Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced a raft of new restrictions on activities, events and businesses to curb the spread of coronavirus.

He announced the new measures late on Tuesday following a National Cabinet conference call with state and territory leaders, saying the changes were necessary to functions identified as "major transmitting events".

Here is his full statement on the national restrictions:

"I said in the Parliament that 2020, for most Australians, was going to be their toughest year. And what we have seen unfold just this week has been demonstrating just that," Mr Morrison said.

"Australians who have lost their jobs, lost hours of work, businesses that have been forced to close their business — these are heartbreaking events in our nation's history and story.

"And I want to assure all Australians the National Cabinet has been meeting, and state governments also, and we've considered the many, many difficult issues we're having to address. We are not unconscious of the real impacts that these measures are having on the daily lives of Australians and so we will continue to do everything we can, both as a federal government and as state and territory governments around the country, to do all we can to support our people through what is going to be an incredibly difficult time.

"The queues that we saw outside Centrelink, the challenges and frustrations people have had in gaining access is a sheer function of the extraordinary and overwhelming demand, and we will work night and day to ensure that we can get more capacity into these systems. But what this reflects is the size of the need and the size of that need is demonstrated by the impacts of what the coronavirus and the many things that governments are having to do to limit its health impacts across the country and to ensure that we can protect the lives of Australians.

"But our goal is to get through this together and by following common sense rules, and doing the right thing, that's how we slow the spread of this virus and that's how we save lives.

"It also means that when we all do that, that we can potentially limit further economic harm from other measures. Not all states, I want to stress, are in the same position. Some states, particularly in New South Wales and Victoria, are far more advanced on the progression of this virus than other states and territories. But tonight, despite the variations that do exist, there is a strong will for states and territories to seek to move together wherever they possibly can to ensure a consistency of application of the various rules and arrangements that we are putting in place across the country.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 6 minutes 28 seconds 6 m Scott Morrison said supermarkets would remain open but he announced a host of other closures.

"Tonight, we agreed to extend the restrictions that were announced on Sunday night, but to do so in a manner that was consistent with the types of measures that we announced on Sunday night. What I mean by that is there was an initial list of activities that largely went to the issues of social gatherings, particularly in enclosed spaces, that was being done to restrict the amount of contact between people outside activities such as going to work and things of that nature. And so tonight, we worked to complete that list of those types of activities that we believe are appropriate at this time to slow the spread of the virus to ensure that we are covering all the necessary activities and business functions inside premises that should be considered at this time.

"And so, from midnight tomorrow night, all of these following activities, and they include some I have already announced from earlier, will no longer be taking place. Cafes, I have already said, but for takeaway, that will continue. So, no change to the issues around cafes. Food courts and* shopping centres will not be allowed to continue. But getting takeaway from those food outlets in those shopping centres, that can continue because take away is able to be done.

"In the retail space, auction houses, gatherings together in auction rooms, that can no longer continue. Real estate auctions and open house inspections, in particular open house inspections — that cannot continue.

"Outdoor and indoor markets, excluding food markets like Flemington and things like, because that is essential to ensure the food supply right across the country, they will be addressed specifically by states and territories in each of their jurisdictions. States and territories have very different arrangements in terms of the types of markets they have and they'll be making those decisions specific to their states and territories, but the point and the principle is very clear — large gatherings brought together by particular organised events are things we have seeking to avoid. And that is the principle the states and territories will be seeking to follow.

"In terms of personal services, where there is a lot of contact obviously between those providing that service in a premise, and the patrons, the following now won't be able to continue: Beauty therapy, tanning, waxing, nail salons and tattoo parlours and same for spa and massage parlours. That excludes health-related services in those areas, physiotherapists, things of that nature, health related and allied health services. Hairdressers and barber shops will continue to be able to provide those services but it is very important that they strictly manage the social-distancing and limitations of the number of people in their premise, so that's four square metres per person. And on top of that, to restrict the amount of time a patron is in the premise to no more than 30 minutes. And preferably less.

"Cinemas, nightclubs, casinos, gaming or gambling venues, all of those were included in the announcement on Sunday, as were adult entertainment venues, concert venues, theatres, arenas, auditoriums, stadiums, they are all included in what we said on Sunday evening.

"Amusement parks and arcades are now included. Play centres, both indoor and outdoor, are also now included.

"Community and recreation centres, health clubs, fitness centres, yoga, barre — I hope I pronounced that correctly, I might need some help with that, I'm not quite sure what that is to be honest — but B-A-R-R-E, for those looking for the specific definition, and spin facilities, saunas, bath houses, wellness centres. Boot camps and personal training is limited to a maximum of 10 people. And the social-distancing arrangements must be strictly enforced.

"Social, sporting based activities, swimming pools. Now, I'll come back to the social and sporting-based activities in a second to explain what we mean by that. That's large groups of people gathering together to play soccer in a community oval and things of that nature. You can see what we're trying to do, we're trying to limit the gathering of people in large numbers that can relate to the transmitting of the virus through those social interactions which are not considered necessary.

"Galleries, museums, national institutions, historic sites, libraries, community centres, youth centres, local government non-essential facilities, libraries and swimming pools. Community facilities such as community halls, RSLs, PCYCs. Many of those were already included in what I said on Sunday night and of course, places of worship. In places of worship and other similar type venues there has been a very difficult decision we've had to make tonight in relation to weddings and in relation to funerals.

"Now, weddings can continue to be conducted where it is just the couple, the celebrant and the witnesses. That's no more than five people and the four square metre rule has to be observed within the venue in which that is taking place. But, large gatherings for weddings, sadly, won't be possible under these new arrangements. And sadly, also, and I know this will be very difficult, funerals to no more than 10 persons observing the rules around the four square metre rule and the social-distancing practices. Particularly on these types of activities this is not an easy decision. Where we have already found, and Dr Murphy can speak to this, some of the events that have been some of the major transmitting events, it has been exactly these types of events, particularly weddings. And that is why, regretfully, we have to be able to put these arrangements in place. Now, these are the rules and arrangements that are applied when it comes to the strict enforcement of these arrangements and that will come in from midnight tomorrow night and states and territories will be moving tomorrow to put those arrangements in place.

"Now, there are some also very important further rules that we want people to follow, just like the 1.5-metre rule. Just like washing your hands and coughing into your elbow. And doing those straight-forward things.

"That is, to stay at home unless it is absolutely necessary that you go out.

"Going out for the basics, going out for exercise, perhaps with your partner or family members, provided it's a small group, that's fine. But going outside and going out and participating more broadly in the community unless you're shopping for basics or there are medical needs or you're providing care or support to another individual at another place. Going to work and where you cannot work from home. That is encouraged. Strongly encouraged to work from home where you can do that.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 1 minute 23 seconds 1 m 23 s Mr Morrison said private gatherings in homes should be kept to "very small numbers of guests".

"Visits to your premises, to your house, to your residence, should be kept to a minimum and with very small numbers of guests. We don't want to be overly specific about that, we want Australians to exercise their common sense. So that means barbecues of lots of friends, or even family, extended family, coming together to celebrate one-year-old birthday parties and all these sorts of things, we can't do those things now. These will be significant sacrifices, I know. We've all been to those events as extended families and gatherings. And gathering together in that way, even around the large family table in the family home when all the siblings get together and bring the kids, these are not things we can do now.

"All of these things present risks and they obviously present them to the elderly members of our families as well, who we need to protect.

"House parties where someone wants to now have the social events, not at clubs and venues like that but to organise a party at someone's home, the states and territories will be particularly looking at that one and be considering whether they will put specific measures in place that could lead to that being an offence for those who have organised those types of events.

"Outdoors, do not congregate together in groups. Now, the medical experts panel have made suggestions about how that can be managed. It's very difficult to put a number on it. But the point about it is this: If you're gathering together in a group, say 10 people, together, outside in a group, that's not OK.

"We've got to move people on. It's not a hard and fast rule. I say it only for illustrative purposes. The point is that you should only be going outside of your home to go to those essential things that I talked about, not to go and congregate together in groups. We need you to stop doing that. That is not going to help.

"If we do all these things then we are going to be able to put greater pressure on slowing the rate of the spread of this virus, which in particular in New South Wales and Victoria has been growing at a much more rapid rate than other places, and the numbers in Queensland have been similarly affected.

"Now on schools, the medical advice on schools has not changed. It is safe to send your children to school.

"Tomorrow, I'll be meeting — and there has been discussions today between the Education Minister, Dan Tehan, and the education national unions, and I will be meeting with them tomorrow to discuss a set of arrangements that we would like to proceed with, that importantly keep schools open, that also will protect those teachers and other staff who are working in schools and to work through those issues to ensure we can put acceptable arrangements in place to ensure that children get taught.

"I said this the other day: This is incredibly important. It's going to be a tough year in 2020 and one of the things I don't want to have yielded up is a year of a child's education, which is so important. We need to work so hard together to try and ensure that those kids get that education and that is not lost to this virus. So, I look forward to meeting with Australian Education Union tomorrow and to have that conversation and to see how we can come together and agree how we can continue to deliver that while doing that safely for those who work in schools and, of course, for the kids themselves. As we know, the medical advice is kids can safely go to schools. Under the arrangements we have already put in place we have seen the number of students attending schools reduce significantly. That actually assists in observing the other issues around social distancing that are applying more broadly across the community. So we can do this. We can work this out. That would mean ensuring the schools in those states that haven't already ended the term, which is only Victoria, that we would be able to continue to keep those schools open up to the end of the term, but I would anticipate that for several days prior to the end of the term there will need to be pupil-free days while the teachers and the school staff work on the projects they have already been pursuing on extending distance learning.

"That will be an important job for those educators to be learning as we go into the term break. Schools, we agree, across the country, would need to reopen on the other side of the term break because it won't be a holiday. It won't be a school holiday given the arrangements I have just outlined to you. They will reconvene after the term break and there will be a mixture of both distance learning and where parents choose to keep their children at home, then there will be the learning that is there for them to undertake and the parents would be needing to take responsibility for ensuring that their children are engaged in that.

"For all those workers who need to send their children to school, that's why the school needs to remain open. Now if you ask me who is an essential worker? Someone who has a job. Everyone who has a job in this economy is an essential worker. Every single job that is being done in our economy with these severe restrictions that are taking place is essential. It can be essential in a service whether it's a nurse or a doctor or a schoolteacher, or a public servant who is working tonight to ensure that we can get even greater capacity in our Centrelink offices, working until eight o'clock under the new arrangement in the call centres, these are all essential jobs. People are stacking shelves, that is essential. People earning money in their family when another member of their family may have lost their job and can no longer earn, that's an essential job. Jobs are essential. And everyone who has one needs to be able to keep doing their job and that means they will need to continue to be able to send their children to school for an education, for an education at that school.

"So, I look forward to having those discussions tomorrow and I'm sure there will be a common sense of purpose in ensuring that we can meet the objectives and keep the nation functioning and providing the necessary education for children, the protection that is necessary for staff and to keep Australia running.

Stay up-to-date on the coronavirus outbreak Download the ABC News app and subscribe to our range of news alerts for the latest on how the pandemic is impacting the world

"Now, before I go to Professor Murphy, there are one or two other things I had to mention. The national security task force that works on the coronavirus also met this evening. We have previously had a do-not-travel warning on Smart Traveller in terms of all overseas travel, that will turn into a ban. Using the biosecurity powers that were afforded to us by the Governor-General through the Minister for Health, now, the numbers of Australians going overseas has reduced dramatically. There will be exceptions to these rules which will be set out in the directive that will be provided. But this would include people involved in aid work in the Pacific and the support that we're providing. It may involve compassionate travel and essential travel for employment, things of that nature. The number of people and the number who are leaving Australia now is very, very low. But, still, it strikes me on those numbers that there are people defying that device and still looking to go overseas on leisure travel. They can't do it because when they come home they put Australians at risk. I had hoped that that would have been fully complied with and I've got to say Australians have been pretty good about it but we need to put that arrangement in place.

"Also, we are putting in place arrangements that will make it an offence and we'll be able to seize at the border those who have engaged in profiteering by bringing together and making large purchases of various supplies in Australia and seeking to export them overseas. Now, it doesn't relate to normal commercial legal activities, but we have been able to seize at the border, and the Minister for Home Affairs can speak more to this, quantities of materials that were seeking to be sent overseas and that is not helping Australia. That is not consistent with doing the right thing and there will be penalties and enforcement and we will be able to seize that equipment. That could include medical supplies and include personal protective equipment, and that will be seized and redeployed to its best use here in Australia.

"So with those changes, there was still a lot more we needed to deal with tonight, but we knew we needed to report tonight and the National Cabinet will meet again tomorrow evening at the same time to work through a series of other issues which includes further considering possible measures down the track. So, we're well prepared should we have to move to that stage and the thresholds that would be necessary to move to those other arrangements. It will also consider the issue of leases, that I flagged earlier, that will be considered. And there will be other matters that have been raised by Premiers and Chief Ministers that we'll address as we go forward as well. I apologise for the length. It has been a busy night and hopefully that's been very clear."

*Editor's note: the Prime Minister later clarified to say only food courts in shopping centres would cease operation, and shopping centres could remain open.