"Australia’s fun makers battle 300% insurance rise & Liberal Govt backflip on support" - Morrison & Co turn their backs on folk who add the sparkle to our country shows

Cardinal Spin, media release, 11 May 2022:

FURTHER RIDE STOPS PLANNED AT SHOWS ACROSS NSW & QLD

12.00pm Saturday May 14th

Australia’s fun makers battle 300% insurance rise & Liberal Govt backflip on support

Following a ride stop at Hawkesbury Show, Australia’s largest regional show, last weekend - attended by 150 Sydney industry protestors and their families – operators at Shows across New South Wales and Queensland will this Saturday May 14th stage another ride stop to highlight the catastrophic consequences of a failed insurance market which includes the escalation in insurance costs over the last twelve months and scarce availability, and to put the spotlight on the Morrison Government’s renege on promised support.

Shows that will be impacted by the planned fifteen minute ride stop, under the banner of the Australian Amusement, Leisure and Recreation Association (AALARA) and the Showmen’s Guilds of Australia include:

NSW

Bingara Show - 13th to 15th May

Coffs Harbour Show - 13th to 15th May

Bourke Show - 14th May

Orange Show - 14th to 15th May

Yeoval Show - 17th May

QLD

Gympie Show – 12th – 14th May

Ipswich Show – 13th – 15th May (Which includes ‘The Beast’, one of Australia’s $3 million rides)

Charleville Show – 12th – 14th May

Brookfield Show (Brisbane) – 13th – 15th May

The ride stop will happen at midday this Saturday.

And it’s not just travelling show ride operators who will be impacted. The rising insurance costs will also impact owners of trampoline parks, go kart tracks, ice rinks, bowling alleys, family entertainment centres, theme parks and more.

“It’s a huge industry employing more than 7,000 people and contributing $1.84 billion to the economy annually that will be killed off if these insurance rises aren’t addressed and some support offered,” said President of the Australasian Showmen’s Guild, Aaron Pink.

“We have ticked every box and jumped through every hoop the Liberal Government have asked of us to gain support – as we were advised the support would come if we followed the process, and yet it wasn’t included in the recent budget – and last week we received an official rejection. We did it all, and at a significant cost to our membership, and we’ve been left high and dry. Our insurance costs have gone up by an astronomical 300% in just twelve months which is totally unmanageable for our members, some unable to achieve any insurance. We’re talking about a lot of Ma and Pa operators who have struggled through Covid with mass cancellation of fairs, shows and attractions, as well as bushfires and floods. They don’t have the fund behind them to take on such a huge insurance cost increase, it’s just another kick in the guts from Government,” said AALARA President Shane McGrath.

Until last week Scott Morrison’s Government had been working with the peak industry bodies and commissioned ASBFEO to report into the proposed solution and make a recommendation.

The solution put forward was a Discretionary Mutual Fund, as recommend by Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Bruce Bilson. The Ombudsman’s forty-two-page report into the insurance crisis facing Australia’s amusement, leisure and recreation sector presented a clear argument for support of the struggling sector, saying ‘the clear and present danger is real’.

“After working with the Federal Government for fourteen months on a solution we feel like they’ve just picked up the hammer from one of our high strikers and dropped it on us. If we can’t gain support this will mean the end of the line for thousands of people who work in our industry. And this will trickle down into the community. Imagine the Royal Easter Show or Ekka, or the hundreds of country shows without a sideshow alley and rides? Or iconic amusement parks like Luna Park or all the hundreds of local bowling alleys and family entertainment centres having to close their doors? The Government will effectively kill the fun for everyone if they don’t step up to help us find a solution. We all feel like they’ve taken us all for a ride,” added Shane McGrath.

Headline of the Week

 

“At this point, the Coalition government is unfit for office”

[The Saturday Paper, 30 April 2022, headline over an article by Dr. Stephen B. Mutch, former Liberal Member of the NSW Legislative Council, March 1988 to March 1995, Liberal Member for Cook in the Australian House of Representatives March 1996 to Oct 1998, Retired Honorary Fellow, Politics and International Relations, Macquarie University]

Ahead of the week's Budget 2022-23 announcements, a brief look at how the federal government remains afloat

Budget Papers 2022-23 are expected to be presented to the Australian Parliament this sitting week.

This budget - like all other Morrison budgets since 2016 - comes with a background of increasing public debt. This fourth Morrison-Frydenberg budget can be no different, whatever clever accounting tricks are employed.

Financial Review, excerpt, 9 February 2022:

Commonwealth budgets and mid-year reviews have been ramping up spending, right up to the last mid-year review in December. As a result, spending in 2023/24 is estimated to be $41 billion higher than when it was first estimated in 2020. This increase has little to do with the pandemic.

The fiscal outlook is further clouded by the approach of a federal election. In recent weeks, the Prime Minister has been out and about sprinkling more fiscal largesse, which sits uneasily with his Treasurer’s “lines in the sand”.

Australian Office of Financial Management, Annual Report 2020-21 Financial Statements excerpt, 25 October 2021:

The cost and risk of the debt portfolio is managed through debt issuance and (where appropriate) investment activities. Since early 2009, budget deficits have required debt issuance volumes that have exceeded those necessary to maintain liquidity in Treasury Bond and Treasury Bond futures markets, affording the AOFM with a greater level of flexibility in setting its issuance program. In recent years the AOFM has lengthened the duration of its Treasury Bond portfolio through longer term issuance as a means of reducing refinancing risk and the variability of debt servicing costs over time.

Australian Office of Financial Management, 2021-22 Issuance Program, 7 January 2022:

This notice provides updated details of planned issuance of Australian Government Securities by the Australian Office of Financial Management (AOFM) for the remainder of 2021-22.

At MYEFO the AOFM indicated planned Treasury Bond issuance of around $105 billion (of which $44.3 billion has been completed). Two tenders will be conducted most weeks. A new November 2033 Treasury Bond will be issued by syndication in the final quarter of 2021-22 (subject to market conditions).

Planned issuance of Treasury Indexed Bonds is $5-5.5 billion (of which $4.1 billion has been completed). Two tenders will be held most months.

Regular issuance of Treasury Notes will continue. Weekly issuance volumes will depend on the timing and size of government receipts and outlays and the AOFM’s assessment of its cash portfolio requirements.

Details of weekly transactions will be announced at midday on the preceding Friday.

As at 28 February 2022 the total of Commonwealth borrowings liability was $859,702,529,974 (calculated in Australian dollars). That is an eyewatering amount of billions in anyone's language.

Two Treasury Bond tenders and a Treasury Note tender with a combined value of $2.8 billion were announced on Friday, 25 March 2022.

The next tender for the issue of Treasury Indexed Bonds is planned to be held on Tuesday, 12 April 2022.

Commonwealth gross debt has been rising since the Global Financial Crisis, but in the last three and a half years as the country lurched though mega bushfires, pandemic, catastrophic flooding and a significant loss of export market share in China, the Morrison Government budget papers have been exercises in hopeful fiction. Next Tuesday night's budget papers might possibly be accompanied by glittering unicorns.

So how much is the initial disaster recovery funding outlay going to be in the New South Wales?

 

Since 22 February 2022 the NSW Perrottet Government has declared 45 Local Government Areas to be disaster areas and these are eligible for support through Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA).

Between 3-5 March 2022 NSW Office of Local Government has made $1 million direct transfers to each of the following 45 local councils affected by February-March 2022 flooding:

Armidale, Ballina, Bellingen, Byron, Clarence Valley, Coffs Harbour, Glen Innes Severn, Hornsby, Kempsey, Kyogle, Lismore, Nambucca, Port Macquarie/Hastings, Richmond Valley, Tenterfield, The Hills, Tweed, Bayside, Bega Valley, Blacktown, Blue Mountains, Camden, Campbelltown, Canterbury Bankstown, Central Coast, Eurobodalla, Fairfield, Georges River, Hawkesbury, Inner West, Kiama, Ku-Ring-Gai, Liverpool City, Mid Coast, Newcastle, Northern Beaches, Parramatta, Penrith, Ryde, Shellharbour, Shoalhaven, Sutherland, Wingecarribee, Wollondilly and Wollongong.

Premier of New South Wales Dominic Perrottet said the grants are part of a $434.7 million funding recovery package, co-founded by the Commonwealth and NSW governments, with more still to come.

On 9 March 2022 Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced:

• An additional two weekly disaster payments for the catastrophe zones in the Lismore, Richmond Valley and Clarence Valley LGAs, automatically paid for those who have already claimed and received the Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment, at the current rate of $1,000 per adult and $400 per child. These payments will be made from 15 and 22 March. The NRRA will also undertake assessment of possible additional LGAs that also meet the catastrophic impact assessment

• Support for Norco in northern NSW on a bespoke business support package, in partnership with the NSW Government, to help restore operations of this key business and employer

• $10 million to support the mental health of school-aged children in the Northern Rivers region affected by the recent flood event under the ‘Resilient Kids’ program

• $800,000 to extend the Regional Small Business Support Program to include small businesses impacted by the recent flood event in NSW and QLD for two RFCS regions, with a six month extension until 31 December 2022, as well as free and independent case managed financial counselling through the Rural Financial Counselling Service

• $5.4 million to boost existing legal assistance services operating within affected communities

• $25 million for emergency relief, food relief and financial counselling services

• Approximately $6.9 million in support payments of $10,000 to assist early childhood education and care (ECEC) services affected by the floods where they have been closed for more than seven days. More severely impacted services will also be able to apply for Community Child Care Fund Special Circumstances grants

• $7 million to expand the Commonwealth’s business recovery and resilience service, Strengthening Business, into at least 30 of the most flood affected regions of northern New South Wales (NSW) and south-eastern Queensland

• $31.2 million to deliver immediate and longer term local mental health support services for individuals, families, and communities impacted by the disaster and to support communities to recover and build resilience across the flood affected communities

• $4.7 million to ensure the immediate continuity of primary health care services for flood-impacted Australians

Additional new funding was announced on 10 March providing $551.7 million to support flood affected communities across New South Wales as part of the next round of Commonwealth and New South Wales Government funding. This additional funding will provide support to small businesses, primary producers, councils, households, and families hard hit by the devastating floods. 

Included in this funding round is $285.2 million for the new Temporary Housing Support package, which will support those on the Northern Rivers who cannot live in their homes while they’re being repaired or have lost their home entirely. 

It’s estimated that this could assist up to 25,000 households, and includes; 

• Immediate hotel accommodation, to provide accommodation for four nights, with flexibility to increase while people make interim arrangements

• Grants towards initial rental costs, from $6,000 for an individual up to $18,000 for a six person household 

• Utilising Mobile Motor Homes and Recreation Camps for medium term accommodation Extending the Temporary Dwelling Program, which allows people to stay on their land in a caravan or demountable, for example.

Jointly funded NSW & Federal grants of up to $75,000 for primary producers and up to $50,000 for small businesses and not for profit organisations devastated by flooding will also be extended to the additional 28 disaster declared LGAs, delivered by the Rural Assistance Authority and Service NSW.

There was no indication given as to where all these funds would be sourced and little information as to which federal government departments or agencies would be tasked with distribution.

Given that flood recovery funding from 2021 was still taking until early 2022 to be delivered, a firm timeline for delivery would go some way to reassuring communities in regional & rural New South Wales.

Though I fear that the weakening of Australia's universal welfare system including Medicare, Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, disability insurance and age care services over the last nine years, when combined with the losses incurred during the 2019-20 East Coast Bushfire Season, the 2020 to 2022 SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 pandemic, the more frequent extreme adverse weather events and the February-March 2022 East Coast Floods, will mean that there will be many individuals and families who will never regain their former level of financial stability.

 

Calls for a royal commission into the Morrison Government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic are not going away

 

Crikey, 27 January 2022:

CROSS AND BOTHERED

Three Coalition senators have broken ranks to side with Labor (and the crossbench) in questioning the government’s pandemic approach, Guardian Australia reports.

Nationals Matt Canavan and Sam McMahon along with Liberal Gerard Rennick are backing a royal commission or inquiry into the Coalition’s handling of COVID-19 (incidentally, those three also crossed the floor to vote against vaccine mandates, as Sky News reported). Independent Rex Patrick wrote to Prime Minister Scott Morrison last week to ask for one, while independent Zali Steggall is working on draft terms of reference.

It comes amid warnings that the rapid antigen test shortage could stick around for “many months” — industry heavyweights told the SMH this morning that we could make two million of the RATs a week by spending $20 million — chump change for the government — on production lines. Pathology Technology Australia’s boss added that 99% of RAT kits sold here are imported, even though Australian companies Ellume, Lumos Diagnostic, and AnteoTech have all developed tests (which are sold overseas).

Also this morning the National Retailers Association says staff are only trickling back into work amidst the relaxed close contact rule for essential workers, The Australian ($) says. Employees are returning to distribution centres at a rate of 2% a day, while about 30% of staff at meat processing centres remain absent at the moment. National cabinet is meeting today to discuss supply chain issues, as well as the country’s rate of hospitalisations and deaths.

*

Living the pandemic ' new normal' in New South Wales January 2022

Want to know why in New South Wales chaos is the 'new normal'?

COVID-19 published data finally confirmed a truth - by week ending 9 January 2022 only 78.3% of total NSW population was fully vaccinated. Note: it’s possible that government was using June 2019 or 2020 population totals which would result in a lower fully vaccinated percentage total.

What this means is when Dominic Perrottet became premier in early October 2021 the real vaccination rate of the total state population (ABS pop. 30 June 2021) was under 55% & by 25 November 2021 it was still not the loudly boasted about 80% total. Even with est. 42% of the population aged 12 to 90 years of age & over being fully vaccinated.  And he knew those vaccination rates were misleading as he had been a member of NSW crisis cabinet since its creation.

Yet knowing all this Perrottet still kept Morrison & Berejiklian’s insane 'living with COVID’ push alive by further reducing public health protections in the face of a new Omicron Variant Outbreak combining with an existing Delta Variant Outbreak. 

The NSW Premier and MLA for Epping intentionally opened up vulnerable villages, towns & cities in 128 local government areas and communities them to fend for themselves.

The rest is history. Because ‘opening up’ the state with a real full vaccination rate well under the promised 70-80% (a percentage range much of the expert advice to government was based on) and, with the bare minimum of a test, trace, contact & isolate public health structure in place, the combined Delta-Omicron infection growth began to surge and is on its way to being an epidemiological tsunami which will toss New South Wales this way and that for at least the next six weeks, perhaps longer.

This because, despite the fact that full vaccination of those 12 to 90 years of age & older has now reached est. 86.1%, a significant number of those vaccinated since 22 February 2021 no longer have a high level of protection against the virus. 

By the week ending 9 January 2022, 68.9% of all COVID-19 cases hospitalized across the state were patients who had been fully vaccinated sometime in the last 22 months and, as of 15 January only 25.4% of all fully vaccinated NSW residents have received a vaccine booster injection to increase waning immunity levels.

Even reinstating a weak mishmash of previous public health restrictions is not going to change what is happening now that the virus has reached the status of uncontrolled.

The exact number of daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual COVID-19 cases which have occurred in the New South Wales resident population can no longer be reliably quantified. The 'let it rip'  mentality of the Australian and NSW Coalition Governments had overseen the disintegration of a public health response to SARS-CoV-2 the virus and COVID-19 the infectious disease it caused.  A situation which was laid bare by December 2021 when it became impossible to test or count every person in the state who was displaying/fallen ill with COVID-19 symptoms.

There were at total of 23,456 new confirmed COVID-19 cases reported by NSW Health to 8pm Saturday 15 January 2022, with the deaths of 20 people of whom 14 people were vaccinated against COVID-19 and six people were not vaccinated.

NOTE: The aforementioned total new cases includes both positive PCR and RAT results, but excludes those 11, 204 positive RAT results included in 15 January figures which actually occurred in the last 7 days. It seems that the difficulty in sourcing a RAT has resulted in only est. 2,478 COVID-19 positive home being reported within the last 24 hours to 8pm 15 January.

Currently there are 2,650 COVID-19 cases admitted to hospital, including 191 people in intensive care, 61 of whom require ventilation.

As of 8pm 15 January there are 342,838 active COVID-19 cases in the state - less than 1% of these people would currently be in hospital and the remainder are understood to be self-managing their illness outside of a hospital setting either in the home or insecure accommodation.

Currently NSW Health is recording the incidence of COVID-19 diagnostic testing in the last four weeks up to 15 January as 125 PCR tests done per 1,000 head of population. Since 26 November 2021 a large proportion of all positive PCR tests have not had genomic sequencing.

According to NSW Health of the 20,978 new cases confirmed by PCR testing as at 8pm on Saturday 15 January 2022: 4,063 are from South Western Sydney Local Health District (LHD), 3,139 are from Western Sydney LHD, 2,336 are from South Eastern Sydney LHD, 1,875 are from Northern Sydney LHD, 1,858 are from Sydney LHD, 1,755 are from Hunter New England LHD, 1,458 are from Illawarra Shoalhaven LHD, 989 are from Nepean Blue Mountains LHD, 686 are from Northern NSW LHD, 610 are from Central Coast LHD, 571 are from Murrumbidgee LHD, 489 are from Southern NSW LHD, 439 are from Western NSW LHD, 257 are from Mid North Coast LHD, 67 are from Far West LHD, 2 are in correctional settings, and 384 are yet to be assigned to an LHD.

To 8pm 15 January, 686 COVID-19 cases confirmed by PCR testing were recorded across 7 local government areas in Northern NSW Local Health District:

Tweed Shire – 353 cases

Byron Shire – 126 cases

Ballina Shire – 84 cases

Lismore City – 49 cases

Clarence Valley – 33 cases

Richmond Valley – 28 cases

Kyogle Shire – 13 cases

TOTAL 686

NOTE: NSW Location database is only updated 5 days out of every seven so postcodes for 15 January not yet available at time of posting.

Currently there are 52 COVID-19 positive patients in hospital in Northern NSW, with 8 of these in ICU.

IMAGE: found on Twitter

The Weekend Australian reported on 16 January 2022:

“It is as we feared,” Dr Chris Ingall, from the hospital’s medical staff council, told the publication.

“We are seeing an almost exclusively unvaccinated population in the hospital and exclusively unvaccinated in the intensive care ward at this point.

“We predicted this, we said there would be a tsunami here, everyone predicted it would sweep through the pockets of the unvaccinated.”…..

One of the people in ICU is Mullimbimby-based tarot card reader and reiki master Helen Dean who had previously protested against vaccine mandates.

She caught the virus last month and has been on a ventilator since Christmas Day…...

The Daily Telegraph reported she was taken off life support on Saturday but remains in ICU…..

Meanwhile, NSW Health data has revealed the impact anti-vaxxers are causing on the health system.

Of NSW’s Covid deaths, 420 were unvaccinated while just 96 had the jab.

The Daily Telegraph also estimated the cost of ICU per patient per day is about $4375.

SOURCES

• https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/news/Pages/2022-nsw-health.aspx
• https://aci.health.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/critical-intelligence-unit/dashboard
• https://nnswlhd.health.nsw.gov.au/blog/category/media-releases/
• https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2021/10/covid-19-vaccine-rollout-update-6-october-2021.pdf
• https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population/national-state-and-territory-population/latest-release
• https://twitter.com/NSWHealth
• https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/332073/WHO-2019-nCoV-Adjusting_PH_measures-Criteria-2020.1-eng.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y