The way out of lockdowns etc in Australia

[woodborer]

And across the ditch their PM let them go to the cinema last week.yesterday bars opened with a limit of 100 people as long as social distancing is observed.She trusts the ordinary folk.

New Zealand is a but different as their government takes on the roles that are split across Federal and State here. So in some respects they are acting as the federal govt and in some respects they are acting as State.

The federal government has released a 3 stage plan, and the states are more or less following it. Mid June we should see the next lot of restrictions lifted. That will include cinemas, and a range of other things.

 

[drron]

Maybe Australia is different? We have people going to work here - including medical professionals - while they have symptoms!

She is obviously going to have a bigger proportion of the workforce getting back to work with the quicker opening up of workplaces.

 

[Flashback]

Here's a good example at what one of the big banks is looking at.

NAB nixes hotdesking in favour of app-bookable desks

Plots gradual return of 32,000 staff working remotely.

www.itnews.com.au

Unsurprisingly a lot of people would be happier to continue 'more flexible' arrangements. Who will be the next losers from COVID-19? Commercial real estate owners I reckon.

 

[ethernet]

Plans should be variable. I suppose closed businesses in SA could in their 1000's apply for exemptions.
Looking at weekend packed supermarkets and shopping malls- things ARE back to normal, and we should do what NZ did. This rubbish on insisting on two 14 day cycles is BS on very small numbers is job destroying insanity. What I do not see is stage 3 advisories stating necessary discrimination.
1) People between 70 and 90 should consider not going to the pub
2) Nursing home residents should avoid regular pub/pokies machine trips
3) Undertakers and funeral attendees.

The last point is important. Dead people will probably not be tested, cause of death muddy or assumed, and such a corpse is a most infectious thing indeed.

 

[jakeseven7]

Here's a good example at what one of the big banks is looking at.

NAB nixes hotdesking in favour of app-bookable desks

Plots gradual return of 32,000 staff working remotely.

www.itnews.com.au

Unsurprisingly a lot of people would be happier to continue 'more flexible' arrangements. Who will be the next losers from COVID-19? Commercial real estate owners I reckon.

Huge winner - local businesses in local suburbs. Our high street coffee shops are humming because everyone is forced to work remotely and grabbing coffee and lunch locally now. So the places that were usually just usually pumping on weekends are busy now through week as well.

 

[Pushka]

Huge winner - local businesses in local suburbs. Our high street coffee shops are humming because everyone is forced to work remotely and grabbing coffee and lunch locally now. So the places that were usually just usually pumping on weekends are busy now through week as well.

And the losers are the cbd coffee houses and lunch places who are likely locked into a disgusting rental lease.

 

[Flashback]

And the losers are the cbd coffee houses and lunch places who are likely locked into a disgusting rental lease.

I'm sure ADL will be fine though as the city centre is a tourist hot spot

 

[Pushka]

I'm sure ADL will be fine though as the city centre is a tourist hot spot

Naughty.

 

[Gremlin]

And the losers are the cbd coffee houses and lunch places who are likely locked into a disgusting rental lease.

I have a couple of friends who work in different CBD highrises. Both have been told that social distancing requirements mean that they can only have 2 people in a lift at a time. In effect, this means that the lifts no longer have capacity to service the floors - if you've got 2 people per lift journey, 16 lifts and 3000 employees in the building, then the maths don't stack up. Therefore, they've been told they need to WFH until at least August. But probably longer. It's not an easy problem to solve.

Flow on effect to all the cafes, restaurants, retail nearby.

 

[Pushka]

I have a couple of friends who work in different CBD highrises. Both have been told that social distancing requirements mean that they can only have 2 people in a lift at a time. In effect, this means that the lifts no longer have capacity to service the floors - if you've got 2 people per lift journey, 16 lifts and 3000 employees in the building, then the maths don't stack up. Therefore, they've been told they need to WFH until at least August. But probably longer. It's not an easy problem to solve.

Flow on effect to all the cafes, restaurants, retail nearby.

I thought I read yesterday that tower lifts were not required to socially distance.

Yes. Here.

Redirect Notice

 

[oz_mark]

I have a couple of friends who work in different CBD highrises. Both have been told that social distancing requirements mean that they can only have 2 people in a lift at a time. In effect, this means that the lifts no longer have capacity to service the floors - if you've got 2 people per lift journey, 16 lifts and 3000 employees in the building, then the maths don't stack up. Therefore, they've been told they need to WFH until at least August. But probably longer. It's not an easy problem to solve.

Flow on effect to all the cafes, restaurants, retail nearby.

There's a bunch of issues with office blocks. Lifts are one thing, the number of people that can be waiting in the lobby for a lift, tea rooms that in some cases are now limited to one person, meeting rooms that can only hold half the people as before, open plan offices that have quite tight seating.

Working on rostering systems, so that while people are back in the office, the office is nowhere near full on any given day.

 

[Gremlin]

I thought I read yesterday that tower lifts were not required to socially distance.

Yes. Here.

Redirect Notice

One of the guys had said their CEO was aware that this directive might be made, but they'd had an independent assessment made and they still had to manage to their own risk tolerance and it didn't stack up.

 

[Pushka]

One of the guys had said their CEO was aware that this directive might be made, but they'd had an independent assessment made and they still had to manage to their own risk tolerance and it didn't stack up.

If that's the basis then I can't see people returning to work for a very long time then. And not by August.

 

[Gremlin]

If that's the basis then I can't see people returning to work for a very long time then. And not by August.

I'm sure not every employer will reach the same conclusion. Pretty sure the Property Council of Australia won't! Maybe these guys are being overly cautious, but they're a (sizeable) listed company and their risk management processes get a fair degree of attention both within and without the organisation.

 

[jakeseven7]

I have a couple of friends who work in different CBD highrises. Both have been told that social distancing requirements mean that they can only have 2 people in a lift at a time. In effect, this means that the lifts no longer have capacity to service the floors - if you've got 2 people per lift journey, 16 lifts and 3000 employees in the building, then the maths don't stack up. Therefore, they've been told they need to WFH until at least August. But probably longer. It's not an easy problem to solve.

Flow on effect to all the cafes, restaurants, retail nearby.

Wow we got people to the moon right....

Our building is bigger - our company working with our landlord is just providing masks for lifts, staggering start times, opening fire escape stairs (for fitness freaks and lower floor level office workers) and we will be working A/B teams for a while to see how that goes before full return to work.

 

[lahlee]

Wow we got people to the moon right....

Our building is bigger - our company working with our landlord is just providing masks for lifts, staggering start times, opening fire escape stairs (for fitness freaks and lower floor level office workers) and we will be working A/B teams for a while to see how that goes before full return to work.

I think we need some copper self-sanitising firemen's poles installed so only people going up use the elevators. And if they were installed in glass chambers it would be so entertaining watching people whizz down (at 1.5 distance apart of course). Maybe I am easily entertained

 

[LadyC]

I work in a large office building in Melbourne CBD and we also would have had significant lift issues if the Sae Work Australia guidelines weren't updated. Luckily, they won't be rushing everyone back into the office quickly. That suits me as I would be quite happy to work from home permanently!

 

[lovetravellingoz]

She is obviously going to have a bigger proportion of the workforce getting back to work with the quicker opening up of workplaces.

Remember though that NZ locked down a lot more completely than Australia and re-activation wise they are re-activating from a much lower level. So workwise Australia had a lot more people still working at all times than New Zealand.

Most construction continued in Australia. NZ shut down. Butchers closed etc

 

[drron]

But she is reactivating the economy much faster than Australia.
I'm not sure where you get your NZ employment figures from as the official stats are only released quarterly.The March quarter figures were only released on May 6th so before the lock down.

The best case projection for employment by the NZ Treasury was this-
"In the most positive scenario, New Zealand would end its current level 4 lockdown after one month, followed by another month of level 3 and ten months at levels 2 and 1. In this case, treasury estimates GDP would drop by around 5% and unemployment would peak at around 8%, but only because of the government’s NZ$12 billion rescue package. This may seem more palatable, but is still far worse than the recession that followed the 2008 global financial crisis, when New Zealand’s GDP declined by 2.2% and unemployment peaked at 6.9%. "

Protecting lives and livelihoods: the data on why New Zealand should relax its coronavirus lockdown from Thursday

On Monday, New Zealand will announce if it’s ready to relax some of its COVID-19 restrictions – among the strictest in the world. Based on international and local data, I argue it’s time; here’s why.

theconversation.com

They are already at level 2 lock down with bars and restaurants allowed to open with up to 100 customers.

The NZ treasury updated the unemployment projections for this months budget.still better than Australia.
"Grant Robertson handed down his third budget as New Zealand's Finance Minister on Thursday, with a centrepiece $NZ50 billion ($A46.9 billion) COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund but no surplus in sight.

Gone is New Zealand's historically low unemployment, with Treasury forecasting joblessness to peak at 9.8 per cent later this year."

NZ empties pockets to fight COVID-19

The New Zealand government believes it can keep the unemployment rate in single digits through the COVID-19 crisis,...

www.canberratimes.com.au

 

[lovetravellingoz]

But she is reactivating the economy much faster than Australia.

I did not disagree. I just stated that she is re-activating from a lower activity level

I'm not sure where you get your NZ employment figures from as the official stats are only released quarterly.

I did not quote any, but they announced what businesses had to close down, and that was far greater than in Australia. Quarterly would be of little use when trying to compare points of lowest activity.

They had less people working as they clearly shut down, or severely restricted, more businesses and organisations and so hence more more jobs.

Construction is a major employer. About 9% in Australia. New Zealand’s construction industry which was limited to essential work only, was impacted much more significantly by shutdowns than in Australia.

In New Zealand, the list of businesses that could physically stay open has been very limited — so that meant no quick stops at Kmart or popping to Bunnings for the general public.

Supermarkets, dairies (aka corner stores) and foodbanks were allowed to stay open, alongside pharmacies.

Butchers, bakers and fruit shops were told to close.

Bunnings in Australia is still open to the public with strict social distancing, but in New Zealand, stores were closed except for trade customers.
And if you wanted to go somewhere smaller (like a dairy or in one of the limited liquor stores allowed to keep trading), it was strictly one customer at a time.

Australia has allowed more stores to keep physically trading, including those big-box retailers, although many have started home delivery or click and collect services.

How Australia's restrictions compare with NZ's strict lockdown

No takeaways, no shopping in clothes stores and definitely no surfing for exercise; living under level four lockdown in New Zealand is a lot different to Australia's current limitations. Here's how the two nations compare.

www.abc.net.au