Australian Politics
Tuesday, June 06, 2023
Deadly effects of ingrained inflation as RBA likely to hike rates again
That the time of 2.30pm on the first Tuesday of each month can suddenly be of such grave consequence to so many Australians does not speak well for our national economy.
We will know on Tuesday afternoon which way the Reserve Bank of Australia will move on interest rates. After 11 increases since April 2022, it is possible the move will continue to be upward.
That will mean we have faced a full dozen rate increases in a little over a year, taking the official cash rate to just over 4 per cent.
The word “transitory’’ prefaced the word “inflation” for much of 2021. The developed world appeared to accept (or perhaps hoped) the rapid increase in the money supply sparked by the pandemic, along with surging consumer demand for dwindling supplies of consumer goods, had sparked an inflationary trend that would swiftly disappear.
Australians now know that was not true. They also know a Fair Work Commission decision last week allowed for a 5.75 per cent increase in award wages.
That will impact around 2.5 million people, or up to 20 per cent of the workforce, while there will also be a record 8.6 per cent rise in the minimum wage.
Few economists buy the theory that wage increases spark inflation, but almost none discount the theory that, once inflation rears its head, a potentially devastating wage-price spiral can swiftly develop as the wages dog chases the inflation tail.
That the Fair Work Commission has said its decision will only make a modest impact on total wage growth in 2023-24, and has specifically ruled out the possibility of a wage-price spiral developing, does not mean it won’t happen.
We now know the truth. Inflation is part of our lives, and will be for some time.
In fact, Terry McCrann writes on Tuesday that the RBA is already “still way behind the curve”.
Those mortgage holders exiting fixed-interest deals in the months ahead and facing massive hikes in their monthly repayments are enduring some sleepless nights, wondering how their families will survive.
Ordinary Australians now know something has fractured in the national economy.
Their anxiety is reflected in new numbers collected by Suicide Prevention Australia showing financial anguish is routinely cited in those battling suicidal thoughts.
Distress is highest among middle-wage earners, with almost 30 per cent of those living in households earning $100k-$149k a year reporting they have experienced suicidal behaviour in the past 12 months.
What happens on Tuesday afternoon is not merely a clerical exercise in national account keeping. It can translate into genuine anguish and despair among ordinary people – ordinary people who do the right thing.
They work hard, they obey the law, they pay their taxes and they try to improve their lot in life by taking out mortgages, only to be crushed by outside forces they cannot control.
The federal government cannot be held entirely responsible for this state of affairs, but it can do something in the year ahead to try to assist in bringing inflation under control and helping to cut interest rates.
It can stop spending so much money.
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Australian business leaders to fight Labor on ‘same job same pay’ IR reforms
Australia’s builders, farmers, oil, gas, small and large business operators will launch a pre-emptive strike on Labor’s industrial relations plan with a public campaign warning the proposal will create a “red tape minefield” for employers, destroy workers’ flexibility and drive up consumer costs.
In an advertising blitz starting Monday, peak bodies including the Business Council of Australia (BCA), the National Farmers Federation, Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), Master Builders Australia, the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APEA) and more will condemn the federal government’s proposed “same job, same pay” reforms as heavy-handed and unfair.
The full details of the government’s proposed changes, due to be unveiled later this year, will focus on what Labor has described as closing “loopholes” exploited by businesses to undercut workers’ pay.
Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke has said the reforms would ensure subcontractors or labour hire workers were not deliberately paid less than their permanent colleagues for doing the same work.
But ACCI chief executive Andrew McKellar said “same job, same pay” was the “opposite of fair” as it restricted “reward for effort and experience”.
“It will take away the flexibility that workers want and businesses need,” he said.
BCA chief executive Jennifer Westacott agreed and said Labor’s plan would be an “own goal” for the country because “jobs will go somewhere else”.
“This is going to really impact on workers … and will also make Australia an extremely unattractive destination for people to invest,” she said.
Council of Small Business Organisations Australia chair Matthew Addison said Labor’s changes must not be allowed to have “far reaching, unintended negative consequences”.
Master Builders Australia acting chief executive Shaun Schmitke said Labor’s changes “pose a serious threat” to the construction industry and threatened to strip subcontractors of their “autonomy,” ability to negotiate higher wages and be “free from the influence of unions.
Minerals Council of Australia chief Tania Constable said the “dangerous policy” would chase away local investment and jobs, and was unfair to workers.
“How is it fair that someone with six-months’ experience can demand the same pay as someone with six-years’ experience?,” she said.
National Farmers Federal boss Tony Mahar said “same job, same pay” would be a “red tape minefield” for farmers.
“Most farms are small, family-run businesses which don’t have lawyers or any HR department to turn to,” he said.
“It would spell chaos and confusion at peak periods like harvest.”
APPEA chief executive Samantha McCulloch said the oil and gas industry needed an industrial relations framework that supported flexibility and improved productivity to “ensure competitive and affordable gas supply” needed for the future.
Mr Burke has consistently rejected criticism from the business sector, arguing it was “not fair” for a major employer to agree to a pay rate with employees and then undercut that by using cheaper labour hire workers instead.
“It’s a loophole,” he said in May. “It needs to be closed and we’ll be closing it this year.”
Mining and Energy Union general secretary Grahame Kelly has also condemned employers’ “fearmongering” and said the new laws would be “good” for the industry.
“Same job, same pay … will be great for regional communities who lose out when big employers cut wages for half the workforce,” he said.
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Queensland hospitals reveal patient wait times when brought in by ambulance
Patients are waiting nearly eight hours on stretchers across multiple Queensland hospitals, a situation that has been slammed as “devastating” and “stressful”.
New data shows public hospitals at Bundaberg, Caboolture, Cairns, Robina, Hervey Bay, Ipswich, Logan, Mackay Base, Brisbane’s Mater, Prince Charles, and Princess Alexandra all recorded ramping times of more than seven hours between August 2022 and February 2023.
In the worst case, at Princess Alexandra Hospital, a patient waited on a stretcher for eight hours.
Opposition health spokeswoman Ros Bates, who had asked then Health Minister Yvette D’Ath for the data in a Question on Notice, said the unacceptable and chaotic situation was “devastating” and “stressful” for patients.
“Paramedics didn’t sign up for this vocation to spend an entire shift ramped while other calls go unanswered by Queenslanders in their hour of need,” Ms Bates said.
She said the LNP party proposed solutions to tackle ramping like “better resources, improving triaging and real time data monitoring.”
As this publication reported on Monday, more Queenslanders were turning to emergency departments for primary healthcare as a Medicare system “on its knees” was making seeing GPs unaffordable.
Queensland paramedics waited nearly 13,000 hours with patients outside emergency departments in January.
Mackay Hospital and Health Services acting chief executive Dr Charles Pain said the shortage of comprehensive bulk-billing clinics was contributing to EDs dealing with “more acutely unwell people” and more people arriving by ambulance.
The state’s biggest paediatrics units – Queensland Children’s Hospital and Prince Charles Hospital – both saw increases by as much as 30 per cent in almost every category of patient under 14 years of age according to the latest hospital performance data for January, February and March.
New Health Minister Shannon Fentiman said Queensland had the busiest ambulance service in the country, and was the only mainland state to provide the service “free at the point of use”.
“Despite (this) … Report on Government Services data shows the QAS outperforms most jurisdictions, including Victoria and New South Wales, in relation to ambulance response times.”
Ms Fentiman stated 72 per cent of Queensland patients were seen within the recommended time frames compared to 66.4 per cent in NSW, and that every category 1 patient was seen within the recommended two-minutes.
She said this was despite the number of category 1 and 2 patient presentations having more than doubled since 2013/14.
“The rise in the urgency of cases, and the reduction in the availability and affordability of primary care, means that people who would have otherwise sought care in the community are now coming to our emergency departments,” Ms Fentiman said.
“Some of these patients will be less urgent and may need to wait for some time before receiving care from an emergency doctor.”
Ms Fentiman said the Labor government had invested in measures to help patient flow including Satellite Hospitals, and fast-tracking new beds.
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Kathleen Folbigg pardon exposes sad truth about many in our jails – DNA lawyer
A leading Queensland DNA lawyer says many innocent people are still languishing in jail and Kathryn Folbigg’s pardon must change the way the Australian justice system deals with wrongful convictions.
Ms Folbigg, the woman once dubbed Australia’s worst female serial killer over the deaths of four babies between 1989 and 1999, sensationally walked free from Grafton prison on Monday after serving 20 years for murder and manslaughter.
She was released after being pardoned by NSW Governor Margaret Beazley following an inquiry headed by the state’s former chief justice, Tom Bathurst KC, which found that scientific evidence had cast doubt over her guilt.
Jason Murakami, who established the Griffith University Innocence Project in 2001 to help free those wrongfully convicted of serious crimes, said Ms Folbigg’s pardon and the possible quashing of her convictions showed the system was flawed and needed an urgent overhaul.
He said the current petition process for pardons used in all Australian states was “outdated, cumbersome and far too slow”.
“In 2023, there is still reluctance by various players in the justice system that the system does get it wrong and there are victims of wrongful convictions sitting in jail as we speak,” he said.
“Ms Folbigg’s matter puts sharp focus on what we have been calling for for over years and that is a formalised process to deal with post-conviction claims.
“As a country, we are so far behind the UK, Canada and even New Zealand in relation to how we as a society deal with wrongful convictions.”
Mr Murakami, an adjunct professor in law and partner in Gold Coast firm Behlau Murakami Grant, co-wrote an international law journal called Murder, Wrongful Conviction and The Law which was published last month.
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