Dissatisfaction with the Morrison Government appears to be widespread....
Monday, 2 March 2020
The Morrison Government is still not managing to present itself in a good light in 2020
Dissatisfaction with the Morrison Government appears to be widespread....
In
November 2019 there were fears
Tweed Heads could lose hundreds of jobs if Centrelink moves three of
its offices to the Gold Coast.
The
offices were identified as a
national call centre, service centre and administrative centre.
At
the time Centrelink
denied it was moving out of the region.
But
less than three months later, on
22 Februrary 2020, Centrelink announced it was indeed closing its
Tweed Heads office.
Branches
at Newcastle and Newport in New South Wales and Mornington in
Victoria will also close their doors.
This
news
was reported
as far away
as
the UK:
Some
offices will be replaced with a so-called 'agency' or kiosk that will
be staffed by one person.
Each
day more than 66,000 people walk into Centrelink offices around the
country.
This
is being dwarfed by the amount of people who access government
services online, with half a million people logging into the MyGov
website each day.
Former
opposition leader Bill Shorten has claimed the closing of some
Centrelink locations is a move by the government to cover costs in
other areas at the expense of citizens.
'This
government's more interested in band aiding a dodgy budget surplus
and it's going to do it by shafting everyday Centrelink users,' Mr
Shorten said.
Services
Australia, which oversees Centrelink, said in its annual report that
it is trying to 'maximise the benefits of digital capabilities while
reducing the costs of administering payments'…..
In
Mornington, Mayor Sam Hearn told 9
News
that he is furious.
He says 35,000 people in the area could be worse off when the local
branch closes at the end of the next month. Mr Hearn is now urging
Prime Minister Scott Morrison to intervene.
Given
Mornington is in Australian Minister for Health, Minister Assisting
the Prime Minister for the Public Service and Cabinet &
Liberal MP for Flinders Greg
Hunt’s
electorate, the mayor’s fury may yet
be
translated into action by his local member who appears to have been
as much in the dark about these closure as everyone else.
However,
the residents of Tweed Heads and environs have little chance of their
dismay registering with Prime Minister
&
Liberal MP for Cook,
‘Scotty
From Marketing’
Morrison, as
Tweed
Heads is in a federal electorate which has been held by the same
Labor MP for the last fifteen
years and six federal elections.
The Daily Examiner,
22 February 2020:
DAVE
and Jan Binskin are in quarantine in “a sh-thole” in Darwin.
After being evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship where two
people died and 620 people tested positive for coronavirus, the
Casino couple and 170 other Australians are in another 14 days’
quarantine in a mining compound.
They
were on the ship in Japan when the Australian Government notified
them they could return to Australia, but face further quarantine.
The
conditions at the compound are terrible, Mr Binskin said. “Morrison
conned us. They didn't prepare for us and the people opposite us
didn't even have water for six hours,” he said.
Their
quarantine sounds more like a prison.
“They
locked us into an area with double fences around us and then decided
it was a fire risk and took down the fences,” he said.
The
Binskins were excited to be going back to Australia, he said, but
conditions were worse than on the boat.
They
have single beds, the room is unclean, the TVs don’t work and
they’re not allowed to have alcohol, Mr Binskin said.
“We
were told they didn't want the old people drinking and falling over,”
he said.
“We
can’t use the pool, we don't even have a garbage bin and some
people don’t even have bed linen.” The couple tested negative for
coronavirus.
“The
government has forgotten about us,” Mr Binskin said in a flat
voice. With nothing to do in the compound, Mr Binskin said his wife
Jan liked knitting and providing her with wool and needles would
help.
“It’s
against human rights,” he said.
Had
they disembarked in Japan they would have been free to leave, but
were told they would be looked after in Australia.
“They
didn’t prepare for us,” Mr Binskin said…...
He
said many people at the compound had received letters from their
local member of parliament.“We’ve heard nothing from Kevin Hogan
(Member for Page),” Mr Binskin said.
ABC
News,
23
February 2020:
The
Country Women's Association (CWA) has slammed the Federal Government
over its drought assistance, describing the latest funding
announcement as "disappointing, infuriating, insulting and
disrespectful".
But
the CWA said despite repeatedly seeking more federal funding for its
drought programs since September, it only learned of the voucher
announcement on Wednesday evening.
"It
was a total disregard, it's disrespectful ... it would have been nice
to have been consulted," national president Tanya Cameron said.
"It's
very disappointing. It's actually infuriating. It's very annoying.
I'm really quite angry.
"It's
quite insulting and it's disrespectful to an organisation that has
been around as long as ours has."
The
CWA has written to the Government to say it will not be participating
in the outreach program as it is currently proposed.
It
said its state branches did not support the process of administering
$500 vouchers at public events, such as barbecues or roadshows, as
they understood the Government intended.
"We've
explained to the Federal Government on a number of occasions very
clearly why, for NSW, the vouchers don't work," CWA NSW chief
executive Danica Leys said.
"I
don't think the provision of assistance in this way should be tied to
having to attend an event to get it."
In
New South Wales, the CWA has distributed more than $16 million of
drought aid in recent years, directly depositing funding in the
recipients' bank accounts.
"People
are given the dignity and respect to make the decision they need to
make," Ms Leys said of the CWA system.
"Obviously
someone in the federal bureaucracy thinks they know better how to get
it out.
"If
they know how to get it out, then they should perhaps think about
doing it themselves before verballing us and telling us that they're
partnering with us.
Ms
Ley said there were many questions around the logistics of how people
would get the vouchers.
"We
absolutely support further investment into drought-affected
communities, and vouchers can be helpful for some people, but a $500
voucher at the outset is quite minimal in nature," she said.
"That
is not what is needed ... not to sound ungrateful, but more than that
is needed."……
Labels:
Centrelink,
CWA,
drought,
government funding,
Morrison Government
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