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RAFAL NEWS UPDATE THU 2 APRIL 2020

Rafal Alumairy

Writing A History of Student Radio In Australia

发布日期: 2020年4月2日

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AUSTRALIA:

5,050 cases, 23 deaths (yesterday 4,707 cases, 20 deaths)

PM announces free childcare for around 1 million parents during coronavirus crisis (six months). Priorities for essential workers who are at work and can't care for their children round the clock, but everyone is eligible.

Strongly asserts we won't look at going back to normal until at least six months.

Changes to work awards (agreements between government and certain industries) - in this case restaurant awards, hospitality awards and clerk's award (admin, or the award I'm on now). Changes mean flexibility in terms of what a worker can/can't do under that award, including allowing people to work from home when they couldn't before.

Some people ask why it's taken so long, govt says its complicated ok?

PM says we've tested around 1% of population, which is a lot.

PM says he is working with unions and says thank you to ACTU (Australian Council of Trade Unions) boss, implying support from unions.

No changes to "franking credits", which are this thing where rich people with shares can manipulate a particular part of the Australia's tax laws to scam the system, which have been heavily criticised by the Labor Party & other and has lots of people saying we should reform the system.

Banks are not necessarily stopping dividends at the moment - that means rich people who have shares in banks may still be making money.

CSIRO trialling two COVID-19 vaccines.

Pharmacists are reporting they are being abused on a daily basis.

Experts advise that when buying hand sanitiser, you need to get ones with high alcohol content or there's no point.

The government hasn't released the forecasts of how many people they think will be infected in Australia; Labor (the other party or the opposition, who are not the party that's in government) wants them to.

Regional media (newspapers in smaller country towns) are having problems, Labor and the Greens are asking the government to help them out.

AFL will give fans refunds for memberships for this year if they want, but asked them to keep them anyway.

Fair Work Commission says you can take two weeks unpaid pandemic leave without your employer's permission.

People on disability support pensions will get paid less than jobseekers for the next six months; may cause people to change payments and cause havoc.

40,000 ex health professionals encouraged to return to health work temporarily with introduction of "sub-register" system (temporarily registration to allow people to work in health services, instead of having to go through more intense re-registration process)

Laws passed to stop price-gouging (increasing prices for essential items unfairly to profit from a crisis) and stop essentials being sent overseas.

VICTORIA:

1,036 cases, 5 deaths. (yesterday 948)

10% of positive cases are healthcare workers.

No firm plans to release prisoners in Victoria, despite growing calls to do so, since if the virus ends up in a prison it will spread very quickly and cause deaths. The Victorian government has said well behaved prisoners may be released earlier.

Victorian Government changes their mind, says you CAN visit your partner after all in the lockdown.

You can go to the park and sit down and hang out without exercising as long as you don't hang out with other people and maintain social distancing.

NSW:

2,298 cases, 9 deaths

Lots of cruise ships still waiting off the coast, not allowed to dock, some people are saying there are humanitarian concerns about this policy (which means some people think Australia has a responsibility to let those people into the country)

QLD:

835 cases, 4 deaths

Shuts down border for real; previously you would have to self-isolate for 14 days if you cross the border, now you can't go to Queensland at all unless you have a "border permit".

TAS:

72 cases, 2 deaths

WA:

392 cases, 2 deaths

Cruise ship in WA is refusing to leave, WA premier says its one of the greatest frustration of his life. Most passengers have been flown home, 27 people being treated in hospital, 12 people still on the ship that the premier says he didn't know about. WA asks for Australian Govt help.

SA:

367 cases

NT:

21 cases.

Third case in Alice Springs (which very bad for Aboriginal communities who live far away in the country, because now the virus looks like its spreading towards them)

ACT:

87 cases

WORLD:

935,817 cases, 47,208 deaths (yesterday 857,487 cases, 42,107 deaths) - this is alarming.

US:

215,417 cases, 5,116 deaths (yesterday 188,172 cases, 3,873 deaths) - this is extremely alarming, and why you should always aim to have a government that knows what it's doing

UK:

Prince Charles says he's recovered from a mild case of coronavirus.

Wimbledon (tennis) cancelled for the first time since World War 2, or first time in 75 years.

PHILIPPINES:

President gives toxic masculinity a boost by threatening to "shoot dead" anyone "who creates trouble" during lockdown.

CHINA:

US says China concealed extent of their outbreak.

OTHER NEWS:

Two new accusers say George Pell abused them when they were boys (ABC headline)

Gum tree has fallen across a walking track in Templestowe Lower (Melbourne north east) trapping one person and sending a swarm of bees at others. Two people in hospital; one in serious condition, one stable. Many other, sometimes fatal, tree falling incidents in the last few months also in Lysterfield, Parkdale, South Melbourne, St Kilda, Kallista, Sherbooke.

RAFAL NEWS SPECIAL REPORT:

Rich people ruin everything. The huge gap between rich people, middle class people and poor people are extremely obvious at the moment and more obvious by the second. Here is a list of things the rich have been doing during the crisis.

>Chartering private jets for mutli-million dollar holiday homes/disaster bunkers

>If taking normal flights, staying in their own airport suites and having the tarmac cleared before boarding, to avoid interaction with the unwashed masses

>LATIN AMERICA, the most unequal region in the world: Rich people in Chile are violating quarantine left right and centre according to Chile's Health Minister. In Brazil, a 63 year old maid has died from the virus; her rich boss tested positive and isolated at home, but didn't tell the maid she was positive.

>While American politicians were declaring the virus was no big deal, three Republican senators and one Democratic senator were selling stocks (which implies they knew how bad the virus was, and were looking to profit from it)

>Stockpiling medical supplies, masks etc - many rich people have been calling doctors and asking if they can buy their own ventilators "just in case", at a time when there is a massive shortage of ventilators for seriously ill patients.

>Rich employers of essential workers who are still on the job are not providing staff with protective equipment like masks and gloves, and failing to provide adequate sick leave.

>Rich are flooding into rural areas to escape the virus in the cities, even though small towns say WE DON'T WANT YOU

>Skipping the lines for tests, which are almost impossible to get for normal people.

>This in particular is an indictment of the private health system in my opinion, which is a system I don't think should exist at all.

>The existence of a private health system NECESSARILY creates an imbalance in the healthcare system. There should be no such thing as privilege in healthcare.

>Most queue skipping incidents reported are of course in America

>In Britain, rich people WANT to skip the queue, but the NHS (National Health Service) which is public health for the whole country that conducts tests, similar to Medicare, said no piss off. Rich people in the UK are still trying to get preferential treatment for tests, for example sending samples overseas for testing instead.

LINKS FOR YOU TO PERUSE:

Guardian, report on poor countries & coronavirus

https://www.theguardian.com/…/coronavirus-rich-countries-po…

Economist, report on poor countries & coronavirus

https://www.economist.com/…/the-coronavirus-could-devastate…

Crikey (Australia) two reports on Rich people & coronavirus

https://www.crikey.com.au/…/can-we-blame-rich-people-for-c…/

https://www.crikey.com.au/…/rich-role-spreading-coronavirus/

Guardian, report on rich people & coronavirus

https://www.theguardian.com/…/the-coronavirus-crisis-has-ex…

NY Mag, report on rich people & coronavirus

https://nymag.com/…/things-are-bad-and-rich-people-arent-he…