Issue 39: 8 – 14 April 2021

April 15, 2021April 15, 2021 editor

Whenever the chance to advocate for higher wages arises, the Morrison government declines
Greg Jericho | The Guardian
In a move that will shock no one, the government, which on Wednesday was crowing about the news that the IMF had upgraded its outlook for Australia, is also arguing against any substantial increase in the minimum wage.

Senate hearing prompts shift by Menulog. Who’s next?
Bernard Keane | Crikey
What does it take to roll back precarious work and underpayment through the gig economy? Not, it seems, government action, but the threat of public scrutiny through a Senate committee process.

Older women and homelessness
Kristine Ziwica | The Saturday Paper
While the Morrison government makes gestures towards stronger protections for women, the number of homeless women aged over 55 continues to rise alarmingly – made worse by the pandemic, inaccurate economic modelling and poor superannuation policies.

Federal government doesn’t care about the housing crisis
Michael Pascoe | The New Daily
It is government policy to encourage and facilitate ever-higher housing prices, to keep Australian housing running well ahead of both inflation and wages growth. Ethics-free politics: feed the base, ignore the rest.

Why do LNP state governments fail while the federal Liberal Party reigns?
Guy Rundle | Crikey
Why are Liberal parties collapsing at the state level almost everywhere in the country? Especially since they’ve had a lock on federal power for a decade. How has this become so split?

Universities and Palestine: three kinds of silence
Nick Riemer | Arena Online
If antiracism can be switched on and off as a principle—repeatedly asserted in print, but abruptly suspended when the question of Palestine is raised—then its expressions are degraded into mere performances.

The Race To The Bottom In Our Return to the Moonlight State
Mike Dowson | New Matilda
It isn’t hard then for media barons and their well-heeled clients to do much of our thinking for us. Their self-serving messages saturate our social fabric. When challenged they recruit us to defend their opinions as ‘freedom of speech’ while hounding dissenters out of the country.

We should be funding stress leave and high-quality PTSD care for all victims of abuse
Richard Denniss | The Guardian
If you are a government minister who is accused of failing to support an employee who alleges to have been raped on your watch, or a minister accused of committing rape, you could be placed on taxpayer-funded medical leave and paid $7,000 a week.

In Australia, the Wangan and Jagalingou Nation Is Standing Against the Disastrous Carmichael Coal Mine
Andy Paine | Jacobin
With support from the Australian government, the Adani corporation is pushing ahead with an environmentally destructive coal mine in Queensland. But the traditional Aboriginal owners of the land, the Wangan and Jagalingou nation, are waging a determined fight to stop them.

NDIS vaccine fail unmasks government’s disability agenda
Paul Bongiorno | The New Daily
Welfare is a dirty word and most receiving it should be starved off it as soon as possible – surely this is the only credible explanation for returning unemployment benefits to below the poverty line.

Coalition’s hit on the ABC: $1b and counting, while Murdoch dominates
Bernard Keane | Crikey
A significant issue about the report is exactly why it took GetUp and communications academics to prepare it, when it’s exactly the sort of report the Australian Communications and Media Authority should be releasing at least annually in order to enable Australians to have an independent look at the media landscape.

Non-Indigenous organisations receiving 40% of Indigenous Advancement Strategy funding
Hannah Cross | National Indigenous Times

Torture Australian-Style: A New Secret Country
Dr Lissa Johnson | New Matilda

Casino compromises and buying elections
Suzanne James | Green Left Weekly

State Capture: Nationals’ corporate funders revealed, tobacco giant Phillip Morris a party member
Stephanie Tran | Michael West Media

Jobs and the environment: a conversation worth having
Steve O’Brien | Green Left Weekly

NT Laws reproduce carceral politics governing Aboriginal children
Thalia Anthony, Eddie Cubillo | Arena Online

Revealed: Adani’s ties to Myanmar junta
Markela Panegyres | Green Left Weekly

United States: Amazon loss a setback for unions, but what next?
Malik Miah | Green Left Weekly

Anti-LGBTI bills inch closer to law in NSW
Jordan Humphreys | Red Flag

Morrison fixed on tax cuts as US and Britain embrace big government
Mike Seccombe | The Saturday Paper

Climate agencies are being gassified as Australia ramps up international greenwash
Ketan Joshi | Renew Economy

Morwell solar and battery project proposed to “fill void” in Victorian coal country
Sophie Vorrath | Renew Economy