Australia PM pushes jobs, Victoria to resume tourism as virus eases

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Australia’s prime minister stressed the need to create jobs as a way to minimise government welfare spending, while the country’s second-most populous state Victoria set out measures to resume tourism to regions ravaged by bushfires and virus-linked curbs.
“Whether it’s how we access markets, how we deliver assistance, whether it’s to bushfire affected communities … the thing that gets Australia back to where we want to be is making jobs,” Scott Morrison told reporters on Sunday.
These are his first comments since the Treasury Department flagged last week that Australia had vastly over estimated the initial costs of its coronavirus wage subsidy scheme.
Australia on Friday halved the number of people expected to be covered by its subsidy scheme due to reporting errors and after swiftly controlling the outbreak, a revision that will save the government around A$60 billion ($39 billion).
“You just don’t go around and borrow A$60 billion on a whim. You carefully consider every dollar you have to borrow.”
Morrison also said it was important to get agriculture and tourism back up to create more jobs and drive the economy.
Earlier, Victoria said it would relax travel curbs to boost tourism in its bushfire-struck towns, a key contributor to the southern state’s coffers.
Tourists will be able to stay overnight from June 1 in regional areas in the state, Premier Daniel Andrews said.
Victoria will open up ski fields from June 22, with strict rules around hygiene and without shared facilities after a testing blitz showed low levels of community transmission.
“This is all about opening up again, but doing so because we have got some new test results, and we can be confident about how much virus is out there,” Andrews said.