Issue 38: 1 – 7 April 2021

April 9, 2021April 9, 2021 editor

A rise in the minimum wage won’t hurt Australia’s recovery. It will help it
Alison Pennington | The Guardian
Businesses can afford higher wages. Profits increased by 15% in the last 12 months. It’s the first recession in Australian history when profits got bigger, not smaller.

Is Malcolm Turnbull the only Liberal who understands economics and climate science – or the only one who’ll talk about it?
Richard Denniss | The Conversation
No-one would suggest building new hotels in Cairns to help that city’s struggling tourism industry. But among modern Liberals it’s patently heresy to ask how rushing to green light 11 proposed coal mines in the Hunter Valley helps the struggling coal industry.

Public investment in infrastructure would be a much needed boon to the Australian economy
Greg Jericho | The Guardian
What construction workers, and the economy as a whole needs, is investment. But the latest finance and wealth data from the bureau of statistics revealed that 2020 was the worst year for investment in over 30 years.

Avoid pay rises if you want to help women’s economic security, government reckons
Bernard Keane, Glenn Dyer | Crikey
The government’s submission to the Fair Work Commission’s annual wage review symbolises everything that is sneaky, visionless and economically ignorant about this government. It also makes a mockery of the government’s recent pretence of focusing on women.

After Trump?: Cancel Culture and the New Authoritarianism
Simon Cooper | Arena Quarterly
Superficially, the alliance between progressive politics and established power could forestall the threats that spectacularly manifested in the final days of Trump. At another level it entrenches the conditions that created them.

The rich are different from you and me — and politicians around the world are starting to realise it
Janine Perrett | Crikey
It’s probably best that Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest took delivery of his new $100 million private jet last week given the global post-COVID push for higher tax rates on everyone from corporates to the super wealthy.

What women’s ministers should ask: why decades of no progress on violence?
Guy Rundle | Crikey
Yesterday’s photo of Morrison sitting between two women, ready to co-chair the women’s safety cabinet committee was the absolute high point of a whole series of messages reminding one not to write about this issue.

Pressure mounts on Uber to end exploitative business model
Isaac Nellist | Green Left Weekly
The Transport Workers Union has started a campaign aimed at Uber and Deliveroo. It is seeking justice for delivery and ride share drivers who have been unfairly dismissed, injured at work or have been pressured to work faster than is safely possible.

Australian Agricultural Bosses Can’t Find Workers. Maybe They Should Try Paying More
Zacharias Szumer | Jacobin
Agricultural bosses and their allies are accusing Australians of being work-shy as they face a post-pandemic labor shortage. But it’s low wages and abusive working conditions that make it hard for them to find workers. The solution is obvious: decent pay for decent work.

The climate spin can’t go on forever. Net zero must be our aim
Alan Kohler | The New Daily
When Mr Morrison is forced to lose the word “preferably” from his climate change incantation, a choice will have to be made between public and private spending. That is, between the American and European methods.

Finkel’s road to zero
John Quiggin | Inside Stort
Australia could easily end up in a minority of one at the April 22 virtual climate summit, unwilling to move beyond the government’s patently inadequate offer of a 26 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030.

Myanmar’s anti-coup movement
Robert Narai | Red Flag
Throughout Myanmar’s history, students have been at the forefront of resistance to the Tatmadaw.

Millions paid in private contracts to ‘support’ the vaccine rollout — but who, what, when, where and why?
Kishor Napier-Ramon, Georgia Wilkins | Crikey

Reconciliation Australia revokes Telstra RAP after Indigenous customer rort
Hannah Cross | National Indigenous Times

Burney says deaths in custody system enables ‘absolute neglect’
Rachael Knowles | National Indigenous Times

Anti-protest workplace bill defeated
Matt Haubrick | Green Left Weekly

Gender equality in Australia deteriorates again, rapidly, yet the rage for change remains undaunted
Emma Dawson | Michael West

Incitement charge against refugee rights activist dismissed
Chris Slee | Green Left Weekly

Tent city highlights homelessness as ‘new pandemic’
Steve O’Brien | Green Left Weekly

‘Recover the Land to Recover Everything’: the Patient Journey of the Colombian Cauca Regional Indigenous Council
Paulo Ilich Bacca, Daniela Jiménez González | Arena Online

Crooked Consulting: EY and Deloitte spruik climate on one hand, the explosion in new coal projects on the other
Luke Stacey | Michael West

Lula da Silva is Bolsonaro’s biggest threat in Brazil’s upcoming elections
Yanis Iqbal | Independent Australia

The Australian Labor Party’s Left Faction Is Just Propping up the Right
Harry Stratton | Jacobin

The Indonesian Left Is Stuck in an Anti-Communist Hangover
Eduard Lazarus | Jacobin