With those words, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg introduced the Australian government's set of coronavirus stimulus measures, which he said would total $189 billion, or 10 per cent of the national gross domestic product.

It is an extraordinary amount by any measure. The Rudd Labor government threw $42 billion at the global financial crisis - and was criticised heavily by the Coalition at the time, and subsequently, for doing so.

The coronavirus crisis patently outstrips the GFC as a threat, and Monday's response may yet need additions if the shutdown of our formerly free-flowing society is to be as profound and prolonged as many are now saying.

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On the streets of the Hunter, the immediate impacts on everyday life were obvious and everywhere.

The queues outside Centrelink offices were a jarring reminder of the inevitable wave of job losses that will accompany government-ordered closures of "non-essential" services.

So were the unusually empty shopping centre car-parks, the closed and closing businesses the lighter-than-usual traffic.

Schools remain open, but with Premier Gladys Berejiklian asking for children to be kept at home if possible, their main role appears to be as a creche, at least until the education system gets online learning up and running.

Given the need to move quickly, perhaps national or statewide syllabi can be rolled out quickly, to minimise the loss of learning momentum.

Professional sport could have proved a welcome distraction in these troubled times, but rugby league has joined Australian Rules in suspending its season, and a corresponding move was signalled on Monday night by the round-ball code, with a formal announcement set for 10am Tuesday.

Fans will have to make do, it seems, with old highlights and classic matches.

More broadly, all of us must come to grips with the sorts of restrictions we believed would never happen here when the coronavirus was still a Chinese drama watched from afar.

The massive amounts of money being pumped into the health system will help us, as a nation, but individually and collectively, a lot of the responsibility rests with us as a people.

In a war against an invisible host, we are all part of a national defence force.

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Coronavirus global data base, courtesy of Johns Hopkins University