A death in Victoria takes the national coronavirus death toll to 103. And as the state’s COVID-19 cases continue to climb, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has resisted calls to close the borders. But she has advised businesses to shun Melbourne customers.
Australians’ trust in the US and China has fallen in the pandemic, while Prime Minister Scott Morrison addresses claims of pork barrelling as he flags extra cash for regional electorates.
Neighbourly feud
Berejiklian has told tourism operators and businesses to turn away Melburians travelling from the city’s six COVID-19 hotspots as community transmission increases.
A man in his eighties has died from COVID-19 overnight in Victoria, and the state has recorded 20 new cases in the last 24 hours, marking a full week of daily double-digit growth. Most cases are still under investigation, though two are linked to a family cluster in Keilor Downs, which is behind 13 new cases across eight households.
Just one of the 116 coronavirus cases identified in the past week has been traced through the COVIDSafe app.
A plan to divert Australian travellers returning from overseas away from Melbourne has been abandoned.
Victoria’s management of hotel quarantine arrangements had been questioned, with reports that hotel workers had limited expert advice on how to use personal protective equipment when escorting guests and delivering food. Clusters have been attributed to hotel workers spreading the disease in the community.
The Victorian government has also been accused of dropping the ball when it comes to managing crisis communication.
The company in charge of sending out mass messages to close contacts of confirmed cases and recently returned travellers was reportedly only told to start translating messages — which ask if people are still in quarantine, their condition, and test results — on Monday.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has announced officials doorknocking in multicultural communities today will focus on greater cultural and linguistic capability.
Trust in US, China plummets
A Lowy Institute poll has found Australians’ trust in China and the US dropping rapidly.
Of the respondents, 94% said Australia should “reduce our economic dependence on China”, as trust for China’s President Xi Jinping “to do the right thing regarding world affairs” plummeted to 22% — half of what it was in 2018.
Confidence in US President Donald Trump sits at 30% — up 5% from last year. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern tops the list of leaders with 87% of respondents having confidence in her leadership. Just 60% say the same thing about our PM.
Meanwhile, trust that the US will act responsibly in the world sits at 51%.
Perhaps the lack of confidence in Trump has something to do about his repeated jokes about wanting to slow testing down to limit recorded coronavirus cases.
Extra cash for electorates
Scott Morrison has said regional areas may be able to receive the JobKeeper wage subsidy longer than the planned cut-off in late September, arguing many are dependent on tourism.
Morrison made the announcement while campaigning in the NSW south coast electorate of Eden-Monaro, which is set to hold a byelection in less than two weeks. He rejected claims of pork barrelling.
Extra grants worth $86 million have also been made available for primary producers hit hard by the bushfires.
Speaking of cash, it turns out we’re turning away from it: there is virtually no demand for coins following the pandemic. Tens of millions of coins may never make it into circulation as Australians turn to cashless transactions.
The Reserve Bank of Australia had been forced to produce around $2.5 billion when the pandemic first started as people rushed to withdraw their savings, though this has not offset the overall waning demand for cash.
Not sure what the point of these polls are apart from becoming central in developing narratives and consensus round often contentious issues for the benefit of those with antipathy towards China?
‘Of the respondents, 94% said Australia should “reduce our economic dependence on China”, as trust for China’s President Xi Jinping “to do the right thing regarding world affairs” plummeted to 22% — half of what it was in 2018’
One would suggest that the polling conducted by the Social Research Centre on behalf of the Lowy Institute could be flawed when no detail of methodology is given except to say 2500-3000 online and telephone e.g. qualitative research 101 how were questions formulated and then asked?
How do they account for the effect of negative political media obsessions about China in recent months through to outright dog whistling, reinforced often so that negative results are a fait accompli?
What would any random Australian know about China, economic policy etc. let alone being informed to make any objective judgement?
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp gave an enlightened response when asked by mefia about Covid-19, ‘Why ask me, what would I know about medicine?!’
More enlightening was a Lowy Institute article digging deeper to come up with a significant generational divide on both the US and China:
‘Older Australians, who remember life in the Cold War, view China in a particularly threatening light, and seem less disillusioned with the US. The Lowy Poll shows that Australians’ trust in China is in free fall, and almost all Australians (94%) want to find other markets to reduce economic dependence on China. But the majority of young Australians (54%) say China is the most important relationship to Australia. By contrast, 64% of Australians over 60 say that the US is the most important relationship.’
https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/generation-why-younger-australians-wary-united-states
Shows political and electoral divide but the older voters tend to vote more, vote conservative and are catered to……..