Victoria, NSW and Queensland premiers appear on Q&A – as it happened

Alright, so what did we learn from that?

Well, not much.

Daniel Andrews would not say when students were likely to return to schools in Victoria except that it would be by the end of term two, which he has said previously.

Andrews and Gladys Berejiklian said they will consider economic reforms like cutting payroll tax and stamp duty in order to support businesses through the recession caused by the coronavirus, but did not make any solid commitments. They said there was an opportunity for structural economic reform and what form that reform might take was under active consideration.

Berejiklian said that “thirteen out of 14 [cruise ship] disembarkments were successful in New South Wales,” it’s just that the 14th was the Ruby Princess. She said that a “mistake-free pandemic is impossible, it would be miraculous”.

Annastacia Palaszczuk would not give an indication of when Queensland might lift its hard state border, but said Queenslanders may be able to travel within Queensland in June or July. She would not say when regional areas in Queensland might enjoy more freedom, because there are still people in those areas in quarantine.

All three premiers said Australia’s situation could have been much worse and while we were now facing difficult economic times, they were grateful to be grappling with how to reopen the economy rather than coping with tens of thousands of deaths per state.

We did not, however, learn to what extend these larger states were able to strong-arm national cabinet and the federal government into following their lead on introducing the shutdown in the first place, and closing schools. That inside story, when told, will be well worth reading.

On that note, I’ll say goodnight. You can continue to follow our rolling global coverage here. Stay safe, work on your list of five to 10 visitors (depending on jurisdiction) and we will see you in the morning.

Also, if you thought the person asking the first question tonight looked familiar you’d be right.

That was Kirsten Armstrong, who is the director of knowledge and innovation at the Fred Hollows Foundation. She is also one of the AFR’s 100 women of influence.

The final question was from a man named Corey from New Zealand, asking when he might visit family in Australia.

Berejiklian jokes that she may be able to visit Auckland before she can visit Cairns, and says Australia needs to resolve its internal borders before it looks at creating a trans-Tasman bubble.

Craig Rowley from Seahome, Victoria asks what Australia’s economic drivers will be if immigration tapers off post-pandemic.

Berejiklian says there will be some changes to the economy. She if focusing on manufacturing.

What about cutting payroll tax and/or stamp duty to help businesses?

She says she is “absolutely” willing to look at reform in those areas, and also to cut red tape, which is something she was already inclined to do.

The treasurer and our team are focused on the opportunities this brings to us to become more efficient. You find you let go of processes which are cumbersome during a pandemic. You forego red tape which is normally part of our lives.

Andrews is also asked the payroll tax question, and dodges it.

He says there “will have to be change”.

If we assume things go back to the way they were that would be very foolish. ...there’s also a big obligation for us to do things differently. We need to have hopefully for the first time in a long time a mature debate where we argue things on their merits and we don’t get led down these ideological paths, which are usually about cheap politics.

He says that national cabinet could be a circuit breaker for the kind of IR reform that Australia has, of late, decided on ideological lines.

Rather than the usual old favourites of jack up the GST or let’s cut wages by IR reform, let’s look at IR sensibly. The people of people that don’t have secure working hours and conditions has been exposed through this pandemic. People who don’t know if they have a shift tomorrow until they get the text message at 11pm tonight, they’re some of the most vulnerable.

It’s wonderful to see he still has such hope.

Next question is about football. Why is the NRL given the green light, when so many people are out of work and unable to work due to coronavirus restrictions?

Palaszczuk says the NRL is a workplace.

They’ve got to abide by the conditions they’ve put forward and it’s up to the NRL or the respective codes to endorse their plan and make sure it’s adhered to.

Andrews says he’ll leave it to the AFL to make its own decisions, but that if it can be done safely there is a net community benefit to the reutnr to sport

It’s a big part of the way our country operates and the feedback I get is almost universal, people want to see footy back. I’m pretty confident it will be done safely.

Hamish asks Berejiklian about the disruption in her own cabinet. She first answers Nick from Mandurah’s question.

I’m we got that question today and — I’m glad we got that question today and not why thousands had died in New South Wales. That’s where we were heading.We knew by looking at places overseas if we did not take action when we did, we literally would have had thousands of people who would have perished by now already.

I’m grateful we’re in this position. Given the other questions raised subsequently, I do feel now the pendulum has to shift. New South Wales is in a position where we do want to get our economy going and we’re looking for the pathway, the safest way to do that.

Yes, but what about the issues in cabinet?

If it’s not life and death, I don’t worry about it.

A man named Merwyn in Queensland (apologies, I missed his last name) asks about former treasurer Jackie Trad resigning over a corruption investigation, and whether management of the pandemic will be set aside as the government manages factional disputes.

Palaszczuk says no. She had replacements in cabinet in 48 hours

Next question is from Nick Valentine in Mandurah, WA. He says that by this time next year we will have a virus for Covid-19 (that’s a strong maybe), and the road toll will be 10 times higher than the number of lives lost from Covid-19 in Australia.

Do the premiers believe it was worth ruining our economy over COVID-19?

Andrews is up first. He says it was a tough decision, and no one entered into the decisions lightly, but that if the virus got away from them it would have been “deadly”.

It does also very significant economic damage if it runs wild. There are very big health and economic challenges throughout Europe, the US, the UK. This is a health challenge first and foremost and the best economics is to fix the health problem and then move to repair the inevitable damage, damage that saves lives but it does cost jobs.

He says the choice was between repairing economic damage and having tens of thousands of people die.

Palaszczuk says that peoples lives have been turned upside down, but “the initial modelling we had was if we didn’t flatten the curb, in Queensland there could have been 37,000 people who lost their lives”.

You only have to look at what’s happening in the US. Thank God we live in Australia and all worked together at the National Cabinet level. If that hadn’t happened, I don’t know where we would be. We have worked collectively together and put people first.

She says the focus is now on getting people back to work.

Berejiklian says she would prefer to keep a one size fits all approach to restrictions in NSW to “avoid confusion”.

The feedback wore getting from our regional communities is that whilst they do rely on tourism for economic uplift, they’re very cautious about welcoming people into their communities because they’re conscious there might be COVID-19-free but that might not always be the case.

She says that Victoria and NSW decided not to close their borders because people living in those border communities, like Albury-Wodonga, do not see the distinction between the states so imposing a hard border wouldn’t work.

Neither NSW or Victoria are allowing regional travel at this stage. They said they will monitor and allow that travel when they are comfortable.

Callan Oar from Ayr in northern Queensland has a question for Palaszczuk.

How is it fair that other than a small cluster in Cairns there have a been no known locally acquired infections north of the Fraser Coast, yet we North Queenslanders are subject to the same draconian-type restrictions as the south-east? ...When can we get back to business?

Palaszczuk says the lack of any known cases does not mean that there’s no risk in northern Queensland.

We have 2,000 people still in quarantine throughout Queensland. Which means they have the potential to have the virus and spread it. We need to be very vigilant and make sure we are getting to clamp down on it as much as possible.

She says opening up those regions will depend on the number of people still in quarantine in those areas.