Who is popular today?

Amid the impending economic shutdown due to the coronavirus crisis, and with many Australians forced to apply for unemployment benefits, "what's needed here (is) less of a welfare handout and more a wage subsidy" says Sky News host Peta Credlin.

Tens-of-thousands of Australians have lost their jobs due to government enforced shutdowns - an effort designed to thwart the spread of coronavirus - but it is only "natural that people start to wonder, whether the cure is worse than the disease," Ms Credlin said.

"When the government deliberately shuts down people's businesses, it's morally bound to keep paying their wages - not a welfare payment".

Ms Credlin said a "harder and sharper" shut down is the "best chance we have to knock this off," but if "you break it, you fix it" and it is the government's responsibility to pay workers' "real wage, or a good proportion of it".

Through existing ATO mechanisms the federal government knows what everyone earns, "hence it should not be beyond the wit of the public service to make this existing system work here".

"Britain is paying its workers, an amount based off their current salary, so is New Zealand, Germany as well.

"For a nation that's had almost 30 years of world breaking economic growth on the back of what ordinary workers have done for us isn't it time we paid them all back?".

Image: News Corp Australia