Boost economy with Newstart
PRIME Minister Morrison, in regards to the economic stimulus you’re likely to launch to assist the economy stave off a recession, please direct all of our household stimulus payments to a Newstart recipient. In times such as these you need to show leadership and protect the less fortunate because they are really struggling and we are more than happy to assist you in doing this. Remember not a single dollar of a Newstart payment lingers in a bank account, it’s spent on local goods and services to help them survive from to day.
What an outcome this would be – the Newstart recipient receiving a lift in living standards and the economy also receiving a much-needed boost. Perhaps you can do something Kevin Rudd couldn’t.
Adam Mooney
West Hobart
Fear factor hurts more
WHAT protected the Australian economy from a recession during the GFC crisis was not simply money spent by the Rudd government, because many countries spent yet failed to avert a recession. They failed because they allowed the fear factor to enter their economies due to drip-feeding government intervention, with a consequence of runs on the banks, selling down of investment stocks, high unemployment due to small businesses going broke and larger businesses reducing staff.
Australia avoided this by major government intervention from the start, people felt their money and jobs were safe, therefore continued spending! The Coalition Government has been drip-feeding for seven years with regular announcements of large funds being available over four to ten years with little spent in the meantime. Examples are spending on fuel reserves, NDIS, bushfire relief and now the lack of sufficient masks, medication etc stored locally which will probably be needed due to coronavirus. If the Morrison Government continues to drip-feed, the effects on the economy of the growing fear factor will rapidly outstrip that of coronavirus!
P. Kasz Glebe
Duck-shoving
PETER Gutwein has shown a classic case of duck-shoving responsibility between government levels — Fine people for failing to self-isolate? That’s our job. Make sure that someone with no money, and no job or living security gets the support needed to be able to obey an order? That’s nothing to do with us, that’s a federal job. Surely governments can understand they must work together on a co-ordinated response to the isolation problem. Otherwise the problem will just get worse.
Bill Godfrey New Town
Unrealistic isolation
STUDENTS and casual workers depend on their wages to pay their rent and buy food. It is unrealistic to imagine that someone in that category, and their housemates, who have been ordered into selfisolation are going to adhere to it, unless their rent is paid and they are supplied with food. Perhaps it is also necessary to notify their employer to ensure they don’t front up to their place of work. Going out and about on recreational activities while under quarantine should possibly be a criminal offence. After all, this virus in potentially lethal to the elderly.
Yvonne Stark Battery Point
As healthy as the sickest
THE threat of a pandemic is a stark reminder that in this connected world we are as healthy as the most vulnerable and the sickest person in the world. The fortunate strongest links in the chain of life can be broken by the weakest link. To fight a pandemic the vulnerable, the poor, the sick, need financial support, compassion and care. We are all joined in the web of life, linked by our common humanity. Elizabeth Osborne
North Hobart
Give us information
THE chaos, uncertainty and lack of direction by state and federal governments regarding the COVID-19 virus, has seen the general populace seemingly panic and self-interest reigns supreme. Why aren’t our medical practitioners notifying their patients, why aren’t there notices in supermarkets, in buses, at schools and universities, on all our TV stations, alerting us to what must be done, before we replicate what is happening in Italy and Iran. Harry Quick
Berriedale