FOLLOWING a new set of measures announced by Prime Minister Scott Morrison this morning (March 18), ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr says the ACT will take on these measures, measures that he says reflect a new way of life for Canberrans for the foreseeable future. 

Mr Barr made the announcement in a press conference today, on the same day that Canberra’s third confirmed coronavirus case, a woman in her 70s, was confirmed.

“The measures that we have put in place reflect how we are going to have to live for many, many months. I suspect at the minimum of six months,” says Mr Barr about the further measures announced by the Mr Morrison, which include a ban on non-essential indoor gatherings of 100 people or more, advice that no Australian should travel abroad, and strict restrictions on visitor access to aged care facilities.

“The more effective we are as a city and as a nation in flattening the curve, the longer these measures will be in place,” he says.

“That is the objective, to spread out the timeframe, to flatten the curve, to ensure that the healthcare system can meet the inevitable peak.

“We are endeavouring to strike a balance between sensible risk reduction and to maintain some time of social interaction and life as we know it.”

Mr Barr, like Mr Morrison, ruled out a lock down for the ACT, saying: “We can not all go into isolation until a vaccine is developed.”

“The point I want to reiterate is there is no two week quarantine easy fix to this situation,” he says.

“You can’t just go into quarantine for two weeks and lock everyone down and then it goes away. When you unlock the virus will start spreading again and that’s already happening in countries that have gone into lock down.

“As we progress week by week, month by month, more information becomes available about the virus and we get more information on how we can effective treat the situation.”

As well as agreeing on the need to not have a lock down, Mr Barr says the ACT will respond similarly to the rest of Australia.

“There will not be special rules or differences in the ACT,” he says.

“This is a national response being overseen by a national cabinet that consists of representatives from both sides of politics, from small and large jurisdictions working together in the national interest.

“The only deviations from that would be in the areas that have been identified where an intense localised solution would be required but I need people to understand that we will be living with these arrangements for months and months and months.

“Until a vaccine is developed, this is our new way of life and it is so important now that we respond calmly and that the measures we put in place are sustainable.

“It will, for some people, be a very serious illness. And there is, as we all know, a risk in quite a spike in serious cases and deaths if we don’t undertake the social distancing measures that we have announced. [But] most people will still only get a mild case and will recover.”

The ACT government will also, this week undertake a round of economic stimulus measures.

“There will be further measures in our budget in the middle of the year, and there will need to be an ACT mini budget in 2021 after the territory’s election,” Mr Barr says.

“Whoever forms government after October will need to look at medium term stimulus measures. This is going to be an unprecedented challenge for our community, on a public health level as well as on an economic level.”

Mr Barr says party politics have been put aside as the ACT government works constructively with state and territory governments as well as the Federal Government.

“Over the last 24 hours and over the next 12 hours we will continue our engagement with local industry stakeholders,” he says.

“I do need to be clear that there is no level of Federal and state and territory intervention that can completely absorb this economic shock. It’s going to be a difficult and grim period but we will get through it together. There are no easy decisions [and] often the choice is between very bad and bad.

“What we’ll be looking at is ways that we can deliver quite significant targeted relief to industry sectors that are almost entirely wiped out by this new way of living [but] we are not, necessarily, in a position to provide assistance to every single person in that regard.”

Further economic announcements will be made this week.