and businesses, I signed into law the single-largest economic relief package in American history.  You saw that yesterday.

The $2.2 trillion — and think of that: $2.2 trillion, but it goes to $6.2 trillion, depending on what we decide.  This legislation delivers job retention loans for small businesses to help them keep workers on payroll, expanded unemployment benefits, and direct cash payments to American citizens.  And these are very substantial payments.  A family of four will be getting approximately $3,400.

This legislation also provides massive increases in funding for hospitals who need it, for Disaster Relief Fund, and critical life-saving medical supplies.  We’re spending a tremendous amount of money on medical supplies.  We’re trying to get it to the point needed directly, as opposed to our supply lines, so it can go directly to where they need it without having to go through a long process.  I don’t want to say “bureaucratic,” but we have not — this group of people has worked so incredibly hard, and the energy and the speed with which they’re delivering everything has been really admired by everybody.  Everybody is talking about it — the job they’re doing.

My administration has also taken action to dispend [sic] — and suspend federal student loan payments.  So we’re suspending — and that means suspending, in every sense of the word — student loan payments so that the students that are not able to take advantage of what’s going on, obviously — for obvious reasons — they will be — the payment suspended.

We’ve temporarily stopped federal evictions and foreclosures.  We’ve postponed Tax Day until July, which is a big thing; first time that’s happened.  And waived regulations to speed new treatments to the market.  And we have new treatments coming on rapidly.  We’re doing very well, we think, with the vaccines, and we’re doing very, very well with, hopefully, or potentially, cures.  We’re looking at a lot of different alternatives, a lot of different medicines.  That would be game-changer.

The battle in which we’re now engaged has inflicted many hardships on our nation and our families — tremendous hardship on some families — and much death.  Much death.  But through it all, the world has witnessed the unyielding resolve of our incredible American people.  We are not only a country of vast resources; we’re a nation of colossal strength, towering spirit, soaring patriotism, and exceptional character.  And you’re showing it to the entire world.

At this moment, there are 151 countries throughout the world that are under attack by this horrible, invisible enemy.  One hundred and fifty-one countries.  And we’re in touch with a lot of them.  Our professionals are the best in the world.  But who would ever think 151 countries are under attack?

We are one family, bound together by love and loyalty — the eternal traits so perfectly embodied by the extraordinary men and women aboard this ship, and the men and women at this beautiful, scenic, but really tough base.  This base is something.  Thank you very much.  This base is something very, very special.

With the courage of our doctors and nurses, with the skill of our scientists and innovators, with the determination of the American people, and with the grace of God, we will win this war and we will win this war quickly with as little death as possible.

And when we achieve our victory — this victory, your victory — we will emerge stronger and more united than ever before.  We are going to be at a level of preparedness in case something like this should ever happen again — and, God willing, it won’t.  But we are prepared.  What we’ve done in building systems, we’re now the number one tester anywhere in the world, by far.  We’re testing more in one day than other countries are testing in weeks, in months.

We’ve learned a lot.  And I cannot be more thankful to the American people.  And I can say this, and I can say this from the bottom of my heart: I am very proud to be your President.

Thank you very much, and God bless you all.  Thank you.  Thank you very much.  

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