Sharing burden of coronavirus

Defeating COVID-19 requires asking for something from each of us. At the simplest level, everyone is bearing part of the burden now. To flatten the curve of infections, entire industries have been shut down, with affected workers on a reduced, subsidised wage or on unemployment benefits. Some employees are being asked to work reduced hours or take annual leave. High-profile chief executives are taking a pay cut, symbolic gestures no doubt for some. Professional sports people, always at risk of injury in time-limited careers, are on hiatus from their leagues and will suffer lost income.

Yet as most workers feel the pain, Queensland’s 224,000 public servants are set to receive a 2.5 per cent pay rise plus a one-off $1250 cash payment. These protected workers are taking part in an all-staff ballot to approve the deal, which amounts to a 10 per cent rise across four years. It’s untenable, if not immoral. Letter writers have noted that many people calling for tougher social-distancing measures, leading to harsher economic pain, are themselves shielded from consequences — be they broadcasters or officials. Perhaps they will face the chill of austerity when the public sector is wound back, as it must, because of the looming debt overhang.

In outlining the new flat-rate $1500 a fortnight JobKeeper wage subsidy this week, Scott Morrison highlighted our egalitarian ethos; it spares Australia from a fight over equity implications. Britain and Canada have opted for fixed percentages of existing salaries in their schemes. JobKeeper will apply to six million people, those stood down and employed; full time, part time and, casual workers as well as sole traders; businesses of all sizes, although large companies will need to establish a drop in revenue of 50 per cent. Of course this extraordinary nationalisation of private payrolls comes with a huge fiscal cost: $130bn for the first six months.

The Morrison government’s “whatever it takes” economic support superstructure, so far worth $214bn or 11 per cent of gross domestic product, will lead to mammoth budget deficits and spiralling debt. As we argued on Wednesday, our young people are on track to become “Generation Debt”, lumbered with higher taxes and disrupted lives. “Bad economic times can have deep and persistent scarring effects on many people, particularly the young,” Judith Sloan observed in her column. Millennials and Generation Z have never known the deprivations of war, like their grandparents perhaps, but many now will experience interruptions in learning and career progression, a loss of liberty, and mental health issues. Adult children may have to stay even longer at home or return to live with parents.

We’re facing a calamity that calls for shared sacrifice. As the Prime Minister keeps saying, we all have a role to play in stopping the spread of COVID-19 and in preserving the social bonds that sustain us. Baby boomers, those born from 1946 to 1964, are carrying a huge load. Many have seen their retirement nest eggs destroyed and will remain in the workforce longer than they may have wished. Or if already retired, they will be facing a severe income hit and capital meltdown. Many also will be crunched by the needs of two other generations, caring for aged parents and grandchildren. Yet, in many other ways, boomers have been a privileged generation, enjoying free-range childhoods in the long postwar boom, free tertiary education and an accumulation of assets, such as housing, secured in more affordable times.

Naturally, boomers take umbrage at being described as “old” or “vulnerable” in the time of corona. As a group, they are healthier, more socially and physically active, and far more likely to be in paid work than their predecessors. Ordering people aged 70 or older to stay in their homes will be as insulting as it is ridiculous for many of them. Yet that’s the advice of the medical experts we have been relying on to ease the strain on our health system and save lives. In responding to the pandemic, decision-makers, in good faith and armed with facts, have had to draw hard lines on compliance. In the spirit of sharing the burden, we must, if only temporarily, yield to the greater good.