ALBO FINALLY SAYS SOMETHING
According to The Sydney Morning Herald and ABC, Labor leader Anthony Albanese will today deliver a broad vision statement calling for decentralisation, manufacturing, social housing construction, and (his personal favourite) a high-speed rail as part of a “once-in-a-generation” chance to reshape the economy post-COVID-19.
Albanese will also dismiss Scott Morrison‘s rhetoric about a “bounce back” economy as other Labor MPs suggest payments for JobSeeker and JobKeeper may need to be extended after September, SBS reports. This follows a report from SkyNews that the Coalition is “seriously considering” winding them down from July.
IN CASE WE NEEDED ANOTHER REASON: A new Deloitte report suggests unemployment is unlikely to return to pre-crisis levels until late-2024, according to The New Daily.
CHINA FIGHTS BATTLES ON MULTIPLE FRONTS
As The Sydney Morning Herald reports, Chinese authorities are facing a potential new wave of COVID-19 cases in north-east China, where a city in the Jilin province has been reclassified as the highest-risk category, as Wuhan reports its first new case in a month.
Meanwhile, The AFR ($) reports that Canberra is grappling with a 10-day deadline to convince Beijing not to raise tariffs of more than 80% on imports of Australian barley.
Finally, the ABC has unpacked a press release from China rebutting 24 “preposterous allegations” by US politicians over its handling of the outbreak; these range from denying the “man made” conspiracy theory to trying to justify the expulsion of US journalists as a weird tit-for-tat.
IN MORE GOSSIPY NEWS: According to The SMH, Malaysia’s opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has backed a measured inquiry into the original outbreak, while The Guardian has George Christensen issuing a far-less tactful threat to summon the Chinese ambassador to a parliamentary committee.
QLD, TAS AND WA ANNOUNCE ROADMAPS
Following the release of Scott Morrison‘s broad, three-step plan to ease restrictions, the Queensland, Tasmania, ACT and South Australian governments have all unveiled roadmaps to reopening. South Australia’s ‘step one’, for example, will allow groups of up to 10 people in cafes and libraries from today.
Yesterday, Western Australia released its own guide — notably with ‘phase two’, May 18, to bring the number of intra-state borders from 13 to only four (not including the Commonwealth Biosecurity zone and remote communities) — while NSW announced it will allow outdoor and cafe gatherings of 10 from this Friday.
AND THEN THERE WAS ONE: According to The Age, Victoria will have to wait until Thursday for news of any changes to restrictions. The state will also see a $20 million funding boost to mass-testing as cases continue to be traced from the Cedar Meats outbreak.
[free_worm]
THEY REALLY SAID THAT?
Katie [Miller], she tested very good for a long period of time, and then all of the sudden she tested positive … This is why the whole concept of tests aren’t necessarily great … Today, I guess, for some reason, she tested positive.
Donald Trump
Faced with news that a White House staffer has tested positive for COVID-19, the president of the United States takes aim at the linear nature of time.
CRIKEY RECAP
Under COVID cover, Morrison enacts a war on culture — and wins
“Well, whatever else the Morrison government falls short on, you can’t fault them on their appetite for political warfare.
“Under cover of the coronavirus emergency, they have performed a coup de grace on Australia’s universities, film and TV industries, and arts and cultural sector.”
Neoliberals urge policymakers to take the road to Beijing — putting profits first and national security aside
“The pandemic continues to serve up illuminating examples of the mindset of worried neoliberals, who fear they are watching the gains of the last 30 years crumbling before their eyes.
“Not merely have governments of all stripes been forced to embrace truly historic deficit spending to prop up their economies and hand-hold entire industries, but borders have been shut the world over, temporarily closing down the immigration that is fundamental to neoliberal economics and raising the possibility that the temporary migrants on whom so many industries rely to keep wage costs down will vanish.”
Folly of catching falling knives: a tale of two different crashes
“The bleeding obvious award of this week has to go to the corporate regulator for its report finding small investors playing the market during the recent crash were likely to have lost money.
“No, really? There’s a turnup for the books.
“That inexperienced investors would throw their money into a market that most professional investors were avoiding — what could possibly go wrong?”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
‘On fast forward’: Australian stocks stage recovery
Left right out: faction forced Trad’s exit ($)
‘Party embarrassed, community infuriated’: Nats look to oust Barilaro
‘A furphy’: Gaping hole found in Murray River pledge, paper finds
Green steel could save jobs, exports, emissions ($)
Fauci in quarantine as Trump projects confidence and urges states to reopen
Elite schools face fee hikes under means-tested funding ($)
Coronavirus prompts regional migration trend as people seek simpler life
Furious Elon Musk threatens to quit California over COVID-19 rules
Trans-Tasman tourism ‘bubble’ on cruise lines’ itinerary ($)
THE COMMENTARIAT
The case for building a COVID-proof fence ($) — Grant Wilson (The AFR): “The eastern borders of the Northern Territory and South Australia remain closed, in the way they are today. Interstate travel would recommence, but not across this ‘COVID-proof fence’ without an exemption or quarantine. Importantly, rather than providing negative incentives for the west to ‘catch down’ to the east, the east would be provided with positive incentives to catch up to the west.”
Coronavirus: Morrison must stage a dramatic rescue of the arts ($) — Josh Burns (The Australian): “In 1994, Paul Keating released Creative Nation, an arts policy that was designed to ‘pull the threads of Australia’s national life together so we can ride the waves of global change and create our own’. These objectives are just as vital today as we face an arts sector on its knees.”
A-lop-bam-boom: Little Richard’s saucy style underpins today’s hits — Rebecca Sheehan (The Conversation): “Little Richard was washing dishes at a Greyhound bus station in Macon, Georgia when he wrote Tutti Frutti, Good Golly Miss Molly and Long Tall Sally. The singer, who died Saturday at 87, sent the songs as demos to Specialty Records.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
Ah, the Very Fast Train! A project for very vast legal fraud on the public, in the finest traditions of the American railroad tycoons and other business magnates; in the even vaster hucksterings of American railway expansion, the only people spared the burdens of wealth were those who actually did the work.
J.K. Galbraith wrote that American railroad moguls were truly dependent on the freedom of the press – when someone tried taking them over, they simply printed more stock certificates than their predator could ever afford to buy; in at least one instance, the printing press was protected by armed guards.
This grubby Very Fast Train scheme has nothing meaningful to do with improving public transport or relieving congestion. It is specifically intended to drive up house prices in regional areas, just as exporting LNG from Qld drove up eastern states gas prices. It is all about lowering the economic threshold and increasing the economic range of property development. Parasitic projects of this sort are the polar opposite of what we need, especially since they are specifically intended not only to increase disparity of wealth but to ensure the maximum private taxation of the supposed benefits.
But, it is a good measure of today’s ALP (Alternative Liberal Party) that this effort to square votes and vested interests is the best that what’s-his-name can do.
If Labor’s what’s-his-name wants to do anything better, he could urge a statutory marketing authority be set up to stockpile barley by buying it from barley growers whenever the current available market price is more than say 5% below the 3-year trend average for China FOB barley prices. Barley will keep for years in properly designed storages and could be sold on the global market or to China whenever the price exceeds the purchase price plus 10%.
Before being flooded with the customary Rightist propaganda and smear, let’s not forget the Australian Wool Commission. After the farmers and farmer organisations drove the Wool Reserve Price Scheme to ruin, they left that Commission with 3 million bales to clear. It did, and ultimately paid back all the Commonwealth’s loans PLUS a dividend to the woolgrowers. I don’t see Gunns managing such a result, or HIH Insurance, or One. Tel or Alan Bond or Virgin Airlines, or morrison even wanting to.
Let’s not forget, too, that Victorian dairy farmer and manufacturing representative bodies supported Kennett’s removal of the dairy industry equalisation and stabilisation scheme, largely destroying the dairy industry.
Nor that once this same scheme could have been done through the now-destroyed Australian Barley Board. But naturally the servants of transnational capitalism will demand yet again that yet another of our industries be destroyed to feed their greed. And the ALP (Alternative Liberal Party) will applaud.
Good to see that someone remembers Bill (Sir William) Gunn – he loathed the title and never wore a tie.
He was correct but “a prophet has no honour in his own country” John 4:44.
I’m despairing. Is this the best that Labor under Albo can deliver? High speed rail? More of that old chestnut? In this, the prime opportuinity to re-frame what “normal” looks like post-Covid19, this is what Albo’s Labor offers??
Seriously, the worst government and PM in Asutralia’s history has no need to fear this dud. No, not “dude”. Dud.
What is going on with Crikey – yet another article with comments switched off.
That’s four in the last fortnight – I refuse to read something on which we are forbidden to comment.
If I wanted that sort of overbearing intolerance there’s always the Morlock’s rags.
I don’t and will not subscribe to a supposedly independent progressive site which is so censorious and arrogant.
Ironically, for years I found ‘The Australian’ far more tolerant of my comments than ‘The Conversation’, which at one stage had a policy of global lifetime bans for a first offence. Applied with malevolence, too.
Crikey does the same total banning for wrongthink – AR being a recent example.