Cartoons of the Week

 

Peter Broelman

Cathy Wilcox

Cartoons of the Week

 

Megan Herbert

Mark David

Cathy Wilcox

So Australia is in the middle of what is effectively an artificial gas-led energy crisis......

In the middle of what is effectively an artificial gas-led energy crisis, the Prime Minister and Energy Minister may be carefully avoiding stating a natural suspicion. However, as an ordinary citizen I am not.

It is no secret that some of the east coast energy producers and wholesale suppliers - who transmit electricity down the wires and gas down pipelines - view the Liberal and National political parties more favourably than they do the Labor Party.

It is also no secret that a bitter LNP is casting about for ways to do the new Labor Government harm.

When listing reasons for the “perfect storm” that is now engulfing half the country, it would be prudent to recall the four main reasons being commonly cited by the media and, add the distinct possibility that the Leader of the Opposition and his shadow cabinet actively encouraged the boards of east coast power generators to initially refuse to cooperate with the Australian Energy Market Operator. This refusal reportedly represented the loss of est. 20 per cent of the east coast’s needed power supply.

All in the hope of further destabilising energy supply. Thus heating up the political situation ahead of the first sitting of the 47^th Australian Parliament. The LNP’s end game apparently being to create uncertainty in the minds of international investors and drive money out of the country, to the detriment of the national economy and the federal government’s ability to raise required funding.

This would not be the first time the Coalition parties have used this ploy - the events of 1972 to 1975 bear that out.

ABC News, 16 June 2022:

The Federal Energy Minister insists the unprecedented market intervention to avoid blackouts across the east coast will continue for as long as necessary, throwing his full support behind the nation's energy regulators.

Yesterday the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) took the extraordinary step of effectively seizing control of the energy market, suspending the spot price for wholesale electricity across the country.

It was the first time such a decision had been made, with the AEMO arguing it was impossible to ensure reliable power supplies without the intervention.

The AEMO had already been forced to put a cap on wholesale power prices, and had been ordering generators to continue producing power to ensure forecast shortages in supply in states such as New South Wales and Queensland were avoided.

Households and businesses have been urged to try to conserve power, switching off unnecessary appliances and lights in a bid to ease some of the pressure on the system.

Mr Bowen was asked whether it might be necessary to keep the market suspension in place for the duration of Australia's cold winter.

"I don't envisage that long, but it will be reviewed on a day-to-day basis," he said.

"I've been very clear with the chief executive of the operator. He has my full support for any action he deems necessary. The government will back the operator and the regulators 100 per cent.

"This intervention will not be lifted one day earlier than it needs to be, in his judgement."

What is the spot market for electricity?

After days of power uncertainty, the Australian Energy Market Operator yesterday declared it was suspending the spot market for electricity. So what does that mean for ordinary Australians?

Mr Bowen warned that NSW would be under "significant pressure" between 6pm and 8pm tonight, but that the market was working to avoid load shedding.

His NSW counterpart, Matt Kean, was confident there was enough reserve capacity despite a number of the state's generators being offline.

Mr Kean said that AGL's Bayside power station, which failed yesterday afternoon, would be online in time for the evening peak.

"We're cautiously optimistic that everything will be fine for the foreseeable future, but we're monitoring things closely because of the changed weather conditions and the unreliability of our existing kit," Mr Kean said.

Some generators have been accused of effectively gaming the system by refusing to produce electricity for the market, arguing the price cap means they are operating at a loss, and only switching back on when ordered to do so by authorities.

Those demand notices trigger the possibility of taxpayer-funded compensation for the energy companies.

Mr Bowen said there would be close scrutiny on energy producers.

"I'm not here to second-guess," he said. The energy regulator has our full support in monitoring all behaviour.

"I'm not here to make accusations. I'm here to say the regulator and operator has our full support in any action that they deem necessary — as they have done and as they'll continue to do."

Market rules could be rewritten after crisis

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the east coast electricity crisis could prompt a reworking of the National Energy Market (NEM) rules, including the incentives for generators to pump electricity into the system.

"There are weaknesses, clearly, that have been exposed, and all of the lessons of what is happening will be examined," he said.

"If there need to be any policy adjustments, then they'll be made."

The federal government has said the nation's energy woes are the result of a "perfect storm" — soaring international demand for Australian gas and coal prompted by countries weaning themselves off Russian energy supplies, the cold snap hitting a large swathe of the country, and unscheduled outages in Australia's ageing fleet of coal-fired power plants…..

Read the full article here.

ABC News, 16 June 2022:

….Tim Buckley, director at the IEEFA, said it was time these big companies were "called out".

"It's not about the energy not being there, it's about too much of it being suctioned out of our domestic east-coast market off to export," he said.

"I would be arguing we do need a carbon-export super-tax right now as a big stick to smash these multinational companies.

"They pay next to no royalties for our resources."…..

 

BACKGROUND

Electricity production and emissions intensity of electricity generators

In 2022 most of Australia’s energy still relies on traditional sources, non-renewable fossil fuels. According to the Dept. of Industry, science, Energy and Resources coal and gas account for about 79% of all electricity generation.

According to a new study by The Australia Institute, Australians have just 4.3 per cent ownership in the companies extracting and processing natural gas across the country.

Australian Society 2022: Are Australia's frail aged ever going to receive the care, dignity and respect that is their right?

A dinner of chicken nuggets and chips at an aged care home
IMAGE: The Age, 1 March 2022] 

The federal government does not know how much of almost half-a-billion dollars it paid aged care providers to improve nutrition was spent on meals, as families report residents are still being served “disgusting” food. The $10 basic daily supplement was a key part of the government’s response to the Aged Care Royal Commission final report a year ago. It has so far handed over more than $460 million to about 2700 homes, without an effective system to ensure it is spent on food....The royal commission heard evidence that two-thirds of aged care residents were malnourished and recommended funding earmarked for food be lifted by $10 a day for each resident. [The Age, 1 March 2022]

Even though residential aged care has been increasing privatised for the last twenty-five years - until commercial delivery of residential aged care dominates what is now an industry - the Australian Government remains the primary funder and regulator of the aged care system. Thus it has many avenues to influence the quality of aged care.

The aged care sector has a troubled history and many older people fear being admitted to nursing homes once they become frail or chronically ill. There have been 18 inquiries and reviews of aged care in Australia since 1997.

The most recent investigation, the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety was established on 8 October 2018 and The Honourable Tony Pagone QC and Ms Lynelle Briggs AO were appointed Royal Commissioners.

The Commissioners' eight volume Final Report titled “Care, Dignity and Respect” was handed down on 26 February 2021 and made 148 detailed recommendations.

In May 2021 the Morrison Government on paper accepted roughly half the recommendations and, rejected outright or offered up a workaround of the other half.

Thus far it appears that only 16 aspects of those 148 Royal Commission recommendations have been acted upon by federal government and, at least one in a way which might not have been expected by the Commissioners.

One of the recommendations which was not readily agreed to and is yet to be acted on is:

Recommendation 87: Employment status and related labour standards as enforceable standards.

1. By 1 January 2022, the Australian Government should require as an ongoing condition of holding an approval to provide aged care services that

a. approved providers: have policies and procedures that preference the direct employment of workers engaged to provide personal care and nursing services on their behalf

b. where personal care or nursing work is contracted to another entity, that entity has policies and procedures that preference direct employment of workers for work performed under that contract.

2. From 1 January 2022, quality reviews conducted by the Quality Regulator must include assessing compliance with those policies and procedures and record the extent of use of independent contractors.

Almost two months past the Royal Commission deadline to demonstrate an increase in direct employment of those providing personal care and nursing care to aged care facility residents, the Australian Treasurer & Liberal MP for Kooyong Josh Frydenberg announces that Productivity Commission would undertake a study of employment models in aged care, and the effects that policies and procedures to preference the direct employment of aged care workers would have on the sector.

Thus kicking ensuring provision of adequate personal and nursing care for aged care residents, further down the road and past the May 2022 federal general election.

One might suspect from the wording of the directive to the Productivity Commission, that Mr. Frydenberg is less concerned about how nursing home staff are employed and more concerned that corporate owners of nursing homes retain their ability to pay low wages to much of their workforce.

Australian Productivity Commission, retrieved 1 March 2022:

Aged Care Employment

Terms of reference

I, the Hon Josh Frydenberg MP, Treasurer, pursuant to Parts 2 and 4 of the Productivity Commission Act 1998, hereby request that the Productivity Commission (the Commission) undertake a Study to examine:

• employment models in aged care, and the effects that policies and procedures to preference the direct employment of aged care workers would have on the sector.

Background

The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety (the Royal Commission) was established on 8 October 2018 and the Final Report: Care, Dignity and Respect was released on 1 March 2021.

The Australian aged care system provides subsidised care and support to older people. It is a large and complex system that includes a range of programs and policies. In response to the Royal Commission there will be significant reform to the aged care system. These reforms will be underpinned by a new Aged Care Act, which is intended to commence from 1 July 2023, subject to parliamentary processes.

The Royal Commission noted a trend in recent years has been the increased use of ‘independent contractors’ in aged care.

The Royal Commission’s Final Report noted numerous submissions over the course of the Royal Commission inquiry had made the claim that quality care was more likely to be delivered by direct employees than by contractors. However, some stakeholders consider these subcontracting models deliver better consumer choice and flexibility, which is also desired by the sector.

Scope of the study

The Commission will undertake a study to examine employment models in aged care, and the effects that policies and procedures to preference the direct employment of aged care workers would have on the sector.

When examining these issues, the Commission should also consider recommendation 87, as well as submissions and evidence provided to, the Royal Commission.

In undertaking this Study, the Commission should:

• examine the extent of the aged care personal care and nursing workforce who are not directly employed by aged care providers

• taking into account the wide scope of duties within the aged care sector, ranging from low level care such as grocery shopping and gardening through to high level personal and medical care, examine how different employment arrangements might impact on:

• quality of care

• consumer choice

• job creation and availability of workforce

• employment conditions for the workforce

• worker preferences

• flexible and innovative models of care

• accountability of aged care providers for care delivered on their behalf

• costs of providing care

• viability of aged care providers

• explore any preconditions in personal care and nursing workforce supply that would be required prior to any potential policies and procedures to preference direct employment

• consider whether new policies and procedures would impact other care sectors, such as disability and childcare.

The Commission should support analysis with modelling using quantitative and qualitative data.

Process

The Commission should undertake broad consultation with consumers, the aged care workforce, unions and aged care providers.

The Commission could release a draft report in June 2022, and provide a final report to the Australian Government in September 2022.

The Hon Josh Frydenberg MP

Treasurer

[Received 23 February 2022]

Cartoons of the Week

Cathy Wilcox

Mark David

Perrottet, Toole & Hazzard appear determined to keep Clarence Valley communities in almost Stygian darkness when it comes to their COVID-19 status

It has taken an instore notice posted at Coles South Grafton to make Clarence Valley residents aware that what appear to be locally acquired Covid-19 infected individual/s have been moving freely about the Grafton area since at least 27 September 2021.

It wasn't until almost 3 hours after the Coles instore notice (below) was shared on Twitter that 3 Grafton venues of concern were actually named by @NNSWLHD.

Just not good enough, NSW Health!

7 new cases confirmed for NNSWLHD to 8pm last night. 4 are in Clarence Valley LGA, 1 is in Ballina LGA and 2 are in Byron LGA.
Contact tracing is underway and public health teams have begun contacting a number of close contacts. https://t.co/GxUhHPgroT pic.twitter.com/vRQbTieXeN

— Northern NSW Local Health District (@NNSWLHD) October 7, 2021

DATA NSW, 6 October 2021:

Northern NSW Local Health District, Positive COVID-19 Infections for Post Code 2460, Grafton & environs, Clarence Valley, NE NSW, as of 6 October 2021

Positive COVID-19 infection notification numbers are

#66390

#66534

#66595

#66598

https://twitter.com/lori_australia/status/1446014834223435780/photo/1

Will NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet follow in Berejiklian & Barilaro's footsteps and abandon the state government's public health responsibilities for regional New South Wales?

When on 16 July 2021 the NSW Coalition Government discovered that the Delta Variant of SARS-CoV-2 had entered Australia, the Northern NSW Local Health District (NNSWLHD) covering 7 local government areas in north-east New South Wales had not had a confirmed locally acquired case of COVID-19 infection in its resident population for 107 consecutive days.

There was no community transmission of this highly infectious, lethal disease in any of those seven council areas.

Even after then Premier Gladys Berejiklian, then Deputy Premier & Minister for Regional New South Wales John Barilaro, Health Minister Brad Hazzard, then Treasurer Dominic Perrottet began to pressure their own Crisis Cabinet and conspire with Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Cook (NSW) Scott Morrison and the big business sector to impose ‘living with Covid’ on the state population, north-east NSW still managed to identify and contain infected people who came into the region from elsewhere. So the region continued to have no local community transmission for another 58 days.  Right  up to 13 September 2021 when a local family who had taken a trip to Greater Sydney brought the virus back with them.

Since then - under multiple tweeks to the public health order which have allowed more mobility in the population generally, demonstrated a growing government aversion to lock downs, exposed a weakening of the test, trace, isolate & quarantine system and revealed a less than transparent NSW Coalition Government - the NNSWLHD has gone from 72 historical COVID-19 cases over the first 13 months of the pandemic (none of which were active after the end of March 2021) to 38 active cases in the last 21 days up to 4 October 2021.

New confirmed locally acquired COVID-19 cases are now being reported daily within the local health district borders.

And with only five days left to the first stage of opening up the state, these seven north-east NSW local government areas have fully vaccinated percentages in their respective populations which by 3 October were still way below the NSW 70% fully vaccinated target set for Monday 11 September 2021:

Tweed Heads LGA - 52.5%

Ballina LGA - 57.8%

Byron Bay LGA - 41.6%

Kyogle LGA - 50.3%

Richmond Valley LGA - 49.8%

Lismore LGA - 47.0%

Clarence Valley LGA - 50.3%

[Australian Government, Operation COVID Shield, 4 October 2021]

The public health risk that these percentages reveal was the reason a cross party letter, from all five state members of parliament whose electorates cover these seven LGAs, was sent to the then Premier & Deputy Premier on 23 September 2021 asking them “to adjust public health orders….by restricting non-essential travel to the North Coast until it too has reached the milestone”.

It is obvious Berejiklian and Barilaro didn’t really give a damn about regional New South Wales, but will Perrottet? 

After all, like Berejiklian, Perrottet’s private residence & electoral office fall within faraway metropolitan local government areas which have exceeded that 70% fully vaccinated population target.

On his first day in office Perrottet has answered that question. According to The Australian  he "will reshape his crisis cabinet to prioritise economic recovery and community wellbeing over day-to-day emergency management in one of his first acts as NSW Premier".

It is apparently Perrottet's intention to allow the SARS-CoV-2 virus in all its forms to run wild in New South Wales.

This is only the start of our region's woes.....

NSW Health, Northern NSW Local Health District, media release, 5 October 2021:

There have been six cases of COVID-19 reported in the Northern NSW Local Health District to 8pm yesterday, Monday 4 October.

Five cases are in Casino area of the Richmond Valley Local Government Area (LGA), and one case is in the Kyogle LGA.

Of these six cases, three are household contacts of confirmed cases who had been self-isolating, one is linked to a public exposure location and the source of the remaining two cases is under investigation.

Investigations are continuing into any possible public venues of concern relating to these cases and other cases reported in recent days, and more information will be provided as soon as it’s available.

NSW Health does not disclose details about venues unless there is a public health reason to do so.

There have now been 38 total cases confirmed in Northern NSW since 16 June when the current Delta outbreak in Sydney began. One case is being cared for in hospital, and is in a stable condition.

Stay-at-home orders are in place for Lismore LGA, Casino, and Kyogle LGA until 11 October due to an increased COVID-19 public health risk.

Everyone in these areas must stay at home unless it is for an essential reason, which includes shopping for food, medical care, getting vaccinated, compassionate needs, exercise and work or tertiary education if you can’t work or study at home.

Anyone with even the slightest symptoms should get tested as soon as they feel unwell. There are more than 500 COVID-19 testing locations across NSW. Find a clinic at COVID-19 testing clinics or contact your GP.

We encourage people to get vaccinated against COVID-19 as soon as they are able to. Find available bookings at the Australian Government’s COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic Finder (previously eligibility checker), or you can also call Health Direct on 1800 571 155 for assistance to book. 

NOTE:

NSW Health appears to be no longer focussing on cumulative COVID-19 infection numbers in local health districts but on current "active" cases. COVID-19 cases will remain statistically active for 14 days after a confirmed diagnosis or until an infected individual is released from hospital - after which they will no longer appear in daily reports.

Three days after Liberal MLA Gladys Berejiklian announced she was resigning as NSW Premier and quitting state parliament so bringing on a by-election in Willoughby, Nationals MLA John Barilaro suddenly announced he was resigning as NSW Deputy Premier and quitting state parliament thus bring on a by-election in Monaro

 

As we emerge from lockdown, we must embrace this time as a new beginning for our State, and welcome the opportunity it presents for a refresh.

I have decided now is the right time for me to hand the reins over to new leadership, and resign as Deputy Premier of NSW. pic.twitter.com/MeWBWMR38P

— John Barilaro MP (@JohnBarilaroMP) October 3, 2021

Rumours are swirling around both resignations, with some recalling past and present corruption allegations and others hinting that Barilaro is considering standing at the forthcoming federal general election. 

The new lineup for NSW Premier, Deputy Leader and Treasurer being favoured by mainstream media punters is that hard right culture warrior, Opus Dei member, current Treasurer & Deputy Leader of the Parliamentary Liberal Party, Liberal MLA for Epping Dominic Francis Perrottet, will become Premier;  while current Minister for Jobs, Investment, Tourism and Western Sydney & MLA for Penrith Stuart Ayres will be made Deputy Leader; and current Minister for Energy and Environment and Liberal MLA for Hornsby Matthew Kean will be installed as the new Treasurer.

The Liberal Party Room is expected to vote on these three positions today. 

Literally days away from the problematic first stage of the NSW Government's 'roadmap' to 'living with covid' and an abrupt change of Coalition leadership occurs - what could possibly go wrong?

Fifty-one year-old Gladys Berejiklian resigns as NSW Premier & Liberal MLA for Willoughby on 1 October 2021 - around 18 months short of the end of her second term in office

Gladys Berejiklian, 1 October 2021
IMAGE: Daily Mail Australia

At approximately 1.13pm on 1 October 2021 Gladys Berejiklian resigned during her second term as NSW Premier and in her 19th year as Liberal MLA for the Sydney electorate of Willoughby.

In one stroke she has walked away from the ongoing disaster of her gross mismanagement of the NSW public health response to the SARS-CoV-2 Delta Variant Outbreak and, by leaving politics completely, has to some measure inoculated herself against any potentially negative findings of a NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption public inquiry.

NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), MediaCentre, 1 October 2021:

Further Operation Keppel public inquiry

Friday 1 October 2021

The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) will hold a further public inquiry in Operation Keppel from 10:00 am on Monday 18 October 2021.

The Commission is investigating whether, between 2012 and 2018, the Hon Gladys Berejiklian MP engaged in conduct that:

• constituted or involved a breach of public trust by exercising public functions in circumstances where she was in a position of conflict between her public duties and her private interest as a person who was in a personal relationship with the then NSW Member of Parliament, Mr Daryl Maguire, in connection with: grant funding promised and/or awarded to the Australian Clay Target Association Inc in 2016/2017; and grant funding promised and/or awarded to the Riverina Conservatorium of Music in Wagga Wagga in 2018; and/or

• constituted or involved the partial exercise of any of her official functions, in connection with: grant funding promised and/or awarded to the Australian Clay Target Association Inc in 2016/2017; grant funding promised and/or awarded to the Riverina Conservatorium of Music in Wagga Wagga in 2018; and/or

• constituted or involved the dishonest or partial exercise of any of her official functions and/or a breach of public trust by refusing to exercise her duty pursuant to section 11 of the Independent Commission Against Corruption Act 1988 to report any matter that she suspected on reasonable grounds concerned or may concern corrupt conduct in relation to the conduct of Mr Daryl Maguire; and/or

• was liable to allow or encourage the occurrence of corrupt conduct by Mr Maguire.

The Commission is also investigating whether, between 2012 and August 2018, Mr Maguire engaged in conduct that involved a breach of public trust by using his public office, involving his duties as a member of the NSW Parliament, and the use of parliamentary resources, to improperly gain a benefit for himself, G8wayInternational/G8wayInternational Pty Ltd and associated persons.

The general scope and purpose of the public inquiry is to gather evidence relevant to the matters being investigated for the purpose of determining the matters referred to in section 13(2) of the ICAC Act.

The Commission has decided that public inquiries will be conducted, as far as practicable, remotely via audio visual link (AVL) until there is a change in the current COVID-19 public health orders. Only those whose presence on Commission premises is deemed essential for the effective conduct of the public inquiry will be permitted on-site. Members of the public and the media will therefore not be permitted to attend the premises for the course of the Operation Keppel public inquiry. There is further information in the public inquiry protocol on the Commission’s website.

MS Teams is the AVL technology that the Commission will use to conduct the public inquiry remotely. The Commission will live stream the MS Teams proceedings via its website, www.icac.nsw.gov.au. The Commission will also upload exhibits (provided they are not subject to non-publication orders), transcripts and witness lists to the website. Updates will be provided throughout the course of the inquiry via the ICAC Twitter account (@nswicac).

Assistant Commissioner the Hon Ruth McColl AO SC will preside at the public inquiry. Counsel Assisting the Commission will be Mr Scott Robertson and Mr Alex Brown.

It is expected that the inquiry will continue for approximately 10 days. A witness list for the first week of the public inquiry will be published closer to the commencement date of the proceedings, along with further information about how to access the live stream. The Commission will also advise if there are changes to the public health orders that may affect the conduct of the inquiry.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AT9kLQNOE8

This is the condition in which Gladys Berejiklian has left the state and the north-east New South Wales region.....

NSW Health recorded 864 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm 30.09.21 spread out across at least 15 local health districts from NSW-Vic border to NSW-Qld border. 15 COVID-19 related deaths were announced. One third of the dead were fully vaccinated...1/4 pic.twitter.com/gl57zoWVw2

— no_filter_Yamba (@no_filter_Yamba) October 1, 2021

 

The JobKeeper Rorts Scandal

JobKeeper has been in the news for many months. Introduced hastily at the end of March 2020, this Australian Government scheme to keep workers tied to their employers during the Covid downturn saved an estimated 700,000 jobs. Initially much of the discussion about JobKeeper related to the enormous $89 billion cost to the taxpayer, debate about winding the scheme back and then ending it as well as concern about how the resulting deficit was going to be reduced.

More recently the focus has been on whether all those entities which accessed the scheme were actually entitled to do so. Billion-dollar businesses were eligible if they suffered a 50% or more revenue shortfall while smaller businesses were eligible if their revenue fell by 30% or more. Entities could access the scheme by either demonstrating the revenue drop or forecasting a drop. Eligible businesses were provided with $1500 per fortnight for each of their employees.

It has become increasingly obvious over recent months that many businesses did not lose the stipulated revenue and yet still obtained JobKeeper.

The rush to set up the scheme, which quickly followed the Government’s reaction to the alarming image of thousands of workers lining up outside Centrelink offices, led to the failure to include an important safety requirement. It should have been stipulated that if the projected revenue shortfall did not eventuate, the money obtained should be reimbursed to the government – just as welfare recipients are legally required to return to the government any overpayments they receive.

The extent of overpayment has developed into a scandal that unsurprisingly is being referred to as a major rorting of the scheme.

According to the Parliamentary Budget Office, over the first six months of the scheme, $13 billion went to those entities whose earnings actually rose.

Among the list of those who were ineligible but stayed on the governmental gravy train and benefitted from this taxpayer funding were some major companies and very wealthy individuals. A few examples are Specsavers, Luxottica (owner of OPSM and Sunglasses Hut), car dealer A P Eagers, retailers Harvey Norman, Best & Less and Cotton On, private schools Wesley College, The Kings School and Brisbane Grammar, Bond University and New York University’s Sydney campus and the Australian Club in Sydney.

Many of these ineligible entities were able to post enormous profits which enabled them to increase shareholder dividends and give large executive bonuses.

While there is general appreciation of the role JobKeeper played in restricting the job loss from Covid restrictions and lockdowns last year, there has been increasing public concern about brazen rorting of the scheme and the government’s failure to urge the return of benefits from those who were not entitled to receive them.

Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury Andrew Leigh has been raising the issue in parliament and the media for months. He said, “JobKeeper overpayment is the single biggest waste of money in Australian history, and the Morrison government won’t do a thing to make it right.”

Some entities have voluntarily returned the benefits or part of them.

The publicity that has been given to those who have shamelessly kept money to which they were not entitled has been having some effect. Harvey Norman’s Gerry Harvey, who refused for months to return any Jobkeeper money, finally announced in August that the company would return $6.02 million in JobKeeper funds to the ATO. However, this repayment is less than a third of the estimated $22 million the company and its franchisees claimed in total. According to Andrew Leigh, “Harvey Norman has given us the best advertisement for more transparency into the secretive, rorted jobkeeper scheme.”

According to Dean Paatsch, a director of corporate advisory group Ownership Matters, 88% of the $225 million that companies are returning is from publicly listed companies. Paatsch also has concerns about the lack of transparency with JobKeeper saying it was “extraordinarily generous and had zero transparency compared to the US, UK, New Zealand and other European countries. The interesting thing is that transparency does have an effect in stopping people claiming benefits that they don’t need.”

While Opposition and Crossbench MPs have been raising the issue of waste, lack of transparency and unethical behaviour by those who should not have received JobKeeper funds, the Government has been unmoved. Months ago the Prime Minister referred to questions about the rorting of JobKeeper and calls for the government to take action to have money returned as “the politics of envy” – an incredibly insensitive and arrogant remark given the size of the debt the nation now has – let alone the financial hardship that many people on low incomes have been suffering during the pandemic.

While the extent of rorting by ASX listed companies has been revealed because of their public reporting requirements, there has been no transparency in relation to private entities. Senator Rex Patrick and others have tried to obtain a list of JobKeeper beneficiaries with an annual turnover of $10 million or more. This has been blocked by the Government and the ATO Commissioner. Ownership Matters says publicly listed companies accounted for just 3% of the entire JobKeeper program, which means that private companies accounted for 97%. So the community is not being given the opportunity to see how much rorting was undertaken by these private entities. And, unlike Harvey Norman and other public companies, these unknown rorters can avoid being shamed into returning any funds to which they were not entitled.

While nothing was built into the scheme to actually compel rorters to return money to which they were not entitled, the ATO is taking action to recover some of the money paid to some entities. However, it is unlikely that taxpayers will ever learn the real extent of the rorting - given the lack of transparency about the majority of the scheme’s beneficiaries.

Some light could be shone on the murkier aspects of the JobKeeper scheme as the Auditor-General is investigating the ATO’s administration of the program following a request Andrew Leigh made in December last year. The A-G’s report is due to be tabled in December this year.

The national JobKeeper debt is far greater than it should have been and will create budgetary difficulties well into the future – particularly if governments try to repair the deficit quickly by cutting back on services like health, welfare and education. With inequality and poverty already major problems in Australian society, the fall-out from the JobKeeper rorts debacle has the potential to exacerbate these problems.

As the Morrison Government was responsible for the design and operation of JobKeeper, it is responsible for the massive waste of rorted taxpayer funds. No amount of spin from the Prime Minister or the Treasurer can excuse its incompetence. With the election approaching, we can look forward to plenty of distractions to encourage the community to lose interest in this and all the other rorts as well as the vaccine supply and quarantine failures.

What will be particularly interesting about the election campaign will be whether the Coalition, which has always claimed it has been a “gold standard” economic manager, will have the effrontery to push this tired line after the JobKeeper rorts debacle.

One thing we can be sure of is that the rorters, the JobKeeper Bludgers, will still be laughing all the way to the bank.

Hildegard

Northern Rivers, NSW

Guest Speak is a North Coast Voices segment allowing serious or satirical comment from NSW Northern Rivers residents. Email ncvguestpeak at gmail dot com  to submit comment for consideration.