Notice to Readers

 

North Coast Voices will not be publishing posts from today Sunday 31 July until Sunday 7 August 2022.

Apologies to regular readers and sometime browsers.

Tweets of the Week

The gas industry lobby group APPEA have put some ads on social media boasting about how much tax and royalties the gas industry pay.

Here's what they don't tell you.

Climate & Energy Principal Advisor @MarkOgge explains. #auspol pic.twitter.com/6WFafdobkZ

— Australia Institute (@TheAusInstitute) July 25, 2022

With inflation now running at 6.1% annually & wage growth at only 2.4% we have moved from the era of wage stagnation to the new era of cuts to real wages.

— Josh Bornstein (@JoshBBornstein) July 27, 2022

The question has to be asked. How many of the more than 9.23 million people who caught COVID-19 in the last 2 years and five months will have their lives diminished or shortened by chronic post-COVID health conditions?

It is time Australian society stops pretending it is on top of this pandemic.......

ABC News, 28 July 2022:

NSW Health looked at data from 639,430 people infected with COVID for the first time in January when the Omicron wave took off.

The analysis was done by matching the name, and date of birth, of cases.

It showed that within five months, 20,460 people, or 3.2 per cent, had been reinfected.

Reinfection was defined as a positive test four weeks after being released from seven-day isolation, or 36 days after testing positive.

More than 20,000 people reinfected with COVID within five months

Number and proportion of the 639,403 cases in January reinfected in subsequent months

…..Nick Wood, a paediatrician and immunisation expert from the University of Sydney, said in theory, the first exposure to COVID should give some natural immunity that would stop people getting as sick the second time around.

"Your prior immunological exposure, natural infection and vaccine history all probably plays into how you as the individual deal with your second infection," he said.

People who were immune-suppressed or who had ongoing respiratory problems from the first infection would be more impacted with subsequent infections, he said.

"That's all the difficulties in teasing it out how severe, but I think the general, the belief is that the second or third infection are probably less severe than the initial primary infection."

Dr Wood said the BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants of Omicron were able to evade both vaccine-induced immunity and infection from a previous variant.

"The immunity that they generate is not enough to stop you being infected," he said.

He said that over time, experts hope that as new variants come along, the population is more able to deal with them because of past infections or vaccination……

On the 24th of this month The Sydney Morning Herald reported that:

Researchers investigating long COVID cases in Australia say 5 per cent of people infected with COVID-19 will develop the condition. The prevalence of long COVID before vaccinations were available was an estimated 10 per cent.

“The 55,000 people in Australia who tested positive today ... equates to 2000 to 3000 new cases of long COVID,” Kovacic said. To date, Australia has recorded almost 9 million COVID-19 cases.

Even after accounting for reinfection “we’re looking at almost half a million people who are going to be suffering long-term symptoms in the coming months”, Kovacic said.

The Guardian newspaper reported on 27 July 2022 that a serosurvey of antibodies to the virus detected in blood donations, conducted at the Kirby Institute and the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS), had found that in 5,139 blood donations received from adults between 9 June and 18 June evidence of past COVID-19 infection was detected in 46.2% of samples. A previous examination of blood donors in late February 2022 had found evidence of past infection in only 17% of blood donors.

Noni Winkler, an author of the findings and an epidemiologist at the NCIRS, said the sample size was large enough to reflect rates of the virus in the broader adult population. It should be noted that seroprevalence estimates may miss approximately 20% of infections.

According to the federal Dept. of Health, as of Thursday 27 July 2022 there were est. 373,868 confirmed active COVID-19 cases across Australia. A total of 499,566 of these cases were newly confirmed within the previous 24 hours.

At that point 5,364 COVID-19 infected people were hospitalised, with 145 in intensive care units including 38 patients requiring ventilation.

The national daily COVID-19 death toll on 27 July was 126 people.

By 27 July the cumulative total of confirmed COVID-19 cases stood at 9,235,014 – a figure that can only be described as a massive under reporting of the actual number of infected individuals between 25 January 2020 to 27 July 2022.

The cumulative total of confirmed deaths due to COVID-19 for the same time period is 11,387 deaths of men, women & children. The federal Dept. of Health records that 14 of these deaths were in children 0 to 9 years of age and est. 8,843 were in people aged 70 to 90+ years of age.

Needless to say, the highest cumulative death tolls up to 27 July are in the east coast mainland states of Victoria (4,433), New South Wales (4,051) and Queensland (1,510).

NSW Dept. of Health as at 4pm on Wednesday. 27 July 2022:

In the December 2021 - January 2022 during a SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant surge period in New South Wales, when the public health response was visibly failing to meet even the most basic needs (information, testing & general support) of people expected to self-manage their COVID-19 infection at home, anecdotal evidence began to surface in Northern NSW that individuals and whole families were no longer reporting the result of RAT tests to NSW Health or seeking PCR testing where it was still available.

It was at that point that official government pandemic statistics in Australia were broken beyond repair as a predictive tool with regard to future pandemic behaviour and, effective federal-state public health strategies withered away in the face of continuously climbing infection and mortality figures in the most populous states.

Consumer Price Inflation now stands at 6.1% in the 12 months to end of June 2022 in Australia - rising 1.8% in the June Quarter

 

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), media release, 27 July 2022:

SOURCE: Consumer Price Index, Australia, June 2022

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 1.8 per cent in the June 2022 quarter and 6.1 per cent annually, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Head of Prices Statistics at the ABS, Michelle Marquardt, said "The quarterly increase of 1.8 per cent was the second highest since the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), following on from a 2.1 per cent increase last quarter."

The most significant contributors to the rise in the June quarter CPI were new dwellings (+5.6 per cent) and automotive fuel (+4.2 per cent).

"Shortages of building supplies and labour, high freight costs and ongoing high levels of construction activity continued to contribute to price rises for newly built dwellings. Fewer grant payments made this quarter from the Federal Government's HomeBuilder program and similar state-based housing construction programs also contributed to the rise," said Ms Marquardt.

"The CPI's automotive fuel series reached a record level for the fourth consecutive quarter. Fuel prices rose strongly over May and June, following a fall in April due to the fuel excise cut."

The price of goods (+2.6 per cent) continued to rise more strongly than that of services (+0.6 per cent). Notable rises were recorded across the food group (+2.0 per cent) and the furnishings, household equipment and services group (+2.5 per cent). Main contributors to the rise in food prices included vegetables (+7.3 per cent), meals out and takeaway foods (+1.4 per cent), and fruit (+3.7 per cent). Supply chain disruptions due to flooding events, labour shortages, and rising freight costs contributed to higher prices. Furniture prices rose (+7.0 per cent) due to increased transport and material costs, and stock shortages.

Services recorded a smaller rise compared with goods. Financial services (+1.2 per cent) and holiday travel and accommodation (+2.3 per cent) rose. Child care (-7.3 per cent) fell as the full effect of additional child care subsidies for families with two or more children under the age of 6, which commenced on 7 March, flowed through into this quarter. Before and after school care vouchers offered by the NSW Government also contributed to the fall in child care costs. Urban transport fares (-4.4 per cent) fell due to free travel periods introduced by the NSW and Tasmanian State Governments within the quarter.

Annually, the CPI rose 6.1 per cent, with new dwellings (+20.3 per cent) and automotive fuel (+32.1 per cent) the most significant contributors.

"The annual rise in the CPI is the largest since the introduction of the goods and services tax (GST)."

"Annual price inflation for new dwellings was the strongest recorded since the series commenced in 1999," said Ms Marquardt.

Underlying inflation measures reduce the impact of irregular or temporary price changes in the CPI. Trimmed mean inflation increased to 1.5 per cent over the quarter and 4.9 per cent over the year. The price of goods (+8.4 per cent) continued to rise more strongly through the year than that of services (+3.3 per cent).

"Annual trimmed mean inflation was the highest since the series commenced in 2003 and annual goods inflation was the highest since 1987, as the impacts of supply disruptions, rising shipping costs and other global and domestic inflationary factors flowed through the economy," said Ms Marquardt.

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

https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/price-indexes-and-inflation/consumer-price-index-australia/jun-2022

SOCIAL SECURITY (ADMINISTRATION) AMENDMENT (REPEAL OF CASHLESS DEBIT CARD AND OTHER MEASURES) BILL 2022 closes the cashless debit card program no later than 19 September 2022 and repeals Part 3D of the Social Security (Administration) Act 1999 (Administration Act) no later than six months after bill becomes law

The SOCIAL SECURITY (ADMINISTRATION) AMENDMENT (REPEAL OF CASHLESS DEBIT CARD AND OTHER MEASURES) BILL 2022 came before the Australian Parliament on the second sitting day of the 47^th Parliament at 11:53am.

This bill closes the cashless debit card program no later than 19 September 2022 and repeals Part 3D of the Social Security (Administration) Act 1999 (Administration Act) on the day on which Part 2 of Schedule 1 to the Social Security (Administration) Amendment (Repeal of Cashless Debit Card and Other Measures) Act 2022 commences, ie no later than six months after the bill receives Royal Assent.

The bill was introduced by the Minister for Social Services, Amanda Rishworth MP.

The Minister read into the Hansard record in part, the following:

The bill will:

• Remove the ability for any new entrants to be put on the card;

• Enable the more than 17,000 existing cashless debit card participants to be progressively transitioned off the card as soon as the bill receives royal assent, which we aim to have occur in the next sitting period, in September, allowing for participants to regain the financial freedom they've been asking for;

• Enable the Family Responsibilities Commission to continue to support their community members by placing them onto income management where the need exists;

• Allows for me to determine, following further consultation with First Nations people and my colleagues, how the Northern Territory participants on the CDC will transition, and the income management arrangements that will exist; and

• Finally, it will allow for the repeal of the cashless debit card on a day to be fixed by proclamation or a maximum of six months after royal assent—allowing for the necessary time to support a staged transition off the card. It will also make consequential amendments to a number of other acts and effectively removes CDC from all social services legislation.

Our absolute priority is to ensure participants are supported through their transition off the card in a safe and structured way.

This will be done through extensive communication and an outreach strategy so that participants are well informed about the changes and what it means for them.

Information and education sessions will be held in each cashless debit card site over the transition period with culturally appropriate information and support.

Services Australia will conduct individually targeted transitional support interviews for those who need it, or want this additional assistance, to make sure exiting participants are well informed on the options available to them.

Not everyone will need this level of assistance—but this approach will ensure no-one is left behind due to being forced onto this card by the former government…..

The bill was read a second time on 27 July, with debate adjourned [Luke Howarth, LNP Qld MP] and the resumption of the debate made an order of the day for the next sitting.

I suspect that the forthcoming debate may be rather politically uncivil on the part of Coalition Opposition MPs. Given the brief prelude by way of interjection by backbench LNP MP for Longman Terry Young and Shadow Minister for Education & Liberal MP for Aston Alan Tudge - a cashless debit card enthusiast who as then Minister for Human Services made a joint announcement in March 2017 extending the debit card trial sites, with then Minister for Social Services Christian Porter.

Byron Writer's Festival returns as a live 3-day event from 26-28 August 2022 at North Byron Parklands

The Byron Writers Festival 2022 will be held on 26 to 28 August, with a program of 99 sessions with writers, commentators, environmentalists, poets, politicians, comedians and artists who together shape stories of hope, courage and change.

The full program across these three days can be found at:

https://byronwritersfestival.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/BWF_2022Program_web.pdf

All 2022 Festival tickets are now on sale, subject to availability and booking fees. 3-Day, 1-Day and Kids & Family Passes give access to sessions taking place at the Festival site, North Byron Parklands. Feature Events, Satellite Events and Workshops are separately ticketed and take place at venues throughout the region.

 

Contact:

Street Address

2/58 Centennial Circuit

Byron Bay, NSW 2481

Postal Address

PO Box 1846

Byron Bay, NSW 2481

Telephone: (02) 6685 5115

Fax: (02) 6685 5166

Email: via website at https://byronwritersfestival.com/contact-us/

Echo, 26 July 2022:

The Byron Writers Festival is set to feature more than 20 Indigenous writers and storytellers this year, leading discussions with a focus on healing and learning.

The stories of Australia’s eminent and emerging First Nations writers will be at the forefront of the festival, which begins on August 26.

‘Byron Writers Festival has again delivered a strong and tightly curated program which platforms leading First Nations thinkers, writers and poets from across the continent – a diverse range of voices that are much at the forefront of our national dialogue,’ Byron Writers Festival Board Member, and Bundjalung man Daniel Browning said.

Clockwise from top left: Evelyn Araluen, Bruce Pascoe, Marcia Langton, Paul Callaghan, Jackie Huggins, Aaron Fa’Aoso. Image: Byron Writers Festival

The ongoing impacts of colonisation will be among the topics explored at the main festival site, with some of the country’s leading intellectuals including Marcia Langton, Jackie Huggins, Chelsea Watego and Veronica Gorrie taking the stage.

The Thea Astley Address will be delivered by Professor Judy Atkinson on the power of stories to heal.

Black Comedy stars Steven Oliver and Aaron Fa’aoso will also be part of a line-up that will include Bronwyn and Ella Noah Bancroft, Danny Teece-Johnson and emerging authors Megan Albany and Mykaela Saunders.

The program will also showcase experts in First Nations science including Bruce Pascoe, Corey Tutt and Krystal De Napoli and Karlie Noon, whose book Sky Country explores Indigenous astronomy.

Mia Thom, an emerging Bundjalung leader who was co-organiser of the School Strike for Climate movement within the Byron Shire will take part in the panel ‘Leaders for the New Age’ and the Saturday night feature event ‘Radical Hope’.

Paul Callaghan will share how Indigenous thinking can change your life in sessions focused on healing and wellbeing.

‘No writers’ festival in Australia would be complete without a strong representation of First Nations voices,’ Artistic Director Zoe Pollock said.

‘Particularly in this moment, when we are facing the climate crisis head on, more space needs to be created for Indigenous people to share their knowledge and lead discussions around the way forward.’

In the evenings the Brunswick Picture House will become a hub of highlight events including ‘Bundjalung Nghari – Indigenise’ presented in association with theatre company NORPA and curated by Rhoda Roberts featuring Bundjalung stories written by Steven Oliver, Kylie Caldwell, Ella Noah Bancroft, Melissa Lucashenko and Daniel Browning.

The festival has also partnered with Blak & Bright curator Jane Harrison to present ‘The Bogong’, a Blak version of ‘The Moth’, featuring award-winning poet Evelyn Araluen amongst six brilliant First Nations authors in spoken word form.

Every year Byron Writers Festival fundraises for the important work undertaken by the Indigenous Literary Foundation. Festival patrons are encouraged to make a donation in one the orange boxes that will be circulating the festival site with volunteers or at the ILF tent.

Cartoons of the Week

Cathy Wilcox

Fiona Katauskas

David Rowe