At 10am, Canberra was again the city with the worst air quality in the world. Same as yesterday.
Australia recorded its hottest day on record on Wednesday, 17 December, with an average maximum temperature of 41.9C, beating the previous record by 1C that had been set only 24 hours earlier.
Many thousands of people have had to abandon their holiday plans and are fleeing the danger we have been told to expect on Saturday.
Australia is the worst-performing country on climate change policy, according to a new international ranking of 57 countries. The report also criticises the Morrison government for being a “regressive force” internationally.
Australians have the world’s second-largest household debts, hovering around 120 per cent of GDP.
As at December 20, gross government debt was at a record $561.8 b up from about $274 b when the Coalition came to government in September 2013.
ACOSS reminded us of the following facts during Anti-Poverty Week 2019:
Three million people are living in poverty in Australia (ACOSS & UNSW, 2018) – that’s one in eight adults and almost one in six children.
In the whole country, there were only 2 rentals affordable for a single person on Newstart, according to Anglicare Australia’s 2019 Rental Affordability Snapshot. On any given night in Australia 1 in 200 people are homeless (Homelessness Australia, 2018) and the number is growing every year.
FoodBank’s 2018 Hunger Report found four million people in Australia had experienced food insecurity in the past 12 months.
There is only 1 job available for every 8 people looking for paid work or more hours (ABS, 2018).
There were around one million people in Australia receiving Newstart, Youth Allowance or another allowances at December 2018, with half of Newstart recipients over the age of 45. More than one in four people on Newstart have an illness or disability, but do not receive the Disability Support Pension. More than 100,000 parents are on Newstart, the majority of whom are single women (as their youngest child is aged eight or more and they therefore do not qualify for parenting payment).
The Royal Commission into Aged Care described it as “a sad and shocking system that diminishes Australia as a nation… a shocking tale of neglect”.
“We have uncovered an aged care system that is characterised by an absence of innovation and by rigid conformity. The system lacks transparency in communication, reporting and accountability. It is not built around the people it is supposed to help and support, but around funding mechanisms, processes and procedures.”
And the same story is emerging from the disability royal commission.
The 2019 Closing the Gap report on Indigenous disadvantage shows we are failing to meet targets in five of the seven target areas – child mortality, life expectancy, school attendance, employment, and reading and numeracy. Yet we steadfastly resist letting them advise us on their needs in order to address these areas of continued disadvantage.
But how good is the view of the fireworks from Kirribilli House when knocking back a few coldies with the boys?
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