Australian Politics
Tuesday, January 03, 2023
China border farce proves Covid alarmists have Anthony Albanese’s ear
Anthony Albanese has always been keen to remind us that he is a strong believer in science.
The only problem for the prime minister is that science doesn’t vote. Teals, Twitter hysterics, and doctors’ lobbies all do.
Hence the government’s bizarre decision to go over the top of its own high priest of science, Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly, to impose what pretty much everyone agrees is a window dressing requirement for negative Covid tests for travellers from China.
Here it’s worth considering our two nations’ respective Covid caseloads.
To put it simply, while China and Australia may be very different countries, one thing we have in common is an absolute ton of Covid.
Australia, the incredibly helpful Worldometers website tells us, has something like the 16th highest number of new cases in the world – an amazing accomplishment for a nation that for a time was second only to China in its love of locking people up for their own good.
And we know that number is likely far higher because even pernickety rule-following Australians have for the most part stopped telling anyone connected with officialdom if they test positive, with growing numbers of people just acting normally and staying home if they feel a bit crook.
China, meanwhile, has basically stopped reporting its Covid cases altogether both because no one has ever trusted their figures and anyway if they did publish them the number of 0’s would run off the edge of the page.
Yet the country which terrified the world with what were in retrospect hilariously slapstick viral (ahem) videos of Covid sufferers collapsing in the streets is now seeing something like a million people infected every day.
The biggest problem with this, we are told, is not that their hospital system is overwhelmed – though it is probably not fun to be an ER doc at Shanghai General – but that so many people are calling in sick that the world is going to face delays getting parts and materials and electronic gewgaws out of mainland factories.
Oh, the humanity.
Of course, we are told that there are good scientific reasons behind the Albanese government’s flicking the switch to, if not full blown alarmism, then “an abundance of caution”.
We were also told that there was good scientific reasoning behind cops harassing and fining people for sitting in a park reading a book or going for a swim in the ocean.
The reasoning was so sound that in November a court finally vacated over 33,000 Covid related fines issued by NSW Police which, in far too many cases, seemed to relish its job “keeping us safe” a little too much.
And people wonder why there is a declining trust in “experts”.
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Treasurer Jim Chalmers on economic issues ahead
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has revealed his grim outlook for the Australian economy in 2023, with one “big issue” predicted to spell trouble for hip pockets.
Speaking to radio station 2GB on Tuesday, Dr Chalmers pointed at one in particular of five major concerns facing the national economy as the factor most likely to hurt Aussie bank balances.
“I think one of the big issues here is that a fifth of mortgages will become variable rate mortgages in 2023,” he said.
Many Aussies who entered into fixed-rate mortgages at the height of soaring house prices are going to see their contracts switch over to a variable rate in 2023.
Dr Chalmers reiterated that interest rate rises take some time to be felt in the economy and predicted Australians would be hit hardest in the “middle of the year”.
“That’s when the interest rate hikes are expected to hit the hardest,” Dr Chalmers said.
Interest rates are just one of five crucial issues the Treasurer forecasts will cause problems for Aussies this year.
“An extraordinarily large wave of Covid in China, the war in Ukraine, the situation in the US and UK, interest rates and the threat of natural disasters,” Dr Chalmers said.
He indicated the growing wave of Covid-19 cases in China will bring a “substantial” amount of risk to the supply chain. “We need to make our supply chain more resilient to these major global hits,” Dr Chalmers said. “There’s a process; we can’t just do that in one hit.”
Boosting manufacturing on home soil and “value-adding” to hard-hit areas of the global supply chain are medium-term strategies the federal government is considering.
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Australia’s migration rate has made a stunning turnaround and is on track to return to pre-pandemic levels
The rapid increase is being turbocharged by the return of international students, many of them Chinese, since the lifting of Covid travel restrictions in December 2021, it reveals.
The federal government’s 2022 Population Statement, to be released on Friday, notes net overseas migration is “forecast to reach the pre-pandemic trend of 235,000 (people) from 2022-23 and remain at that level thereafter”.
“Had the pandemic not occurred, cumulative net overseas migration was expected to be 473,000 persons higher across 2019-20 to 2025-26,” an excerpt from the report states.
The statement notes that while the rebound in migration numbers is being led by international students, working holiday visa holders and permanent migrant arrivals have also jumped since Covid restrictions were eased.
“In mid-October (last year) there were 36,000 (or 90 per cent) more Chinese students in Australia than in mid-December 2021,” the report states. “The number of all international students in Australia increased by 122,000 in the same time period.
“Offshore student grants from January to September 2022 were higher than the corresponding period in any previous calendar year,” it reveals. “(And) offshore grants of working holiday visas and other temporary visas have also surpassed 2019 levels.”
But in a warning against over-optimism, Jim Chalmers said the strong rebound in migration numbers was not enough in itself to grow the nation’s economy.
“Migration is an important part of the story but should never be a substitute for training more Australians or making it easier for parents and seniors to work more if they want to,” the federal Treasurer said.
“Migration has played a crucial role in our economic development and will be critical in the future too if it’s well-considered and well-managed.
“This matters at multiple levels – the global scramble for talent, the filling of genuine skills shortages, and making sure migrant workers aren’t exploited,” the Treasurer said.
“Australia’s migration settings need to be sustainable, serve Australia’s national interest, and not be a substitute for … building the capacity of our domestic workforce.”
The federal government boosted the permanent migration program from 160,000 to 195,000 for 2022-23 in September, saying it would help to address skills gaps in areas such as nursing and technology.
The policy change “further strengthened” the outlook for permanent arrivals, the number of whom are forecast to continue rising after hitting a low in March 2021, the report states.
Dr Chalmers said the government was currently undertaking both a review of the migration system and developing an employment White Paper to ensure the nation has a bigger and better-trained workforce in 2023 and beyond.
“Migration policy is economic policy,” he said.
A common hope for many international students who come to Australia to study is to stay and work after they finish their university courses.
In Sydney for the new year celebrations, Yiping Qiao, who recently completed a masters degree in civil engineering at the University of Queensland, is one.
“I moved to Brisbane from China to study for a masters degree and I only graduated a couple of months ago … I hope to stay on and find a job in the design industry because of the way of life in Australia and the people,” the 25-year-old said.
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Changing the date of Australia Day is nothing but a 'warm and fuzzy' notion that won't have any real impact on the lives of Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal professor warns
Installing an Indigenous Voice to Parliament is the thing that will truly have a tangible impact on the lives of Indigenous Australians, not changing the date of Australia Day, an Aboriginal professor has said.
Leading Indigenous Voice to Parliament campaigner Megan Davis claimed moving the date would only be 'symbolic' and give people a 'warm and fuzzy notion of reconciliation'.
She said Australians wanting to make a real difference should back constitutional changes like the Voice to Parliament.
'Supporting "change the date" is fine, but really supporting the referendum and the Voice to Parliament is something that's actually going to make a difference on the ground,' Professor Davis told Sydney Morning Herald.
'It's a tactile reform. So if changing the date comes after that, that makes a lot of sense, but to change the date without any substantive reform, it's a symbolic move.'
The Indigenous Voice to Parliament is a proposed body that will advise federal parliament on matters concerning Indigenous people.
Professor Davis said it would finally allow Aboriginals to be part of a democratic system 'in a way they haven't been up till now'.
Professor Davis has been pushing for a constitutionally enshrined Voice for years.
She is a Cobble Cobble woman, co-chair of the Uluru Dialogue and one of the architects of the 2017 Uluru Statement From the Heart.
Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney revealed the government planned to introduce legislation to parliament in March to set up the referendum.
Ms Burney said the 'yes' campaign would likely begin in late February.
'Once that all mobilises, I think we're going to have a country that's ready for change,' she said.
Ms Burney said the legislation would be scrutinised by a parliamentary committee once it was introduced.
The government will seek to have the legislation pass through parliament in May, which could allow a vote to be held as early as August or as late as November.
A spokesman for shadow attorney-general Julian Leeser said the opposition had asked for 'serious detail' on the constitutional change, which was important as the majority of referendums in Australia had failed.
'Australians are naturally cautious about changes to our governing document,' he said.
'Australians will want the detail about how the voice will work, that's only fair given the government is asking for Australians to decide.'
Last year, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the draft question for voters would be: 'Do you support an alteration to the constitution that establishes an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice?'
Mr Albanese has reiterated he believes the question regarding whether a voice should be enshrined in the constitution should be a simple yes-or-no referendum.
The Nationals have announced they will not support the referendum despite a split within the party after Calare MP Andrew Gee broke away as an independent to support the campaign.
The Liberals under Peter Dutton have not yet formed a position on the referendum, but the opposition leader has repeatedly called on the government to release more detail about the form the voice will take
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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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