Surviving Covid-19 !

ACTU Secretary Sally McManus raises a valid point when she refers to the  3.3 million Australian workers who fall under the " casual " designate in describing their employment status.   They are not entitled to either annual leave or sick leave and the isolation need of this coming pandemic leaves them in economic peril.

It is essential that those who show signs of infection do not needlessly spread the disease by continuing to work and when the income stops this lower paid segment of the workforce will not be able to keep paying their bills.  Those renting will quickly face a housing crisis and few have cash savings that can tide them over a period of income loss.

There is also the aspect of keeping the nation's essential services running.  Food and pharmaceutical manufacturing needs to keep working to supply the nation's needs and another necessary essential is the transport system.  We need a degree of flexibility to ensure that enough healthy members of the workforce can fill gaps where these become necessary.

The giant Uber company has made an early response with an announcement that it will provide  fourteen day  "compensation " to drivers who need to isolate themselves due to the virus.  It is hoped that industry generally will make a similar approach to see the nation through this crisis.

The economic community is looking to the Federal government for the obvious lead that would involve providing " Newstart " as a temporary relief for those who would need isolation because of the virus.  Basically, Newstart is just another word for the " dole " and it would certainly be appropriate to shield those temporarily removed from the workforce by Covid-19.

The problem is that Newstart has not been updated in line with inflation for years and now falls far short of a living wage.  There are calls for it to be increased by nearly a hundred extra dollars a week but this is being resisted on the grounds that it would make unemployment too attractive to those seeking to avoid the responsibilities that go with a permanent job of work.

There is no doubt that this coming Pandemic has thrust as unwelcome strain on the national economy. All hope of delivering a surplus has been removed from economic thinking and the government will need to increase borrowings to stimulate the economy.  The unknown factor is - to what degree and for how long ?