COVID-19 update 2nd April

• Fair Work Commission has proposed changes during pandemic:
  • a new temporary workplace right giving workers, including casuals, access to unpaid pandemic leave if they enter self-isolation
  • allowing agreement to take twice the amount of accrued annual leave at half-pay
  • would operate until June 30
• Commercial tenants to be offered part deferral/part waiver on rents in package being prepared for Friday’s National Cabinet (AFR)
• Parliament will sit next Wednesday to pass JobKeeper subsidy. Only around 40 MPs.
• AMP Chair (and former Chair of Financial System Inquiry) David Murray warns against govt liquidity support for industry super (on moral hazard grounds)
• Government unlikely to bail out Virgin; more likely to encourage new entrant, say govt sources (AFR)
• Geoff Wilson (Wilson Asset Management), high-profile campaigner against ALP franking credit policy, says ‘everything must be on the table’ for paying back government debt. Suggests capping to make it ‘more equitable’.
• ACCI and COSBOA urge wage subsidy to be used to upskill during pandemic
• NSW government allowing constructions sites special permission to operate across weekends and public holidays (to allow better social distancing with fewer workers on site). (DT)
• NSW supermarkets and pharmacies also allowed to trade 24/7