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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2021/nov/17/australia-news-live-nt-covid-corona-katherine-victoria-nsw-pandemic-legislation-protesters-flooding-forbes
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| Australia news live update: Daniel Andrews ‘won’t be deterred’ by Victoria protests; NT on edge over Covid cases; flood warnings for NSW | Australia news live update: Daniel Andrews ‘won’t be deterred’ by Victoria protests; NT on edge over Covid cases; flood warnings for NSW |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| Follow all the day’s news live | Follow all the day’s news live |
| We are going to stop there because Chief Officer Micheal Gunner is talking in the NT. There are six new cases | |
| Wren: | |
| “To around 34% of people on JobSeeker now actually have a disability or an impairment. We have also got a lot of older women and men who have been laid off late in their working lives and, frankly, they are just waiting to claim the higher aged pension. And, of course, we have got single parents. | |
| “Predominantly mothers, because, as we know, poverty is gendered, like violence, in this country, with children, with a child of the age of eight years. There is no parenting payment for those mothers, those families. It is JobSeeker.” | |
| Wren said we would also see the number of people who need unemployment payments is going to rise. | |
| “It is about 27% more now than before we had the bushfires and the pandemic. | |
| “But we’ve also got 2 million people who have, this year, for this lockdown, these avoidable lockdowns, have needed to claim another payment called the COVID disaster payment. | |
| “That’s gone. 2 million Australians have needed that. That payment, we still don’t know how many of them, but I don’t think all 2 million of them are going to be able to automatically snap back to their jobs or find a new job.” | |
| Wren: | |
| “We in Australia have been cushioned, really, buy a decent age pension level, but also predominantly most people who retire in Australia up until now have owned their own home. | |
| “So that is the cushioning effect of poverty in retirement. As we see this rental crisis and buying crisis go forward, we would expect to see many more people retiring without owning their own home.” | |
| Wren is now talking about the yearly data up until October: | |
| “So we still saw 30% increases in the SunshineCoast, Gold Coast, but also in places that weren’t affected as much by lockdowns, in WA some 27% increases, 21% in Far North Queensland. | |
| “Sydney, 15%, Melbourne is the outlier, only 3%. But those percentages translate into higher rents that people simply can’t afford to pay.” | |
| Wren is about to go through the key three reasons why poverty will increase as we come out of the first, lockdown-y stage of the pandemic. | |
| And first up is housing affordability. | |
| “We’ve had a failure to invest in social housing over decades and increased house prices have been driving those two things, a big increase in reliance on private rental. The pandemic, despite many predictions, actually has supercharged these factors. | |
| “Prices are going up, whether you are buying or renting. In the year to June, regional rents across Australia went up by 11%. And in some parts of coastal Queensland, it was 30%.” | |
| Executive Director of anti-poverty week Toni Wren is up now. | |
| She says the pandemic has exacerbated the wealth inequality of this country. | |
| She says people on the lowest incomes died at a rate four times faster than those on higher incomes. | |
| “Before we had the pandemic the highest 20% of Australians had six times the wealth of the middle, but 90 times the wealth of the lowest 20%. | |
| “That is increasing over time. So wealth inequality in Australia is getting worse. And that just doesn’t feel right in one of the wealthiest countries in the world.” | |
| Charlton: | |
| “We need to act now to ensure that the progress we have made on poverty doesn’t disappear. We need to learn the lessons of the crisis and take those forward boldly in our policy-making. | |
| “We need to make sure that the effects of mental health, education, and employment gaps don’t reappear long after the pandemic has gone. | |
| “These policies aren’t handouts, they are good economics that will make our economy stronger for everybody.” | |
| Charlton is now talking about the long term impacts. He said because of government spending nearly half a million Australians were lifted out of poverty. | |
| He is arguing governments need to support vulnerable groups now more than ever as disadvantaged people will feel the financial and social impacts of the pandemic. | |
| “If we were smart ... right now we would be preparing a bounceback package to help vulnerable groups get back on their feet and prevent lasting damage from the pandemic to the economy. | |
| “We would be supporting schoolkids, for example, schools were closed for extended periods, we won’t know the full impact of homeschooling on the generation of children for a long time.” | |
| Charlton said the pandemic also showed us that working from home actually enhanced production for many people. | |
| “In many companies productivity went up not down, people work smarter at home they spent less time commuting, productivity didn’t go up for everyone it depended on the nature of your job, circumstances of your home office, the level of support you received, importantly, there was no suggestion that working from home was inherently less productive.” | |
| Charlton: | |
| “The pandemic helped us answer the age-old question about the generosity of social payments, taught us giving more money to low-income people as many positive benefits, both to them and the community.” | |
| Economic researcher Andrew Charlton is speaking at The National Press Club about poverty - what we learnt about it during the pandemic and “economic long Covid”. | |
| Charlton is talking about the debate on unemployment payments. | |
| “On one side many people make the point that the unemployment benefits are very low, not enough to live on, on the other side people who don’t want to increase the unemployment benefits, argue that it’s already enough, the extra money may not be well spent and it may have negative consequences for the employment.” | |
| He says the extra pandemic payment acted as an experiment to see how people spent it - with data from more than 250,000 bank accounts showing people spent the money on essentials. | |
| “Exactly what they do with the extra money, the data is clear, on that extra $550 a fortnight, the coronavirus to supplement the largest amount $85 dollars, was spent on household bills, electricity, phone, water, $70 of the extra money spent on food, $60, spent on clothing and household goods, seven - $275 saved or used to pay down debt, what we saw as for the people who received that extra money, it was life-changing. | |
| “Hundreds of thousands of people were lifted out of poverty, they didn’t spend that money on frivolous or discretionary items, they didn’t withdraw from the labour market they spent it well on the families and bills.” | |
| You can almost feel your wage packet swelling, or the digiwallet version anyway. | |
| Figures out this morning from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show the seasonally adjusted wage price index picked up in the September quarter. Salaries were up 0.6% for the quarter and 2.2% from a year earlier.It looks like you’re better off in the private sector, with wage growth reaching 2.4% from a year earlier, continuing a sequence of four quarters of a row of increases. | |
| The public sector is reporting year-on-year growth of 1.7% for the September quarter, snapping a run of quarterly falls that began in the January-March period of 2020. | |
| Given the toll on our health workers during the pandemic, it suggests a “watch this space” is in order in terms of pent-up pressures for more pay. It might also be hard for governments to say “no” to thawing the pay freeze.Interestingly, the health industry was listed as among the sectors with the largest wage gains. | |
| The professional, scientific and technical services posted a quarterly rise of 1.3% and 3.4% for the year, the most for this grouping since the December quarter of 2012. | |
| Laggards included the mining sector which posted a quarterly rise of 0.4%, while electricity, gas, water and waste services were the least on an annual basis. Their 1.2% advance on the year was the slowest since this series of data began. | |
| The RBA for one will be happy to see the pick up in wages. As Governor Philip Lowe said yesterday, the central bank is predicting the labour market to continue to tighten, with a jobless rate of 4% on the cards compared with the latest rate of 5.2%. | |
| So perhaps the wage price index is on the way up. | |
| From AAP: | From AAP: |
| NSW police need to “throw the book” at anti-coal activists who have been staging controversial protests around the Port of Newcastle, Environment Minister Matt Kean says, adding the dramatic stunts are “completely out of line”. | NSW police need to “throw the book” at anti-coal activists who have been staging controversial protests around the Port of Newcastle, Environment Minister Matt Kean says, adding the dramatic stunts are “completely out of line”. |
| The protesters have struck again, interrupting operations at the world’s largest coal port. | The protesters have struck again, interrupting operations at the world’s largest coal port. |
| Two protesters on Tuesday night entered the port and attached themselves to a key piece of machinery that loads and unloads coal, shutting down the port. | Two protesters on Tuesday night entered the port and attached themselves to a key piece of machinery that loads and unloads coal, shutting down the port. |
| “Pull your heads in - get out of the way and stop hurting other people going about their lives, running their businesses,” Mr Kean told Sydney radio 2GB on Wednesday. | “Pull your heads in - get out of the way and stop hurting other people going about their lives, running their businesses,” Mr Kean told Sydney radio 2GB on Wednesday. |
| “There are hundreds of ways to make your views known and advocate for change but risking the lives of rail workers is definitely not one of them.” | “There are hundreds of ways to make your views known and advocate for change but risking the lives of rail workers is definitely not one of them.” |
| Blockade Australia said the activists, named only as Zianna and Hannah, climbed to the top of machinery and suspended themselves out of reach. | Blockade Australia said the activists, named only as Zianna and Hannah, climbed to the top of machinery and suspended themselves out of reach. |
| “As dawn broke on the coal port the sound of machinery was interrupted as the two protesters used an intricate set up of ropes to manoeuvre themselves over the edge,” the activist group said in a statement. | “As dawn broke on the coal port the sound of machinery was interrupted as the two protesters used an intricate set up of ropes to manoeuvre themselves over the edge,” the activist group said in a statement. |
| Protests have disrupted the port and surrounding rail infrastructure in the past two weeks, prompting police to establish a strike force to crack down on the high-profile stunts. | Protests have disrupted the port and surrounding rail infrastructure in the past two weeks, prompting police to establish a strike force to crack down on the high-profile stunts. |
| Federal Labor has announced its first major policy announcement in the lead-up to the election. | Federal Labor has announced its first major policy announcement in the lead-up to the election. |
| The party is promising to spend $2.4bn upgrading the national broadband network to deliver faster internet speeds for millions of homes. | The party is promising to spend $2.4bn upgrading the national broadband network to deliver faster internet speeds for millions of homes. |
| Opposition leader Anthony Albanese was talking earlier and said: “Depending upon the lottery of where you live, some people do have access to high-speed broadband, some don’t. | Opposition leader Anthony Albanese was talking earlier and said: “Depending upon the lottery of where you live, some people do have access to high-speed broadband, some don’t. |
| “And we know that during Covid, access to high-speed broadband has been so important for students getting through school, for people working from home, and we know that this isn’t a luxury. This is a part of 21st-century living.” | “And we know that during Covid, access to high-speed broadband has been so important for students getting through school, for people working from home, and we know that this isn’t a luxury. This is a part of 21st-century living.” |
| The government acknowledged last year the system needed upgrading and committed $3.5bn to help another 2 million homes – this policy from Labor goes further. | The government acknowledged last year the system needed upgrading and committed $3.5bn to help another 2 million homes – this policy from Labor goes further. |
| Currently, 8.3 million premises are connected to the NBN. | Currently, 8.3 million premises are connected to the NBN. |
| Dr Mel Taylor of Macquarie University has researched people’s behaviour in floodwaters. She’s just put out a statement warning people that driving through floodwater and playing in floodwater are the two behaviours most associated with deaths in floods in Australia. | Dr Mel Taylor of Macquarie University has researched people’s behaviour in floodwaters. She’s just put out a statement warning people that driving through floodwater and playing in floodwater are the two behaviours most associated with deaths in floods in Australia. |
| “In our national survey (2019/20), 55 per cent of the public reported that they had driven through floodwater in the last five years. This behaviour is often normalised, with those who do it being likely to do it more than once/repeatedly,” Taylor said. | “In our national survey (2019/20), 55 per cent of the public reported that they had driven through floodwater in the last five years. This behaviour is often normalised, with those who do it being likely to do it more than once/repeatedly,” Taylor said. |
| Most people claim to have driven through floodwater after ‘careful consideration’ rather than it being a spur of the moment thing, also social pressure to keep going and not turn around comes into play. | Most people claim to have driven through floodwater after ‘careful consideration’ rather than it being a spur of the moment thing, also social pressure to keep going and not turn around comes into play. |
| She said most people will comply but it was when the rain has stopped that most accidents happen. | She said most people will comply but it was when the rain has stopped that most accidents happen. |
| “Once the rain stops and/or water starts to recede, this is when people are likely to take risks. They are keen to ‘get on with things’ and ‘press on’– whether that’s clearing up or checking on things, or just getting back to normal. | “Once the rain stops and/or water starts to recede, this is when people are likely to take risks. They are keen to ‘get on with things’ and ‘press on’– whether that’s clearing up or checking on things, or just getting back to normal. |
| “This is often when accidents happen.” | “This is often when accidents happen.” |