Employers are urging Australians to download the COVIDSafe app which will be crucial to keeping people safe and building community confidence, Business Council chief executive Jennifer Westacott said.

“The more Australians who download the app the safer we will all be and the more quickly we can begin to ease restrictions. I’ll be downloading the app and I urge all Australians to do the same.

“Technology is such a big part of our everyday lives and COVIDSafe will be an important way to help us safely get back to them.

“The app will help employers keep their staff, customers and suppliers safe and give us all confidence that it’s safe to go back to work, go to the shops and get the country moving again.

“The community will need confidence in how restrictions are eased safely, otherwise the social and economic benefits will not be realised.

“This app will also complement the best practice safety standards that industry and business will continue developing to keep workers, customers and suppliers safe.

“We’ll be working with our members, the biggest employers in the country, to encourage staff to sign up and help keep Australians safe.

“We also believe that confidence in a safe re-opening of the economy will be further boosted by mass testing and business stands ready to be a part of all these solutions.

“Uptake of this app will need to be community driven and we welcome the strict privacy safeguards the government has put in place.

“Governments, businesses and individuals have made the right decisions so far to combat the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We now have an opportunity to continue managing the virus and its impacts on our society and economy as we move forward.

“The costs of failing to manage the health, social and economic costs of this pandemic would be enormous and generations would pay the price.

“We cannot afford to waste a second of this unprecedented co-operation across society to work towards recovery.”