QandA: Government slammed as Jordan Steele-John calls for ‘male, pale’ monopoly to be broken

The government’s response to COVID-19 has been battered on QandA, as a Greens senator called for the ‘male, pale and painfully stale monopoly on power’ to be broken.

The federal government’s response to COVID-19 has been battered on QandA, as a Greens senator called for the “male, pale and painfully stale monopoly on power” to be broken.

With Monday night’s program dedicated to discussing the impact of COVID-19 on young people, the spotlight fell on several aspects of Scott Morrison’s response to the global pandemic, particularly policies that were devised to assist disadvantaged members of the community.

Labor MP Anika Wells and West Australian Greens senator Jordan Steele-John both said the Coalition’s super withdrawal policy had failed young people, with Ms Wells labelling fellow panellist and Liberal senator Andrew Bragg a “false prophet”.

“First and foremost, this is one of the great acts of intergenerational theft that we have seen from an Australian government,” Ms Wells said.

“In the long term it will drive up the cost of housing even further and would strategically disadvantage the youngest and most vulnerable people in our community. This is the kind of policy that would do it. It‘s a no from me. Zero stars.”

However, Senator Bragg said superannuation represented a “bad deal” for young people, as he rejected claims that withdrawn super had gone to waste, pointing to Australian Bureau of Statistics data that showed it had been used wisely.

“The majority of people that have taken money out of their super during the pandemic have used it to pay off debts and pay down their mortgage. They‘ve improved their personal balance sheets,” Senator Bragg said.

Calling the government’s superannuation policy “inadequate”, Senator Steele-John said more young people were needed in politics to ensure policies were representative and inclusive.

“To be blunt with you, the male, pale and painfully stale monopoly on power needs to be broken. It is failing our generation,” Senator Steele-John said.

His opinion was echoed by university student Hamani Tanginoa: “When it regards us, a lot of people … say young people are the future. If we are the future why aren’t we part of the conversation?”

With much of the discussion revolving around the health and economic issues facing young people during and after the crisis, several panellists agreed that millennials have been unfairly chastised for issues that had arisen.

“Young people are being blamed for this pandemic but what most people don‘t understand is that it’s not a young people problem, it’s a human problem,” Mr Tanginoa said.

“You can see that the majority, the majority of the people that are not sticking by restrictions, are considered middle-aged.”

One of the major problems confronting younger generations was soaring demand for mental health services, with Black Dog Institute director and Chief Scientist Helen Christensen saying that three-quarters of young people were experiencing mental health problems.

“The problem is that our way of doing mental health care is very rigid. So people are allowed 10 sessions. Those sessions are an hour each and there‘s only so many psychologists that are available,” Professor Christensen said.

“You can’t actually get more, unless you get more efficient in the way you deliver healthcare. You’re going to be stuck with a problem you won’t be able to get access.”

Youth Activating Youth executive director Ahmed Hassan said, with draconian lockdowns reimposed across Victoria, many marginal community members were slipping through the cracks.

“When do we have an inclusive policy to bring them back in?” Mr Hassan asked.

“Make sure we have a plan to make the recovery phase include everyone and not leave some people that are already struggling way behind.”

Panellists also sparred over industrial reform policy, with Senator Bragg saying uncertainty about workforce casualisation would deter private investment.

“This is the biggest economic shock maybe in 150 years. So we need to make sure that

we have not only a competitive tax system but our labour laws are job-friendly and need to be able to encourage enterprises, small, medium and large, to create new roles,” he said.

Senator Steele-John said that argument was “disconnected from reality”, as he called for permanent increases to JobSeeker and youth allowance rates, while Ms Wells said casualisation had resulted in “scarring” on the workforce.

“And the government started signposting they’re looking at IR reform as a way out of the

COVID response. Great. They’re saying they want to deregulate IR even further. Why would you make insecure work even more precarious and insecure?” she said.