Australia will pledge $300 million to provide vaccines to children in the Indo-Pacific region.
1min
Australia will pledge $300 million to provide vaccines to children in the Indo-Pacific region at a Global Vaccine Summit being held in London. Foreign Minister Marise Payne said the money would support GAVI - a public-private global health partnership - which provided access to vaccines for low-income countries. It aims to have 140 million children in the region immunised against diseases such as pneumococcal and measles over the next five years.
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Australia's GDP falls by 0.3 per cent in March quarter | Sky News AustraliaAustralia’s gross domestic product has contracted by 0.3 per cent in the March quarter, paving the way for a technical recession – pending June’s results.\n\nA technical recession occurs after two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth.\n\nJune is widely anticipated to be a negative quarter, as it will take into account the economic effects of the coronavirus.\n\nCommSec’s Craig James labelled the Wednesday's drop “truly remarkable” considering the events at the start of the year.\n
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Australia 'should focus' on the September recovery quarter | Sky News AustraliaSky News business editor Ticky Fullerton says “the really interesting thing that everyone should be focused on” is the September quarter results, as “it is the quarter around recovery”.\n\nAustralia’s gross domestic product contracted by 0.3 per cent in the March quarter, paving the way for a technical recession – pending June’s results.\n\nA technical recession occurs after two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth.\n\n“Really predictable, but despite everything we’ve managed remarkably well,” Ms Fullerton said.\n\n“The kitchen sink has been thrown at the June quarter and we are going to see us falling off a cliff.”\n\nMarch’s contraction ends the longest running expansion of any advanced economy in the world, 29 years.\n
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Australia to record its first recession in almost 30 years | Sky News AustraliaTreasurer Josh Frydenberg has called Australia's latest GDP figures evidence of the 'economy's remarkable resilience', despite conceding the nation will slip into recession in the June quarter.\n\nAustralia's Gross Domestic Product contracted by 0.3 per cent for the March quarter - broadly in line with market expectations of about 0.4 per cent.\n\nThe result means Australia will record its first recession since June 1991, when Paul Keating was prime minister.\n\n'In response to this one-in-100-year global event, we put in place a series of health measures that have hit the economy hard. These were tough decisions, but these were decisions we had to take,' Mr Frydenberg said. \n\nMr Frydenberg said while the figures were disappointing, Australia’s economy is performing much better than other developed nations. \n\n'While, tragically, 102 people have died as a result of the coronavirus, it stands in stark contrast to the United States, where more than 100,000 people have lost their lives, and the United Kingdom, where around 40,000 people have lost their lives.\n\n'To illustrate how bad we thought it could get, we purchased 5,500 ventilators, but today, there is just one person in an Australian hospital on a ventilator as a result of the coronavirus.'\n\n'Indeed, Australia's performance in the March quarter compares very well to that seen in other nations, with negative growth of 9.8% in China, 5.3% in France, 2.2% in Germany, 2% in the United Kingdom, and 1.3% in the United States.'\n\n'Growth was rising, unemployment had fallen to 5.1% in January, 5.1 million jobs had been created and the budget was back in balance for the first time in 11 years,' he said.\n\n'As the Reserve Bank governor said last week in evidence to the Senate committee on COVID-19, with the national health outcomes better than earlier feared, it's entirely possible that the economic downturn will not be as severe as earlier thought.'\n\n\nImage: News Corp Australia\n
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Recession announcement ‘a sad day for Australia’ | Sky News AustraliaUnlike its 1991 predecessor, the current recession is truly the “one we were indeed forced to have,” according to Sky News Political Editor Andrew Clennell.\n\nAustralia recorded its last recession in June 1991, with Paul Keating Australia's treasurer.\n\nThe recession was severe, with unemployment climbing to almost 11 per cent in 1992 and interest rates surging to 10 per cent.\n\nMr Clennell said Mr Keating’s claim the downturn was the “recession Australia had to have”, became an “extremely politically damaging statement for the Hawke and Keating governments.”\n\n“For obvious reasons then, as Josh Frydenberg earlier this afternoon announced a recession, he avoided a similar term,” Mr Clennell said. \n\n“It would have been more appropriate if Josh Frydenberg had said that today. Because of the health shutdown, this is the recession that were indeed forced to have.”\n\nThe treasurer on Wednesday confirmed Gross Domestic Product contracted by 0.3 per cent in the March quarter, with economists certain the June quarter will be even worse.\n\nThat means Australia will slip into its first recession in 29 years due to the shutdown measures enacted to slow the spread of COVID-19.\n\nMr Clennell said the result is a “sad day,” but it’s worth remembering Australia’s relative economic strength compared to comparable nations.\n\nHe said the government will be hopeful the economy can begin to recover now the stringent lockdown restrictions are being lifted across Australia.\n\n“Frydenberg is hopeful here that with restrictions coming off, we can dig ourselves out of this hole somewhat,” Mr Clennell said.\n\n“He says it is time for things like tax reform because we need to get business going again and that needs infrastructure, tax reform, industrial relations reform, changes to skills.”\n\n
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