Page 747 - Week 03 - Thursday, 2 April 2020
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All ministers were asked to consider the immediate needs of government, and the Attorney-General has worked closely with the Justice and Community Safety Directorate to coordinate this bill. I thank the attorney and the directorate for undertaking this work in a timely manner. I note that Minister Ramsay and other ministers will briefly speak to matters relating to their portfolio responsibilities during the in-principle stage of the bill’s debate.
It has rightly been said that we are dealing with two crises: a health crisis and an economic crisis. The territory government, like all governments around the country and around the world, must act decisively and mobilise the resources at our disposal to deal with both issues. We must do our part to ensure that everyone in our community understands and adheres to the critical, important physical distancing and personal isolation measures. Where necessary, we must take enforcement action to keep our community safe. We must also take steps to deal with the economic downturn which is already impacting large parts of our economy.
In the current rapidly changing environment, it is difficult to quantify the exact magnitude of the impact of COVID-19, but it is clear that there will be sharp contractions in output, in household spending, in corporate investment and, particularly, in international trade.
The OECD estimates that the initial impact of shutdowns could be a decline in output of between one-fifth and one-quarter in many economies, with consumer expenditure potentially dropping by around one-third. To put this into some kind of historical context, changes of this magnitude far outweigh anything experienced during the global financial crisis a little over a decade ago. That is why all governments are acting swiftly to enact measures like those contained in this bill.
Canberrans should be in no doubt that we are doing everything in our power across the Australian Federation to weather the economic storm in which we now find ourselves. The actions that we are taking as governments today and in the coming months will determine how quickly we are able to recover and pull through to the other side of this crisis.
We need to acknowledge, however, that there will be an adverse impact in most areas of our community, both on a personal and on an economic level. Fortunately, we have a strong and resilient healthcare system that is ready to provide high levels of care and treatment for those who need it, and we have stepped up to provide further support. We have also experienced strong economic growth in recent years and we are in a sound fiscal position to get through this crisis. We are all in this together and we will all need to play our part.
Evidence from other countries shows that if we do not flatten the curve, more people will die. We do not want our doctors and nurses to have to make the seemingly impossible decisions about who they can and cannot treat; nor are we willing to let thousands and thousands of Canberrans and Canberra businesses face the current economic uncertainty alone.
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