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Economic implications of a SARS/Coronavirus outbreak

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I am a bit worried given the speed of developments that the government seem to be behind the curve economy wise.

Hopefully they will get more aggressive reading the below is very concerning.

lots os should be but haven't seen any planing on actions hopefully its to come.


"More Australians are behind in their mortgage repayments today than at any time since the Global Financial Crisis and rental stress is through the roof. This crisis will make this worse.

The National Cabinet and the financial services industry should look at what other countries are doing – including mortgage holidays and eviction moratoriums.

In addition to that, they should also take steps to make sure no one has their power, water, gas or phone cut off because they, or their family, are affected by the virus and can’t pay the bill."
 
Interesting article on workers rights regarding the "fair work act", which replaced the "work choices" legislation.
This is worth a read for those members who think they may be laid off, the fair work website will probably give a comprehensive list of courses of action, if members are laid off.
Hopefully it doesn't come to this, but for some I'm sure it will.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03...wn-20000-staff.-how-can-they-do-that/12069964
From the article:
Usually, if you're a full-time or part-time employee asked by your employer not to work, you would be entitled to be paid.

But under the Fair Work Act, any employee (whether full-time, part-time or casual) can be stood down without pay if they can't do useful work because of an "equipment breakdown, industrial action or a stoppage of work for which the employer can't reasonably be held responsible".

And it can be for an indefinite period of time, according to Professor Forsyth, but only if the situation which has caused the stand-downs - in this case, potentially, the coronavirus pandemic - is still ongoing.

Professor Forsyth says the Fair Work Act includes provisions on how stand-down arrangements work, but they don't deal with every situation.

"Employees can be directed, for a period of time, to not attend work while business is affected, causing a necessary stoppage of work, and that's without pay,"

While those rules apply under the Fair Work Act, you should also check your enterprise agreement (if you have one) as it might have further rules limiting employer stand-down powers.

Most larger business will have agreements in place, in which case Professor Forsyth says there may be provisions that state your employer "will need to consult with staff or unions before standing you down".
According to the Fair Work website, an employer must meet a series of requirements before they can terminate someone, such as providing notice, and they will likely also have to provide redundancy pay.

"The advantage of a stand-down compared to redundancies is that employers have the option of being able to return to normal pretty quickly if the conditions that shut them down begin to change," Professor Forsyth said.

"In the event of redundancies, they will have to look at whether they can redeploy staff, engage in consultations and provide redundancy pay, which can range from four weeks to 16 weeks under the Fair Work Act."

The Fair Work website also says that under the relevant Act, an employee is protected from being dismissed because of a temporary absence due to illness or injury, for example having coronavirus.

"The Fair Work Act also includes protections against being dismissed because of discrimination, a reason that is harsh, unjust or unreasonable or another protected right," the Fair Work website says.

"These protections continue to operate in relation to employees impacted by coronavirus."
 
I have just been informed a workmate of my son in law may have the virus having returned from overseas a while before the shutdown. Consequently son in law had been working with this person all week and is now got flue like symptoms. And I have seen him in the interim period, when none of us were suspicious. If the person proves positive and son in law and then myself, then it goes to show the spread is as easy as that. AND I have been very reasonably cautious because I tick nearly all high risk boxes..
I have now locked down till I hear of the results of the initial person.

So I have been thinking where have I gone since meeting, and making a list, and what frightens me is I have been to MANY shops and SEVERAL times (BECAUSE of THE stupid panic buying) trying to get essentials. NORMALLY I am once a week shopper and go only to two shops. Now like others we shop a multitude of times, absolutely perfect for a spread.

So have fingers crossed and shopping list uncrossed for me.

Take care. Stay Cool. I remain confident.
 
jbocker said:
I have just been informed a workmate of my son in law may have the virus having returned from overseas a while before the shutdown. Consequently son in law had been working with this person all week and is now got flue like symptoms. And I have seen him in the interim period, when none of us were suspicious. If the person proves positive and son in law and then myself, then it goes to show the spread is as easy as that. AND I have been very reasonably cautious because I tick nearly all high risk boxes..
I have now locked down till I hear of the results of the initial person.

So I have been thinking where have I gone since meeting, and making a list, and what frightens me is I have been to MANY shops and SEVERAL times (BECAUSE of THE stupid panic buying) trying to get essentials. NORMALLY I am once a week shopper and go only to two shops. Now like others we shop a multitude of times, absolutely perfect for a spread.

So have fingers crossed and shopping list uncrossed for me.

Take care. Stay Cool. I remain confident.
Click to expand...


Hope all goes well for yourself and family JB if you are up to it would be appreciated if you could update us all on symptoms treatment and how you negotiate your way through the medical system etc.

Having said that fully understand if you don't want to put it out there and again hope its all goes well. :xyxthumbs:xyxthumbs
 
basilio said:
So far our food supplies have been guaranteed. Maybe that can change ?

Harvests could be lost if coronavirus travel restrictions lead to labour shortages on Australian farms
Fruit and vegetable farmers face looming labour deficit in the absence of backpackers and other foreign workers they rely on for picking
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-lead-to-labour-shortages-on-australian-farms
Click to expand...

this is the canary confirming my previous post, if we do not have a time limit to the total shutdown then we are going to have anarchy.

I realise that it is not "nice" or even PC but the fact is that industry Must continue to operate or we are going to bankrupt our nation

If people cannot work they cannot pay their mortgage, the banks of today are nothing but houses of cards built on thin air and BS.

If 20% of their mortgages all default at the same time then None of them will survive.

If farmers cannot harvest then we all starve, if truck drivers cannot travel then there is no food to fight over, etc etc..........................

I sincerely believe we need to treat it like a bad flu year, isolate the fragile, take extra care with cleanliness, isolate ourselves if we feel sick but soldier on at our work

Yes, it may make the impact worse than shutting down but when do we start again?

There is a Very definite limit to this and it will not be very long before we hit the wall.

We talk about flattening the infection curve but we also need to talk about the financial impact curve as well if not it will get exceedingly ugly when it all collapses.

Real estate values will collapse, mortgages of $2m on a house worth $1m ? good luck with that........

Overdraft reliant on monthly cash flow from debtors, good luck with that...........

Rents on houses that pay investment loans...phhhht

Commercial/industrial/retails rents of thousands a week, sorry can't pay............

Maybe we all need to get a gun license and go hunting for rabbit, got to eat something
 
Having spent the past few days watching dozens of Youtube videos on COVID-19 apart from hours of ABC radio coverage, the glaring failure of our government is an unpreparedness despite no less than a month forewarning of its potential serious nature.
A link I provided in another thread showed just one of a number of medical clinics in Wuhan was producing 100k rest kits per day. It appears that until recently the whole of Australia had around 200k test kits, eg. Queensland has conducted fewer than 25k tests and has rationed their use to the extent that sick people reporting for testing have been turned away! The extra 100k due to arrive will not go far, and certainly are inadequate compared to best practice.
What I find less than amusing is that what China did in Wuhan (after the horse had bolted) has achieved praise from disease experts for its success, yet we are loathe to do the same.
The other very interesting thing Wuhan did was dedicate entire hospitals, such as those built in 10 days, to COVID-19 patients. This process of isolation proved very effective and left "normal" hospitals to go about "business as usual." Nothing has prevented the federal government from utilising our military to effectively establish "field hospitals" for the same purpose. Nothing except a singular lack of vision.
The ineptitude of Scomo's handling is lost on most people as he "appears" to be doing things. True. He is.
It's called too little too late.
I honestly have to wonder where decision makers have been hiding, or who they have been listening to. They are supposed to have the best advice at their fingertips. I think if they smell them then they are in for a surprise.
 
I think the grim news mentioned in that article will stabilise soon. Check out the yields being offerred on bonds now...most are negative so quantitative easing or whatever governments are calling it since they're all avoiding the term, could be working.

This has been bothering me since last week and for the life of me I couldnt understand why qe wasnt causing the cash rate to come down, as possed in my previous post...like theory would suggest.

I finally found an afr article titled "Why the reserve bank will push the qe button" and it explains it all. Basically hedge funds dumped a lot of bonds to free up cash. Banks bought as much as their limits would allow taking advantage of cheap prices and high yields...but with so many dumped bonds, yields increased further to be more attractive to potential buyers.
 
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Excuse the sensationalist wording. I've seen this being passed around for a few days (now a little out of date). The global markets have indeed been smashed and will obviously continue to tumble as the world shuts down. This isn't a zero sum game like 2008, this is loss of so much, I'm sure most people here don't need that explained.

Is China really faring that well, while the rest of the world collapses? If so, that really does paint a suspicious picture. It's definitely an engineered virus (it came from a laboratory, not a bat), but my guess is that it is probably an accidental lab escape, not deliberate. There is some evidence that it was deliberate, and this would add to it.
 
Sdajii said:
It's definitely an engineered virus (it came from a laboratory, not a bat), but my guess is that it is probably an accidental lab escape, not deliberate. There is some evidence that it was deliberate, and this would add to it.
Click to expand...
You make so many claims without evidence!
Viruses mutate, like the theory of evolution propounds.
You start with a copypaste of a conspiracy theory and then close with one of your own.
Little wonder Australians are panic buying when this is the level of thinking that goes on.
 

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