Low blow for Albo to blame COVID recession on PM

Anthony Albanese’s constant reference to the “Morrison recession” is an indication of how morally bankrupt the Opposition Leader and Labor have become. Standing in the Parliament and stating a lie such as this is a disgraceful new low in Australian politics. While many will fall for the line if it is repeated often enough, it is my hope there are still enough thinking Australians who understand Albanese’s attempts to blame the downturn on the Prime Minister is the gutter politics it actually is.

Just in case Albanese failed to notice, just about every country in the world is in recession. Did Scott Morrison cause all this as well? I believe the culprit is a little thing called COVID-19. Last time I checked no one else believed the Australian Prime Minister caused the coronavirus pandemic.

Ross Dillon, Maleny, Qld

Anthony Albanese refers to the downturn as the “Morrison recession” and the large spend as the “Liberal deficit”. Well, this recession was caused by the deadly disease originating in China and all premiers and territory leaders (including Labor ones) agreed to this lockdown strategy to save lives. The national recession was aggravated in Victoria because the Labor government led by Daniel Andrews seriously botched hotel quarantine.

Some Labor politicians keep referring to the Prime Minister as “Scotty from marketing”. The Opposition Leader keeps saying that more money should be going to social housing despite the fact this would increase the deficit to which he objects. He never tells us who would finally pay for this additional expense. We all know Labor policies proffered before the last election were rejected by voters and tossed in the bin. Labor is in a policy-free zone and Albanese does not have much economic credibility.

Coke Tomyn, Camberwell, Vic

Australian Story on the ABC on Monday night revealed the tragedy that was the talented, much-loved Rory O’Donoghue of The Aunty Jack Show. It served to illustrate the dark area of mental health now besetting so many people today because of COVID-19. Despite laudable federal government efforts to help, the impact of this accursed virus warrants even more attention being paid to maintain those who, through no fault of their own, have been dragged into the insecurity and worry of being unemployed. Hopefully, the government’s commendable business initiatives will spark a new wave of employment that will help in alleviating this suppurating sore.

Ron Sinclair, Bathurst, NSW

The falling economic tide caused by COVID has exposed many policy failures masked by the past decade of ultra-high immigration. These include the need to spend billions to catch up on infrastructure, increase productivity, fix the low fertility rate and encourage businesses to employ young people. However, the budget didn’t address the failure of businesses to invest in people over the age of 50, who before COVID made up more than 50 per cent of those on unemployment welfare. I suppose the government wants to see how high they can push this failure.

Chris Cairns, Pymble, NSW

If the federal Labor Party is so concerned that the budget is not supporting the over-50s it should put pressure on Labor premiers to make their employment exempt from payroll tax.

L.M. Silbert, West Leederville, WA

It is good to see some budgetary support for updating the Lake Macquarie (NSW) coal-fired power station (“Coalition supports coal plant upgrade”, 8/10). But at a time when we are spruiking Australia’s “can-do” approach to new technology and cheap energy, why are we not providing incentives to replace rather than extend the ageing technology by building a current-technology High Efficiency Low Emission (HELE) coal power plant? Such plants provide cheaper long-term power than gas (reduced infrastructure for transport and storage of the energy source material) and have the huge bonus of up to 30 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions when compared with old technology coal-fired power — a great stride toward our Paris emission reduction targets.

Japan, India and China lead the way in Asia with HELE technology; our strong trade relationships should allow us to join rather than merely watch our neighbours.

Michael Asten, Hawthorn, Vic