"The Week on Wednesday" with Van Badham & Ben Davison

Weekend Wrap 30 January 2022: Ash Barty and Special K win at Australian Open, Albo on Insiders, COVID update and Where is Richard Colbeck?

Ben joins the #BartyParty as Ash Barty becomes the first Australian woman to win the Australian Open in 44 years and the Kyrgios & Kokkinakis "Special K" duo take out the men's doubles.

Insiders returns for 2022 with a first up interview with Labor leader Anthony Albanese.  Albo gave all the right answers to the wrong questions.  It boiled down to Speers repeatedly asking how much will that cost/how will it be paid for and Albo responding with "We will stop the waste, the rort and the corruption."

NSW has recorded the worst day for COVID deaths while Dominic Perrottet, Boy Prince, announces a business support package where the devil is once again hidden in the details.

Finally as the death toll in aged care facilities rises and Morrison's Aged Care Minister appears to be in hiding (possibly at the cricket) Ben asks, "Where is Richard Colbeck?"

You can support The Week in Wednesday at www.buymeacoffee.com/weekonwednesday

Episode 72: Grace Tame channels Australian women, COVID deaths spiking, Australia and Survival Day plus good news on rivers

Van Badham and Ben Davison analyse the final day of Grace Tame's tenure as Australian of the Year, that handshake, that look, that photo, Morrison's failures on policy issues, Morrison entrenchment of unsafe cultural attitudes, the conservative response to Tame doing her duty and what it tells us about the state of politics and the status of women in Australia.

Van and Ben also remind people they can get active to support better safety for women at work, and in society, through their union at australianunions.org.au/wow with the We Won't Wait campaign and the demands to implement all the recommendations of the Respect@Work report.

COVID deaths in Australia are spiking with daily deaths per million currently higher in Australia than in Brazil.

With Morrison prioritising making RAT importer millionaires over providing RATS to NDIS participants and aged care residents Van and Ben look at how people in those sectors are struggling as well as how the Ministers are, not only failing, but hiding out at the cricket!

The union movement is holding webinars TOMORROW (Thursday 27th) on your workplace safety rights, hosted by Australian Unions leaders Sally McManus and Liam O'Brien, the webinars are a must for any worker who is concerned about COVID exposure at work, the shortage of RATS and what the rules are about not having to work in an unsafe environment.  The Australian Unions webpage and twitter has all the details.

Dylan Alcott is the Australian of the Year for 2022! His first acts were to call for more support for the NDIS, free RATS, a shift in mindset and to take a very cheerful selfie with Grace Tame.

Today is the Australia Day public holiday but the desire for a national day that all Australian's can celebrate is gaining momentum.  Van and Ben discuss some of the issues surrounding today, cameo some remarkable social shifts that commemorated Survival Day and suggest people check out Thomas Mayor's article on this topic in the SMH and Age.

The good news is about the Yarra River!

And we give shout outs to our Cadre and Extend the Reach supporters.  You can get a shout out by contributing at www.buymeacoffee.com/weekonwednesday 

Weekend Wrap 23 January 2022: Morrison wants kids driving forklifts, The Wiggles win the Hottest 100, WA keeps borders closed, Vic and NSW announce school restart plan

Ben Davison dives into Morrison's botched attempt to get children driving forklifts by National Cabinet decree and urges people to check out their health and safety rights at the Australian Unions free webinar this week with ACTU Leader Sally McManus, australianunions.org.au has the details.

Triple J's Hottest 100 has been announced with The Wiggles winning the annual song poll with their Like A Version cover of Tame Impala's track, Elephant.  

WA announced it will be keeping border protections in place beyond the initial February 5 date originally floated for reopening.  Premier McGowan has said that concerns about the efficacy of double vaccination against Omicron and the "shadow lockdowns" that Omicron outbreaks have caused in the rest of Australia are behind the move.

While NSW and Victoria suffer from shadow lockdown, staff shortages, supply chain constraints and collapsing consumer demand, both state governments have announced plans to get kids back to school.  Regular testing, combined classes, vaccine mandates for staff and mask mandates for grade 3 and up are all part of the approach designed to keep schools open.  Queensland has already delayed the restart of school to February 7th to have its plans in place.

While the states are rolling out RATs to schools the he said, he said of Commonwealth RAT procurement and supply continues.  Many organisations have claimed their RAT supplies have been diverted to meet Commonwealth procurement contracts while the Morrison government claims it hasn't "seized" any RATs from the private market.  While this is going on people are paying hundreds of dollars to regularly test disability support workers and pharmacies cannot get RATs to give out to those who would qualify for the Morrison concessional RATs program.

In New Zealand new gathering limits and mask rules have been announced as Omicron threatens to breakout.  New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has canceled her wedding in order to comply with the new protective measures.

And Ben thanks all of the Week on Wednesday listeners who have checked out the support page at buymeacoffee.com/weekonwednesday 

Episode 71: Morrison rambles while states make COVID moves, aged care calls for military help, NDIS being left behind in vaccine race and good news about Australian birds

Van Badham and Ben Davison breakdown the COVID updates in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia while diving into the long rambling list of activities that Scott Morrison's tried to pass off as being Prime Ministerial at his latest press conference.

With RATs being stolen, hospitals overwhelmed and death rates spiking Morrison used up an hour of live TV to announce a visa fee waver for international students and backpackers along with a grant for his former employer, Tourism Australia, in what amounts to just another piece of minor tinkering on his failed "workforce" management policies.

Supermarket shelves are bare, hundreds of thousands of people are sick and exposed to COVID and the Morrison government is talking about changing the rules that keep workplaces safe and bringing in more temporary visa holders as solutions.  Australian Unions leader Sally McManus, on the back of stopping a corporate meat-works forcing hundreds of COVID infected workers to process meat alongside healthy workers, has said it will "strongly oppose" moves against "worker's health and safety" while the migrant workers centre has said that "temporary visa holders aren't an expendable last resort workforce".

You can join your union at australianunions.org.au/wow

In aged care the situation has become so desperate that the ACTU, Australian Nurses & Midwives Federation (ANMF), Health Services Union (HSU), United Workers Union (UWU), Australian Workers Union (AWU), Aged and Community Services Australia and Leading Aged Services Australia have requested military support to keep aged care facilities operational.  The rare joint request from workers and employers was effectively dismissed by Morrison during the press conference without direct reference but with a curt "there aren't magic workforces".

Australian's living with a disability and on the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) are being left behind in the race to be vaccinated with the supposed priority group well below nationwide vaccine and booster rates.  The rollout, described by the Disability Royal Commission in October as "seriously deficient", has been called a "roll call of failure by the Morrison government" by NDIS shadow minister Bill Shorten following damning evidence that booster levels are roughly half what has been provided to the general public.

Plus there is good news about Australian birds and the release of an ARIA Top 5 album of endangered bird songs called "Songs of Disappearance" which is raising money to support repopulation and conservation.

And we give shoutouts to our Extending the Reach and Cadre supporters.  You can check out supporter options here www.buymeacoffee.com/WeekOnWednesday

Weekend Wrap16th January 2022 Morrison’s blunders see corporations trying to send COVID positive workers back to work, Djokovic exposing the flaws at immigration & WA prepares for Omicron

Ben Davison gives a wrap up on the COVID figures for the week and looks at how "mild" Omicron has been able to bring much of Australia into an undeclared lockdown.

Ben looks at the situation in WA as they learn from the failures of the NSW Liberal Party and prepare for re-opening to the rest of Australia on the 5th of February.

Morrison has opened the flood gates to corporations forcing COVID positive workers back into the workplace with Teys abattoir instructing its 140 covid infected staff to come to work in different coloured hairnets.  Teys, who supply Woolworths, has apparently earmarked most of the meat for export.  Australian Unions are running a campaign #WTFWoolies to pressure the supermarket giant to stop their supplier from making workers come to work infected.

Morrison opened the flood gate by announcing a three priorities framework for allowing exposed workers back to work earlier in the week. 

Australian Unions are holding an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss how to deal with the situation

Ben looks at the double standards in applying the framework as dock management company Patrick tries to cancel its workplace agreement to cut workers wages, but in the process would end 24 unloading shifts, without a peep from the Morrison government about the impacts on Australia's supply chain.

And of course Novak Djokovic has ruined everyones weekend (and last two weeks really) with his ongoing anti-vax saga.  Today we will find out if a court will keep him in Australia or if Morrison's punitive immigration system can throw out an anti-vax, lying, multi-millionaire friend of foreign governments or just poor, scared, refugees.

There is good news as RATS arrive in Victoria and listeners just like you have been contributing to the Week on Wednesday supporter page.

Episode 70: Morrison let it rip now the shelves are bare, ideology vs policy vs politics on COVID and were Djokovic’s COVID test results altered?

Van Badham and Ben Davison dive into the mess of Scott Morrison's ideology and the Boy Prince Dom's unenforceable COVID policies as the politics of material reality, that is millions of Australian's having COVID, being exposed to COVID and being too sick to go to work, starts to bite into both NSW based Liberal Party leaders.  Shelves are bare, businesses cannot function, economic activity is collapsing and the truism is being proved: To have a healthy economy you need healthy people.

With workers being sick and exposed to COVID Morrison intends to use national cabinet to try and water down workplace safety protections while the Australian Union movement and leader Sally McManus have call on Morrison to abandon his plans and instead focus on more rapid antigen tests, masks and support for workers to stay safe and small businesses to function.

Ben takes us through the state by state numbers, the impacts across industries and some of the more "interesting" policy approaches, while Van gets theoretical guns blazing against two political leaders who have chosen ideological blindness just when more Australian's than ever are experiencing the lived reality of COVID.

In a late breaking addition Ben and Van look at whether Novak Djokovic was not only lying about his COVID situation but asks the question; Were Djokovic's tests altered? 

Information published by German news outlet Spiegel questions the legitimacy of Djokovic's claims through an examination of public information, timelines and testing records.  https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/novak-djokovic-were-the-results-of-his-positive-pcr-test-manipulated-a-cf3e7344-e98f-4fc3-8bb3-7727d4795e97 

Good news out of Germany, where rapid antigen tests can be bought from vending machines and despite KFC running out of some chicken products there is good news in the form of plant based alternatives!

Plus we give shout outs to our first wave of Cadre and Extending the Reach supporters from our supporter page: www.buymeacoffee.com/WeekOnWednesday 

Weekend Wrap 9th January 2022: COVID explosion in Australia, staff shortages, school return delayed and what the Djokovic saga shows us about asylum seeker policy

Ben looks at the explosion of COVID across Australia which has seen the country exceed the case load per capita of both the UK and USA.  With over half a million people currently diagnosed with COVID 19, hospitalisations climbing to record levels and daily death numbers the worst in NSW you would hope the Let It Rip strategy of Morrison and NSW Premier Dom Perrottet was keeping the economy booming.

Ben explores how Let It Rip has crippled the economy, created staff shortages, bare supermarket shelves and has the Morrison government scrabbling to strip away workplace health and safety protections and create an even worse set of conditions going forward.  The union movement is pushing back against the Morrison government and is pointing out the crisis is only made worse by sending sick and exposed people into workplaces.

QLD has confirmed schools won't go back until the 7th of February as the state grapples with the outbreak and a cyclone that has crashed into at least 80 homes and sees a 14 year old girl missing in flood waters.

Novak Djokovic is due to have is day in federal court tomorrow but the real story is what his case is telling us about the 30 asylum seekers being held in the same hotel.  Here's a clue: they are genuinely in need of asylum and should be released from the "prison like conditions" in which they are being held.

Plus we've launched our contributor page https://www.buymeacoffee.com/WeekOnWednesday where you can help support the podcast, which will always be free to listen too and download.

 

Episode 69: Morrison surrenders to the virus, what Omicron means for you and the good news about beavers!

Van Badham and Ben Davison return in 2022 to breakdown the Morrison government's latest announcements about COVID, including the attacks on workplace health and safety, and examine how Morrison has gone from ham fisted and half hearted neo-Keynesian to full blown free market Friedmanite.

With COVID being let rip by boy Prince of NSW, Dom Perrottet, Morrison has taken the opportunity to make an ideological shift that will see 20 million Australian's left to "thunderdome" for RATs, bread and fuel while being told to go back to work when exposed to COVID.  Because "critical workers" exposing our most vulnerable to COVID is apparently no longer a problem....

They look at the overseas experiences and what we can do to protect ourselves and our communities.  Here's a hint: Join your union, get vaccinated, don't expose others when you're ill.

Plus there is good news about problematic beavers in Utah.

Welcome back to the Week on Wednesday!

Episode 68: Omicron COVID strikes back, What we learned about Morrison‘s government in 2021 and will 2022 be any better?

Van Badham and Ben Davison dive into what is happening with the Omicron variant and contrast the UK experience to the let it rip attitude of Morrison and Dom Perrottet.  The northern hemisphere is our early warning system so why are these two Liberal leaders choosing to ignore the UK bringing back protections?

Is it just a cowardly political calculation?

Morrison's government is crooked, corrupt, incompetent, ideologically vacuous and failing to deliver.  Van and Ben look at some of the best (and worst) elements of Morrison's government from 2021.  From buying votes in wealthy seats using working people's money to ignoring ways to make workplaces safer for women and care homes safer for our elders Morrison isn't just failing to deliver more religious discrimination and an independent anti-corruption commission.  He's failing full stop. 

2021 was enough to make you cry, and in this episode Van and Germanicus both shed a tear, so we look at the hope on the horizon for 2022.  There are elections to be won, striking workers to be supported (check out the CSR Gyprock fundraising page, links on our socials), cooperative power companies you can shift too and cool political actions like #AbscondmentDay to participate in that will all make 2022 an even better year. 

Weekend Wrap 12th December 2021: Qld to reopen, Omicron brings boosters forward, tornado exposes the brutality of US workplaces, inequality gets worse

Ben Davison looks at Queensland reopening to other states in Australia with up to 50,000 cars predicted to make the journey into the sunshine state tomorrow.  The Omicron variant of COVID has inspired regulators to bring forward booster shots from six months to five.

A tornado has devastated Kentucky and in the process exposed some major fault-lines in US workplaces.  With 70 killed in a candle factory, six killed in an Amazon facility and many more still to be located the callous indifference of Jeff Bezos, who owns much of Amazon, has enraged many observers.

This has happened as Kellogg has attempted to replace its 1,400 striking workers in what US President Joe Biden has called an attack on workers and said he would support laws to make replacement workers illegal.  Redditors, from social media platform Reddit, effectively overwhelmed the Kellogg online application system stopping the companies attack, for now.

Ben contrasts the US political leadership on worker conditions with Australian reactions to workers asking for decent wages, secure jobs and safe conditions.

Back home print workers at the West Australian took a four hour stoppage action and the billion dollar company responded by locking the workers out of their jobs.  The NSW government has attacked teachers and transport workers looking for fairer pay and more secure work and Scott Morrison has attempted to blame dock workers for the failure of globalisation to provide during the pandemic and his own government's lack of domestic industry policy.

Unsurprisingly this is all culminating in higher inequality, lower wages and richer billionaires in Australia.