Thursday, July 23, 2020
Largest deficit since World War II
Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg will today reveal an “eye-watering” budget deficit of nearly $90 billion for 2019-20, which will more than double the following financial year. Today’s pre-budget economic statement will detail the largest deficit as a percentage of GDP since World War II, reports The Australian, on the back of the COVID-19 pandemic and summer bushfires. The back-to-back deficits combined are projected to hit $280 billion by mid-next year. “What we want to do is not see any reduction in the services, or increases in the taxes, that’s not our track record,” Frydenberg will say. Global ratings agency Moody’s predicted Australia would enter recession this year, with real GDP to contract by 4.9 per cent. Opposition Treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers said the government should be releasing “four years of numbers” instead of a two-year forecast. “We need to know how bad the government expects this recession to get, how high unemployment will be for how long, and how much extra debt has piled up,” he said. Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe this week said the debt is “entirely manageable and affordable”.
As of 11.59pm last night, residents of metropolitan Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire are required to cover their face when they leave the house or risk a $200 fine. Acceptable face coverings include medical or reusable cloth masks, scarves, and handkerchiefs. A Victoria Police spokesperson said officers would “exercise discretion” for the next week, reports the ABC, but that clear breaches would be penalised, for instance if someone has a mask but refuses to wear it when requested. Melbourne's Louise Boyd, who runs Etsy website Loooeezee Handcrafts, said demand is booming for masks, with items adorned with AFL team logos proving popular. Chief health officer Brett Sutton warned against vilifying unmasked people, noting that some cannot wear them because of medical or psychological reasons. The restrictions come a day after Victoria reported a record 484 new cases of Covid-19. The Royal Melbourne Hospital this week took delivery of 22 new ventilators, reports The Herald Sun. RMH ICU nurse unit manager Michelle Spence said the new ventilators were vital in preparing for the coming weeks, with hospitalisations following about 10 days behind the trend in overall Covid-19 cases
An Australia Institute analysis found that 723,700 employees of companies receiving JobKeeper were laid off because they were ineligible for wage subsidies. The analysis of a Treasury review of the scheme indicates that between mid-March and the end of April half of all ineligible employees of companies claiming the payment were laid off. “Too many workers in highly casualised and insecure industries, such as arts and entertainment, hospitality, retail and accommodation have been intentionally overlooked by this scheme and now we are seeing the consequences in black and white,” David Richard, a senior research fellow at the Australia Institute, told Guardian Australia.
The Chinese navy confronted five Australian warships in the South China Sea last week when they sailed close to the contested Spratly Islands, reports the ABC. In a statement, a Defence spokesperson said “unplanned interactions with foreign warships throughout the deployment were conducted in a safe and professional manner”. The Australian warships were heading towards the Philippine Sea for training exercises with the United States and Japan. It comes as tensions rise between the US and Beijing, with the US government ordering China to "cease all operations and events" at its consulate in Houston, Texas. Local media shared video of what appeared to be officials inside the compound burning documents.
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This week
What led to Victoria’s extraordinary shutdown
The Andrews government cannot identify any legislation it needed to override, but experts say that is the point.When Daniel Andrews signed a declaration for a state of disaster in Victoria at 1.43pm on Sunday, it was a part of a final salvo in a battle to control a resurgent and invisible enemy.
Super funds transformed by Liberal ideology
The Morrison government’s superannuation changes risk turning the scheme into ‘privately funded unemployment insurance’.
Opening the Ghislaine Maxwell files
New files ordered released in the Ghislaine Maxwell case reveal the depth of her involvement in child sex-trafficking offences that implicate Prince Andrew, the former leader of the US senate and others.
Murray–Darling could need Reserve Bank-style regulator
As the ACCC hands down its interim report on the Murray–Darling water markets, one architect of the current system says a Reserve Bank-like body is needed to manage the rights.
Wiradyuri conceptual artist Amala Groom
For Amala Groom, making art is a collaboration between herself and her Wiradyuri ancestors. Drawing on her history and culture, as well as her legal training, she seeks to subvert the colonial project. “Colonialism affects all of us … To be change agents we have to be inclusive, and Aboriginal culture is inclusive.”
Policing as part of the national psyche
There are two striking aspects of Australia’s response to coronavirus: the first is that it’s being increasingly led as a police issue, and the second is that this is happening while the rest of the world works to reform and curtail police powers. As other democracies talk about abolition, we’re sending armed officers into housing blocks and calling it public health.
Morrison backtracks on WA border closure
Scott Morrison keeps misreading the mood of a nation gripped by fear. Nowhere is this more obvious than his now-abandoned legal case against state border closures – or, to be more precise, against the lockouts in the Labor-governed states of Western Australia and Queensland. The Liberal-governed states of Tasmania and South Australia escaped his censure.
It was quite something to tune in to the first episode of Bunter and Georgina Downer’s geopolitical podcast, where they discussed the recent AUSMIN meeting, the upcoming United States presidential election and the future of war. Father and daughter get along famously as they take us on a wide sweep through the trickiest global thickets, with memos about Condoleezza Rice’s determination to play golf, China’s dominance in the rare earth market, Joe Biden’s “flaky” interviews, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, fishing quotas in British waters and Russia’s anti-satellite rocket program.
Andrew Bolt has made a career finding vulnerable people and devising new ways of punishing them. When you consider this, his views on the elderly are not surprising, just inhumane. Bolt doesn’t want the old to die, but he believes we overstate the tragedy of their deaths. “Note: 40 per cent of aged-care home residents die within nine months. The average stay is just under three years,” he writes. “So Victoria’s bans are doing huge damage to – essentially – save aged-care residents from dying a few months earlier.” Quixotically, the column is titled “How to save Victoria from the coronavirus”.
Could Adani drop its Qld mine and head to NSW?
As fossil fuel prices collapse, there is growing speculation that Adani might throw in its Carmichael operation to buy BHP’s massive Mount Arthur thermal coalmine instead.
Pandemic and inequality keys to November poll
Presidential candidates adjust convention plans due to Covid-19. US death toll passes 158,000. Democrat Joe Biden has lead in latest polls.
As a dark comedy about self-absorbed millennial killers, Search Party focuses heavily on the lies that bind. In doing so, it also tells a lot of insightful truths.
Bill watches Joyce gather the kids for a photo. He’s seated on the front lawn, next to the overgrown bougainvillea, an oxygen tank by his side, tubes to his nose. He watches Joyce arrange the children – their adult daughters who both turned up in striped jumpers and jeans. The two of them are laughing about the coincidence. Ratty sneakers too, which can apparently be edited out on the computer. Would a dress have killed them? But he should be kind. Mel and Jennifer kissed him fondly, and Jennifer even slipped him a half-pouch of Drum. Luke, always the youngest child, is doing that funny thing where he picks up one of the small children and plays them like a guitar. It may be their last photo, although nobody is saying that.
The beverage director for Andrew McConnell’s restaurants recommends her current favourite drops.
In August 1981, MTV began its very first broadcast with which song?
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