State and territory governments are to be commended for holding their nerve on border reopenings in the face of last week's coronavirus outbreak in Melbourne.
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It must surely have been tempting for some of the participants in last Friday's National Cabinet meeting to say they wouldn't be doing anything more until the situation in Victoria was under control.
That this did not happen spoke volumes for the high regard in which outgoing chief medical officer Dr Brendan Murphy and his colleagues are held.
Speaking at his final press conference in the high-profile role, Dr Murphy stressed he, and his fellow chief medical officers, had always predicted there would be localised outbreaks as restrictions were eased.
What was happening in Victoria had been anticipated, planned for, and was now being responded to.
He was singing from the same song sheet as the Prime Minister who repeated his earlier statement that: "There's an outbreak in Victoria, and we've always said that as we continue to move forward, and as the economy opens up again, that there'll be outbreaks, there'll be cases, and what matters is how we respond to them."
Mr Morrison was still confident all states and territories - with the exception of Western Australia - would have open borders by the end of July.
He defended the Northern Territory's decision to ban entry to anybody from coronavirus hotspots such as Melbourne as sensible and appropriate.
Reopening internal borders is crucial to Australia's economic recovery.
Friday's unanimity highlighted the fact all levels of government are acutely aware that reopening internal borders is crucial to economic recovery.
The outlook for international borders, with the possible exception of the "Trans-Tasman bubble", is nowhere near as positive.
Asked if Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce's assessment that international borders would remain closed until well into next year, the PM noted the rate of infections was still growing exponentially worldwide despite Australia's success in flattening the curve. "It is not unreasonable for Mr Joyce to form the view [that] he has," he said.
When pressed on Qantas and JobKeeper, the PM said the future of what had been legislated as a one-off, six-month program, was bound up with the special deal on industrial relations flexibility that had been negotiated with the unions.
That agreement also has a limited time span and would need to be renegotiated if JobKeeper, or something like it, was to continue after October 1.
He made it abundantly clear however that the government was aware that large sections of the economy would not be bouncing back, that people were hurting badly, and that significant levels of assistance would need to be maintained for the foreseeable future.
While not the commitment to retain JobKeeper in its current form that many, including this newspaper, have been calling for, this is arguably the most reassuring message the hundreds of thousands of people dependent on the payment have received to date.
Speaking ahead of Friday's National Cabinet meeting, the PM said people should not jump to conclusions about what the government would, or would not, do.
A review was in progress, plans were being prepared, and an announcement could be expected in the economic statement planned for release in the third week of July.
The government's fundamental message is, in short, broadly the same as it has always been: a combination of Douglas Adams's famous "don't panic", and the World War II slogan that everybody should "stay calm and carry on".