It would appear that there are some Northern Beaches residents who don't believe that NSW COVID-19 public health orders apply to them

 

On the morning of 21 December 2020 the Northern Beaches local government area COVID-19 cluster had grown to 86 individuals.

Commencing at 5:02pm on Saturday 19 December, public health orders were put in place for Northern Beaches residents who have been told they are not to leave their home except to go shopping for food or other goods and services, receive medical care or for compassionate needs, exercise and work and education, where these cannot be done from home.

On 21 December 2020 public health orders were also made for Greater Sydney and the NSW Central Coast as contact tracing showed how far infected individuals and their initial contacts had travelled.

However, nine and a half hours into Monday 21 December Queensland Police had already turned around 81 vehicles and directed 112 people into quarantine as a result of random border checks which revealed they may have come from areas covered by these public health orders.

Unfortunately Queensland Police have also discovered that 4 NSW residents allowed to cross the border on condition that they self-quarantine for 14 days have decided to breach quarantine,

Those who have been in Greater Sydney since 11 December are now being denied entry into Queensland and a 'hard border' is being re-established by the Queensland Government, with returning Queenslanders now having to hotel quarantine if they did not cross the border before 1am today.

To date there have reportedly been 27 close contacts of confirmed Sydney Northern Beaches COVID-19 cases found in Queensland, all of which are now in quarantine, with one returning to NSW. Of these 7 appear not yet to be classified as testing negative for the virus.

People from the Northern Beaches are also travelling within New South Wales, though some may have left the Northern Beaches before public health orders were in place.

Over the last 4 days around 674 individuals from the Northern Beaches LGA in Sydney have turned up for testing at hospital COVID-19 clinics in the Northern NSW Local Health District https://t.co/k7zCG1EHmO @noplaceforsheep

— no_filter_Yamba (@no_filter_Yamba) December 21, 2020

A Northern Beaches resident was discovered in Shoalhaven on 21 December 2019, having left his/her home after public health order restrictions came into force in the early evening of 19 December.

School holidays began in New South Wales on 21 December and one can almost guarantee we will hear of more Northern Beaches residents deciding that public health orders don't apply to them.

Trump Administration actively sought to spread COVID-19 infection as late as June 2020 in order to achieve "herd immunity"

"Consistent with a “herd immunity” approach, the evidence obtained by the Select Subcommittee shows that Dr. Alexander privately acknowledged to other appointees that “[w]e always knew” that “cases will rise” as a result of the Administration’s policies. Yet even as he advocated for letting the coronavirus spread widely, Dr. Alexander also attempted to pass blame for the Administration’s failure to contain the virus to career scientists and public health officials. He also urged colleagues to suppress scientific information about the risk posed by the virus to minority communities that he admitted was “very accurate” out of concern that it would be “use[d] against the president.....Documents obtained by the Select Subcommittee show that top Trump Administration officials repeatedly communicated about pursuing a dangerous herd immunity strategy as far back as June 2020, despite public denials that the Administration was adopting this approach.” [U.S. House of Representatives, Select Committee on the Corona Virus Crisis, Memorandum dated 16 December 2020]

On the morning of the day this article was published the number of COVID-19 deaths in the USA had reached 305,268 men, women and children, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at John Hopkins University.

Bloomberg, 17 December 2020: 

A Trump administration official sought to speed the spread of the coronavirus among children and young adults in order to achieve “herd immunity,” according to documents released by a top House Democrat. 

Paul Alexander, a senior adviser at the Department of Health and Humans Services, repeatedly encouraged adoption of a policy to increase the number of virus infections among younger Americans, saying they have “zero to low risk,” according to documents released by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis. 

In one email message, Alexander said “Infants, kids, teens, young people, young adults, middle aged with no conditions etc” should be used “to develop herd…we want them infected,” according to the documents released Wednesday. 

“Achieving herd immunity before a vaccine is widely available — which requires a very large portion of the population to get infected with the coronavirus — has been widely rejected by scientists as a dangerous approach that would lead to the deaths of several hundred thousand Americans at a minimum,” Representative James Clyburn, chairman of the panel, said in the memo to members of the committee.....

In a series of messages during the summer, Alexander continued to make the case to other officials to open up college campuses and businesses to increase the spread among the young and relatively healthy, while maintaining distancing measures for the elderly. 

“The issue is who cares? If it is causing more cases in young, my word is who cares,” Alexander said in a July message. “As long as we make sensible decisions, and protect the elderely [sic] and nursing homes, we must go on with life….who cares if we test more and get more positive tests.”

Is opening Sydney back up for Christmas and New Year 2020 the biggest mistake Berejiklian and Morrison can make?

 

It is an open secret that Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has managed to cow fellow Liberal NSW, Premier Gladys Berejiklian, into submission and that she alone of the state and territory leaders now follows his personal position of open state borders and the economy over all other considerations during this global pandemic.

The fallacy that communities, states and the nation can safely learn to live alongside SARS-COV-2 has already been played out in the United Kingdom and the United States of America with catastrophic effect.

Four days out from Christmas Day 2020 and the U.K. has already recorded 67,503 deaths from COVID-19 within the last 11 months and the U.S.A. 316,749 deaths within the last 12 months.

Because Australian states and territories have largely resisted embracing that dangerous fallacy, nationally the country has only recoded 908 COVID-19 deaths in the last 11 months and New South Wales 55 of these deaths.

However, this could change in a heartbeat.

This was Head of the Biosecurity Research Program at the Kirby Institute, UNSW Medicine, Professor Raina MacIntyre, writing in The Sydney Morning Herald on 20 December 2020 on the subject of the current Northern Beaches COVID-19 cluster:

“Forty new cases today may become 120 new cases by Christmas Day. Half of them will have no symptoms and the rest will have mild symptoms so will carry on as normal. The peak infectiousness of this virus is very early in the infection, before symptoms appear, making Christmas Day a ticking time bomb.

People infected today and tomorrow may travel half-way across Sydney for the family Christmas lunch and maybe to another household for dinner, possibly infecting a minimum of 360 new people. The 360 people infected on Christmas Day will be at their peak infectiousness on New Year’s Eve, and could infect more than 1000 others. We could be looking at 3000 cases by January 8. You could not plan a disaster more perfectly if you tried.....

If we do not act urgently, Christmas Day will be a super-spreader, followed by the mother of all super-spreading events, New Year’s Eve. The exhausted NSW public health team may begin 2021 with the largest COVID-19 epidemic the state has ever faced.

The idea of “living with a bit of COVID-19” and soldiering on is a falsehood because of exponential growth of epidemic infections. The health system is the weak link – it is the first part of society to break during pandemics. When hospital and ICU beds are full, health workers dead, ill or quarantined, all other medical care becomes compromised. Even in the Ruby Princess-related outbreak in Tasmania, more than 1000 health workers were quarantined, forcing a hospital shutdown. 

Every city that has laboured under the misapprehension that they can carry on with a bit of community transmission has been forced into lockdown when the health system collapsed.....

Mandating masks across greater Sydney will make a difference, especially as people flood shopping malls in huge numbers for Christmas shopping. Without a mandate, we can expect 30-50 per cent at most to wear masks compared to 100 per cent with a mandate. Making masks compulsory early in an epidemic will prevent many more infections and deaths than one issued at the peak.....

Distorted messaging and hygiene theatre have seen people frantically washing hands and wiping surfaces but remaining unaware of masks and ventilation to reduce airborne transmission, which is the dominant mode of spread. Further, 80 per cent of spread occurs indoors.....

If this epidemic has not dwindled to single-digit numbers by Christmas, we need to ban indoor gatherings on New Year’s Eve, including dance parties, nightclubs, pubs and restaurants. If we don’t, these businesses may face even longer closures in the months ahead, as occurred in Melbourne with a three-month lockdown. 

Finally, we must prepare and protect our health and aged care workers. More than 7000 health workers had died of COVID-19 by September globally, and Australian health workers had three times the risk of COVID-19 compared to the general community. We should not wait until 3500 of them are infected (as occurred in Victoria) before providing them better respiratory protection. We should be using the precautionary principle and recognising that the occupational health and safety of health workers lags far behind other industries. 

All planning must consider the exponential growth of epidemics, the role of social mixing and movement in transmission of SARS-COV-2, the calamitous timing of New Year’s Eve within one incubation period of Christmas Day on, and the magnitude of risk this poses. At the same time, we must aim high and aim for herd immunity through vaccination so we do not have to face this situation again.” 

COVID-19 PANDEMIC AUSTRALIA DECEMBER 2020: New South Wales back to square one just days before Christmas

 

The following newspaper articles make this statement by Australian Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison look very old and reinforces the oft heard complaint that NSW residents have grown too complacent in their attitudes toward this global pandemic:

"NSW is the gold standard." How NSW saved the nation. Scott Morrison absolutely gushing over how well NSW has handled the pandemic where other states have "faltered". #nswpol #auspol #qldpol #springst #wapol pic.twitter.com/WvRAUTShpZ

— David Marler (@Qldaah) December 17, 2020

ABC News, 17 December 2020:

NSW Health says the Northern Beaches COVID-19 cluster has grown to 17 cases and it has directed all residents in the area to limit their movements.

Residents have been advised to work from home, keep to their household group and avoid all unnecessary gatherings.

"Do not visit friends or relatives in aged care facilities or hospitals unless [it is] essential," a NSW Health statement said.

"Avoid visiting high-risk venues including clubs, restaurants, places of worship and gyms."

Residents have also been urged to avoid unnecessary travel outside their area, while those in other locations have been told to avoid travel into the Northern Beaches.

In a statement, NSW Health said people who had visited the following Northern Beaches locations should get tested immediately and isolate until they received a negative result:

• Woolworths Mona Vale, 25/29 Park St, Mona Vale, December 13, 12:00pm-12:30pm

• Aldi Mona Vale, 13 Bungan St, Mona Vale, December 13, 12:45pm-1:30pm

• Avalon Beach Surf Life Saving Club, December 13, 14 and 15, 9:00am-9:30am

• Palm Beach Rockpool, Lot 1 Rock Bath Rd, Palm Beach, December 14, 9:30am-10:30am

• Woolworths Avalon, 74 Old Barrenjoey Rd, Avalon Beach, December 14, 5:00pm-5:30pm

• Chemist Warehouse, 4/74 Old Barrenjoey Rd, Avalon Beach, December 14, 5:20pm-5:25pm

• Commonwealth Bank, 47 Avalon Parade, Avalon Beach, December 51, 12:00pm-12:15pm

• Mitre 10, 49 Avalon Parade, Avalon Beach, December 15, 12:00pm-12:20pm

• Roof Racks World, 13/87 Reserve Rd, Artarmon, December 15, 2:00pm-2:30pm

• HongFa BBQ Restaurant, Dee Why, December 15, 4:30pm-4:45pm

• Dee Why Fruit Market, 33 Oaks Avenue, Dee Why, December 15, 4:45pm-4:55pm

• North Avalon Cellars, 4/3 N Avalon Rd, Avalon Beach, December 15, 6:00pm-6:05pm

• Careel Bay Dog Park and Hitchcock Park, Barrenjoey Rd, Avalon, December 16, 7:00am-7:30am

• Palm Beach Pool, Lot 1 Rock Bath Rd, Palm Beach, December 16, 8:00am-9:00am

• Brot and Wurst, 1442 Pittwater Rd, North Narrabeen, December 16, 2:00pm-2:05pm

• Avalon Beach Post Shop, 45 Avalon Parade, Avalon Beach, December 16 3:30pm-3:50pm

The director of NSW Health's COVID response branch, Jeremy McAnulty, said he was concerned.

"The new cases are mostly in the northern part of the Northern Beaches. We are currently investigating where they all are and where they may have been," Dr McAnulty said.

"We are asking people on the Northern Beaches to help keep the community safe.

"Please work from home and stay at home as much as possible for the next three days.

"We know this is hard, but it is important we all work together to contain this outbreak.

"Anybody who has even the slightest symptoms, please come forward as soon as they appear so we can find cases."

The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) will meet tonight in response to the cluster.

NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said authorities were working on a theory the virus spread may have originated at the Avalon RSL.

Authorities are urging everyone who attended the club on December 11 to get tested.

A man in his 60s from Frenchs Forest tested positive on Thursday after performing with his band at the club on that day.

He has been travelling extensively with the band.

Testing orders are also in place for anyone who attended the Penrith RSL Club on December 13 (from 1:00pm to 6:00pm) and the Kirribilli Club on December 14 (12:00pm to 3:00pm).

The Department of Education confirmed one of the new COVID-19 cases was an employee at its corporate office in Redfern.

"We directed all staff from the office affected to immediately work remotely from home while we complete the contact tracing process and have the office thoroughly cleaned," a spokesperson for the department said.

All staff at the office have been told to self-isolate until they receive further notice from NSW Health.

Additional locations a COVID-19 person or persons visited:

• Hungry Ghost Cafe, 20 Avalon Parade, Avalon on Sunday, December 13 between 9.30am and 11am and Tuesday, December 15 between 9.30 and 11am

• Sneaky Ground Cafe, Avalon Beach on Monday, December 14 between 10.30am and 11am

• Barramee Thai Massage and Spa, 4/42-44 Old Barrenjoey Road, Avalon Beach on Monday, December 14 between 2pm and 3.30pm

• Bangkok Sidewalk Restaurant, 1/21-23 Old Barrenjoey Road, Avalon Beach on Monday, December 14 between 7pm and 8pm

• Palm Beach female change rooms on Sunday, December 13 between 9am and 9.15am

• Coast Palm Beach Cafe, Palm Beach on Sunday, December 13 between 10am and 11am

• Avalon Bowlo (bowling club), Avalon Beach on Sunday, December 13 between 5pm and 7pm (not 3-5pm as previously reported) and Tuesday, December 15 between 3pm and 5pm

• Bing Lee, Gateway, 1 Mona Vale Road, Mona Vale on Monday, December 14 between 4.30 and 4.45pm

• Woolworths Avalon Beach on Sunday, December 13 between 12pm and 5pm

• Oliver’s Pie, Careel Shopping Village, Avalon Beach on Monday, December 14 between 9am and 9.15am

News.com.au, 18 December 2020:

States and territories have been quick to reimpose border restrictions on people travelling from New South Wales in response to the state’s growing coronavirus outbreak.

The news will come as a heavy blow to people who were hoping to cross state lines to see their families at Christmas.

Here’s a snapshot of what they look like:

QUEENSLAND

Queensland’s chief health officer, Dr Jeannette Young, said the new rules would apply to anyone who had been in the Northern Beaches region on or since Friday, December 11.

If that’s you, and you are already in Queensland, you are required to get tested for the virus and quarantine in your home or accommodation until 14 days after the date you left the Northern Beaches.

If you arrived in Queensland on a flight from Sydney after midnight (12am Friday, December 18), the same rule applies.

Finally, if you arrive in Queensland after 1am on Saturday, you’ll be required to go into hotel quarantine at your own expense.

These new requirements affect both interstate visitors and Queensland residents who are returning home.

Dr Young said Queensland Health would continue to “closely monitor the situation”, and provide an update on Friday morning.

WESTERN AUSTRALIA

In Western Australia, anyone arriving from New South Wales from Friday onwards will have to quarantine for two weeks.

If you travelled to WA from NSW since December 11, you must get tested and then self-isolate until you get a negative result.

“I understand these changes will cause frustration and uncertainty for some people, and be very upsetting for many families looking to reunite and spend Christmas together,” Premier Mark McGowan said.

“This has been a difficult decision to make, but we need to follow the health advice and do what is in the best interest of all Western Australians.”

TASMANIA

Tasmania has banned anyone who’s been in the Northern Beaches area on or since December 11 from entering the state.

If you’re already there, you have been asked to call the Public Health Hotline on 1800 671 738 to advise it of your movements and book a test.

NORTHERN TERRITORY

The Northern Territory has declared the Northern Beaches a virus hotspot.

Chief Minister Michael Gunner has announced anyone travelling to the NT from the region must undertake 14 days of supervised quarantine in either Alice Springs or Darwin, at a cost of $2500 per person.

“If you are intending to travel to the Northern Territory from an identified COVID-19 hotspot, you are advised to rethink your plans,” the NT government said.

“Anyone who has already arrived in the Northern Territory from Northern Beaches Council LGA on or after December 11 needs to arrange for a COVID-19 test and self-quarantine while awaiting the test results.”

VICTORIA

Victoria has asked anyone who’s been in the Northern Beaches area since December 11 to “stay at home and get tested tomorrow”.

“They should stay at home until results are available and especially avoid visiting aged care facilities and hospitals. Further guidance will be issued as information becomes available,” the state’s Department of Health and Human Services said.

In addition, anyone who was in the Northern Beaches region or other NSW exposure sites on or since Friday, December 11 and arrives in Victoria after 12.01am on Friday, December 18, must get tested and quarantine in their home or accommodation for 14 days from the date they left the Northern Beaches.

Further travel advice will be announced on Friday.

AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY

There are no current restrictions for travellers moving to or from the ACT, however this is being monitored closely.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

South Australia has not made any announcements yet. Currently, those who have come from NSW are urged to monitor themselves and isolate if they develop symptoms.

Individuals and communities in New South Wales are feeling the emotional and social stress of two horror years in a row

 

One can hear the stress, fatigue, sadness, helplessness and sometimes despair behind a great many of the tweets and posts on Australian social media - especially from those living in regional areas around the country.

One NSW Labor MP recently observed to me that so many people are now in a dark place.

So sadly, this article comes as no surprise…..

The Daily Telegraph, 1 December 2020:

It was thrust into the national spotlight when 33 people tragically lost their lives in last year’s deadly bushfires. But the NSW south coast holds another unenviable title — the suicide capital of NSW.

In a grim reminder of the mental health battle facing our state, the area from Bateman’s Bay to the Victorian border lost 68 people to suicide between 2015 and 2019.

This is compared to the 33 lives lost to the bushfires which ravaged the region from September 2019 through to January 2020.

Analysis of Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) data reveals the south coast has a suicide rate of 21.5 per 100,000 people — the highest rate in NSW and an increase on the previous year.

Taree, Inverell, Yass and the Clarence Valley are the next worst affected. “We are seeing in the coastal regions the cumulative effects of the bushfires, social dislocation and the consequent effects of further trauma through COVID-19,” Professor Ian Hickie of the University of Sydney’s Brain and Mind Centre said. “These are the areas where there are already economic impacts, disruption and now there are additional effects. We talk about this idea of stacked distress.” The figures also reveal a yawning gap between suicide rates in the bush and Sydney, where the overwhelming majority of mental health professionals live.

Gosford and Wyong on the Central Coast are the second and third-worst areas in Greater Sydney, behind the Sydney CBD which has a suicide rate of 14.6 deaths per 100,000 people.

Yet there are 27 other rural and regional locations with a higher suicide rate. Youth mental health expert Professor Patrick McGorry said the statistics “are so shocking — it’s like a war zone”.

“There’s more than 15,500 people who have died in that five-year period (nationwide). If the cause of death were something different — like drownings or car accidents — it would be in people’s faces and on the front page,” he said.

Lifeline: 13 11 14

[my yellow highlighting]

By January 2019 drought affected 99.8 per cent of New South Wales and most of the state was still experiencing drought in January 2020.

The devastating 2019-20 bushfire season commenced early in regional New South Wales. The Clarence Valley fires started at the beginning of June 2019.

The COVID-19 pandemic reached New South Wales on 15 January 2020 and first appeared in the NSW Northern Rivers region on or about 16 March 2020. 

In New South Wales in October 2020 unemployment stood at 6.5% and the number of people in the state who were unemployed for periods ranging from up to 4 weeks to 52 weeks and under 104 weeks rose by 148,300 individuals between October 2019 and October 2020.

By July 2020 the employment growth rate stood at 0.0% to -2.4% across the NSW Northern Rivers region.

Fire, drought, fear of infection, public health orders and economic recession significantly affected how coastal communities have lived their lives in the last two years.

According to the federal Australian Institute of Health and Wellbeing:

The newly established New South Wales Suicide Monitoring System, launched by the NSW Government on 9 November 2020, reported 673 suspected suicides in NSW from 1 January to 30 September 2020. This is similar to the 672 suspected suicides reported for the same period in 2019 (NSW Ministry of Health 2020). Three-quarters of suspected suicides in 2020 were among males and more than half of all suspected suicides occurred among those aged between 25 and 55 (NSW Ministry of Health 2020).

Again, according to the same source, in New South Wales in 2018 there were a total 899 deaths registered as suicide and in 2019 at total of 937 deaths registered as suicide.

 

The number of registered deaths in 2019 exceeded the 22 year high of 1997 which saw 935 deaths registered as suicide.

The rate of NSW ambulance attendances for mental heath issues in 2019 was 114.3 persons per 100,000 population.

In 2018-2019 a total of 297 males and 388 females were hospitalised for self-harm on the NSW North Coast.

The rate of NSW Northern Rivers hospitalisations for self-harm by females in 2018-2019 ranged from Tweed Valley 181.5 persons per 100,000 population, Clarence Valley 128.3 persons, Richmond Valley-Hinterland 169.6 persons, and Richmond Valley-Coastal 104.2 persons. There are as yet no published figures for 2020.

Rural & regional NSW needs practical support with QR codes to accommodate customers without smart phones and businesses with poor mobile coverage

 

Office of Labor MP for Lismore, media release, 5 November 2020:

Lismore MP Janelle Saffin has called on the Berejiklian-Barilaro Government to do more to help small businesses establish Quick Response (QR) code check-in systems in country areas where telecommunications remain sketchy.

Ms Saffin said she agreed with the general policy of rolling out QR code check-in systems to support COVID safety plans, particularly in the hospitality industry, ahead of the busy Christmas-New Year holiday season.

“However, I am fed up with city-centric policies that do not take account of the reality of life in the country, including the fact that the Federal Government has yet to provide full mobile phone coverage in parts of the Northern Rivers and Northern Tablelands,” Ms Saffin said.

“Many residents don’t own a smart phone but they still like to get out and socialise with family and friends at their favourite café, restaurant or pub.

“These people might require a manual sign-in system and any statewide policy should be flexible enough to make some kind of allowance for this demographic.

“The fact that the current policy is not inclusive makes the long-standing digital divide between city and country cousins even worse.”

Ms Saffin said the NSW Government should work with business owners in towns and villages located away from the coast to assist them to comply rather than wave a big stick by threatening them with fines or closure.

“I have made representations to NSW Minister for Customer Service Victor Dominello on behalf of affected businesses in the Electorate of Lismore,” Ms Saffin said.

“Business are trying their best to do the right thing so the Government needs to provide them with clear instructions, and in some cases, more hands-on assistance for those who are less tech-savvy.

Tweet of the Week

 

You don’t want to ask #ScottyTheBully any challenging questions, especially if you’re a woman. #abc730 #auspol pic.twitter.com/yWkmHIh6EK

— 💧Kailani Mana (@mana_kailani) October 8, 2020

Morrison Government ignores the "Pink Recession" in Budget 2020-21

 

"Women drive on roads. They will benefit from our infrastructure spend" [in Budget 2020-21]. [Senator Michaelia Cash, Channel 10 clip in The Project program, 8 October 2020]

The Guardian, 8 October 2020:

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, is angry with women. Not all of us, just those making a fuss about the woeful lack of attention to women’s workforce participation, economic security and safety in the budget his treasurer handed down on Tuesday night.

After early childhood education advocate and journalist Georgie Dent published an article in Women’s Agenda pointing out that the biggest-spending budget in history had allocated roughly a third of 1% of its funds for women’s economic security (citing a figure I tweeted from the Per Capita account during the budget presentation on Tuesday night), she received a call from the PM’s office to complain that “no one credible” was making such a complaint, and that “nothing in the budget is gendered”.

To quote one famous working woman: big mistake. Big. Huge.

Within a couple of hours, the hashtag #CredibleWomen was born, and soon trending in Australia. Twenty-four hours later, more than 1,000 very angry, and highly credible, women and men had joined the fray, including prominent journalists and commentators, business leaders, former federal politicians, economists and sociologists, and even the family members of former prime ministers, both Labor and Liberal. So much for no one credible.

As for the claim that nothing in the budget was gendered – that’s the point. Proudly declaring that no gender analysis was done on the budget reveals a disturbing ignorance of the inherent bias in our economic system, and a fundamental confusion between the concepts of equality and equity. A budget that treats everyone equally, ignoring the fact that women start from a place of significant disadvantage on almost every meaningful economic measure, simply entrenches gender inequality and, in light of the disproportionate impact of the current recession on women, actually risks sending us backwards.

The fact is, the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent economic collapse have hit women particularly hard. While previous recessions were typified by declining aggregate demand for manufactured goods and services, the current downturn is marked by a partial or total shutdown of many service industries, which are dominated by female workers.

Social distancing restrictions have resulted in an unparalleled collapse in demand, which has had an immediate impact on sectors of the market unused to bearing the brunt of economic shocks, with widespread jobs losses in retail, entertainment and hospitality. Universities, too, are shedding jobs at an alarming rate, and many of the jobs in research, teaching and administration that have been lost will not return even if and when international students do.

As a result, unemployment for women in this Covid-induced economic collapse is double that of the 1990s recession. While women suffered roughly 25% of all job losses in the early 1990s, they account for more than 50% of the newly unemployed today.

“A budget that treats everyone equally ... simply entrenches gender inequality”

Yet the Morrison government seems to have failed to come to grips with the different nature of this recession compared to previous downturns, or to have grasped the significant changes in our labour market over the three decades since Australia last faced the task of rebuilding a shattered economy. The budget released on Tuesday night was a fine plan for recovery from the recession of the early 1990s, but not so much for the one we face today…..

The full article can be read here.

BACKGROUND

According to Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Labor Force original data, in December 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic had entered the country, the female workforce participation rate was 61.6 per cent and total number of unemployed females was 295,100 individuals.

A Parliamentary Budget Report found that 56 per cent of those unemployed females were women aged 45 years and older.

By end of August 2020 the female workforce participation rate was 59.7 per cent - a 3 per cent participation fall. While the unemployment figure had grown to 418,600 females of working force age – a 29 per cent increase in unemployment.

In December 2019 the male workforce participation rate was 71.4 per cent and the total number of unemployed males was 371,600 individuals.

Of these unemployed males 45 per cent were men aged 45 years and older.

By end of August 2020 male workforce participation rate was 69.4 per cent – a 3 per cent  participation fall. While the unemployment figure has risen to 503,000 males of working force age - a 26 per cent increase in unemployment. 

Comparing total females and males who considered themselves underemployed between December 2019 and August 2020:

• Underemployed females totalled 690,200 workers in December 2019 and 753,200 workers in August 2020 - an est. 9 per cent increase in underemployment over the 9 month period; and
• Underemployed males totalled 503,000 workers in December 2019 and 723,300 workers in August 2020 - an est. 31 per cent increase in underemployment.

Females in employment worked a combined total of 736,643,500 hours in December 2019 and a total of 702,547,200 hours in August 2020 - an est. 5 per cent fall in hours worked. 

Males in employment worked a combined total of 1,044,184,200 hours in December 2019 and a total of 980,844,400 hours in August 2020 - an est. 6 per cent fall.

When breaking that down further by looking at the percentage of females who had between 35-44 hours paid work a week it was 32.1% of all employed females, with another 19.8 per cent working less than 20 hours. While for males receiving 34-44 hours of paid work a week it was 42.1 per cent of all employed males, with another 11.1 per cent working under 20 hours a week.

Overall since the impact of the COVID-19 begun to be felt both males and females experienced swings and roundabouts when it came to employment. 

However, compared with men, over the last decade a higher proportion of unemployed women are now either older women, have a reduced capacity to work, are carers or sole parents. 

While the bottom line is that despite the JobKeeper subsidised wage program, at the end of the last 9 months there are still more females out of work than there are males in the same predicament and more employed females than males with less than a full week's work.

When it came to ABS records for industry sectors with the highest job losses year-to-year it was clear highest losses occurred in sectors with traditionally high female employment levels:

JUNE 2019 to JUNE 2020

Accommodation - jobs down 25.5 per cent

Cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services - jobs down 15.6 per cent

Clubs, pubs, taverns and bars - jobs down 15.6 per cent

Tourism - jobs down 15.1 per cent

Travel agency and information centre services - 17.9 per cent

Retail Trade - jobs down 9.0 per cent.

Tourism jobs peaked at 748,200 in December 2019 and in June 2020 were at the lowest level (611,700) since June 2014. More females work in tourism than males so there were more jobs lost by females with a reduction of 88,100 (-21.5%) jobs compared to a fall of 48,300 (-14.3%) for males.

The Australian Treasury is reportedly predicting that unemployment will remain high for several years, but that it will peak at 8% in the December quarter of 2020. However, indications are that unemployment will not fall below 5 per cent until sometime after 2024.  

It is statistics such as these which have led to political commentators dubbing the current economic recession In Australia, the "pink recession" or "shecession".

Terms with which Scott Morrison appears to take great exception. Women it seems are never to speak up on economic matters unless it is to agree with his world view.

According to Taylor Fry Consulting Actuaries' research, by 29 August 2020 in the Clarence Valley the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was rated "Medium" for most of the valley but at the upper end of "High" was Maclean-Iluka-Yamba which are heavily dependent on tourism.

As it is for Byron Bay where the impact was also rated at the upper limit of "High", while the remainder of the Northern Rivers region was at the lower limit of "High" with the exception of Kyogle and Casino which were rated "Medium".

In 2019 the NSW Northern Rivers region had a resident population of est. 304,325 people with a high number of older residents. In fact at the last Census around 133,332 were aged between 50 and 100 years of age.

In 2020 the Northern New South Wales Local Health District data indicated that females made up 49.22 per cent of the regional population - with est. 30 per cent of that regional population being females of workforce age.

That's an awful lot of Northern Rivers women Scott Morrison & his Cabinet have chosen to brush aside in the worst recession in 30 years.