COVID-19 pandemic in Australia

• For God’s sake let us sit upon the ground And tell sad stories of the death of kings.
• The latest instalment, Nemesis, dealing with the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison years, is the fourth of these series since the pioneering Labor in Power screened in 1993 chronicling the Hawke-Keating era.
• The Howard Years (2008) and The Killing Season (2015) followed examining respectively the Howard and Rudd-Gillard governments.
• By contrast, The Killing Season and Nemesis focus predominantly on the leadership wars that blighted Australian politics between 2007 and 2022.
• The most striking takeaway from Nemesis is that the Coalition’s decade in office from 2013 to 2022 was a time of abject irresponsibility.

The Abbott years

• It was a catalogue of swingeing cuts and broken promises (Abbott had pledged no cuts to health or education during the 2013 election campaign).
• The Abbott government never really recovered.
• Chastened by that result, Abbott then caused incredulity among colleagues by proclaiming that “good government begins today”.
• According to Turnbull, Abbott did not welcome the approach, telling him “to fuck off”.

The Turnbull years

• The public were relieved to see the back of Abbott and welcomed enthusiastically the ostensibly progressive Turnbull.
• Attorney-general in the government, George Brandis, refers to the Faustian bargain Turnbull had made to win the prime ministership.
• Dutton, the right-wing hard man who Turnbull scathingly describes as “a thug”, challenged for the leadership, losing relatively narrowly.
• A revelation about events during that febrile week is that Turnbull considered heading off his opponents by calling an election.
• The episode ends with Turnbull offering another pungent character assessment, this time of his successor: “duplicitous”.

The Morrison years

• It errs towards generosity to Morrison, not fully capturing why his leadership became a byword for inauthenticity, a prime minister whose obsession with the theatre of politics consistently trumped substance.
• The episode recalls many of the notorious statements made by Morrison, which by suggesting he was evading responsibility, was a bully or lacked empathy corroded his public image, especially among women voters.
• Asked about the comments, Morrison admits to poor choices of words.
• Nemesis shows that the COVID pandemic was both a blessing and curse for the Morrison government.
• Morrison then expended dwindling political capital by fruitlessly pursuing religious rights protections, causing ructions with Liberal moderates.
• We are left with the suspicion that once again Morrison is bending the truth.

A decade of banality and pettiness

• Participants in the documentary draw on classical allusions in making sense of the chaos.
• We are told, for instance, that the leadership feud between Abbott and Turnbull was Shakespearean.
• Yet what Nemesis exposes is the banality of these events and the pettiness of the actors.
• The post-Menzies Liberal triumvirate of Harold Holt, John Gorton and William McMahon were respectively overwhelmed by the office, reckless and pygmy like.

Paul Strangio received funding from the Australian Research Council in the past.

• A new survey of 126 women and non-binary punters and artists working the music industry in Melbourne has found 60% of respondents feel unsafe in music spaces.
• The survey found sexual violence disempowers female music workers, deters non-binary communities from working in the industry, and discourages punters from going to gigs.
• As Melbourne beats Sydney to became the nation’s most populated city in 2023, the epidemic of sexual violence may intensify in its urban music spaces.

The #meNoMore awakening

• Studies have found grassroots venues and promoters in the United Kingdom need to implement changes to tackle sexual violence and work towards gender equality.
• In January, it was announced the federal government’s new Revive cultural policy would establish a centre to address sexual harassment in the arts and entertainment industry.
• Read more:
  Pay, safety and welfare: how the new Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces can strengthen the arts sector

A frequent violence

• Respondents reported street harassment to and from venues, or were assaulted in commercially shared vehicles.
• One third of the music punters reported an incident to venue staff or festival management.
• Fearing unemployment in a highly competitive industry, they remain stoic victim-survivors in the boy’s club.

What’s next

• The 2018 Melbourne Music Census found only 49% of staff in venues were trained in-house to deal with sexual harassment or assault.
• Our study suggests all security staff should be provided with bystander training to prevent, detect and address perpetrators’ behaviour, and to refer victim-survivors to relevant authorities.
• Too often, security staff have a reluctance to change routine practices, and many venues have a lack of female security staff.
• There is poor collaboration between security companies and music staff, and limited funding for grassroots venues to conduct this training.
• Read more:
  Camp Cope leaves the Australian music industry forever changed by their fearless feminist activism

• The committee delivered its report to the government in late February.
• The most pressing concern, and the most important for immediate policy action, is to substantially increase the JobSeeker payment for the unemployed.
• JobSeeker Payment relative to Age Pension, 2000 to 2021 The committee has recommended restoring the relativities of the mid-1990s, when the unemployment benefit was about 90% of the age pension.

How we made our decision

• There is no right level for JobSeeker (or any other welfare payment) and there is no single methodology that provides all the answers.
• Read more:
  There are lots of poverty lines, and JobSeeker isn't above any of them

The greatest, most urgent, need

• There was a substantial boost to most pension payments following the 2009 Harmer Pension Review.
• JobSeeker has a larger budget and is better targeted than Rent Assistance to those in most financial need.

What will it cost?

• Over the three years of forward estimates (2023 to 2026), the cost would be about $24 billion.
• The total cost of welfare payments in 2023-24 is expected to reach A$145 billion.
• So $5.7 billion, while a substantial additional expense, does only represent a 4% increase in the welfare cash payments, and less than 1% of the total federal budget.

• The ongoing economic impacts of COVID-19 restrictions are challenging for businesses, but the expansion of the Australian Government SME Recovery Loan Scheme is a promising solution.
• As a participating lender, Liberty will continue to support eligible business customers with free-thinking business loans until 31 December 2021.
• Liberty was one of the first non-bank lenders to join the initial SME Guarantee Scheme and is committed to supporting small business customers to grow successful businesses.
• With a competitive range of business lending products on offer, Liberty is here to help you set your business up for success.