SORRY PM, WE’RE NOT ALL IN THIS TOGETHER

THE slogan of the coronavirus panic is a fraud. No, Prime Minister, we’re not “all in this together”. Scott Morrison last week announced a new kumbayah cabinet, where unions and bosses would join him in figuring how to help get Australians back to work. But why ask union bosses to make deals affecting the rest of us when they represent just one in seven workers?

Morrison’s idea might have made sense if unions finally looked ready to make big calls to at least give work to the 600,000 people who lost their jobs just last April. Instead, they seemed most keen on helping the lucky ones who still have jobs, and in freezing out those who didn’t.

ACTU boss Sally McManus last week insisted a “key priority” was to get casual workers annual leave and job security — exactly what would make bosses less likely to hire more. But it’s in NSW where the “we’re all in this together” slogan looks sickest. There, unions last week made clear their own priority was to look after public servants, who — unlike millions in the private sector — had not lost a dollar in pay. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian now faces a mountain of debt, thanks to the virus bans, but wants to spend billions on projects to create more jobs.

So she’s asked her public servants to keep their pay but just give up their next wage rise. Given there are an astonishing 400,000 of them, this would give her $3 billion.

For me, working for a media company that last week had to lay off 500 workers, it’s the least that could be asked.

But to Labor leader Jodi McKay it’s “a kick in the guts for all public sector employees” — who are big Labor voters.

NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association general secretary Brett Holmes claimed the freeze dishonoured “the sacrifices of frontline workers”, especially the “thousands of nurses, midwives, other health sector workers and public servants are risking their lives daily to keep fellow citizens safe”. Actually, supermarket checkout staff faced more danger than most public servants, and with just 12 virus patients in NSW hospitals, exactly how many nurses are “risking their lives daily”?

But Labor and the unions look like winning, and everyone else losing, because the pay freeze seems sure to be blocked in parliament.

We’re all in this together? As if.