PM announces National COVID-19 Coordination Commission

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has just announced that a National COVID-19 Coordination Commission has been established.

The commission will be led by Neville Power, and has been created to “solve problems”.

“There is another area that we believe needs greater coordination,” Mr Morrison said.

“That’s why today I’m announcing the establishment of a National COVID-19 Co-ordination Commission.

“That commission’s job, put simply, is to solve problems. Problems that require the private sector working with the private sector, CEOs to talk to CEOs and to be engaged with by CEOs to ensure that the private to private effort is there solving problems in the national interest and it’s being mobilised.

“It’s about the private sector working together with the public sector, about better co-ordinating the efforts that are happening within the public sector.

“There will be many other problems that need to be solved and Nev Power I have appointed as executive chairman of that commission to help us solve those problems.

“There will be a board that will be appointed and we already have sitting on the board a number of eminent Australians who will be working with Nev to help guide the problem-solving task and others will be added to this board.”

Mr Power is the former chief executive officer and managing director of Fortescue Metals Group and Perth Airport chairman.

He said he was determined to minimise the effect of coronavirus on Australia.

“As the Prime Minister mentioned, I’ve stepped up to this role when he asked me to do it because I think that Australia, right now, more than anything, needs to focus on minimising and mitigating the impact of the coronavirus on our businesses, on our communities, on our people,” Mr Power said.

“That’s for the preservation of jobs as much as we possibly can, given the constraints that we have around the restrictions from the coronavirus.

“So my role is going to be looking for those problems and looking for opportunities where we can join businesses together to solve two problems.

“Where there is a workforce that is no longer gainfully employed and where there is a workforce that is needed.

“Where there’s equipment that can be redeployed, where we need to intervene to protect our critical supply chains and our utilities, and also very importantly, looking to the future because we know that this virus will come and go and we want to be well positioned to make sure that we restore people’s jobs and livelihoods as quickly as we possibly can afterwards.”

Meanwhile Mr Morrison announced that the National Cabinet will meet tonight to pick up on items it was unable to get to last night. Tonight’s meeting will largely deal with matters that are in process and no press conference is expected to be held afterwards.

He also further explained announcements made in last night’s press conference.

See the full press conference below.