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Morrison’s Bandaids

Written with Annasis Liz Kelly

Over the years Australia has had many politicians and governments who have applied one bandaid after another. Sadly, I feel in the case of the Morrison Government more than the average have been applied. My starting point here is to point out my obvious biased: I do not like the Prime Minister of Australia. He is misogynistic, racist, and corrupt to the core. Of course, that’s my opinion but it is one I feel many others share!

Scott Morrison received a lot of goodwill from the citizens of Australia over his early handling of the initial COVID-19 impact, closing the borders before the WHO suggested the move, requesting an investigation into the source of the virus, plus many others. Good will that has quickly unravelled. Let’s face it, this is due to the numerous transparent bandaids applied to both the small and major issues affecting our country.

Many missteps and mismanagements have been seen during the pandemic. For me, the most shocking were the revelations that deaths within the Aged Care System made up 42% of all COVID-19 related deaths. Each new death was another hole in the hearts of Australians, whether we knew the victims or not.

As soon as COVID-19 hit Australia it became obvious many Australians were going to lose their jobs. Sadly, his actions impacted the pretence that people on welfare payments are bludgers when he announced an additional allowance to the JobSeeker by a $550 payment each fortnight. Some economists have suggested financial assistance should have increased as per the CPI inflation rate; had they not been frozen some 25 years ago.

Australia learnt a few things based upon the sudden increase in the welfare payments:

1) Morrison knew the payments provided to Australians requiring financial assistance are too low to live upon. But he did not want the majority of the country to feel the same levels of poverty experienced by pensioners for decades.

2) Evidence showed that by raising the rates greatly improved pensioner’s lives. Some were granted opportunities to finally seek employment; others could feed themselves fresh healthy foods for the first time since they went onto the payments.

3) Our rich country can afford to give pensioners the much-needed increase towards their financial assistance.

The sudden rise told us that our Prime Minister is fearful of losing the next election, and the COVID-19 payments are a bribe as such.

Sadly, the same day JobKeeper ended, Brisbane and other areas of Queensland had 4 local transmissions of the more contagious and severe UK variant of COVID-19. With the added complication of a widespread contact tracing area due to the travel of the individuals now infected. Which means that one of the less transparent bandaids Morrison applied was ripped off. At a time it is still sorely needed by many Australian citizens. The removal was rather painfully removed, too.

There are numerous bandaid implementations put forth and others maintained when they should have been removed. The Morrison Government established enough votes to extend the ‘test’ of the Cashless Debit Card (CDC Indue Card) during the pandemic, creating a widespread lack of available cash accessible to pensioners. Implementation of this program acts as a punitive manner towards the lowest social class of our society; purely for the fact that they are unfortunately found in the situation of needing financial assistance to live. Individuals already forced to live well below the poverty line are now struggling to purchase second-hand goods when first-hand are unaffordable, cannot catch buses to job interviews, or have been forced to carry armloads of shopping when they are unable to catch a taxi home. Unable to attend family birthday celebrations and forget about going for a coffee with the Mother’s group because that requires dipping into that 20% portion of your payment allocated as cash.

What’s worse is the Indue Card is not able to be used when there is a power outage. As evident in WA currently, many CDC recipients have had outages due to the recent cyclone that’s passed. In some cases, having to drive many kilometres to get even a bottle of milk with the tiny amount of cash that they are forced to have because of the Indue Card. Because they will only have access to a tiny portion of their welfare payments. But this is not the first instance of power outages preventing individuals from accessing their money. This failure has occurred many times in the Card’s short lifespan.

The absence of service accessibility within Indigenous communities experience all round are amplified when payments are tied up by Indue or Basics Cards. With food prices three times higher than other regions of the country a cashless system has created further hardships in the face of health and nutrition. The Northern Territory frequently lose power to the remote townships at a rate Australians would consider unacceptable. During these power outages the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples starve when there is no money to buy anything from the local store. The Morrison Government ordered a report to be created supporting and validating the Cashless Welfare System; it was allocated to Parliament members only but was leaked to the public.

More information can be found on the Say No Seven Facebook and Twitter media accounts.

For us (Jennifer and Annasis) all good will towards the Morrison Government disappeared instantly when he denied this country’s relationship with slavery. The most senior leader within this country who has refused the Uluru Statement from the Heart, including the truth telling aspect, has shown he has no understanding towards the First People of these lands. His denial refused people like Jennifer her own family history; in favour of saving himself a form of ancestral guilt due to his family history within this country.

When he changed one word in what we call a racist national anthem, he broke our hearts and Jennifer welcomed the New Year with tears of pain. Days later Scott Morrison was determined to centre the ‘hardships’ experienced by his ancestors as more important than the genocides that of the Indigenous Peoples. The PM gleefully told Australia he is a descendant of the First Fleet, which to us says he is a man whose ancestors played a part in merely 10% of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nations surviving the war of invasion of what he calls a Settled Colony. He knows his side of the Aussie propaganda, but he has failed to educated himself about the people he serves. Morrison does not know the many nationalities of this country and that leads him to ultimately undervalue people like Jennifer and other Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders, plus the many other nationalities within these shores. Which means we cannot trust the man leading our country. A little bit of advice for the Prime Minister; in 1838 Police Magistrate Edward Denny Day described the Myall Creek Massacre as a “War of Extermination”. We beg him and other Australians to look honestly into the history of these lands through the eyes of the First Australian’s. Many will be shocked and disgusted at the truth behind the propaganda and lies taught by the colonial side of this continent. Such as the meaning associated with the term ‘settled colony’; which suggests no lands were ceded and no people were conquered.

But we lost even more respect when our country burned during Black Summer. As an Aboriginal Jennifer’s spirit has been shared with Totems such as a species of Eucalyptus Tree, which means according to cultural beliefs, part of her own spirit (aka human soul) plus billions of her kin were killed due to a lack of action managing these great lands. Vision of the native wildlife such as koalas crying in agony still breaks our hearts. The Sydney Morning Herald stated “the 3 billion animals estimated to have been killed, injured or seen their habitat destroyed by the summer fires is now understood to have included 143 million mammals, 181 million birds, 51 million frogs and 2.46 billion reptiles.” There is no estimate on the number of plants that were lost during these fires, but we’ve all seen the images of how much bushland was lost during those fires. Imagine them as not plants and animals but your beloved family members and you may almost touch the pain Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders felt during Black Summer.

Our anger flares at the knowledge that many Australians are struggling to put a roof over their heads after the next year’s bushfire season comes to an end. More so at the unused bushfire prevention fund that has not seen a single dollar spent. These two facts make me wonder if the Prime Minister is concerned over the damage and trauma caused to the lives of this continent; trauma that I extend to the lives of the animals, too.

More recently after all the explosive scandals involving sexual violence and abuse of women from within the Morrison Government. From the Liberal Staff Member who Brittany Higgins has alleged raped her, through to the allegations denied by Christian Porter and to Linda Reynolds. Scott Morrison has shown the women of Australia time and again that he not only does not understand he does not consider women’s rights of value to him or the Liberal Party in general. Not only did most LNP Members, including the PM fail to attend the March for Justice, yet Scott Morrison found the time to shake hands and enjoy himself with the Sharks Rugby League Team in their locker rooms, resulting in further scorn from an Aussie woman. Marise Payne in her role as Minister for Women likewise did not walk outside her building to listen to the voices of the people she serves. Yet found time to go on SkyNews to talk about Women’s Rights; a minister now described by the PM as the Prime Minister for Women? I do not understand how Australia can effectively have two Prime Ministers within our democratic society with very clear rules determined by our system. I guess it’s another thing he’s going to have to explain to the country.

Shockingly, when Andrew Laming’s appalling behaviour was revealed Morrison did not punish his harassment of his own constituents nor the up-skirting photo he took. Both are arguably criminal behaviours, neither are being prosecuted. Instead of treating these as the crime they are, even after Laming admitted to them, the Prime Minister ordered his minister first to apologise in parliament, which he later laughed off, before being sent off to empathy training. Empathy First Training and Coaching Founder Leanne Butterworth laughed at the idea of Laming being ordered into empathy training. Describing the necessary steps that will need to be reached before Laming will behave in a fit and proper manner as “consequences and a ton of therapy” then going on to say “Laming would need pretty intense empathy training to see the improvement in his behaviour the PM is hoping for.”

Scott Morrison has again used platitudes to protect members within his party: Stating Laming was elected by his constituents and that he will take leave to access professional mental health support and undertake the mandated Empathy Training. Which has come after he admitted his guilt in the criminal activity; but the PM has confirmed Laming has his confidence. In the same way he has Linda Reynolds and Christian Porter from the accusations against him. Goes a long way to showing the Australian public how much he truly understands the will of the people he serves not to mention the standards associated with our legal system. Nobody is above the law, all citizens are residents are equal. Many Aussies want to know how more than one politician has not been held accountable for a wide range of alleged criminal offences. More so Laming after publicly admitting to them. Furthermore, the lack of support and acknowledgement shown towards the women of Australia falls squarely in the sights of equal human rights. After more than 30 countries pointed at Australia in February 2020 to accuse us of violating them; this is not a good look and makes us an even bigger laughingstock to the world.

Seems to people like me, that when the experts talk, the Prime Minister closes his eyes and sticks his fingers in his ears then silently chant his own mantra regarding his supreme abilities to lead the country. I only see transparent bandaids. Much to the pleasure of many Australian’s Andrew Laming has now been blocked by his own party.

What I find absurd and confronting is that SA radio FiveAA have held their host Jeremy Cordeaux to a higher standard than the PM has expects of his ministers. Cordeaux was sacked for his ‘silly little girl who got drunk’ comments directed towards Brittany Higgins account of her alleged rape. All while Scott Morrison has used used similarly dismissive language to hide Linda Reynolds for her offensive comments because they were meant to be private. But I ask how private is a work place? They are a public space where anyone can overhear what is said. Public spaces are not generally classified as a private particularly when others are around, leading me to question why the most senior leader of this country think they are for his workspace? After using phrases including the ‘rule of law’ to essentially shield Christian Porter.

Ending March 2021 with a portfolio reshuffle that neglects to hold any individuals responsible for less than acceptable behaviours, applies another bandaid that would fail the test of the real world outside of Parliament. Does it tell Australia anything with regards to the PM’s religious views and his eagerness to participate in a similar manipulation of the system employed by Churches when they transfer sexual predators? Avoidance in an attempt to deflect accountability for their criminals, sound familiar to anyone?

But when the Prime Minister cannot even hold himself accountable for the way he treated Christine Holgate when he exploded in Parliament roaring; “She can go”. What chance does the LNP have of being a party of descent human beings? To be a considered one you must be part of the humankind. That takes being both human and kind. Can anyone honestly say this is true of the Prime Minister Scott Morrison? Obviously we have very little faith in the man’s abilities. What about the rest of this society who belong to the proposed ‘Lucky Country’?

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10 comments

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  1. Lurline

    I’m sorry Jennifer but I have to correct you. Us pensioners didn’t receive an increase at all. We received two payments of $750 and two of $250. Jobseekers received an extra $550 a fortnight (which I don’t begrudge them, they needed it, but so did pensioners).

    My bonus payments didn’t even cover my pharmacy bills over the period, so I was really no better off.

  2. Phil Pryor

    The “western” world is a parliamentary one, with careerists, donors, graft, corruption, influence, oppressive media, pushy corporations, tax avoidance and evasion, crime big and small, results over honesty, gain regardless of decency, and ordinary people reduced to electronic peasants, even slaves. Mass education, industrialisation, information, consumerism, participation in leisure, all give us modern bread and circuses effects, and detachment , discontent and irritability abound. The Morrison types live in a world preordained, established, automatically accepted, still superstition driven to cow people, the ultra orthodox, so despite the never ceasing garbage and savagery, it goes on with its adherents like worshippers.., you’ve never had it so good. Much of this stinks, with pollution, degradation, predation, insincerity, aggression, assorted evils never relenting. Ingrained and chronic liars abound, as they never embrace truth, but project ambition, drive, tell a story, try to convince, persuade, overcome. Expect to get adolfed, josefed, trumped, johnsoned, morrisoned, saddamed, gaddafied, idiamined.., forever and ever.., ah, Men, for they dominate the disgusting, never ending goings on. I, perhaps, we, had hoped for better…

  3. Kangaroo Jack

    I often wonder what the net effect on Reynolds was of having one of her trusted staff report her comment to the press. I bet there were some interesting meetings after that little effort.

  4. Bronte D G ALLAN

    Great & true article Jennifer! Sadly the lot of this so-called “liberal/national” (?) government is a misogynist, right wing, flat earth, happy clapping mob of BASTARDS!! The all do not have a fucking clue in how to govern Australia, the way it should be governed, nor do they have any clues about how females MUST be treated, they MUST go!

  5. Max Gross

    Hint: Sideshow Scott doesn’t give a shit

  6. Williambtm

    Jennifer, Lurline, and Phil, no patriotic Australian people will disagree with your stand-out comments; thanks, great article Jennifer Michels.
    Unbeknown to most people in our nation is the Americanization of our people and our land of Australia (which incorporates our first Australians, the indigenous people who cared for our nation and its resources most sensitively and sensibly known to humankind.)

    I am again forced to bring up the name of Australia’s commonly known treacherous and heartless sly-belly former Prime Minister, John Howard, it is a given that he had intended and largely succeeded in his corruptly seeding the minds of his party followers and those that head the L/NP coalition party today, and that of Australia’s Regulatory Authority bureaus and agencies… up unto this present day.

    Underlying the stinking acrid policies and agendas of this Morrison government, they being so plenteous, I touch upon the corruption of ministerial office by, E.G. (Angus Taylor, Barnaby Joyce, Peter Dutton, et al.) their deplorable L/NP party decisions of no longer governing for the best interests nor benefits of our all-encompassing populous of our Australia’s people.

    This is the effect of traitor Morrison pursuing the Americanization I had referred to earlier, their stacked bias, each of their fact denials, each newly legislated law that adds to the already number of people suppressing laws to vanquish our civil rights.

    Then for what is its purpose?

    The very same purpose that had been ordained by this world’s most slaughterous, illegally invading, war-mongering, and killer of many millions of civilians, post their country’s hostile illegal military invasions.
    America has long held with its evil specious agenda; had tasked itself to create a moribund dumbed-down spiritless average Joe in that land of the USA.

    As to the USA’s hostility and sinister intrigues and inherited by the discordant Morrison government, re my claims stated in the above, please read then access the following.

    The true agenda of the USA administration and its clandestine secret intelligence agencies, has been made available to you, the reader, to provide its basis for my opinions; please note; I had sought and gained special approval from JSTOR to access, then to be enabled to provide a download link to this 19-page extract copy.
    JSTOR has acknowledged this linked material to permit its use under a Creative Commons license accepted by JSTOR

    https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/10.13169/arabstudquar.35.3.0255.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3Acde7640c76d0ca95e15823446142128d

  7. leefe

    Lurline:

    The two extra payments we received were also balanced by the cancellation of automatic cost of living adjustments. Given how much prices on certain items have risen over the last year, we are noticeably worse off.

  8. Phil Pryor

    And now, later, Friday night, late, the P M, a Plodding Moron, or Pathetic Misfit, has talked about someone of whom he knows nothing, the late A Peacock, an inflated shell. Peacock made some lippy a whole suit of morning clothes, totally inadequate as a cover for a deficient personality and inflated ambition. Lacking substance, Peacock sought to Cinerama his shadow, failing constantly. Morrison says he was wonderful, a concept of a deficeinet manipulator who dredges up false memory and distorted perspective, for Peacock was a chatterer, social drinker, charmer of vulnerable ladies, shiner in glittery glamour and gastly self deception. A nice chap, typical of the best of the useless generation of well schooled Victorian liberals who swiiled in with the tide of Menzies’ dreamy old bullshit real Australia. It was a world of tariffs, bounties, subsidies, incentives, writoffs, writedowns, concessions, fellatio grovelling to the union jack, tours, cricket at Lords, shut the country party up with sponsored graft and corruption, and keeping up appearances of standards. Meanwhile, Australia declined, oozed, suppurated, poxed and plagued its environment, underprepared, underachieved. Our lucky country can’t go too bad, as it has a continent to pillage for a little scrum of petty thieves lurking in conservative parties. These days, the ambitious and hypocritical turds posing as “liberals” are smellier, nastier, deluded and dangerous.

  9. wam

    Sorry, lurline your maths language is astray. You actually received the increase in pension in two ways. First by not getting the cut in September due to indexing Second by not receiving the switch to indue.
    That will occur when miracle man Scummo wins next year.
    Scummo allocates a massive $12000 a card for indue. Twiggy is not number 2 behind Gina and multi-millions is LNP trophy cash I would love to see the raw score for indue: Total per card profit revenue Total welfare revenue paid to company Total welfare revenue expended by people on welfare. What happens to unspent welfare? Does it just go to profit like job keeper? Whichever way we look on welfare there is something crook. All we see by LNP women on women is backing up the LNP men. Unless another loonie miracle the rorting will out.

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