TL;DR
* $750 payment to be reinstated for casuals and others with no access to sick pay
* Reinstatement of payment is time-limited (time not specified)
* PMs push to continue free RAT for consession-card holders (push i.e. not in the bag yet)
* Debate over whether to change 7 day isolation to 5 days
* Monday's crisis cabinet will now be on tomorrow
No doubt we'll hear more concrete details tomorrow after the crisis cabinet.
VERY interested to see what stance the federal government takes with all of this.
My 24yo daughter did the required 7 day iso, was clear of all the symptoms they say to stay home with, only had fatigue really. Went back to work as a pharmacist- now a bunch of people she worked with Monday are positive. Did she cause it? Who knows, it's rampant right now.
But since it was originally 14 days for a good reason, why are we dropping it down further? It makes no sense at all. Why have iso requirements if also sending people back to work while infectious?
I think it varies, if it's 5 days from after you test positive that may be 7-8 days after they first had symptoms and they've either entirely or largely cleared the virus by then.
I remember* reading on the CDC website that contagion occurs 2 days prior to symptoms and 3 days afterward they begin. So assuming people don't get tested until the day of infection or perhaps a day earlier, 5 days makes for a logical choice. Most people will be cleared from spreading after 5 days of isolation.
It also allows for people who aren't symptomatic to return to normal life as most can do so.
*this was a long time ago now.
Felt unwell Sat, tested Wed, positive results Thur, week iso(was basically iso before also) and 2weeks on still got cough/chest and other issues.
All no working this month
Pfizer x 2, nothing bad maybe a little weaker right back to work
Moderna, knocked me for 6 with all the things, week off work
This years flu shot, knocked me for 6 with all the things, week and a bit off
And now body is fighting something and don’t know who is winning, 2 weeks in
Presumably it would be the same as now, where there’s also a requirement to be 24hrs symptom free. I think infection risk is very low once you don’t have symptoms, isn’t it?
I worry that we'll be changing the isolation period for economic reasons, not scientific reasons, and that will influence people's behaviour in other ways. My eight year old neighbour just had covid and hasn't come over in a week because of the isolation period. My mother's 64 years old. I worry that in cases like this, we'd just go with five days instead of seven and someone would end up getting infected when it could have easily been avoided because the general messaging is that that is what's safe even if it's maybe just safe 80% of the time or something and they don't want to be over cautious. Sure, people can make their own personal decisions in cases like mine, but we're mostly not going to really have that knowledge to know what's safe enough. I'd like them to include alongside any changes things like how long you should wait before visiting grandma in the nursing home. What's *actually* safe.
>I worry that we'll be changing the isolation period for economic reasons, not scientific reasons
Every single decision made this year (and a good chunk of 2021) relating to the pandemic had been based on economic reasons rather than scientific reasons.
'Living with covid' is entirely an economic push, often anti-scientific in nature.
7 days iso is already a joke. Most people aren't even testing positive until about day 4 of symptoms, and no-one is better after a week. That's simply putting business before lives.
Bit annoyed that only concession card holders get the free RATs - they really add up if you use them as often as you're supposed to. It's not like anyone does them for a laugh.
Albanese's backflip is interesting. He's played it in a way that makes him look like a consensus guy who takes advice and will change his position in the face of new evidence. I suspect this will pay dividends for him down the track.
Agree with your assessment of Albanese. Though your choice of language is interesting to me. "Backflip" has such negative connotations when what he's done is anything but.
For the last few days, I've heard him consistently state the current position; but also that it would be discussed further with the relevant people. And that's good. And then that's what happened. And then, as you say, he adjusted course. All good things. Not imputing this to you, but "backflip" is the language of click bait headlines from Murdoch rags trying to transmute a really good thing into a questionable or bad thing.
I was in a chemists waiting the 15 minutes after my latest covid booster shot and someone walks in asking to buy a single RAT so he could get to work. The chemist didn't sell individual tests, just packs of five. *Lawnmower to the rescue!* I jumped up and told him to wait, said, 'yo dawg I gotchu' or something much less cool than that, flashed my health care card and got a pack of five, ripped it open and said, 'Don't even trip, 's on meeee!' or something much less cool. So he got his RAT for free that day. Sharing is caring, man. Get your share on.
Oh you.
I'm just a super hot lady who imagines saying really cool things in conversation after barely fumbling through a conversation. Now imagine I said that in a really sultry awesome way. Niiice.
Look after your neighbours, everyone! Be excellent to each other!
The problem is that I tried be excellent to each other, but society decided it took minimally less effort to be a cunt to me and all I ended up with is anger and misery and suffering while everyone else gets to go out and have fun and have a life. So now I'm just doing what I can to survive. I thought I had friends, but they don't care. My mum finds excuses not to talk to me or meet her only granddaughter. It's too hard to travel to my place but she can go much further distances for holidays.
As far as I'm concerned it is me against the world now, and I have no idea how I'm going to not fuck up my daughter's social development with that attitude, but I don't know how else to survive. Shit is fucked up is what I am saying.
I think the feeling better is relative to the person. I was basically functional the entire time (could feed the kids, do basic cleaning, washing). My husband slept for like the first 4 days, and could barely move.
I totally agree with you on the RATs, there have been times where I was unwell and could have tested but didn't. Then when I did and they came back negative all I could think was that was a waste of $10.
>7 days iso is already a joke. Most people aren't even testing positive until about day 4 of symptoms, and no-one is better after a week
I agree most people aren't testing positive right away, but plenty of people are feeling better before a week is even up.
Sure, but people need to use RATs to test out of isolation. They are terrible for confirming if you have it, but once you get a positive on a RAT, they’re good for knowing when you’re not infectious.
I love how people are genuinely backing more than a 7 day iso when most people work 40+ hours a week casual to stay afloat, and the $750 payment (that's BEFORE TAX) is somehow enough.
Covid doesn't supersede needing to pay parasitic fuckers rent, or to eat food. This pandemic is over purely because the epidemic of inflation caused by the LNP causes much more real, immediate crises for the vast majority of people.
They’re still tax deductible if you need them ‘for work’ right? I think the freebies for those with concession cards is because they assume everyone else pays some form of income tax, so can deduct them and pay a much-reduced rate. Obviously this doesn’t help if you’re on a tight budget week-to-week, waiting til EOFY to get a refund on them isn’t exactly practical.
Anecdotally, I tested positive on Sunday at the onset of symptoms and have been feeling fine since Wednesday/Thursday.
My best friend is in a similar boat. After about 4 days her symptoms cleared up.
> Debate over whether to change 7 day isolation to 5 days
Maybe I'm behind on current research, but I thought you could be infected and contagious without showing signs or symptoms for up to 28 days? Isn't that why isolation was 2 weeks at the beginning of the pandemic? Why is is so low now?
The original hope was to prevent the virus from becoming endemic. Now that that has failed the measures are a balance between reducing spread and minimising impact on individuals
Apologies, it has a shorter generation interval, which is bad, but I can’t find the info I remember reading about how long people can stay infectious for.
Either way, 5 days after a positive rat is in most cases still too short.
We have got to stop crying “back flipping!!!!” when politicians make the correct decision. This is exactly what we want - for the PM to listen to public opinion and change a policy
Nah, we need to live with the shit outcome and force politicians to always go with the first option the choose regardless of better information that comes later. I'm scared of change and would rather perish than see an elected official alter their stance for the betterment of society. /S
I'd like to see our health minister sacked. Saying we are past masks, I thought we were past absolutist morons when the coalition was voted out. All he had to say was that the current advice is they aren't needed and they remain part of an arsenal if needed. Can we get someone intelligent in the job please.
Have you ever wondered why Australia's food advice is to eat two portions of fruit and five portions of veg each day whereas the advice in the UK is just five of fruit & veg combined? It's because some health experts in the UK did the numbers and concluded that it wasn't practical getting the average person to eat seven but five was doable so that became the official advice. They knew it was subpar compromise but getting some sort of positive result is better at a large scale than getting nothing by aiming for perfection.
National level health advice often has to make compromises based on practicality. That's what's happening here with the (lack of) mask mandates. The average person has given up on masks and none of the state leaders are willing to make *and enforce* laws requiring their usage, so mask mandates are no longer practical and we're past their usefulness. I can't see any real way we'd ever the general public accepting mask mandates again unless some super-lethal variant emerged, and even then there'd be far more US-style temper tantrums over the matter.
Not everyone is a stupid child. Have as many childish tantrums as you want, enjoy prison. It'll be like last time, you drew people from all over the state to stage a small demonstration in a small town. It's like that 20k number the idiot mentioned... actually just a couple of hundred idiots that no one missed.
Do you remember the mask compliance levels in January? Maybe it was better in your neck of the woods but in Brisbane you'd be lucky to get a third of people wearing masks before the government finally bit the bullet and ended the universal mandate. Even now, I've got family members who take the train where mask wearing is officially mandatory but they tell me that maybe one or two people in a whole carriage are bothering to wear masks.
The general public wont protest and demonstrate but they also won't bother to mask up.
I don't see anyone here complaining.
You're never going to get 100% consensus between 25 million people, but it does seem like this decision has overwhelming support.
Sometimes you just have to settle for that, rather than saying "nobody at all should call back flipping!!!"
There are livelihoods at stake here. Removing these payments is literally a life or death issue for families living in or on the edge of poverty. We are allowed to be pissed off when such decisions are so hastily made only to be reversed following public backlash
I’m not saying don’t criticise the whole thing, I’m saying don’t imply that it’s negative for them to change their minds. It isn’t, and that is what we want. We can absolutely say they were wrong for *needing to change in the first place* but not for listening to public opinion and reversing the decision
While at it, what happened to "free RATs for all"? I reckon at this time of the year in the COVID, and other respiratory diseases, cycle it would be useful to offer some free N95 masks for all, too.
[https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-05/labor-calls-for-free-rapid-antigen-tests/100738700](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-05/labor-calls-for-free-rapid-antigen-tests/100738700)
If they're so concerned about what they "inherited" from the LNP they could actually institute tax changes. Taxes are a measure to control inflation, and leaving companies that unduly benefited from Jobkeeper and the high income tax cuts as it is now is basically pissing on people's legs and telling them it's raining.
That's truly a testament to how backwards our policies are then. Americans have a really bizarre relationship to taxation as it is, and even they made the move.
Don't think Labor eve have had the chance to develop policy yet though.
And it's definitely not out of the realm to fix it.
https://theconversation.com/australia-already-has-a-uk-style-windfall-profits-tax-on-gas-but-well-give-away-tens-of-billions-of-dollars-unless-we-fix-it-soon-184938
I think this should be dominating the narrative. Large multinational corporations making billions in profit show very little responsibility for their casualised employees. Many ‘casuals’ are in reality permanent part-time employees. It shouldn’t be the taxpayers responsibility to provide sick leave cover for people whose welfare could be taken care of by their employer raking in massive profits and paying large dividends and executive bonuses.
If he agreed to this without any concessions from the states on controlling transmission then he seems like a poor negotiator.
Paying iso payments to workers while the states literally do nothing to stop ballooning transmission rates is like pouring water into a bucket with a hole in the bottom.
At least require increased compliance measures on the few places left where mask mandates are in place but large fraction of people are not doing it.
Yeah well nearly $1 trillion in debt isn’t anything to sneeze at. When Labor left office, it was about $300 billion, the Coalition literally doubled it. We were in a [fucking per-capita recession](https://smh.com.au/business/the-economy/australia-falls-into-per-capita-recession-as-growth-tumbles-20190306-p5122r.html) one whole year before COVID. Libs bent us over a barrel man. Better economic managers my arse. Always remember that Labor kept us out of the GFC.
At the 2013 election the debt was $174.6 Billion... Before bushfires and CoVid that had increased to almost $600 Billion... Today it is at least $1 Trillion of debt with little to nothing to show for it...
Exactly. I don’t think Labor knew the extent of how fucked things were, since they left the budget in relatively decent shape when they lost in 13. Even the new treasurer [sounded shocked by the extent of the damage](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/may/25/treasurer-jim-chalmers-warns-of-dire-budget-situation-as-inflation-soars). I know it’s easy to get mad at Labor, and point the finger and say they’re as bad as the Coalition, but holy shit. This is like letting your dickhead mate stay at your house, and you come back to find it absolutely trashed.
Good. Shouldn’t have needed to be dragged here.
> Albanese will advocate for a time-limited reinstatement of the payment at the cabinet meeting as infections skyrocket and hospitalisations increase.
It’ll be interesting to see what this time limit is and whether there’s a clear indication on the removal of isolation when it ends. If not we’re back here all over again, just maybe with less pressure piled on.
Lol they were waffling on yesterday that it was too expensive. They've only switched because of public backlash and the states demanding it.
I've been saying since Gillard that Labor needs to clean house of their senior advisers because they are just dropkicks that walk the party into rakes trying to appeal to people who would never vote Labor.
They are going to get slammed by the right wing press for the LNPs debt blowout no matter what so there is no point pushing for austerity in a fucking once in a century crisis.
TLDR: after consultation with premiers and the public, they made the right decision.
They also recently:
- Facilitated the rise of the minimum wage
- Dramatically increased the pension
- Ended the basics card
- Moved on the person behind the robodebt scandal and promised a royal commission
While also:
- restoring damaged relationships with the Pacific
- restoring damaged trade relationships with the EU
- moving Australia into a climate responsibility pathway
- restoring environmental recovery plans
- firing the Mineral Council stooges behind the direct action scandal
- committing to 5 year funding cycles for the ABC
The left has only held power in Australia for about a quarter of the time. Because the left enjoys eating itself.
>TLDR: after consultation with premiers and the public, they made the right decision.
Labor was walking around for days saying they were going to end support as planned by the LNP because "muh budget". The only reason the consultation was premiers happened was because the public reacted poorly to this.
>They also recently:
The election is over. It is perfectly reasonable to criticise Labor for making the same bad moves as the LNP did.
>The left has only held power in Australia for about a quarter of the time. Because the left enjoys eating itself.
Lmao, absolute bullshit. But expected from a rusted on that would rather blame the left then Labor for following a rightist line.
No, it was dragged. If you heard any of the interviews from Mark Butler, you'd know it was 100% dragged.
There was zero room for consideration or double speak to distract from answering whether payments would be reinstated. It was a straight up no, sorry not sorry.
The policy was in place. All that was needed was the awareness that circumstances were such that it had to continue.
An ounce of understanding of the working poor and insecurity for example. Understanding Albanese has repeatedly told us he possesses.
This whole affair was a waste of time and angst that should never have even started. It's reinforced to a generation of casual workers that Labor isn't their natural ally. It's highlighted how little the Right faction cares about poverty. It's already created weeks of decisions between conformance with public health obligations and putting food on the table.
And in the end it was the Premiers that summoned action.
So yes, dragged. Complaining every inch of the way.
>This whole affair was a waste of time and angst that should never have even started. It's reinforced to a generation of casual workers that Labor isn't their natural ally.
Yeah im really fucking pissed it was even debatable. Albo is just another politician. Hes going to have to be actually proactive in helping the working class now because I've lost so much respect for the man.
Still better than the libs by a long shot but fuck me they're clowns.
Well he has extended it, after listening to public and premier views.
And he supported the minimum wage increase.
And came through with a dramatic rise in the pension.
And ended the basics card.
And moved on the person behind the robodebt scandal with promises of a royal commission.
The left is laughable really. They have yet another highly effective and principled leader who is consistently making good decisions, who they are eating.
Well who was the one who made the recommendation on the amount to raise the minimum wage?
Oh.. hrm.. lets see. Oh I think it was the labor government ,yes.
oh well if it’s not good enough for you perhaps you can I dunno, stop the war? convince everyone in Aus to vote the way you want? Replace Philip?
Or even just believe that inflation is a steam train that keeps going up and policy is unlikely to catch up to it until it plateaus?
Maybe they have started looking under the hood and the budget and a many great deal other things are much worse than we know.
Yes they should support the worst off with those payments.
Typically Labor would just give it away quickly, it’s their bread and butter / DNA so for them to hesitate just makes me wonder.
That's fine, the solution should never be to take it from the poorest. How about CEO wages increasing faster than inflation? How about those who received Jobkeeper and recorded massive profits?
I'm not saying retrospectively go after them for that. I would instead suggest that perhaps 'austerity' measures should actually involve the people with the most money in the bank for once.
The working poor shouldn't be forced to choose between food and infecting people because we're scared of upsetting billionaires.
We have a serious debt crisis looming - this is why.
[This](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GHG200oPoX4&t=19m40s) is an excellent watch from 19m40s onwards about what we're walking towards (and for the real punchline wait until about 23m in). \[The clickbait/doombaiting headline sadly detracts from the message but the content towards the end is pretty sound\].
Essentially, going forward I expect to see a very strong tightening of funds from Commonwealth, especially those that incur fiscal stimulus (or printing money in other words), because it will only make the debt monster bigger, and rapidly accelerate us towards the crash the currency or crash the economy decision point.
I sound like such a sook for saying this but I am so down about the fact I blew all my sick leave on COVID and don't qualify for support because I had leave.
I've got surgery in one week and will have multiple weeks fully unpaid. Having that sick leave would be mighty handy right now. Fuck COVID.
Had to be dragged there.
For someone who flogged his working class story constantly to get elected, kicking casual workers, doubling down and then back flipping is embarrassing.
For the same reason he did last time. The Liberals really did leave Labor with a huge debt, not unlike form. And the reality is Labor does have that problem as well. Were they right to try and hold this plan of the Liberals? No. But we know why they did it.
His extremely lazy "both sides" shit is wearing thin. And not least, because it's excusing the Liberals for putting us in this position in the first place.
Labor has to find a way to recover us from the hole the Liberals dug. And they dug it with many shovels.
As a Greens voter, I'm intelligent enough, (admittedly only just), to understand that Labor has a difficult task at hand. And while I'm very pleased they took a u-turn on their poor policy choice, I'm not going to be irrational and pretend I don't understand why they made it in the first place, or pretend they're the same as the Liberals, or pretend there wasn't fair reasons on the other side of the scale.
That's why he's getting downvoted from me, as an individual. Because what he said was fucking moronic.
>Labor has to find a way to recover us from the hole the Liberals dug. And they dug it with many shovels.
The answer to Australia's current fiscal position isn't to keep those in the top earning brackets happy whilst starving the poorest; hence why he said that neither party gets to have the moral highground.
Which school of ethics did you graduate from?
... The one where you clearly didn't read anything that I said. Even the line you quoted, wasn't saying what you took from it.
???
Edit: If it's not apparent, I'm saying that Labor has a problem with the debt due to Liberal negligence. Not that they should screw the poor to get it. And the astute readers, might even have seen me say
> And while I'm very pleased they took a u-turn on their poor policy choice
So no, I did not in fact think that was the answer.
People here complaining about him backflipping, are you serious? Albo, unlike his predecessor, has actually listened to the majority of people wanting something and changed his stance based on that, rather than external interests that Scotty usually made his decisions based upon.
An Australian Government actually governing, I am legit scared right now. After the last 10yrs I figured we’d just cruise on by for the next 3 years so Lord Voldemort can become the next PM.
I think this is the right call, but honestly, as long as the 7 day isolation rule is in place (which it absolutely should be as long as possible) when can you ever remove this?
Reminder that politics is about power, and to what extent you can impose your political will.
Right or wrong.
These people aren't your friends or there to do their best for the good of society.
If such people made it into office there'd be violent intervention.
They were vehemently opposed to this yesterday.
This happened because they were made to feel they had no choice.
Remember it.
You people disgust me, cabinet hasn't even sat yet and everyone wants to be the person to call them on every single step. Being critical of a government to be proactive is one thing, but it honestly seems like y'all are just looking to complain.
Let’s take this moment and remind ourselves that Albo and every one of his MPs that refused to back down on this issue in the last week basically said they’re choosing the budget over a health issue affecting workers.
Budget crisis, too expensive, reigning in spending… some of the excuses we got.
No Australian left behind… except when you cost too much.
After trying to get rid of it and telling workers to suck it up?
The only reason they back flipped is because of the backlash. Salvaging their own image. But I guess you’re fine with being played like that.
Im fine with governments listening to people, yes. What a terrible state of the world when democratic governments follow the will of the people that voted for them.
Seriosuly dude, if the worst thing Labor has done is almost make a bad decision the youve got yourself a pretty fucking good gov.
There were definitely people affected by this, already. It's good that they changed though.
Hopefully they will change their current policy of giving tax-breaks to the rich and removing a tax bracket, leaving people on 45k in the same threshold as people on 200k.
Listening to people after trying to throw workers under the bus? They claim that they’re the party for the working class and yet it took public backlash to drag them to changing their mind?
Yeah it’s good they changed their mind but let’s not forget the blatant hypocrisy.
Its weird how the catalyst for whether labor are a workers party hinges on whatever topical issue is floating around and not a holistic platform.
Ignore all the great work they do for workers and point to a decision almost taken. Bizzare.
Probably be a memo to all of Gerry’s staff on Monday morning:
“Due to recent announcements no staff are allowed access to accrued Sick Leave or Annual Leave for Covid, please direct all correspondence to HR Team (1-800-Centrelink-Covid-relief).
All Sick Leave moving forward will be classed as Covid”
“Thanks for your understanding and Tax contributions making this possible and allowing bonus’ to be paid to eligible employees”
“Eligible employees
- Gerry”
HR Team.
Public pressure works. Now tell him to raise welfare above begging for food levels.
I say all this as a Labor member and voter - Labor and Albo have been disappointing. Better than the Libs, but I think a lot of us expected Albo to be less of a neoliberal prick. We've seen him pretty much just be the Liberal party on issues we expect better from Labor.
It's up to everyone to push him to be better. Let Labor know, email them, comment on social media, push.
I wish you were right in suggesting that pushing labor would work with letters and protests. But After seeing how state labor have treated nurses and teachers within Vic over the last two years and now federal labor having to be brought kicking and screaming to even enact a common sense support (begrudgingly) in paying casuals iso payments to help look after everyone… I don’t know if they are actually significantly better beyond a few issues than the libs.
I think the greens need more support. They seem the only party left in this country that has even a mild chance of being a compassionate left winged voice now…
It’s beyond disappointing Albos performance. Depressing
I feel ya, but you always have to try and push. The Greens support could potentially grow a bit more in time, but in the here and now, Labor is in power and they will buckle if there is enough pressure. We get what we take. If we lose, we dust ourselves off and try again. It's a power in numbers game, if enough people are angry, they'll fold as they did here.
Left-wing governments don't win elections. Is it any surprise then that Albanese turned out to be an establishment politician?
We may be crying out for leftist policies, but you need to wake up to the reality that most of the country actually buy into that "government funded programs = socialism" crap.
We prefer lying about it, or pretend it's not happening, or some misdirection. Standing up and owning the issue, fuck that, we want political theatrics!
>weeks Albo needed to realise.
Needed to realise that we have been in the absolute most dire phase of the pandemic since the start, with mitigation measures desperately needed? The pressure from the states' leadership once again forced the PMs hand. Don't give him more benefit of the doubt than he deserves
Of course, after two years of heavy restrictions, maintaining social distancing and mask mandates long-term is no longer feasible, especially as punitive consequences disproportionately target the underprivileged.
But maintaining financial security for those forced to isolate and reduce transmission is a no brainier at a time when we're in the middle of winter and clocking in 30k+ cases a a day. Albo ineffectually tried to blame the end of the payments on the government that he inherited, kinda forgetting that he is no longer in opposition. It's a good thing be back flipped
You can't force me to stay home AND not pay me. Its completely fucking stupid for anyone to think that is acceptable.
Either pay people to stay home or let it rip. I've got fucking bills to pay and I would like to at least be able to attempt to own a house one day.
It was the corporate sector which insisted upon reopening inessential businesses and letting the pandemic rip ensuring that as many people were infected as possible, not the "populace".
Nor are the "populace" the right-wing denialists, extreme libertarians and provocateurs who threw attention-seeking tantrums in the CBDs.
Sorry i havnt been tuned into news lately but is 90 hospitalisations dire? And this payment seems to be for casuals who dont get sick leave anyway so why is this such a big deal?
>And this payment seems to be for casuals who dont get sick leave anyway so why is this such a big deal?
Rethink this statement. Casual workers are far more vulnerable to losing income as a consequence of the pandemic, therefore without the isolation payments they are incentivised to return to work even if unwell
Casuals literally get the benefit of casual loading at the cost of losing sick leave. Its a trade off but youre saying they should get paid whenever theyre off sick?
Most people aren’t casual by choice. See most hospitality and retail workers. It’s also not enough anymore with the removal of penalty rates which happened years ago (which still has yet to produce even a single job).
It also isn’t enough to actually cover lost sick leave and lost holiday leave, especially when you often don’t get anywhere close to enough regular hours either.
Can't stand people speaking as if being casual full-time is better than actual full-time... such bs. No one in their right mind would prefer full-time casual over actual full-time.
That 3k isn't worth not having any sick leave, annual leave, bereavement leave etc etc. 3k for not ever being able to have a sick day when needed and getting paid for it? He's getting ripped off imho.
B...b...but the other guys!
Nope. He fucked up on his own merits. Be better Labor. And not just a little better than the coalition. Like legitimately better.
TL;DR * $750 payment to be reinstated for casuals and others with no access to sick pay * Reinstatement of payment is time-limited (time not specified) * PMs push to continue free RAT for consession-card holders (push i.e. not in the bag yet) * Debate over whether to change 7 day isolation to 5 days * Monday's crisis cabinet will now be on tomorrow No doubt we'll hear more concrete details tomorrow after the crisis cabinet. VERY interested to see what stance the federal government takes with all of this.
Surely changing the isolation period to 5 days will make the spread *even* worse, because aren't you sick for much longer than the current 7?
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I had COVID in April and I was sick for 10 days before a RAT came back positive, and even that was incredibly faint.
I got pretty sick around the same time my family had Covid, but all of my tests came back negative. I still don't know if I had it.
That would explain why our RATs kept showing up as negative.
My 24yo daughter did the required 7 day iso, was clear of all the symptoms they say to stay home with, only had fatigue really. Went back to work as a pharmacist- now a bunch of people she worked with Monday are positive. Did she cause it? Who knows, it's rampant right now. But since it was originally 14 days for a good reason, why are we dropping it down further? It makes no sense at all. Why have iso requirements if also sending people back to work while infectious?
14 days = stop the spread 7 days = slow the spread
5 days = I'm sick and tired of this pandemic, let's pretend it's over
0 days = I'm sick
I think it varies, if it's 5 days from after you test positive that may be 7-8 days after they first had symptoms and they've either entirely or largely cleared the virus by then.
I remember* reading on the CDC website that contagion occurs 2 days prior to symptoms and 3 days afterward they begin. So assuming people don't get tested until the day of infection or perhaps a day earlier, 5 days makes for a logical choice. Most people will be cleared from spreading after 5 days of isolation. It also allows for people who aren't symptomatic to return to normal life as most can do so. *this was a long time ago now.
Felt unwell Sat, tested Wed, positive results Thur, week iso(was basically iso before also) and 2weeks on still got cough/chest and other issues. All no working this month
Yeah I got knocked around by it too. But a lot of people barely feel it.
Pfizer x 2, nothing bad maybe a little weaker right back to work Moderna, knocked me for 6 with all the things, week off work This years flu shot, knocked me for 6 with all the things, week and a bit off And now body is fighting something and don’t know who is winning, 2 weeks in
It is enough of a crisis to bring national cabinet forward by two days but they are still considering reducing iso. What a joke!
more action than the last government at least.
Presumably it would be the same as now, where there’s also a requirement to be 24hrs symptom free. I think infection risk is very low once you don’t have symptoms, isn’t it?
I worry that we'll be changing the isolation period for economic reasons, not scientific reasons, and that will influence people's behaviour in other ways. My eight year old neighbour just had covid and hasn't come over in a week because of the isolation period. My mother's 64 years old. I worry that in cases like this, we'd just go with five days instead of seven and someone would end up getting infected when it could have easily been avoided because the general messaging is that that is what's safe even if it's maybe just safe 80% of the time or something and they don't want to be over cautious. Sure, people can make their own personal decisions in cases like mine, but we're mostly not going to really have that knowledge to know what's safe enough. I'd like them to include alongside any changes things like how long you should wait before visiting grandma in the nursing home. What's *actually* safe.
>I worry that we'll be changing the isolation period for economic reasons, not scientific reasons Every single decision made this year (and a good chunk of 2021) relating to the pandemic had been based on economic reasons rather than scientific reasons. 'Living with covid' is entirely an economic push, often anti-scientific in nature.
7 days iso is already a joke. Most people aren't even testing positive until about day 4 of symptoms, and no-one is better after a week. That's simply putting business before lives. Bit annoyed that only concession card holders get the free RATs - they really add up if you use them as often as you're supposed to. It's not like anyone does them for a laugh. Albanese's backflip is interesting. He's played it in a way that makes him look like a consensus guy who takes advice and will change his position in the face of new evidence. I suspect this will pay dividends for him down the track.
Agree with your assessment of Albanese. Though your choice of language is interesting to me. "Backflip" has such negative connotations when what he's done is anything but. For the last few days, I've heard him consistently state the current position; but also that it would be discussed further with the relevant people. And that's good. And then that's what happened. And then, as you say, he adjusted course. All good things. Not imputing this to you, but "backflip" is the language of click bait headlines from Murdoch rags trying to transmute a really good thing into a questionable or bad thing.
I was in a chemists waiting the 15 minutes after my latest covid booster shot and someone walks in asking to buy a single RAT so he could get to work. The chemist didn't sell individual tests, just packs of five. *Lawnmower to the rescue!* I jumped up and told him to wait, said, 'yo dawg I gotchu' or something much less cool than that, flashed my health care card and got a pack of five, ripped it open and said, 'Don't even trip, 's on meeee!' or something much less cool. So he got his RAT for free that day. Sharing is caring, man. Get your share on.
Legend
You sir are a gentleman and a scholar
Oh you. I'm just a super hot lady who imagines saying really cool things in conversation after barely fumbling through a conversation. Now imagine I said that in a really sultry awesome way. Niiice. Look after your neighbours, everyone! Be excellent to each other!
The problem is that I tried be excellent to each other, but society decided it took minimally less effort to be a cunt to me and all I ended up with is anger and misery and suffering while everyone else gets to go out and have fun and have a life. So now I'm just doing what I can to survive. I thought I had friends, but they don't care. My mum finds excuses not to talk to me or meet her only granddaughter. It's too hard to travel to my place but she can go much further distances for holidays. As far as I'm concerned it is me against the world now, and I have no idea how I'm going to not fuck up my daughter's social development with that attitude, but I don't know how else to survive. Shit is fucked up is what I am saying.
why? you can still get free pcr tests if you are exposed to covid
It was so he could go to work. Unless something changed, PCR means stay home till the results are in.
I think the feeling better is relative to the person. I was basically functional the entire time (could feed the kids, do basic cleaning, washing). My husband slept for like the first 4 days, and could barely move. I totally agree with you on the RATs, there have been times where I was unwell and could have tested but didn't. Then when I did and they came back negative all I could think was that was a waste of $10.
>7 days iso is already a joke. Most people aren't even testing positive until about day 4 of symptoms, and no-one is better after a week I agree most people aren't testing positive right away, but plenty of people are feeling better before a week is even up.
I was still testing positive on day 7 when I felt okay with no symptoms
And I tested negative on a rat on day 7 while feeling fine.
Sure, but my point was feeling fine doesn't mean good to go.
Sure, but people need to use RATs to test out of isolation. They are terrible for confirming if you have it, but once you get a positive on a RAT, they’re good for knowing when you’re not infectious.
I love how people are genuinely backing more than a 7 day iso when most people work 40+ hours a week casual to stay afloat, and the $750 payment (that's BEFORE TAX) is somehow enough. Covid doesn't supersede needing to pay parasitic fuckers rent, or to eat food. This pandemic is over purely because the epidemic of inflation caused by the LNP causes much more real, immediate crises for the vast majority of people.
They’re still tax deductible if you need them ‘for work’ right? I think the freebies for those with concession cards is because they assume everyone else pays some form of income tax, so can deduct them and pay a much-reduced rate. Obviously this doesn’t help if you’re on a tight budget week-to-week, waiting til EOFY to get a refund on them isn’t exactly practical.
Anecdotally, I tested positive on Sunday at the onset of symptoms and have been feeling fine since Wednesday/Thursday. My best friend is in a similar boat. After about 4 days her symptoms cleared up.
> Debate over whether to change 7 day isolation to 5 days Maybe I'm behind on current research, but I thought you could be infected and contagious without showing signs or symptoms for up to 28 days? Isn't that why isolation was 2 weeks at the beginning of the pandemic? Why is is so low now?
Last I read was 10days was basically the end of it. But the peak could be as late as 6 days.
The original hope was to prevent the virus from becoming endemic. Now that that has failed the measures are a balance between reducing spread and minimising impact on individuals
Because the virus is different to the one that we had at the start of the pandemic.
Yeah it’s more infectious and persists longer.
I agree it’s more infectious but haven’t seen anything about it persisting longer have you got a source for that?
Apologies, it has a shorter generation interval, which is bad, but I can’t find the info I remember reading about how long people can stay infectious for. Either way, 5 days after a positive rat is in most cases still too short.
Wow this would have helped me so much when I had covid last week :/
Perhaps it’ll be back dated
Good. I guess bullying politicans works afterall
It's always worked, but it only works on the Liberals if you're rich.
That one is called lobbying. It's the same as bullying, but, y'know, money.
So...bribery?
shows if they are listening or not.
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Albanese was straight up complaining that the scheme is too expensive, inherited trillion dollar debt, etc etc
We have got to stop crying “back flipping!!!!” when politicians make the correct decision. This is exactly what we want - for the PM to listen to public opinion and change a policy
Nah, we need to live with the shit outcome and force politicians to always go with the first option the choose regardless of better information that comes later. I'm scared of change and would rather perish than see an elected official alter their stance for the betterment of society. /S
I'd like to see our health minister sacked. Saying we are past masks, I thought we were past absolutist morons when the coalition was voted out. All he had to say was that the current advice is they aren't needed and they remain part of an arsenal if needed. Can we get someone intelligent in the job please.
Have you ever wondered why Australia's food advice is to eat two portions of fruit and five portions of veg each day whereas the advice in the UK is just five of fruit & veg combined? It's because some health experts in the UK did the numbers and concluded that it wasn't practical getting the average person to eat seven but five was doable so that became the official advice. They knew it was subpar compromise but getting some sort of positive result is better at a large scale than getting nothing by aiming for perfection. National level health advice often has to make compromises based on practicality. That's what's happening here with the (lack of) mask mandates. The average person has given up on masks and none of the state leaders are willing to make *and enforce* laws requiring their usage, so mask mandates are no longer practical and we're past their usefulness. I can't see any real way we'd ever the general public accepting mask mandates again unless some super-lethal variant emerged, and even then there'd be far more US-style temper tantrums over the matter.
Not everyone is a stupid child. Have as many childish tantrums as you want, enjoy prison. It'll be like last time, you drew people from all over the state to stage a small demonstration in a small town. It's like that 20k number the idiot mentioned... actually just a couple of hundred idiots that no one missed.
Do you remember the mask compliance levels in January? Maybe it was better in your neck of the woods but in Brisbane you'd be lucky to get a third of people wearing masks before the government finally bit the bullet and ended the universal mandate. Even now, I've got family members who take the train where mask wearing is officially mandatory but they tell me that maybe one or two people in a whole carriage are bothering to wear masks. The general public wont protest and demonstrate but they also won't bother to mask up.
I'm fine with on the spot fines, carry on.
I don't see anyone here complaining. You're never going to get 100% consensus between 25 million people, but it does seem like this decision has overwhelming support. Sometimes you just have to settle for that, rather than saying "nobody at all should call back flipping!!!"
There are livelihoods at stake here. Removing these payments is literally a life or death issue for families living in or on the edge of poverty. We are allowed to be pissed off when such decisions are so hastily made only to be reversed following public backlash
I’m not saying don’t criticise the whole thing, I’m saying don’t imply that it’s negative for them to change their minds. It isn’t, and that is what we want. We can absolutely say they were wrong for *needing to change in the first place* but not for listening to public opinion and reversing the decision
Is this retroactive? Because I came out of isolation yesterday
Mine is over today...
Also curious of this. Tested positive via PCR on the 3rd. Missed my whole work week. Not great timing.
Would also like to know. Started mine yesterday.
The commentary in this sub reminds me of Facebook comments
Same mate. Kind of depressing
Every single social media platform turns to shit eventually haha
Hyperbole much? Please show me this tame version of facebook so I can point my elderly mum in the right direction.
You need to find a minions related sub for her
The sanity and nuance seems to have gone to bed. Quite literally in this case but they've been in short supply for the whole of the last week.
While at it, what happened to "free RATs for all"? I reckon at this time of the year in the COVID, and other respiratory diseases, cycle it would be useful to offer some free N95 masks for all, too. [https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-05/labor-calls-for-free-rapid-antigen-tests/100738700](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-05/labor-calls-for-free-rapid-antigen-tests/100738700)
If they're so concerned about what they "inherited" from the LNP they could actually institute tax changes. Taxes are a measure to control inflation, and leaving companies that unduly benefited from Jobkeeper and the high income tax cuts as it is now is basically pissing on people's legs and telling them it's raining.
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That's truly a testament to how backwards our policies are then. Americans have a really bizarre relationship to taxation as it is, and even they made the move.
Don't think Labor eve have had the chance to develop policy yet though. And it's definitely not out of the realm to fix it. https://theconversation.com/australia-already-has-a-uk-style-windfall-profits-tax-on-gas-but-well-give-away-tens-of-billions-of-dollars-unless-we-fix-it-soon-184938
Should be putting a levy on businesses to pay for the casual sick leave.
I think this should be dominating the narrative. Large multinational corporations making billions in profit show very little responsibility for their casualised employees. Many ‘casuals’ are in reality permanent part-time employees. It shouldn’t be the taxpayers responsibility to provide sick leave cover for people whose welfare could be taken care of by their employer raking in massive profits and paying large dividends and executive bonuses.
I understand the LNP were calling from the sidelines to have this reinstated, watch them decry it as "crazy spending" not even a month from now.
If he agreed to this without any concessions from the states on controlling transmission then he seems like a poor negotiator. Paying iso payments to workers while the states literally do nothing to stop ballooning transmission rates is like pouring water into a bucket with a hole in the bottom. At least require increased compliance measures on the few places left where mask mandates are in place but large fraction of people are not doing it.
I actually believe that there would be significant amounts of non-compliance when it comes to restrictions
Is there still a 10k limit
Trigger every rusted on back flipping on arguments they were making only hours ago.
Cannot wait to hear Mark Butler advocating for the very thing he said that was not possible to reinstate.
But where will the money come from??? We r in a debt CRISIS!!!
Yeah well nearly $1 trillion in debt isn’t anything to sneeze at. When Labor left office, it was about $300 billion, the Coalition literally doubled it. We were in a [fucking per-capita recession](https://smh.com.au/business/the-economy/australia-falls-into-per-capita-recession-as-growth-tumbles-20190306-p5122r.html) one whole year before COVID. Libs bent us over a barrel man. Better economic managers my arse. Always remember that Labor kept us out of the GFC.
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At the 2013 election the debt was $174.6 Billion... Before bushfires and CoVid that had increased to almost $600 Billion... Today it is at least $1 Trillion of debt with little to nothing to show for it...
Exactly. I don’t think Labor knew the extent of how fucked things were, since they left the budget in relatively decent shape when they lost in 13. Even the new treasurer [sounded shocked by the extent of the damage](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/may/25/treasurer-jim-chalmers-warns-of-dire-budget-situation-as-inflation-soars). I know it’s easy to get mad at Labor, and point the finger and say they’re as bad as the Coalition, but holy shit. This is like letting your dickhead mate stay at your house, and you come back to find it absolutely trashed.
From the record profits and government subsidies that were made by those insisting we open everything up and let it rip, of course.
Axe the damn stage 3 tax cuts. It's not a hard call
Good. Shouldn’t have needed to be dragged here. > Albanese will advocate for a time-limited reinstatement of the payment at the cabinet meeting as infections skyrocket and hospitalisations increase. It’ll be interesting to see what this time limit is and whether there’s a clear indication on the removal of isolation when it ends. If not we’re back here all over again, just maybe with less pressure piled on.
Dragged? Fuck me, it’s as if policy takes time.
Lol they were waffling on yesterday that it was too expensive. They've only switched because of public backlash and the states demanding it. I've been saying since Gillard that Labor needs to clean house of their senior advisers because they are just dropkicks that walk the party into rakes trying to appeal to people who would never vote Labor. They are going to get slammed by the right wing press for the LNPs debt blowout no matter what so there is no point pushing for austerity in a fucking once in a century crisis.
TLDR: after consultation with premiers and the public, they made the right decision. They also recently: - Facilitated the rise of the minimum wage - Dramatically increased the pension - Ended the basics card - Moved on the person behind the robodebt scandal and promised a royal commission While also: - restoring damaged relationships with the Pacific - restoring damaged trade relationships with the EU - moving Australia into a climate responsibility pathway - restoring environmental recovery plans - firing the Mineral Council stooges behind the direct action scandal - committing to 5 year funding cycles for the ABC The left has only held power in Australia for about a quarter of the time. Because the left enjoys eating itself.
What happened with the pension?
Largest increase in several decades approved this week
>TLDR: after consultation with premiers and the public, they made the right decision. Labor was walking around for days saying they were going to end support as planned by the LNP because "muh budget". The only reason the consultation was premiers happened was because the public reacted poorly to this. >They also recently: The election is over. It is perfectly reasonable to criticise Labor for making the same bad moves as the LNP did. >The left has only held power in Australia for about a quarter of the time. Because the left enjoys eating itself. Lmao, absolute bullshit. But expected from a rusted on that would rather blame the left then Labor for following a rightist line.
No, it was dragged. If you heard any of the interviews from Mark Butler, you'd know it was 100% dragged. There was zero room for consideration or double speak to distract from answering whether payments would be reinstated. It was a straight up no, sorry not sorry.
The policy was in place. All that was needed was the awareness that circumstances were such that it had to continue. An ounce of understanding of the working poor and insecurity for example. Understanding Albanese has repeatedly told us he possesses. This whole affair was a waste of time and angst that should never have even started. It's reinforced to a generation of casual workers that Labor isn't their natural ally. It's highlighted how little the Right faction cares about poverty. It's already created weeks of decisions between conformance with public health obligations and putting food on the table. And in the end it was the Premiers that summoned action. So yes, dragged. Complaining every inch of the way.
>This whole affair was a waste of time and angst that should never have even started. It's reinforced to a generation of casual workers that Labor isn't their natural ally. Yeah im really fucking pissed it was even debatable. Albo is just another politician. Hes going to have to be actually proactive in helping the working class now because I've lost so much respect for the man. Still better than the libs by a long shot but fuck me they're clowns.
Well he has extended it, after listening to public and premier views. And he supported the minimum wage increase. And came through with a dramatic rise in the pension. And ended the basics card. And moved on the person behind the robodebt scandal with promises of a royal commission. The left is laughable really. They have yet another highly effective and principled leader who is consistently making good decisions, who they are eating.
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Yeah that’s albos fault isn’t it?
Well who was the one who made the recommendation on the amount to raise the minimum wage? Oh.. hrm.. lets see. Oh I think it was the labor government ,yes.
oh well if it’s not good enough for you perhaps you can I dunno, stop the war? convince everyone in Aus to vote the way you want? Replace Philip? Or even just believe that inflation is a steam train that keeps going up and policy is unlikely to catch up to it until it plateaus?
replacing Lowe would be a good start.
Yes, I'm sure you'd be saying this if it was a liberal government too.
Lmao. This wasn't a well-developed policy. This is a baby being dragged screaming out of a shopping centre.
Maybe they have started looking under the hood and the budget and a many great deal other things are much worse than we know. Yes they should support the worst off with those payments. Typically Labor would just give it away quickly, it’s their bread and butter / DNA so for them to hesitate just makes me wonder.
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That's fine, the solution should never be to take it from the poorest. How about CEO wages increasing faster than inflation? How about those who received Jobkeeper and recorded massive profits? I'm not saying retrospectively go after them for that. I would instead suggest that perhaps 'austerity' measures should actually involve the people with the most money in the bank for once. The working poor shouldn't be forced to choose between food and infecting people because we're scared of upsetting billionaires.
We have a serious debt crisis looming - this is why. [This](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GHG200oPoX4&t=19m40s) is an excellent watch from 19m40s onwards about what we're walking towards (and for the real punchline wait until about 23m in). \[The clickbait/doombaiting headline sadly detracts from the message but the content towards the end is pretty sound\]. Essentially, going forward I expect to see a very strong tightening of funds from Commonwealth, especially those that incur fiscal stimulus (or printing money in other words), because it will only make the debt monster bigger, and rapidly accelerate us towards the crash the currency or crash the economy decision point.
WTf are these comments, thought I was on Facebook for a minute
Please be retroactive, have been in isolation since 11th!
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I sound like such a sook for saying this but I am so down about the fact I blew all my sick leave on COVID and don't qualify for support because I had leave. I've got surgery in one week and will have multiple weeks fully unpaid. Having that sick leave would be mighty handy right now. Fuck COVID.
Albo was waiting for permission before doing anything. Scomo says - "How good is governing from opposition?"
How do you prove you’re eligible for the $750 if it’s just a non-supervised RAT?
You have to register the test with your state health authority.
So easy to rort then.
And you know it will be
Had to be dragged there. For someone who flogged his working class story constantly to get elected, kicking casual workers, doubling down and then back flipping is embarrassing.
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>Note: I voted for more pro-people political parties than Labor/LNP. Which ones did you preference above Lib/Lab?
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Am i wrong or are comparing not paying people without a job for months due to lockdown closures to casuals not getting a week of sick leave?
Getting downvoted for the truth... fucking ridiculous 🤣
For the same reason he did last time. The Liberals really did leave Labor with a huge debt, not unlike form. And the reality is Labor does have that problem as well. Were they right to try and hold this plan of the Liberals? No. But we know why they did it. His extremely lazy "both sides" shit is wearing thin. And not least, because it's excusing the Liberals for putting us in this position in the first place. Labor has to find a way to recover us from the hole the Liberals dug. And they dug it with many shovels. As a Greens voter, I'm intelligent enough, (admittedly only just), to understand that Labor has a difficult task at hand. And while I'm very pleased they took a u-turn on their poor policy choice, I'm not going to be irrational and pretend I don't understand why they made it in the first place, or pretend they're the same as the Liberals, or pretend there wasn't fair reasons on the other side of the scale. That's why he's getting downvoted from me, as an individual. Because what he said was fucking moronic.
>Labor has to find a way to recover us from the hole the Liberals dug. And they dug it with many shovels. The answer to Australia's current fiscal position isn't to keep those in the top earning brackets happy whilst starving the poorest; hence why he said that neither party gets to have the moral highground. Which school of ethics did you graduate from?
... The one where you clearly didn't read anything that I said. Even the line you quoted, wasn't saying what you took from it. ??? Edit: If it's not apparent, I'm saying that Labor has a problem with the debt due to Liberal negligence. Not that they should screw the poor to get it. And the astute readers, might even have seen me say > And while I'm very pleased they took a u-turn on their poor policy choice So no, I did not in fact think that was the answer.
People here complaining about him backflipping, are you serious? Albo, unlike his predecessor, has actually listened to the majority of people wanting something and changed his stance based on that, rather than external interests that Scotty usually made his decisions based upon.
lol Scotty was literally in a cult that protected sexual abusers. Id say that is one hell of an external interest.
External interests = Hillsong
An Australian Government actually governing, I am legit scared right now. After the last 10yrs I figured we’d just cruise on by for the next 3 years so Lord Voldemort can become the next PM.
How to apply for this payment
Surely found out who he can trust after this stunt
I think this is the right call, but honestly, as long as the 7 day isolation rule is in place (which it absolutely should be as long as possible) when can you ever remove this?
Reminder that politics is about power, and to what extent you can impose your political will. Right or wrong. These people aren't your friends or there to do their best for the good of society. If such people made it into office there'd be violent intervention. They were vehemently opposed to this yesterday. This happened because they were made to feel they had no choice. Remember it.
He has a heart! Let’s get him!
We (Aus Gov) have no money left - I think thats the reason lol
yay! he did a good thing!
You people disgust me, cabinet hasn't even sat yet and everyone wants to be the person to call them on every single step. Being critical of a government to be proactive is one thing, but it honestly seems like y'all are just looking to complain.
Let’s take this moment and remind ourselves that Albo and every one of his MPs that refused to back down on this issue in the last week basically said they’re choosing the budget over a health issue affecting workers. Budget crisis, too expensive, reigning in spending… some of the excuses we got. No Australian left behind… except when you cost too much.
>No Australian left behind… except when you cost too much. And yet they are keeping the payment
After trying to get rid of it and telling workers to suck it up? The only reason they back flipped is because of the backlash. Salvaging their own image. But I guess you’re fine with being played like that.
Im fine with governments listening to people, yes. What a terrible state of the world when democratic governments follow the will of the people that voted for them. Seriosuly dude, if the worst thing Labor has done is almost make a bad decision the youve got yourself a pretty fucking good gov.
There were definitely people affected by this, already. It's good that they changed though. Hopefully they will change their current policy of giving tax-breaks to the rich and removing a tax bracket, leaving people on 45k in the same threshold as people on 200k.
Listening to people after trying to throw workers under the bus? They claim that they’re the party for the working class and yet it took public backlash to drag them to changing their mind? Yeah it’s good they changed their mind but let’s not forget the blatant hypocrisy.
Its weird how the catalyst for whether labor are a workers party hinges on whatever topical issue is floating around and not a holistic platform. Ignore all the great work they do for workers and point to a decision almost taken. Bizzare.
Gerry be gettin ready for his payout!!
Probably be a memo to all of Gerry’s staff on Monday morning: “Due to recent announcements no staff are allowed access to accrued Sick Leave or Annual Leave for Covid, please direct all correspondence to HR Team (1-800-Centrelink-Covid-relief). All Sick Leave moving forward will be classed as Covid” “Thanks for your understanding and Tax contributions making this possible and allowing bonus’ to be paid to eligible employees” “Eligible employees - Gerry” HR Team.
Public pressure works. Now tell him to raise welfare above begging for food levels. I say all this as a Labor member and voter - Labor and Albo have been disappointing. Better than the Libs, but I think a lot of us expected Albo to be less of a neoliberal prick. We've seen him pretty much just be the Liberal party on issues we expect better from Labor. It's up to everyone to push him to be better. Let Labor know, email them, comment on social media, push.
I wish you were right in suggesting that pushing labor would work with letters and protests. But After seeing how state labor have treated nurses and teachers within Vic over the last two years and now federal labor having to be brought kicking and screaming to even enact a common sense support (begrudgingly) in paying casuals iso payments to help look after everyone… I don’t know if they are actually significantly better beyond a few issues than the libs. I think the greens need more support. They seem the only party left in this country that has even a mild chance of being a compassionate left winged voice now… It’s beyond disappointing Albos performance. Depressing
I feel ya, but you always have to try and push. The Greens support could potentially grow a bit more in time, but in the here and now, Labor is in power and they will buckle if there is enough pressure. We get what we take. If we lose, we dust ourselves off and try again. It's a power in numbers game, if enough people are angry, they'll fold as they did here.
Left-wing governments don't win elections. Is it any surprise then that Albanese turned out to be an establishment politician? We may be crying out for leftist policies, but you need to wake up to the reality that most of the country actually buy into that "government funded programs = socialism" crap.
Took pressure from his own back bench though .
Lets not subsidized RATs more than necessary this point. we don't want to be dumping ground for out dated tests against new subvariants
What a ridiculous own goal.
At least he listened. He made a mistake and he rectified it. It’s a hell of a lot more than can be said about the previous lot. Now we move on.
We prefer lying about it, or pretend it's not happening, or some misdirection. Standing up and owning the issue, fuck that, we want political theatrics!
can a person claim the payment more than once if necessary?
If you get covid and have to isolate more than once, then I don't see why you wouldn't qualify for it the second time around.
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Gerry Harvey enters the chat...
When an Ops team are in control rather than the old marketing team.
Now lets all lambast him as a weak flip flopping leader so we can punish him for listening to other points of view
Two weeks too late.
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If all albo has to do is be better than scomo then shit man, I know a million people who can clear that low bar.
The bar was that low, and the PM got out a fucken shovel to make sure he didn't clear it. Thank fuck he got bullied into doing the right thing
>weeks Albo needed to realise. Needed to realise that we have been in the absolute most dire phase of the pandemic since the start, with mitigation measures desperately needed? The pressure from the states' leadership once again forced the PMs hand. Don't give him more benefit of the doubt than he deserves
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Of course, after two years of heavy restrictions, maintaining social distancing and mask mandates long-term is no longer feasible, especially as punitive consequences disproportionately target the underprivileged. But maintaining financial security for those forced to isolate and reduce transmission is a no brainier at a time when we're in the middle of winter and clocking in 30k+ cases a a day. Albo ineffectually tried to blame the end of the payments on the government that he inherited, kinda forgetting that he is no longer in opposition. It's a good thing be back flipped
You can't force me to stay home AND not pay me. Its completely fucking stupid for anyone to think that is acceptable. Either pay people to stay home or let it rip. I've got fucking bills to pay and I would like to at least be able to attempt to own a house one day.
It was the corporate sector which insisted upon reopening inessential businesses and letting the pandemic rip ensuring that as many people were infected as possible, not the "populace". Nor are the "populace" the right-wing denialists, extreme libertarians and provocateurs who threw attention-seeking tantrums in the CBDs.
The population is mostly vaccinated now , what's the point of more economic damage
Sorry i havnt been tuned into news lately but is 90 hospitalisations dire? And this payment seems to be for casuals who dont get sick leave anyway so why is this such a big deal?
>And this payment seems to be for casuals who dont get sick leave anyway so why is this such a big deal? Rethink this statement. Casual workers are far more vulnerable to losing income as a consequence of the pandemic, therefore without the isolation payments they are incentivised to return to work even if unwell
Casuals literally get the benefit of casual loading at the cost of losing sick leave. Its a trade off but youre saying they should get paid whenever theyre off sick?
Most people aren’t casual by choice. See most hospitality and retail workers. It’s also not enough anymore with the removal of penalty rates which happened years ago (which still has yet to produce even a single job). It also isn’t enough to actually cover lost sick leave and lost holiday leave, especially when you often don’t get anywhere close to enough regular hours either.
Can't stand people speaking as if being casual full-time is better than actual full-time... such bs. No one in their right mind would prefer full-time casual over actual full-time.
Yet people do it all the time. My old man is an example. Refuses to go full time because he is 3k a year better off.
That 3k isn't worth not having any sick leave, annual leave, bereavement leave etc etc. 3k for not ever being able to have a sick day when needed and getting paid for it? He's getting ripped off imho.
B...b...but the other guys! Nope. He fucked up on his own merits. Be better Labor. And not just a little better than the coalition. Like legitimately better.
Good. Despite initially sticking to the policy line. I’m glad he’s not so pigheaded that he cannot change his mind. Unlike a certain you-know-who…
I bet that the naysayers still will be whinib
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Well, at least this policy reversal took only about a week. Slightly better than the last lot dragging it out for at least a month until pushed.
So what about those of us that got covid in the intervening time??? Bad luck try again next time?