Letters: JobKeeper not future-focused

Today readers have their say on coronavirus and the Government’s JobKeeper stimulus program, and the recommendation to legalise euthanasia in Queensland.

The future of work will be very different after coronavirus. Picture: iStock

BUSINESS, unions and politicians on all sides have supported the JobKeeper payment initiative (C-M, Apr 1).

But its limitations need to be highlighted.

As a result of the coronavirus, it is inevitable that some businesses will contract or fail, others will emerge and thrive, but all will change.

For most of us, work, business and our economy will not be the same.

Well-run businesses have already adjusted to the new realities.

Workers are moving from jobs no longer viable to those that are.

The unprecedented numbers in transition between work can access the enhanced Job Seeker safety net.

So why is the Government now using the largest economic package in the nation’s history to pay people to do jobs that no longer exist or are unlikely to be there in the future?

This is putting enormous resources into trying to maintain the status quo, rather than supporting an inevitable transition to a post-coronavirus economy.

There is apparent denial of the changed reality.

An alternative three-part approach would be: further strong financial support for existing businesses to transition to modified viable set-ups; secondly, support for start-up businesses to fill new needs; thirdly, even further increases to the Job Seeker payments for those between employment as the economy adjusts.

The Australian economy was already in the doldrums before the current crisis, with stagnant wage and productivity growth.

The current crisis could have been an opportunity to address some of these underlining economic issues while supporting businesses’ transition through the inevitable changes in our economy.

Unfortunately, JobKeeper is more backward looking than future focused.

Jeff White, Moggill

IT IS heartening to read of the rollout of financial assistance to many Australians, but I have yet to hear about any financial support for self-funded retirees.

It seems we are a forgotten group.

Being asset rich but income poor, we have taken a financial hit with our investment income dramatically reduced.

Residential and commercial properties are returning little or no rent, and listed shares are providing little or no income as companies reduce or cease paying dividends to shareholders in order to preserve cash flow.

We have household, medical and personal bills, as well as our children seeking financial assistance from us.

I ask Prime Minister Scott Morrison to think about us when delivering his next financial stimulus package.

Terry Ford, Thornlands

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FIFO LABOUR RISKS SPREAD

THE COVID-19 pandemic is upon us and Australians have hunkered down.

Medical professionals have made it clear that our best defence is isolation.

The Government has laid out strict rules for us to follow or risk fines and imprisonment.

But here in Queensland, a glaring hole in our defence is the fly in-fly out workforce (C-M, Apr 1).

Every week FIFO is bringing people from infected areas such as Brisbane and spreading them across the state to relatively safe, isolated communities in regional Queensland.

It is only a matter of time before an infected FIFO worker steps on the plane in Brisbane and 10 infected FIFO workers step off the plane in Mackay or Moranbah.

The Government must put our health before the economy.

Our industries, in this case, the mining industry, must put their workers’ health before their profit margin.

The FIFO work model will not work in a pandemic.

The obvious solution is a local workforce that is housed in the mining community and does not travel up and down the state.

No one will necessarily lose their job but will have to work away from home for extended periods of time, a worthwhile sacrifice that will protect the community.

FIFO must stop now.

Tony Fontes, Jubilee Pocket

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Voluntary euthanasia recommended for Queensland. Photo: Kari Bourne/Sunshine Coast Daily

SPLIT ON ASSISTED DYING

YOUR story about a parliamentary committee’s recommendation to legalise euthanasia in Queensland (C-M, Apr 1) neglected to mention that two of the six health committee members wrote a strong report of dissent.

That’s hardly a unified front.

LNP members Mark McArdle, who is the deputy chairman of the committee and Marty Hunt penned grave concerns over the lack of due process and extreme bias toward euthanasia shown by Labor, leading them to conclude that the committee was steered towards a “predetermined outcome”.

What a waste of time and money by Labor yet again.

A report on aged care and palliative care released a week earlier condemned the Labor government’s ongoing palliative care deficit to the tune of about 70 per cent.

Yet almost nothing is being done to address Queensland’s ongoing and dangerous palliative care deficiencies, despite valid concerns raised by the Australian Medical Association and Palliative Care Queensland, as well as many other doctors.

Shame Labor.

Neryl McPhee, Kings Beach

I WISH to congratulate and thank chairman Aaron Harper and the parliamentary committee who spent many months listening to Queenslanders who told their stories at the inquiry into voluntary assisted dying.

Having attended most of the sessions, I know how difficult is was to sit and listen to the heart-rending submissions we heard.

I also thank Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk for all the hard work she is doing to help Queenslanders through this unique time but beg her to remember the men and women dying from other causes – the ones who are suiciding because help is not there for them as well as those suffering at the end of their lives.

Please consider the report carefully and give us what 80 per cent of Queenslanders want – a law to allow voluntary assisted dying.

Jeanette Wiley, Graceville

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PRIVATE HEALTH WASTED

WITH private hospitals becoming part of the combined hospital system to fight COVID-19 (C-M, Apr 1), I question if there is any point in maintaining expensive private health insurance over the next year.

I acknowledge the funds decided not to proceed with their annual rate rise, but why would they need to with elective surgery being mothballed indefinitely and extras cover services in a similar state of hiatus?

I contacted my fund to see if premiums would be suspended until their service was reinstated. They said all patients, both private and public, would be merged and treated equally. So why pay private cover?

Sandra Bowie, Runaway Bay

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PERSONAL CARE

IT WAS very positive to read your Editorial (C-M, Apr 1) about the “Care Army”, where volunteers are helping seniors and others to fetch medical supplies, food and other essentials.

Social contact is also important, obviously from a safe distance, as many people are often alone at home and need to talk to real people.

This army is much better than the “toilet paper mercenaries” who were acting like they were full of sh--.

Lesley Brandis, Camp Hill

MANY thanks for your lovely Editorial regarding our frontline workers.

As a retired registered nurse, it is rewarding to read and to hear such salutary comments.

If one is suited to it, nursing is a wonderful profession.

I loved it, and was fortunate enough to graduate and to spend my working life at a top-class Sydney teaching hospital.

I shall always remain thankful for my years of employment.

Lynne Redknap, Robina

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FOOD FOR THE BRAIN

THANKS Courier-Mail for all the extra puzzles to help us exercise our brains during our incarceration.

This in-home stay has forced us to use our ingenuity to keep relatively sane and busy, because we can’t read books or eat all day.

Frances Bensted, Carindale

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ON THE LIGHTER SIDE ...

I HAVE just received an e-mail from my cleaning lady advising that she is now working from home. Full details on what to do and how to do it will follow by e-mail.

John Lebsanft, Bundaberg

Send us your short quips or jokes about coronavirus.

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