POLICE GO HOG WILD
Day one of new authoritarian measures saw some examples of police overreach, with The Australian ($) reporting that NSW police officers threatened to fine people in parks who were otherwise obeying social distancing laws and ordered them to return home.
While threatening people obeying those rules, is, on the face of it, pointless, there is hope the social distancing measures themselves have begun ‘flattening the curve’, with the ABC reporting that, according to Health Minister Greg Hunt, new national cases have fallen from 25–30% over a week ago to just 9% this week.
VICTORIANS MUST NOT BONK: According to Victorian Police Minister Lisa Neville, people in the state cannot visit their partners for social reasons. For a state-by-state guide, see the ABC’s report, alternatively, for a frankly wild read, try Victoria’s FAQ.
PRIVATE HOSPITALS NO MORE?
According to The Conversation, the federal government has announced a $1.3 billion partnership with the private health sector to secure 30,000 hospital beds, 105,000 nursing staff, and essential equipment and supplies, including ventilators and personal protective equipment.
State and territory governments will create their own agreements to integrate Australia’s 657 private and not-for-profit hospitals into public systems, while the federal government will pay half the costs.
JUST SHORT OF NATIONALISATION: While agreements will act as a lifeline for private health following the ban on non-elective surgeries, they are also conditional on lost revenue from that measure and, presumably, will end when the ban does.
OUT OF STOCK
In state news, 10Daily reports Victoria has banned the sale of firearms and ammunition after applications doubled amid the pandemic — OK, terrifying — while Queensland and WA are introducing similar measures.
And in NSW, AAP reports the government has allowed pharmacies to dispense medicines without prescriptions and operate 24/7, but will seek to prevent bulk purchases to ensure supply — for example, Ventolin brand inhalers for asthma.
WHAT ABOUT GUN NATION? According to The Guardian, gun and ammunition sales have soared in the US, and while some kind of ‘gun control’ might be useful in this situation, The New York Times reports they have been listed as essential services in some states.
[free_worm]
INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY DEMANDS
According to our friends over at Croakey, more than two dozen doctors and medical professionals have written an open letter to Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt calling for the following measures to protect Indigenous people and communities.
- The cessation of all non-essential fly-in-fly-out workforce contact.
- The urgent release of all minor offenders from custody and those not deemed a threat to others, particularly young people, women, the elderly and those with pre-existing health conditions.
- A government guarantee of essential supplies to remote communities amid reports of shortages including food, toilet paper and hand sanitiser, cleaning supplies and ammunition for hunting.
- The provision of clear, accurate and timely information, in local languages, that also recognises the intersection of culture with public health imperatives.
- Specialist training, appropriate PPE and testing capability for health workers in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and remote communities, as well as a guarantee of other essential health services (dialysis, mental health and telehealth, for example) and medicines.
The call came as the government released its Management Plan For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Populations, which, for just one example within operational plans, does consider diversionary programs as a means of reducing overcrowding in prisons.
ANGRY AMAZON WORKERS WALK OUT
Finally, because pandemics bring out both the worst and best in people, Amazon workers in America have walked off the job over safety concerns, the company then fired a lead organiser, Chris Smalls, and now Newsweek reports that New York’s Attorney-General Letitia James has threatened the company with legal action.
Swings and roundabouts!
THEY REALLY SAID THAT?
In 50 and 100 years’ time, I suspect people will look back on this national cabinet as being one of the most amazing achievements of the federation in Australia’s first 200 years. That’s my honest view.
Greg Hunt
Our ever humble health minister reflects on the slight inconsistencies between federal, state and territory measures.
CRIKEY RECAP
Rich are different. But they’re not that different — even in Aspen, darling
“You can almost hear the sound of pitchforks being sharpened.
“Last week, the NSW and Victorian governments released damning data which showed the biggest clusters of COVID-19 infections were located in some of the states’ most affluent areas: the beachside areas of Sydney’s eastern suburbs, and Toorak and the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria.”
Pandemic sends Australia lurching towards authoritarianism
“Fascism only has one allegedly positive attribute, and that is competent efficiency. Given that the Coalition’s one trumpeted achievement — its ability to stop boats — turns out to be a mirage (285 of NSW’s 1900 COVID-19 cases came off cruise ships), its sudden lurch to authoritarian rule is a bit of an unfunny laugh.”
Socialism? You’re kidding. The PM is using the state to save capitalism
“Well, this is all happening very fast. And pretty much simultaneously. As the Morrison government announced an unprecedented degree of direct state support for the private sector, largely targeted at wage support, the Victorian and NSW state governments brought down a series of legal restrictions on everyday social life that can only be described as totalitarian.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Josh Frydenberg tells G20 to put global economy into ‘hibernation’ during coronavirus crisis
Government faces fiscal reckoning as taxes collapse and spending soars
Exclusive: Two Australian Border Force officials contracted coronavirus
Coronavirus: Queensland public servants get pay rise as other workers do it tough
New percentage pay deal on cards for cricketers as cash crisis looms
Australian airlines ask government for up to $5.6bn to survive the coronavirus crisis
Coronavirus: Emerald opens first GP-led rural respiratory clinic
People over 65 to be given new flu shot for free
Civil liberties concerns over Australian police powers to issue fines for coronavirus rule breaches
World Bank warns of ‘third shock’ after coronavirus and trade war
THE COMMENTARIAT
Lockdowns will kill people too ($) — Parnell Palme McGuinness (Australian Financial Review): “Six months in which children who have been separated from their friend networks will supposedly be ‘remote schooled’ by parents who may or may not have the time, ability, or inclination to support their learning – or who may be struggling with the effects of the lockdown themselves. In which dysfunctional families are trapped together with their anxieties, violent abusers with their victims, lonely people with their aloneness.”
It’s not too early to start thinking about Australia after the crisis — Jim Chalmers (The Guardian): “We are all in this together” is more than a matter of saying we are all at risk from coronavirus, or that we all have a responsibility to follow the rules – we are, and we do. We are all in this together is also about what happens next. It’s about the Australia we want to live in when life is normal again.”
Cities In The Time Of Coronavirus — Claire Collie (Meanjin): “People think me foolish when I tell them I caught public transport to Melbourne to get a flushot at my central city workplace. The partial, confusing lockdown had just been instated, whereby everyone was encouraged to stay at home, leaving only for the essentials.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Sydney
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University of Sydney academics will hold a webinar discussion about the ethical issues raised by Australia’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, clinical care and public health.
How many idiots not complying with the social distancing rules does it take to cause the Police to act?
How much contempt for human rights is required to create a police state?
So there should be no rules about stopping the spread of the virus?
IF people had obeyed the rules around gatherings and social distancing then the governments would not have needed to introduce tougher restrictions and needed to give police these powers.
These powers are the direct result of people not caring if they spread the virus.
“In 50 and 100 years’ time, I suspect people will look back on this national cabinet as being one of the most amazing achievements of the federation in Australia’s first 200 years. That’s my honest view.”
Greg Hunt
Seriously Mr Hunt, future generations will see this as the government prioritising business and the economy over the welfare of the people.
Case in point: had the government given one little shit about people they would have nationalized the private health industry months ago. Instead of giving money away.
And funny how “mutual obligation” only works for people receiving unemployment benefits, but not to companies receiving massive handouts.
It’s not too early to start thinking about Australia after the crisis.
BIS (Bank of International Settlements, the global banker’s bank) warned years ago that efforts to preserve wealth at any cost are leading to another – far worse – global financial crisis. Covid-19 appears to be tripping that. Next time will involve even greater hardship and division unless we can force a planned transition to a more frugal economy (including nevertheless a much shorter working week) in which the market comes last and environmental and social needs come first.
Examples. Industry Policy is crucial to a more well-paid, more skilled workforce, and a more harmonious society, but has been grossly neglected for far too long. Only a thorough purge of a perverted public service to remove the Rightist hacks and drones can remake it as the essential tool of good government. Fiscal and policy intervention too will be essential countermeasures, just as they long have been. Water needs to go to its best environmental and social use, not to the tax havens of corporate spivs.
Granted, a painful recession is the central aim of ilLiberal Misgovernments and its mainstream media vassals to serve the transnational capitalism that they represent, so as to allow large cuts in wages and conditions and further large wealth transfers to the filthy rich. Likewise they’ll save a failing private airline like Virgin while gloating over their destruction of the car manufacturing industry that during the coronavirus pandemic could quickly have turned out ventilators for ICUs.
To prevent the bankster/rentier class from again profiting from our misfortune, not only should house prices be left to fall (while saving mortgagees), but also (assuming a guarantee of deposits) banks and airlines should be left to fail, then taken over for $1. Our society is what deserves saving, not the corporate criminals.