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For the Prime Minister, Tuesday was all about the economy.
It was the main focus of Scott Morrison's press conference following the National Cabinet meeting.
More than a million Australians need to get back to their jobs, Mr Morrison said.
While tough coronavirus restrictions have saved thousands of lives, he said the country was now in a position to start clawing back some of the $4 billion lost every week that restrictions continued.
There was talk of the so-called "travel bubble" with New Zealand, changes to workplaces and the hit the economy was expected to take.
Here are the key points from the press conference.
Getting back to work
The economic forecasts shown by Mr Morrison paint a grim picture of the months ahead.
There are currently 5 million people on JobKeeper payments, a million people have had claims processed for JobSeeker payments and another million people are accessing their super early.
It could have been much worse if coronavirus had not been contained, but at this stage Australia is forecast to see an 11 per cent drop in gross domestic product by the middle of the year.
About 708,000 jobs are estimated to be either lost or hit by restrictions, with the hospitality sector expected to feel the most impact.
Mr Morrison broke down some of the estimated job losses that would happen with such a big drop in GDP.
The hospitality sector would see a total of 441,000 jobs affected, 146,000 in retail, 120,000 in construction and 180,000 in arts and recreation.
The job losses and business closures also have a compounding effect on other industries, which then flow on to other parts of the economy, Mr Morrison said.
"[The Government] is under no illusion about the ongoing costs of these measures, and it certainly puts enormous pressure, as it should, on the timetable as we seek to move Australia back to that safe economy," Mr Morrison said.
'Schools can be fully open'
Keeping schools closed is a big drain on the economy and the expert advice is that they can be opened safely, Mr Morrison said.
He welcomed moves by states like Queensland in beginning to reopen schools.
"The expert medical advice is that schools can be fully open," Mr Morrison said.
"It does cost the economy, those are the facts."
But when asked, Mr Morrison suggested he would not put pressure on states to ease restrictions around school closures.
He said discussions about the closures had been "candid" but they were "in good faith".
"At the end of the day, states have sovereignty over decisions that fall specifically within their domain," Mr Morrison said.
He said he respected the right of states to make their own calls on the COVID-19 response.
However, authorities did not have the modelling for how cases would increase once schools were fully opened, Mr Morrison said.
"Rather than focusing on how many more cases there would be, what we are focused on is making sure we have the capacity to deal with the cases."
Travel within Australia, and possibly New Zealand
For the first time since World War II, a New Zealand Prime Minister sat in on an Australian national cabinet meeting.
Mr Morrison said it was great Jacinda Ardern joined, and that opening a trans-Tasman "travel bubble" between the two nations would benefit the economy.
"It is important to flag it because it is part of the road back," Mr Morrison said.
"That is still to play out but there is, I think, no doubt a big benefit once we're back in that situation."
He added travel was still some time away because authorities needed to be sure any new cases of coronavirus could be tracked between both countries.
Mr Morrison said there were also jokes about New Zealanders being able to visit Western Australia before the rest of Australia was able to.
Restructuring work inevitable
The way people work will have to change, according to National COVID-19 Coordination Commission chair Neville Power.
He said the Government had discussed with more than 100 peak bodies, associations and unions the need to make workplaces safe amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
Mr Power said reconfiguring and restructuring worksites and an ability to trace any new cases were among several key issues to be tackled before there was a widespread return to work.
"That is very much a business-by-business proposition under the guidelines of social distancing and personal hygiene," Mr Power said.
He said companies were already looking at the changes as "just another business problem".
Attorney-General Christian Porter said there were almost a million visits to the Safe Work website when tough COVID-19 restrictions were announced in April.
Mr Porter said the website had been rebuilt with 1,300 difference webpages describing regulations required for specific workplaces.
Social distancing, staggered start times, no more handshakes
Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy agreed there would likely be widespread changes to workplaces because of the coronavirus pandemic.
He suggested social distancing, staggered start times and the end of handshakes could be the future of work.
"I think hot desking would have to be done in a different way," Professor Murphy said at a separate press conference.
"We don't want everybody crowding on public transport at the same time. We don't want everyone crowding in the lifts at the beginning of the day and the end of the day.
Professor Murphy said he wanted to see "hand sanitiser everywhere".
"Everybody sanitising their hands. People not shaking their hands," he said.
"People not surrounding into a small room for a meeting. Using video meetings where it's possible to do it. Not travelling interstate for a meeting that you can do via video.
"There is a range of general measures that are all about reducing your close contact with fellow human beings."
Professor Murphy said there were now 6,849 COVID-19 cases recorded in Australia, while the disease has killed 96 people and 20 remain on ventilators.
