Sunday 24 May 2020
Northern Rivers homelessness and COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020
Echo NetDaily, 20 May 2020:
A quick look at the Byron Council website will tell you that the average rent in the Shire is $590 or 49 per cent of the average household income of $1,218. The comparisons on the page show Sydney’s Woollahra $800 rent being 44 per cent of a $1,814 income and Brighton in Melbourne with rents averaging 42 per cent of the income at $650. Even Brisbane’s Eaton Hills gets a look in with a $510 rent being 39 per cent of a $1,312 income.
This is cold comfort if you happen to be a single parent whose only income is a Centrelink benefit. You’d definitely not be earning $12k a week, yet you’d be more than likely looking at $500 to $600 a week in rent – unless of course, you ended up homeless because you just couldn’t find something you could afford.
Our volunteer services such as the Liberation Larder and the Mullumbimby Neighbourhood Centre are currently groaning under the weight of extra homelessness since the start of the pandemic. People who didn’t expect to be here and out of work, are – and the growing number of our own homeless is now making the issue and epidemic in the Byron Shire.
We know what the volunteers are doing but what is the government doing?.....
Tamara Smith MP says that the Greens have been working closely with the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) through the pandemic with regard to support for rough sleepers and people on the homelessness spectrum in Byron and Ballina Shire’s....
Federal Member for Richmond Justine Elliot says there are more homeless Australians than ever before. ‘On the North Coast we have a massive housing affordability and homelessness crisis, and people receiving Centrelink benefits are the hardest hit. ....
‘I have been inundated with requests for assistance and by many locals who have raised their concerns about the impact that this situation will have on our most vulnerable. The impact of Coronavirus threatens to make it even worse’.
Ms Elliot says that as unemployment increases there’s a real risk that people don’t just lose their job, but also their home.’Housing is now on the frontline of Australian healthcare.’
‘Labor welcomed the National Cabinet’s decision to freeze evictions for the next six months for tenants in financial distress due to the impact of Coronavirus. We have consistently said that no one should lose their home, whether they own it or rent it, because of the virus. This will help.’
‘As winter approaches and the Centrelink lines get longer, the charities that help the homeless and most vulnerable are suffering the perfect storm. The volunteer pool for a lot of charities is largely older Australians – most vulnerable to the Coronavirus.
‘Most of these are smaller community-based charities that fill local needs. That loss places greater strain on other remaining services as the demand for help grows and grows.
‘That’s why this extra support and assistance for providers of food and emergency relief and other homelessness services is so important.
‘Both the State and Federal Governments must continue to provide support and assistance for those most vulnerable in our community.’
This would appear to be different just south of Byron. State Member for Lismore Janelle Saffin said she had been assured that the majority of people in their homeless community have been accommodated. ‘Many are in hotels and motels. It is wonderful for people to have a roof over their heads as being isolated in lockdown brings many challenges,’ said Ms Saffin. ‘I worry about accessing services that people need during these times such as GPs and health-related ones, that can be hard to access for people who are homeless at the best of times.
‘The NSW Treasury has published a document titled Supporting NSW, and in the Communities and Families section, it specifies three key areas of funding under the heading, A Roof Over Heads.
‘I have written to NSW Minister for Families, Communities and Disability Services Gareth Ward and asked him if he could provide a breakdown of this, at least for my Lismore Electorate.’.....
Labels:
Ballina,
Byron Bay,
COVID-19,
homelessness,
Lismore,
Northern Rivers,
pandemic
Saturday 23 May 2020
Tweet of the Week
THE RORTERS OF SPORTZANCEpic.twitter.com/7HAduemHx7
— Huw Parkinson (@rabbitandcoffee) May 16, 2020
Labels:
corruption,
rorts,
Scott Morrison
Quotes of the Week
"Most politicians lie whenever they are uncomfortable or caught in a tight spot. Few lie with the ease and casualness of Morrison." [Journalist Dennis Atkins writing in The New Daily, 16 May 2020]
"USA started out by electing a reality tv show host to run it and now we are all on Survivor." [G. Dixon, Twitter, 19 May 2020]
Labels:
Donald Trump,
lies and lying,
pandemic,
Scott Morrison
Friday 22 May 2020
North Coast Voices received a takedown notice on 19 May 2020
On 24 April 2018 North Coast Voices published a blog post title "Hank Jorgen and Centrelink unleash the dogs…..".
On 19 May 2020 the blog received a Google takedown notice for that particular post, effective immediately.
Now apart from its title, the post only contained one sentence of comment by North Coast Voices:
"Forget establishing that an actual debt exists – this is 2018 and come hell or high water the Turnbull Government wants to use Centrelink to prop up its financial bottom line in time for the May 2018 budget papers."
The remainder of the post comprised of extracts from two online mainstream media articles - one by journalist Alice Workman published by Buzzfeed and the other by journalist Noel Towell published by the Canberra Times. These extracts were followed by inclusion of five tweets politely critical of 'robodebt' and two links to NotMyDebt.
Both media articles are still online.
So what sin had North Coast Voices committed?
Well apparently it had used a BuzzFeed extract which mentioned a business called Detective Desk - an IT company whose services were used by at least one debt collection agency (Australian Receivables Ltd) whom Services Australia had contracted until 3 February 2021 to assist with debt management/recovery under the automated data matching Online Compliance Intervention System process aka robodebt.
One can deduce this because the 2017 Buzzfeed article now has a new headline and is prefaced by a grovelling apology which runs thus:
CORRECTION
An earlier version of this article, which was entitled 'Your private information is being sent overseas by Centrelink', included some statements about Detective Desk which were corrected and are retracted by BuzzFeed. BuzzFeed regrets these errors.
One has to wonder if the unknown person or persons who decided to chase up mention of this company and remove any part of the original Buzzfeed article from view after all these years was doing so because a class action is now underway in the Federal Court of Australia which may expose the full lengths that Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison, first as Minister for Social Services, then Federal Treasurer and finally as Prime Minister, went to in order to unlawfully claw back money from vulnerable welfare recipients.
Australian casual employees regularly working full-time hours win paid leave, carer & compassionate leave in Federal Court ruling - Morrison Government threatens to change law to strip new rights away
"All members of the Court have also found that Mr Rossato was not a casual FTM under the 2012 EA, noting that the circumstances of his employment could not be distinguished in a material way from those of Skene. All members of the Court have found that WorkPac is not entitled to restitution of the casual loading which it claimed was included in the hourly rate it had paid to Mr Rossato. The members of the Court have found that there was no relevant mistake, and no failure of consideration such as would support restitutionary relief. All members of the Court have found that WorkPac is not entitled to bring into account the payments of remuneration that it had made to Mr Rossato on the basis that he was a casual employee. That is because the purposes of the payments of remuneration did not have a close correlation to the entitlements that Mr Rossato seeks. All members of the Court have found that WorkPac’s reliance on reg 2.03A of the Fair Work Regulations 2009 (Cth) was misplaced. By subregulation (d), the regulation can apply only when the person makes a claim to be paid an amount in lieu of one or more of the relevant NES entitlements. That is not this case as Mr Rossato seeks payment of the NES entitlements, not payments in lieu." [Workpac v Rossato, May 2020]
Yahoo!
Finance,
21 May 2020:
Casual
employees working full-time hours will be entitled to paid leave,
setting back employers around $8 billion in back-pay claims, after a
landmark ruling by the Federal Court on Wednesday.
The
decision means regular, ongoing casuals will be able to access paid
annual leave, paid personal/carer’s leave and paid compassionate
leave, and employers cannot claim that 25 per cent pay loadings
offset those entitlements.
The
ruling in Workpac v Rossato has effectively pulled the pin on the
‘permanent casual’ work model, and means any regular work that is
permanent in nature is not genuinely casual, and therefore attracts
the same entitlements as permanent staff.
“This
is a fantastic decision that puts an end to the ‘permanent casual’
rort that has become a scourge in the coal mining industry and across
the workforce,” the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and
Energy Union national president Tony Maher said.
“It’s
a decision that passes the pub test on what it means to be a casual
and is consistent with community expectations that casual work is
irregular and intermittent.”
Maher
called on employers to “stop the nonsense”, and start treating
casual employees on permanent hours as if they were permanent.
“When
a job is full-time, regular and on-going, it is permanent and
deserves the security and entitlements that come with permanent
work,” Maher said.
“Our
union has worked hard to clarify the law with this decision and we
will now be fighting to restore rights and lost pay for casual labour
hire workers across the coal mining industry who have been illegally
ripped off.”…….
Industrial
relations minister Christian Porter said the decision would have
“immediate practical implications for the bottom line of many
Australians businesses at a time when so many have taken a huge hit
from the Covid-19 pandemic”.
In
fact, employers estimate between 1.6 and 2.2 million casuals will be
affected, with a back-pay bill of around $8 billion looming.
Porter
also flagged a potential appeal….
"Given
the potential for this decision to further weaken the economy at a
time when so many Australians have lost their jobs, it may also be
necessary to consider legislative options."
See Summary of WorkPac Pty Ltd v Rossato [2020] FCAFC 84 (20 May 2020) for further details.
Thursday 21 May 2020
Mosquitoes likely to remain a health hazard this winter
In January 1991 Ross River Fever became a notifiable disease in New South Wales and in that first year the Northern NSW local health district recorded 11 cases.
Up to the end of April in 2020 Northern NSW has recorded 156 cases. Only the Hunter New England local heath district is recording a higher figure at 183 cases.
By contrast Barmah Forest Virus, another notifiable disease, has only been recorded 25 times so far this year.
However, both are mosquito borne infections that are worth doing our best to avoid.
NSW Health advises:
To protect against mosquitoes and reduce the risk of diseases they transmit:
- Cover-up with a loose-fitting long sleeved shirt and long pants when outside
- Apply mosquito repellent to exposed skin
- Take special care during peak mosquito biting hours, especially around dawn and dusk
- Remove potential mosquito breeding sites from around the home and screen windows and doors
- Take extra precautions when travelling or camping in areas with a higher risk of mosquito-borne diseases.
- For more detailed information on reducing the risk of mosquito bites at home and while travelling see the Mosquitoes are a Health Hazard fact sheet. This also includes more information on mosquito repellents.
At the end of April Stratford Virus was detected in mosquitoes trapped in Yamba at the mouth of the Clarence River. This virus is not notifiable in New South Wales and infection usually presents as a mild fever with associated joint pain and lethagy.
Labels:
health,
mosquito-borne disease,
Northern Rivers,
safety
Morrison Government expects to be forced to refund est. $555.6 million unlawfully taken from at least 449,500 Centrelink clients
Photograph: The Guardian graphic, 27 March 2020
In July 2016 the federal Coaltion Government began
to issue income
compliance notices
based on automated data
matching.
At
the time the then Minister for Social Social Services Scott Morrison
expected to clawback an est. $1.7 billion dollars over
five years from
individuals who were, or had been in the past, receiving a
Centrelink pension,
benefit or allowance.
By
2019 at least
570,000 of those
over 600,000
income
compliance notices were
considered to be
unlawful.
As were Australian
Taxation Office garnishee notices associated with these alleged debts.
Refunding
these wrongfully raised debts would see at least $555.6
million
returned to Centrelink clients.
A
class
action on behalf of victims of the unlawful ‘robodebt’ scheme
has
been commenced by
Gordon Legal.
Becoming
a member of a class action does not expose a ‘robodebt’ recipient
to any additional legal liability with regard to the alleged debt.
However,
the Morrison Government is possibly
hoping
many victims will not realise this and sign the Centrelink “Opt
Out Notice – Federal Court of Australia – ‘Robodebt’(Social
Security Debt Collection) Class Action (VID1252/2019)”
notices
it is currently sending out.
Gordon
Legal has outlined
possible court dates:
On
6 March 2020 the Honourable Mr Justice Murphy of the Federal Court
ordered that the parties hold a mediation prior to 19 June 2020. This
is an opportunity for the matter to be resolved with the consent of
both parties.
Justice
Murphy also ordered that, if the matter does not settle at mediation,
a trial will begin in the Federal Court on 20 July 2020 (or if that
date is not available, on 21 September 2020).
Services
Australia (formerly
the Dept. of Social Services-Centrelink) despite its denials continues to raise alleged
debts and send out notices.
While
the very unhappy Morrison Government probably hoping
to discourage future class actions is
also
pushing
ahead with a parliamentary inquiry into the class action industry,
including the profits made by litigation funders that bankroll claims
on behalf of Australians.
The
Guardian, 18 May 2020:
Hundreds
of thousands of Australians affected by the government’s robodebt
scheme will receive notices from Centrelink about an upcoming class
action under orders from the federal court.
Guardian
Australia last month revealed
secret government advice showing the commonwealth hopes to settle
the case and has privately admitted more than 400,000 welfare debts
were unlawfully issued under the scandal-ridden “income compliance
program”.
But
the parties are yet to reach a settlement, setting up a potential
trial as early as July where law firm Gordon Legal will seek interest
and compensation as well as the repayment of debts unlawfully claimed
by the government.
Under
court orders issued in March, the government has been told to
identify all potential class action members and send out notices via
MyGov or by post about the upcoming court challenge by 25 May.
More
than 12,000 people have registered with the firm, but under
Australian law people identified as members of the “class” are
considered part of the action unless they “opt-out”, which would
allow them to pursue their own individual claim.
Labor’s
government services spokesman, Bill Shorten, said the government
should “settle this case immediately, restore public confidence in
Centrelink by allowing the court to be the independent umpire, and
pay the victims back their money as well as interest”.
“This
would allow the hundreds of Centrelink workers working on limiting
the government’s robodebt exposure to be moved back to the
frontlines of helping their fellow Australians with their social
security needs in this time of national challenge,” he told
Guardian Australia.
Since
July 2015, more than 600,000 debt notices had been sent out under the
scheme, which the government conceded was unlawful in federal court
in November, while thousands more received letters demanding they
prove they were not overpaid by Centrelink.
Some
debt recipients had their tax returns seized over the debts, while
others were also forced to pay a 10% “recovery fee” on top of the
alleged debt.
Gordon
Legal believes the case would represent one of the largest class
actions in Australian history.
Late
last week, the government declined to answer several written
questions about the robodebt scheme, successfully applying for public
interest immunity in the Senate.
Services
Australia declined to answer how many debts had been issued using the
unlawful “income averaging” method or whether it would repay
victims, including debts recovered from deceased estates.
“This
question relates to a court case that is currently before the federal
court of Australia,” the agency said. “Services Australia will
abide by any decision of the court.”
But
a ministerial submission to cabinet, leaked to the Guardian, revealed
the government hopes to settle the case and that Services Australia
expects to “administer 449,500 refunds determined under the
programme”, worth $555.6m.
The
robodebt class action notices come as the government pushes ahead
with plans for an inquiry into class actions in Australia.
Porter
last week claimed a “lack of regulation governing the booming
litigation funding industry is leading to poor justice outcomes”.
But
Labor has argued the inquiry is a response to Gordon Legal’s class
action against the robodebt scheme.
If
the parties do not reach a settlement, a trial is expected between
July and September.
The
government’s legal advice shows it expects to lose the class action
under Gordon Legal’s claim of “unjust enrichment”, although it
believes the compensation claim is less likely to be successful.
“This
is likely to result in the commonwealth being ordered to repay debts
within a timeframe set by the Court, and to pay interest and legal
costs,” the advice said.
Court
documents show the number of potential victims expanded in March
after the government withdrew an earlier claim that people receiving
Carer Payment were not subjected to the scheme.
The
government has conceded in court that debts that relied on income
averaging were invalidly raised, but claims it should not have to pay
compensation because it does not hold a common law duty of care to
welfare recipients…...
Wednesday 20 May 2020
Time to fight for the forests in New South Wales
In the 2019-20 bushfire season wild fires ravaged forests across New South Wales.
The 100km deep coastal zone running the length of the state was particularly hard hit, but Nambucca State Forest was spared and is a critical refuge for unique wildlife still struggling after those fires.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported on 1 May 2020 that; Government logging has resumed in fire-damaged forests in NSW despite warnings that devastated bushland and endangered wildlife are too fragile to withstand further disruption.....about 92 per cent of the area set for logging was burnt in the fires.
On the morning of Friday 15 May 2020, Gumbaynggirr Traditional Owners and the Nambucca community peacefully demonstrated outside the forest and successfully stopped the NSW Forestry Corporation logging for the day.
This forest is one of the few remaining patches of unburnt koala habitat and critical refuge for wildlife after the recent bushfire season.
Community action brought a welcome reprieve but the fight is just beginning.
The people of New South Wales still need to make sure Nambucca State Forest is kept safe for good.
Support the Gumbaynggirr Traditional Owners on the frontline by calling on your MP to take urgent action to stop this logging destruction.
Join the fight and email your own state MP to save Nambucca and all native forests from the chopping block.
If you live in the Oxley state electorate make sure to email local Nationals MP Melinda Pavey at oxley@parliament.nsw.gov.au.
At 10am on Tuesday 19 May 2019 logging trucks again entered one of the few unburnt refuges in Nambucca State Forest at Jack Ridge Road, Nambucca. If you live in the region now is the time to protest legally along boundaries of this forest at logging road entrances.
The 'Protect Nambucca Heads State Forest' group have put out a call for assistance.
Australian Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton makes a grab for even more surveillance powers
Crikey,
15 May 2020:
The
government’s proposed scheme to enable foreign intelligence
services to spy on Australians will enable Australia’s intelligence
agencies to circumvent measures designed to protect journalists from
unfettered pursuit of their sources.
Labor’s
Mark Dreyfus yesterday exposed the loophole, with Home Affairs
officials left unable and unwilling to explain why their minister
Peter Dutton was proposing a runaround on existing procedures
designed to protect journalists’ sources.
The
Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (International Production
Orders) Bill 2020 will to pave the way for agreements between
Australia and the United States, and other “like-minded countries”,
for the direct accessing of surveillance information, including
real-time wiretapping, by intelligence agencies from both counterpart
countries. In Australia, such requests would be signed off by members
of the Security Division of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal
(AAT), which is heavily stacked with former Coalition MPs and
staffers.
In
hearings before the intelligence and security committee yesterday,
shadow attorney-general Dreyfus asked Dutton’s bureaucrats why
existing protections around accessing the metadata of journalists
were not part of the proposed process.
When
the Abbott government introduced mass surveillance laws in 2015, the
mainstream media belatedly realised that journalists’ phone and IT
records would be easily accessed by intelligence and law enforcement
agencies under “data retention” laws. In response, a “Journalist
Information Warrant” (JIW) process was hastily put together that
would require agencies to apply for a special warrant, with more
stringent thresholds and procedural safeguards, like a Public
Interest Advocate, if agencies wanted to obtain data relating to a
journalist’s sources.
No
such safeguard exists under the International Production Orders (IPO)
process, meaning that if a journalist’s data was held by a US
company — such as Google, Apple, Facebook or Microsoft — it could
be obtained by ASIO or the Australian Federal Police (AFP) from those
companies through an IPO without a Journalist Information Warrant,
unlike information held by a local company such as Telstra.
“Are
you able to tell us why an Australian journalists whose telecoms data
is held by a US carrier should have fewer protections than an
Australian journalist whose telecoms data is held in Australia?”
Dreyfus asked Home Affairs bureaucrats…..
Dreyfus
pressed further. The Journalist Information Warrant process was not
replicated in this bill, was it, he asked.
“It
is not replicated,” Warnes had to admit, before insisting an AAT
authorisation was enough protection.
Dreyfus
went further. “The Journalist Information Warrant process has a
public interests monitor provided. There is no such public interest
monitor provided in the authorisation process that is provided under
this bill is there?”
“That’s
correct,” the bureaucrat admitted.
“So
it’s not the same level of protection for journalists whose data is
held by a US carrier. It’s a lesser level of protection isn’t
it?” said Dreyfus.
“Different
considerations at play, yes,” Warnes , humiliated, had to admit.
Dreyfus
also pointed out that the Journalist Information Warrant process had
additional criteria that had to be considered in granting warrants.
They weren’t in the IPO scheme, were they?
“That’s
correct,” Warnes said.
“So
why should an Australian journalist whose telecoms data is held by a
US carrier have fewer protections than an Australian journalist whose
telecoms data is held in Australia?”
“I
don’t have anything further to add,” Warnes said.
Dreyfus
told him to come back to the committee with a better explanation for
why the loophole was being pursued by the government…..
Tuesday 19 May 2020
Bundjalung elder Michael Ryan wins in NSW Land & Environment Court over North Lismore Plateau development application
ABC
News,
15 May 2020:
A
major residential development underway on the New South Wales north
coast is now in jeopardy after successful court action by a local
Indigenous elder.
The
Land and Environment Court has now ruled that approval of the
development application was invalid, because no species impact
statement was done.
Mr
Ryan said he wept with joy when he heard the news.
"I
didn't think we had any chance to win it, it was like a David and
Goliath fairytale come true and we knocked them for six," he
said.
"My
old people told me a long time ago to protect this mountain with
everything I had.
"This
whole mountain is sacred, it's a story from the Dreaming … you can
see in the landscape from the air the sleeping lizard."
Mr
Ryan was assisted by veteran local activist Al Oshlack, from the
Indigenous Justice Advocacy Network.
He
said the case hinged on whether a species impact statement (SIS)
should have been done for a site which is home to the threatened
white-eared monarch and eastern long-eared bat.
"When
they put in a development application, and it's going to have a
significant impact on endangered species, it was up to the developer
to attach the SIS with the development application," Mr Oshlack
said.
"But
then it became the [Lismore City] council's fault, because the
council should have said that 'we can't accept lodging of this DA
because it's not in the proper form'."
'They
just rubber-stamped it'
The
development application was approved by the Joint Regional Planning
Panel in October 2018.
Mr
Oshlack said he tried to raise his concerns at the time.
"They
just rubber-stamped it," he said.
"During
the hearing I yelled at them that we would be taking it to court and
then [they] threw me out."…..
Work
has already started on a housing development on the North Lismore
Plateau, but the Land and Environment Court has ruled the approval
invalid.(ABC North Coast: Bruce MacKenzie)
The
development manager for the Winton Property Group, Jim Punch, said
the court's decision came as a surprise to the developers……
Mr
Ryan has said he will fight any future plans to develop the site, and
will seek to have the land's heritage value formally recognised.
The
matter will return to the Land and Environment Court later this
month, when final orders will be issued.
NOTE
* A Native Title Claim by Widjabul Wia-bal people was registered with the Federal Court of Australia on 28 August 2013, applicable to the land which is the subject of this Development Control Plan.
* Originally Lismore City Council accepted with regard to the North Lismore Plateau (NLP) "Measures to conserve the habitat and movement corridors of Echidnas, in acknowledgment of the cultural heritage significance of this species. The NLP land was historically used as an “increase site” for Echidnas by the local Aboriginals." See Lismore City Council, "North Lismore Plateau Urban Release Area", 2015.
How will up to 7.2 million Australians respond to Scott Morrison's willingness to abandon them in the worst global recession since the Great Depression
"Fiscal measures will need to be scaled up if the stoppages to economic activity are persistent, or the pickup in activity as restrictions are lifted is too weak." [IMF WORLD ECONOMIC OUTLOOK: THE GREAT LOCKDOWN, April 2020]
Brisbane Times, 15 May 2020:
Something has changed in the Liberal Party since John Howard was prime minister. Key business lobbies now have such a grip they can frogmarch the government towards political suicide.
It is only weeks since a million Australians lost their jobs by government decree to protect us all from a health crisis. Most are yet to receive their first benefits, but the government has said the guiding principles on the way out will be self-reliance and personal responsibility.
The Prime Minister and the Treasurer have moved in recent weeks to flag that the JobSeeker and JobKeeper programs are a short-term aberration and will be returning to their traditional small-government, competitive-individualism philosophy.
‘‘Open markets will be central ... not government,’’ declared the Treasurer on Tuesday. ‘‘The values and principles that have guided us in the past ... encouraging personal responsibility, maximising personal choice, rewarding effort and risk-taking’’ will be central.
It is hard to imagine a more tone-deaf piece of communication to the hundreds of thousands of Australians who are now gripped by sleepless nights about where their next job is going to come from and whether they will lose their houses.
Social movement research has found that you only need 2.5 per cent of people to be in a political movement for it to be large enough to drive major political and social reform. That is enough for everyone to have friends and family involved and to feel personally connected to the issue.
Almost every Australian will have someone they love who has lost a job in the past six weeks. Telling people they are on their own has to be pretty much at the top of the "what not to do list" in the political leadership manual. Yet Scott Morrison is not an idiot or an ideologue, so why is he doing it?
Even if the government was privately planning this approach, you wouldn’t expect the Prime Minister to say it publicly. The announcements suggest he is having to quell his own political storm and there is a pile-on going on behind the scenes. It is the wrong message for most Australians, but it is the right message for those who dictate his grip on power.
Some of it will be the same Coalition ideologues cum powerbrokers who are worried the pandemic response is a symbolic loss. These tribal warriors are not going to let the fact the country is in the grip of an unfolding catastrophe distract them from the red team-blue team contest.
However, they are not the only force in play. Leaders of our largest businesses are embracing the maxim "Don’t waste a good crisis". They are circling the carcass of the not-yet-cold COVID economy, and seeking to take the opportunity to drive through some long-sought-after tax cuts and industrial relations reform.....
One has to wonder how Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg came to believe that the 1. 7 million people expected to be unemployed by September 2020 will fare well going into the worst recession since the Great Depression where the unemployment rate is predicted to be 13 per cent for starters.
Or why he believes the up to 5.5 million workers, hanging onto insecure jobs which are only guaranteed for as long as businesses are receiving government wage subsidies for their workers, will all keep those jobs when the subsidy ends on 27 September 2020.
This is the changed reality that the Liberal & National parties must face:
The Sydney Morning Herald, 14 May 2020 |
If Scott Morrison continues down this track, what will Christmas look like?
Monday 18 May 2020
Unemployment in Australia in March to May 2020
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics Labor Force, Australia, April 2020, there were 832,500 unemployed persons at the end of April based on original data, which resulted in an unemployment rate of 6.3%.
That was a rise of 63,800 unemployed persons since the end of March 2020.
A number which could have been much higher if it were not that those registered to receive JobKeeper subsidised wage payments are considered employed - even those with no active job to go to.
On 14 May 2020 the Prime Minister announced a seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 6.2% and the Treasurer stated that 594,000 people had lost their jobs since COVID-19 public health restrictions began to affect businesses.
However, both Morrison and Frydenberg fail to point out that those 594,000 newly unemployed are in addition to the est. 238,500 already unemployed persons.
Even with JobKeeper payments now keeping unemployment figures down by an est. 3.3 to 5.5 million people Treasury expects that the unemployment rate will rise to around 10% by end of June 2020.
According to a Senate estimates hearing on 30 April 2020, an est. 400,000 more people are expected to lose their jobs by September, at which time the unemployment rate is predicted to be around 13%.
September is of course the month indicated by Morrison as the period in which he intends to start rolling back enhanced unemployment benefits - a month in which the Dept. of Social Services expects 1.7 million people to be receiving the Jobseeker payment.
According to the Morrison Government it expects to have returned 850,000 people to employment by the time all the public health restrictions have been lifted.
If in around four months time as many as 7.2 million Australians are expected to be either unemployed or in uncertain employment because their jobs depend on government subsidied wages, one wonders why the Morrison Government is boasting of so low a figure - less than 12% of that 7.2 million.
Labels:
COVID-19,
economy,
Jobkeeper program,
jobs,
Jobseeker,
Morrison Government,
pandemic,
unemployment
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