AFTER ANOTHER
As much as 70 per cent of the transport industry is isolating, causing the worst kinks in the supply chain yet, writes James Campbell
YOU know things are getting bad when KFC starts running out of chicken. All across the country last week signs started appearing at the Colonels telling disappointed customers there were no zingers, fillets and original recipes to be had.
And Australians aren’t taking it well. According to Mary Aldred, CEO of the Franchise Council of Australia which represents 98,000 businesses, the kids on the counter have been copping it.
Last week she raised customer abuse with the federal Government as a growing problem.
“It’s huge issue. We’ve seen a giant escalation in the past 12 months and the recent supply problems are making it worse,” she said.
It isn’t just chicken of course, the entire food chain is currently affected as anyone who has been inside a supermarket since Christmas knows.
All across the country last week signs started appearing in Coles and Woolies warning of buying limits on chicken, mince and sausages.
Overall around 10 per cent of the workforce is currently off work.
In the food and transport industries it’s much higher.
Government sources say the food processing industry is telling them that around 35 per cent of the workforce is out at that moment.
The worst affected is the transport industry where up to half of the employees are currently off work.
The vast majority of these absent workers – around 70 per cent – are isolating, while only 30 per cent are infected.
Which explains the move last week to ease the restrictions around close contacts.
Alas, Australia is destined to be zinger-deprived for a while yet with food production likely to take longer than the rest of the economy to recover once the current wave has peaked.
Vivien Kite, from the Australian Chicken Meat Federation said while companies can predict how many staff will be returning from isolation or having Covid, “what they can’t predict is how many other staff will then call in the next day or the day after that to say they aren’t coming in because they have just turned positive or just found that they have become a close contact at home”.
“Unfortunately, Australia will have ongoing chicken meat supply disruptions for the next couple of weeks,” she said.
The good news for Australians staring at gaps on their supermarket shelves is the government thinks the current Omicron wave is already peaking in NSW with Victoria not far behind.
Which means the workers in the essential industries that have worked through the summer break are more likely to have been exposed and
infected.
The bad news, as ACTU boss Sally Mcmanus, who has been calling for the federal Government to provide free rapid antigen tests, is this isn’t true for large swaths of the economy.
“This is a very serious crisis. We have never had as many sick workers as we do right now, and this is before many workers return to work for the year like in construction, manufacturing and education,” she said.
She’s warning that unless “the Morrison Government steps up and stands up for the essential workers who are keeping this country fed, the lights and water on and Australia open for business, the stress on our vital national supply chains could get even worse”.
When it comes to RATS, unions and business are singing from the same hymn sheet.
“The key is to make rapid testing affordable and accessible to businesses, something that should have been worked out months ago,” Australian Industry Group’s Innes Willox said.
“(Health officials) have been stubbornly slow to prepare for the obvious,” he said.
“Our leaders haven’t pushed them hard enough – without free or affordable rapid testing, we are going to be perpetually taking one step forward and two steps back and our economy will struggle to gain momentum.”
Whether or not you agree with Mcmanus’s assessment that the supply chain crisis could get worse, there is no doubt food supplies are going to take the longest to recover.
Supermarket chains are already reporting the number of workers returning positive RAT test results has plummeted in recent days.
Increases to the number hours international students can work should also quickly improve the
number of workers available to stock the shelves.
The problem is the supply chain problems are still making their way up the production chain. According to Michael Coote, CEO of AUSVEG the peak body for the 3500 vegetable producers across the country, his members’ concerns have changed in recent days.
“A few weeks ago, the complaint from food producers was that the supermarkets couldn’t get their product out of the distribution centres and onto the shelves,” he said.
The issue now is at the farm level and in trucking and logistics.
He said supermarkets are telling him they metropolitan distribution centres are expected to be back normal within days. “Fundamentally we don’t have supply issues, we have a workforce problem,” he said.
In other words the vegetables are sitting in the ground, the problem is getting them harvested, packed and shipped to shelves.
And while the Omicron wave may be close to peaking in the cities, it’s only getting going in the regions.
“On farm workforce issues are getting worse – what you find with a lot of farm workers is they house together so if one goes down, others are likely to follow,” he said.
The pressure to keep production going has already led to some bizarre decisions.
In South Australia, the state’s notoriously Covid-averse health authorities gave an abattoir in Naracoorte the right to make its workers turn up even if they are infected. A worker at the plant said they were frightened by the position they had put in.
“Positive workers were made to put their health on the line and they felt guilty about infecting their friends and workers who could then take it home to their families,” the worker said.
Another said: “I felt for everybody, especially those negative people working around me.”
The TWU, which has been warning Canberra for months about the need for RATS to be rolled out across the transport industry, said it believes the decision to ease close contact rules is going to lead to disaster.
National Secretary Michael Kaine said by easing the rules “National Cabinet has dropped a ticking time bomb on the transport industry”.
“In a few weeks, we will see shelves emptied, garbage piled up in streets and hospitals scrambling for supplies because a sick transport workforce simply cannot load, unload and drive trucks,” he said.
“Bringing back those with sick family members at home will only drive that number up in the coming weeks, except that all who are absent will be unwell because our
government has deliberately exposed them to the virus.”
We’ve It’ s huge issue. seen a giant e scalation in the past 12 months Maryaldre d
JUST as the Gold Coast recorded a surge in Covid cases, Cr Tom Tate decided this was the time to announce, “Why not let it spread rapidly so we reach the peak sooner?”
This was in response to Annastacia Palaszczuk wanting to soften the blow of the surge by asking people to limit their movements. Ironically, many people are having to restrict their movements anyway because they’re ill or a close contact.
We can see the effect of this in shops and services where shelves are empty and businesses are having to close because of lack of staff. This isn’t the premier’s doing, this is the virus that Cr Tate wants to escalate as though that would lead to some kind of quick fix.
What if a continued rapid escalation leads to the health service being unable to cope? We already know it’s struggling and, like other services, is experiencing staff shortages. Their workers are also suffering burnout through sheer exhaustion, something that few other sectors have to deal with.
And let’s not forget, it’s not just Covid patients they care for. What happens if there’s a major accident with multiple casualties or an outbreak of another serious disease? Would it be fair to expect them to cope with more?
Cr Tate’s statements do not give a good example to the Gold Coast. Yes, we were all looking forward to more freedoms but what good are they if you’re too sick to enjoy them, or the service you want is closed because of illness?
Let’s be sensible and do all we can to slow the spread rather than speed it up. We owe it to our community and to those who are caring for the sick.
YVETTE DEMPSEY, CARRARA
FOSSIL fuel subsidies have cost our state and federal governments $10.3bn over the past financial year (or $19,686 a minute), according to The Australia Institute.
Many mining companies, particularly in the gas sector, pay little or no tax or royalties and simply take their profits overseas because they are foreign owned or domiciled.
Chevron Australia Holdings, the local arm of a giant fossil fuel US company, is just one example.
A 2019 report showed it paid more in political donations than it did in tax.
Set aside that taxpayers money is going to an industry that is driving destructive climate change, the way Australian taxpayers are being ripped off seems unfathomable.
ANDREW STIMSON, UPPER COOMERA
APART from the medical effects from contracting Covid, one of my main concerns is the long-term future for all our frontline health professionals and the resulting staff shortages in our many hospitals.
There is no doubt that we will from here on in, have to live beside a Covid variant whether it be Omicron or another “nasty”!
I feel there will be a drastic drop in young people entering the health sciences faculty as the risk of constant exposure to this virus (one way or the other) will be a deterrent to many who as young children had a dream of being a “caregiver”.
The reality is that these health workers all have families and children that have to be protected in these current times. There is so much at risk for everyone concerned.
It is so unfortunate that we are hearing daily that these workers are expected to do double shifts and also many have been called in from their annual leave to fill the ongoing gaps of trained staff as a large percentage of the regular staff are isolating. You certainly don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see what this will eventually result in. There will be a lot of “burn out” issues among all our health staff including paramedics, doctors, pharmacy staff and those working in our vaccination hubs, etc.
We are currently seeing a dramatic rise in mental health issues alone in this pandemic and this “rise” will undoubtedly create a “domino effect’’ among our much respected/loved front line workers at some stage.
Covid is an “unknown quantity” and I just hope the politicians etc prioritise the vision of how our Australian hospitals and health care centres will maintain/deliver prompt care to all of us in time of need.
PAMELA DELAHUNTY-HUNTER, BIGGERA WATERS