As recently appointed by the Prime Minister, Nev is the Chair of the National COVID-19 Coordination Commission. He spoke of the need to provide low cost energy, to advance manufacturing and achieve greater sovereign sustainability.
In relation to the pandemic, he spoke of the Australian response achieving low infection and intensive care cases and the need to get back to some normality sooner than later managing the risk of a second wave with the aid of the COVID Safe monitoring App especially because 60% of the work force is engaged in hospitality, arts, creative services and tourism.
Not wanting to create a welfare nation, a comprehensive recovery plan is being developed to get jobs back and reduce the hangover which is costing $4B per week for supporting programs.
He recognised that some sectors will be impacted longer than others particularly international travel, tourism and students and spoke of the $20B per year Australians spend on outbound travel now having the potential to revert to benefit the Australian economy. He also spoke of the need to consider the Not-For-Profit sector being dealt a reduced level of funding.
The need to increase the testing accuracy and result timeframe is a focus of Minster Hunt, where as an outcome of higher integrity, reduction of the 14 day isolation period between States will open up the Nation's employment and project opportunities. In answer to questioning regarding alternative strategies for pre-test international arrivals and departures, he said that trials of access with countries that have similar low rates of exposure is a consideration.
Peter Dakin as Chair-of-the-Day thanked Nev for the time he made available to address us and in wishing him all the best for the task the Commission has before it, he accoladed Nev as a quite achiever and offered the suggestion that the time is ripe for input into a 10 year National vision rather than a 3 year election cycle.
