Parliament Set to Make Trillion Dollar Commitment

THE Prime Minister addressed Parliament this morning reporting on the government’s progress with managing the coronavirus as the national death toll reaches 50, currently 5,956 Australians are infected and 2,547 have recovered.

“Together we have established the key baseline supports and measures that have brought us much needed time during this crisis to get us through…but there is a long way to go in this fight,” said Prime Minister Morrison.

“This has been the road in, we will now lead the country on the road through and then the road out and beyond,” he said.

Since Parliament met 16 days ago the growth rate of the virus has dropped from 20 percent to 2 percent per day.

“We are buying ourselves precious time in this fight and I want to than the overwhelming majority of Australians for doing the right thing, you are saving lives, you are saving livelihoods,” said the Prime Minister.

“But we have to keep up our efforts, progress can be easily undone, as we’ve seen with other places around the world

“We are only a few days away from Easter, a 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

The Prime Minister credited the success to the highest testing rates in the world and said 30 million masks have now arrived in the country and domestic production of masks has begun.

Labor leader, Anthony Albanese said today Parliament will consider a scale of expenditure which is unprecedented in Australian history.

“We are headed for a trillion dollar debt,” said Mr Albanese.

“It is a bill that will saddle a generation, with this comes a compelling need for scrutiny and forensic oversight,” he said.

“Australians can feel comfort the government has been prepared to act in the way, which I’m sure makes it feel uncomfortable, but they deserve credit for listening to the views of Labor, unions and the business community on the wage subsidy issue,” he said.