Issue 90: 12 May to 18 May 2022

## The Election

With falling real incomes and rising prices many people don’t believe the story of prosperity Scott Morrison is preaching
Richard Denniss | The Guardian
There are no easy choices facing Australian policy makers at the moment, but cutting the real wages of millions of Australians would have to be one of the worse ones.

Once a bulldozer, always a blunt-force machine: the new ScoMo looks pretty much the same as the old one
Madonna King | Crikey

Labor looks like it’s coming in to land, but what does it actually have on board?
Guy Rundle | Crikey
The whole “vision thing” that a lot of us Whitlam-tragics/Lenin-tragics urge on the party was explicitly rejected. The community was so fragmented and atomised that any elaborated notion of a collective vision would just sound like you were going to spend their money on someone else.

Election 2022: Why modern politics goads us to be greedy, and forget the needy
Ross Gittins | SMHAge
We’ve been encouraged to see elections as transactional, not aspirational, which doesn’t leave much room for policies that seek to improve the lot of those most in need.

Spoiling for victory
Nick Feik | The Monthly
Nine years of Coalition government have had devastating effects on Australian civil society — not that you’d know it from watching the election campaign coverage. Elections always bring a curious reset in our politics, as if recent months and years are suddenly irrelevant.

 This election, are the teals ready to take on the fossil fuel lobby that’s captured the major parties?
Jeff Sparrow | The Guardian

Australia’s modern working class
Eleanor Morley | Red Flag
Most white-collar work does not live up to the stereotype of a cushy, well-paid office job. Australian call centres employ 300,000 workers whose conditions are not totally dissimilar to the nineteenth century factory that Marx and Engels described: a rapid pace of work that is tightly regimented down to the second. 

The Automatic Stabilisers of Australian Political Power
Tim Dunlop | Meanjin
If you want a quick three-point plan for what to do to undermine the power of our oligarchy, it would look something like this…

If Labor wins, we need to push for the right to strike
Chris White | Green Left

Meet the Socialist Refugee Running for Australia’s Senate
Ben Hillier | Jacobin

With Climate 200, Political Action Committees Have Arrived to Australia
Daniel Lopez, Zowie Douglas-Kinghorn

Government needs a strategic vision for arts and culture
Leya Reid | Independent Australia

If Penny Wong becomes foreign minister will she repeat the numerous blunders Australia and the US have made in the Pacific?
Brian Toohey | Pearls and Irritations

Solomon Islands PM warns of invasion by Australia and US
Mike Head | World Socialist Web Site

## Housing Policy Reno

‘Not just a lockdown hobby’: the making of the Renters and Housing Union
Rachel Goldlust, Stephen Pascoe | Overland

Why we need to fight for inclusionary zoning in Victoria
Kate Shaw | Overland

Housing crisis? Look over there – a puppy!
Michael Pascoe | The New Daily
The Australian housing crisis has entered the catastrophe stage for the third of Australians not already in their own home, yet it has taken until the last week of the official campaign for the politicians and most media to get a little excited about it.

Five housing policies that wouldn’t drive up prices in Australia
Greg Jericho | The Guardian
Has pumping up demand worked to improve housing affordability? Well, no.

## Miscellaneous  

48-hour strike shuts down the University of Sydney
Jasmine Duff | Red Flag

Chile: Dismantling the Dictatorship
Rodrigo Acuña | Arena
In Australia Chilean activists and researchers will continue to press to declassify the archive, which would reveal the extent of Canberra’s intelligence activities in helping to overthrow a democratically elected government at the behest of Washington.

Locals stand up to developers at Toondah Harbour
Ross Gwyther | Vanguard

Melbourne, Sydney Nakba rallies remember Shireen Abu Akleh
Alex Bainbridge | Green Left

Morrison Government’s high risk visa switch for migrant meatworkers
Abul Rivzi | Pearls and Irritations
We are on a very slippery slope with these visas towards the slavery-like conditions that have existed for migrant workers in North America and Europe for decades.

Grant King and the Big Gas Con – how fossil fuel giants are cheating Australia’s emissions system 
Callum Foote | Michael West Media