Australian Federal Election 2022: giving Wilcox, Moir and Rowe the last word before polling day

Cathy Wilcox

Alan Moir

 

David Rowe

In 2020, for a brief moment in the long life of the federal Liberal-Nationals Coalition it decided to halve poverty in Australia and reduce income inequality. Then the Coalition remembered its real purpose was to keep 18th Century notions of class structure alive & well in Australia and promptly tore that 'brief moment' to shreds

ACOSS & UNSW,  Covid, inequality and poverty in 2020 & 2021: How poverty and inequality were reduced in the COVID recession and increased during the recovery

Medianet Release

02 Mar 2022 12:01 AM AEST - New ACOSS and UNSW Sydney Report shows how poverty and inequality were dramatically reduced in 2020, but have increased ever since

A new report from the ACOSS/UNSW Sydney Poverty and Inequality Partnership shows that during the first ‘Alpha’ wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Australia halved poverty and significantly reduced income inequality, thanks to a raft of Commonwealth Government crisis support payments introduced to help people survive the first lockdown.

It also highlights that over the course of 2021, and throughout the spread of the ‘Delta’ variant, the Federal Government rapidly reversed this extraordinary progress by cutting financial aid and denying it to most people on the lowest incomes.

The latest report from ACOSS and UNSW, Covid, inequality and poverty in 2020 & 2021: How poverty and inequality were reduced in the COVID recession and increased during the recovery examines how people at different income levels fared during those two phases of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

During the first ‘Alpha’ wave of the pandemic, the Coronavirus Supplement and JobKeeper support payments played a crucial role in reducing both income inequality and poverty during the deepest recession in 90 years. Despite an effective unemployment rate of 17% at the time, many people on the lowest incomes could afford to pay their rent and household bills and feed themselves properly for the first time in years. 

When lockdowns eased in late 2020, the Government was quick to wind back financial supports. By April 2021 both the Coronavirus Supplement and JobKeeper payments were gone, leaving a yawning gap in pandemic income supports for about a million people still unemployed, when Delta struck later that year.

80% of people on the lowest income support payment were excluded from the COVID Disaster Payment, introduced in September 2021. Subsequently the number of people in poverty rose by around 20% and a bias in jobs growth towards high paid jobs and a rapid rise in investment incomes lifted income inequality.

A few weeks after lockdowns ended, those still out of paid work lost their COVID Disaster Payment and joined the l.7 million people already struggling to get by on the $45 a day unemployment Jobseeker payment. Financial stress came roaring back as did increased reliance on emergency relief.

ACOSS CEO Dr. Cassandra Goldie said: 

“The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us that poverty and inequality are not an inevitable state of being. They grow because government policies allow them to, and in many cases, directly increase them. 

‘’The income supports introduced during the first COVID wave reduced poverty by half and greatly reduced inequality of incomes. We also showed that good social policy, tackling poverty, is good economics. By targeting income support to those with the least, the vital help was rapidly spent on essentials, helping to keep others in jobs.

“We now know what governments are capable of when they set their minds to it. Instead of taking the opportunity to end poverty in Australia and build our resilience to cope with future crises, the Government reversed the gains made during the first year of the pandemic and failed to adequately plan to mitigate the ongoing health risks. 

“Australia’s income support system should sustain people in tough times and help them find suitable employment. At just $45 a day, the unemployment JobSeeker Payment is not up to the task and the Government acknowledged this by almost doubling it. People out of paid work, or without the paid working hours they need, should not have to spend every waking moment worrying about how they will feed themselves and pay the rent.

“Whoever wins the next election will know exactly what levers they need to pull if they wish to end Australian poverty and support jobs. But will they?

“Our response to COVID-19 showed we can end poverty. And when we do, it’s good for all of us. We need candidates, in the lead up to this federal election, to commit to lifting the rate of Jobseeker to at least $69 a day, so that people have the confidence of knowing that they can cover the basics while they are retraining and looking for paid work. Together with investing in social housing, these are the two big levers that could change the face of Australia for good and for the good of us all.

Scientia Professor Carla Treloar, Director of the Social Policy Research (SPRC) and the Centre for Social Research in Health (CSRH) at UNSW, said:

“This research shows that the COVID support payments changed lives. The Government’s decision to take away the Coronavirus supplement and JobKeeper without an adequate substitute, and later on to exclude people on the lowest income-support payments from the COVID disaster payment and prematurely end that payment, locked more people into poverty.

‘’Despite remarkable early progress in reducing poverty and income inequality during the COVID recession, they are both likely to be higher now than before the pandemic. That’s the legacy of the policy response to the COVID pandemic.”

Key Findings

2020: Alpha wave of COVID and recession:

• Between March and December 2020, the average incomes of the lowest 20% income group rose by 8% ($56pw). Those in the next 20% saw their incomes rise by 11% ($144pw). In contrast the average incomes of the highest 20% fell by 4% ($230pw).

• Between 2019 and the middle of 2020, the percentage of people in poverty fell from 11.8% to 9.9% despite the recession. It would have been twice as high (22.7%) without the COVID income supports. 

• Among people in households on the JobSeeker Payment, poverty fell by four-fifths, from 76% in 2019 to 15% in June 2020. Among sole parent families (both adults and children) poverty was reduced by almost half, from 34% to 19%. 

• The income support safety net for those on the lowest incomes was buoyed by the $275pw Coronavirus Supplement, 70% of which went to the lowest 40% households by income.

• The JobKeeper wage subsidy of up to $750pw helped sustain the incomes of middle income-earners at risk of losing wages during lockdowns, as 70% of those payments went to the middle 60% of households by income.

2021: Economic recovery and Delta wave of COVID

• In January 2021 the Coronavirus Supplement was cut to $75pw in January 2021, poverty rose to 14%, well above pre-recession levels. The income of a single adult on JobSeeker Payment fell to approximately 15% below the poverty line. 

• By April 2021 when the supplement was removed completely, and despite an ongoing increase of $25pw to the lowest income support payments, the new rate of JobSeeker payment fell to approximately 30% below the poverty line and a third of recipients reported increasing difficulty trying to make ends meet.

• By September 2021, COVID-19 Disaster Payments were introduced in response to lockdowns during the Delta wave of the pandemic. This was only paid to people who directly lost paid working hours in a lockdown, and was quickly withdrawn when a lockdown ended.

• Over 80% of people on the lowest income support payments were denied the COVID Disaster Payment, despite the ongoing impact of the pandemic on their employment prospects. 

• The Jobseeker Payment was just $391pw and Youth Allowance was just $331pw, well below the poverty line at that time. Around 1.7 million people (around 25% more than before the pandemic in September 2019) relied on these and other income supports set well below poverty levels.

• At the same time, many people on high incomes saw their incomes surge. From August 2020 to August 2021 the number of high-paying jobs rose 251,000 compared to growth in low-paid jobs of 76,000. Investment incomes surged through 2020-21, comprising one quarter of all household income growth in that year. Around two thirds of investment income goes to the highest 20% of households by income.

Read the full report at: https://bit.ly/3LWJtJn

Find out more about the poverty and inequality partnership at http://povertyandinequality.acoss.org.au

Cartoon of the Week

Cathy Wilcox

Australia 2022: so when does the count down to the federal general election begin?

 

The timing for national general elections is determined by a combination of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 and the Australian Constitution and elections are required to be held approximately once every three years. 

The government of the day decides on the actual date and the prime minister advises the governor-general accordingly. The clock starts ticking once the House of Representatives is dissolved and writs are issued, with a minimum 33 day to a maximum 58 day countdown to polling day.

If the Morrison Government intends to hold a normal (House of Representatives and half-Senate) general election, this year polling day must be no later than 21 May 2022.

Mismanagement of the federal public health response to the global COVID-19 pandemic has barely paused for breath since Day One in January 2020 and commenced a journey towards catastrophic on 15 June 2021 with the Delta Variant Outbreak, compounded on 28 November by the Omicron Variant Outbreak.

The rolling litany of errors made the possibility of writs being issued for a 2021 election campaign a high risk venture for the incumbent government.

By November 2021 it was clear that the earliest a federal election could be scheduled was in the first half of 2022.

However, not only is January & February this year ruled out because governments have tended to avoid those traditional 'holiday/back to school' months, these particular months are currently shaping up to continue recent national record-breaking daily new COVID-19 case numbers.

March doesn't appear to offer the possibility of what Coalition MPs & senators would consider a low risk election either -  as SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant infection growth may not have peaked or may still be considered unacceptably high by the general public and COVID-19 related hospital admission numbers may not have fallen far enough to ease the strain on the public health system. 

The draft 2022 parliamentary sitting calendar as at 9 December 2021 showed the Morrison Government intended to present the Budget on 29 March 2022.

If Morrison & Co adhere to this plan then that appears to leave only three suitable Saturdays to hold an election according to the Australian Parliamentary Library - 7, 14 & 21 May 2022, with the early voting period now reduced to no more than 12 days in length.

By then, a national voter pool - stressed by two years and three months of a pandemic which never seems to end, coping with uncomfortable levels of uncertainty and, about to enter winter after a summer & autumn with weather that frequently alternated between wet or humid - will tiredly drag itself to the polling booths.

Of course, if Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison consults his inner-Trump, there is always an excruciating outside possibility that he will call a half-Senate election by 21 May 2022 and a separate House election as late as 3 September 2022.

Thus marking out 2022 as Australia's fourth consecutive annus horribilis.

*

It appears that Prime Minister Scott Morrison is unhappy with Nine Entertainment senior journalists - including Tingle, Savva, Kelly & Hartcher. So with his media chief and another political advisor in tow he met with Nine CEO Mike Sneesby and expressed his displeasure

The Australian, 6 December 2021:

Last Monday, Nine CEO Mike Sneesby made his first trip to Canberra since securing the role last year and, in a packed schedule, elbow-tapped with everyone from Labor’s Anthony Albanese, Jim Chalmers and Tony Burke to the Greens’ Sarah Hanson-Young.

But for sheer entertainment value, we hear it was Sneesby’s audience with Scott Morrison in the Prime Minister’s office that stole the show.

The meeting between the PM and the media boss may have only lasted 20 minutes or so. But it was certainly meaningful.

Diary has learnt Sneesby – joined for the meeting with ScoMo by his publishing boss James Chessell, along with two prime ministerial advisers including the PM’s media chief Andrew Carswell – was offered a full and frank opinion by Morrison about Nine’s columnists at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. The PM allegedly told Sneesby his columnists were too “tough” on him. The Nine camp is adamant “no concessions” were made in response.

It is understood the PM has no problem with the political reporting of the Canberra bureaus of Nine’s TV operations, plus The SMH, The Age and The Australian Financial Review. In the meeting, he even singled out A Current Affair host Tracy Grimshaw for particular praise, after a tough but fair interview in the wake of the Brittany Higgins allegations earlier this year.

But the PM has a different view on how he is treated by the political columnists at the Nine papers, particularly The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age – and he wanted to put it on the record in his meeting with the Nine CEO.

Diary is told the PM’s tone was “grumpy, not furious”.

On one version out of the Nine camp, Morrison told Sneesby: “You’re too tough on me.” On another slightly more heightened version of events, the PM told him: “You smash me every single day.” While Morrison didn’t name names, a number of Nine columnists have sharpened the knives for the PM in recent weeks, including Sean Kelly, a former adviser to Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, Peter Hartcher, the SMH and Age political and international editor, AFR columnist Laura Tingle, and Nine papers’ Thursday political columnist, Niki Savva. …..

[My yellow highlighting]

Later that night, Diary’s spies say Sneesby was seen out at dinner at trendy Asian eatery XO with his big two editorial executives, publishing chief James Chessell and TV news boss Darren Wick, as well as his big three political journos: the SMH and the Age’s David Crowe, the AFR’s Phil Coorey and Nine TV’s Chris Uhlmann.

Given it came in the hours after Sneesby’s meeting with the PM, we’d love to have been a fly on the wall for that one….. 

Tweet of the Year

 

I ask French President Emmanuel Macron whether Scott Morrison lied to him: “I don’t think, I know.” pic.twitter.com/3tcg4xrl90

— Bevan Shields (@BevanShields) October 31, 2021

 

Cartoons of the Week

 

Cathy Wilcox

John Shakespeare

David Rowe

 

Two enormous authoritarian egos battle for control of Australia's fate

 

NSW Premier Dominic Francis Perrottet (left) and Australian Prime Minister Scott John Morrison (right). IMAGE: Crikey, 6 October 2021

It has been painfully obvious since he first gained a federal government ministry that the Liberal prime minister of almost 200 social media 'nicknames', Scott John Morrison, is firm in his belief that his own political and personal decisions have the blessing of his god.

It is also becoming apparent that, in his turn, the current Liberal premier of NSW, Dominic Francis Perrottet, is unshakeably convinced his way is always the right way for the state and for the country.

The belief of both these proudly Christian, rigidly authoritarian, xenophobic, chauvinistic men in the rightness of their 'leadership', means they wield power with little thought to the public good or the safety of their citizens.

No matter how parlous their respective budgetary bottom lines are or how close economic neoliberalism is to their hearts, in the midst of a global pandemic is not the time for ego-driven 'one-upmanship' by the 'Prime Minister of NSW'  and the 'Premier of Australia'. 

Communities and families right across the country will suffer if these two politicians won't cease pawing the ground, tossing heads, snorting and bellowing, in a foolish attempt to establish dominance & territory.

Financial Review, 15 October 2021:

A couple of weeks ago, without consulting the states, the Prime Minister announced he would be re-opening the international borders in states where the vaccination rate had hit 80 per cent.

“It’s time to give Australians their lives back,” Scott Morrison said, in what appeared for all intents and purposes to be a move designed to ensure he was the bloke getting the credit for opening things up, whatever states and territories might be doing, not to mention giving the whole opening up thing a good nudge along the way.

The fact he hadn’t mentioned it to the states – despite the significant ramifications it has for them as the ones responsible for trying to manage the spread of COVID-19 and the quarantine system (offloaded by the federal government) – meant the Prime Minister could hardly complain on Friday when the new NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet returned the favour by announcing his government would be removing both quarantine requirements and caps on overseas arrivals from November 1.

Perrottet didn’t mention it to any of the other states either of course, leaving the country in an apparently ludicrous shambles of restrictions: as many people have pointed out, of being able to travel from Sydney to Paris, but not Brisbane, Perth, Tasmania, the Northern Territory or even Canberra.

The last vestiges of the “national plan” – if there were any after Morrison’s move on international borders – have thus been smashed: that is, the stated idea that no one would open up until everyone had reached 80 per cent, regardless of individual states’ vaccination figures.

There’s so much to contemplate in this development: the humiliation – if the federal government was apt to feel such a thing – of a state government appearing to unilaterally end quarantine arrangements (the responsibility of the federal government) and overseas arrivals caps for starters

It looked for all the world as if the state government was running the joint. Perrottet the premier of Australia. Just as Scott Morrison has been dubbed the prime minister for NSW.

Before Perrottet’s announcement, we had heard nothing this week from the PM since Monday – when he emerged out of The Lodge to once again try to share in the joy of (and credit for) the end of lockdown in NSW……

Read the complete article by Laura Tingle here.

Cartoon of the Week

Alister Lockhart

Pandemic State of Play NSW September 2021: "hospital in the home"

 

News.com.au, 13 September 2021:

The wife of a Sydney man stricken with Covid-19 has given a harrowing account of how the “hospital at home” program is operating revealing her husband was told to remain at home even when he was coughing up blood.

The family, who spoke to news.com.au on the condition of anonymity, have raised serious concerns over the “call centre” approach to caring for patients which often involves call centre operators, not doctors or nurses, running through check lists of symptoms with patients.

Doctors have raised concerns about the “hospital in the home” Covid treatment system after more than 15 people died at home since August 1.

NSW has been left with little choice other than to rely on the hospital at home program after the number of Covid infected patients ballooned and the number of people in hospital and ICU continues to rise.

There are currently over 14,000 people with “active” Covid infection in NSW and the vast majority are being left alone at home to battle the illness.

In the case of the 37-year-old man whose family spoke to news.com.au, he was “fit and healthy” and had no underlying conditions.

“He is incredibly fit and healthy, a rugby player, he’s very into his health and his diet and fitness and doesn’t have any pre-existing health issues,’’ his wife said.

“My husband was diagnosed on September 2. He had really mild symptoms at that point. He received a text. He was told to isolate. And they told him to stay home. They said they would call him every day,’’ she said.

“But he didn’t have a GP contacting him. We just had NSW Health Unit contact which was like a call centre. He never really saw a doctor at all. He did have one phone call with a doctor.”

In the first week, she said she was given a list of things that would require her husband’s case to be escalated or taken to hospital. The woman is trapped in Victoria where she was trying to help him over the phone.

“If you’ve got freezing cold skin and you can’t warm up no matter what you do. If you’ve got shortness of breath, chest pain, infrequent urination, and if you’re coughing up blood. So those are the things. We felt in good hands at that point. Then, he started to deteriorate,’’ she said.

A week ago on Sunday, he started “coughing up blood and having respiratory distress”.

“We monitored that overnight and on September 6, we called NSW Health to tell them that he was presenting with one of those symptoms, requiring hospitalisation along with shortness of breath,’’ the man’s wife said.

“They then told us that the health advice had changed, and that that was very normal and that we should not be alarmed. And that he should continue to stay home and just take Panadol, which I thought was really striking because I don’t see how the health advice on coughing up blood could change. I could not understand it. The system was overwhelmed, struggling, I can understand that. But I don’t see why the health advice would change.

The woman said she “knew something was not right”.

“We had that anxiety, we kind of knew it wasn’t right. And that’s when I called the ambulance on September 6, because the blood, it was quite a lot of blood, it’s like in his mucus, it was not just like a few droplets, the mucus that he was bringing up was entirely blood.”

At this stage, the man was home alone in an apartment with a flatmate who was also battling Covid. But the ambulance said he should still stay at home.

“The ambulance arrived and did a check. They were satisfied with his vitals, at that point. And they told him to monitor the colour of his blood. So if it changed to a deep red or brown, he should call them again. So he felt quite good at that point because he’d had medical attention. NSW Health called him to follow up and said that they would have a GP contact him every day, from that point to monitor where he’s at with those systems and the colour of the blood, and his breathing.”

However, the promised daily contact from a GP never happened. The next time the man contacted his wife he was so sick he couldn’t speak.

“Well, the GP, he called one time, one time was on Thursday, that’s like in four days. It was getting worse. And then on Saturday morning, my husband sent me a text message saying that he needed an ambulance. He couldn’t even speak.

“So I called the ambulance and it attended, and they did an oximeter reading and took him to hospital because he did need oxygen, and they were concerned about it. They put a camera down (his throat) to check what’s going on and then they removed all the blood in his respiratory tract, and gave him three injections. They gave him one to open up his lungs. And yeah he’s receiving oxygen.

The woman said she was terrified her husband could have died at home.

BACKGROUND

Well into the second year of the global SARS-CoV-2 pandemic’s intrusion into Australia and New South Wales was at a point on 15 June 2021 of having no locally acquired COVID-19 transmission for the last 41 days and infection growth in the community had ceased.

The only COVID-19 infections within NSW were those that had come into the country from overseas and just 39 confirmed active cases from all sources remained.

By this time NSW had been vaccinating those people 16 years of age up to 90+ years since 22 February 2021.

On 16 June 2021 the Berejiklian Government became aware that the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 had entered the state and suddenly there were 4 locally acquired cases within 24 hours.

Three days later that had climbed to 10 cases, two days after that the number rose to 25 and the average growth factor of locally acquired cases was calculable again at 1.4.

In that first week the West Hoxton superspreader event had occurred and its risk disastrously underestimated by the Berejiklian Government and its advisers.

The Bereijiklian Government continued to underestimate the nature and virulence of the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 over the coming weeks until basic public health social measures, contact tracing systems and the NSW hospital system began to buckle under the the caseload numbers.

The public health system alert level turned Red on 26 June 2021 in metropolitan areas and then statewide by 17 August, where it has remained ever since.

By 12 September 2021 Covid-19 confirmed infections remained at over 1,000 recorded per day and the number hospitalised on a given day was similarly high. Deaths of those with a COVID-19 diagnosis were being announced daily.

The average growth factor of the Delta strain fluctuates weekly but never falls below 1.3.  A safe level is 1 or below for 4 or more weeks, at which point community transmission is thought to cease.

However, intransigent as ever, the Berejiklian Government, openly encouraged by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and in defiance of the wishes of National Cabinet, maintains its intention to open NSW borders and significantly lower public health social measures around mid-October 2021. At which time its 70% fully vaccinated 16 year-olds to 90yrs and over target is expected to be reached.

It is highly unlikely that 70% of the real NSW resident population numbering est. 8,172,500 men, women and children (ABS Dec 2020) will be fully vaccinated by mid-October this year or that viral infection growth in the community will have ceased.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Of the 1,257 locally acquired COVID-19 cases in NSW Local Health Districts reported for the 24 hours to 8pm on Sunday 12 September 2021:

427 are from South Western Sydney LHD,

314 are from Western Sydney LHD,

181 are from Sydney LHD,

127 are from South Eastern Sydney LHD,

78 are from Nepean Blue Mountains LHD,

27 are from Illawarra Shoalhaven LHD,

22 are from Northern Sydney LHD,

18 are from Hunter New England LHD,

16 are from Central Coast LHD,

12 are from Western NSW LHD,

7 are from Far West LHD,

2 are from Southern LHD,

8 are in correctional settings,

18 cases are yet to be assigned to an LHD.

There were est. 35 public hospitals where on 12 September 2021 a combined total of 1,189 COVID-19 patients were currently admitted and est. 20 of these hospitals had a combined total of 222 infected patients in intensive care unit beds.

As at 7 September 2021 there were 3,446 people with a COVID-19 infection receiving "hospital in the home' care in New South Wales and another 445 receiving "out of hospital care".

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sources:

• https://aci.health.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/critical-intelligence-unit/dashboard

• https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/news/Pages/2021-nsw-health.aspx

• Evidence of NSW Chief Medical Officer Dr. Kerry Chant before the NSW Legislative Council Standing Committee inquiring into the NSW Government’s Management of the COVID-19 Pandemic https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/lcdocs/transcripts/2689/Transcript%20-%20Pandemic%20inquiry%20-%2010%20August%202021%20-%20UNCORRECTED.pdf

Cartoons of the Week

Matt Golding

Tom Red

Cartoons of the Week

 

Andrew Dyson

Cathy Wilcox

Andrew Dyson