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COVID-19 pandemic – what an opportuinity
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The Byron Shire Echo Volume 34 #39 • March 4, 2020
Supporting equality The Wikipedia entry for feminism says: ‘Feminism is a range of social movements, political movements, and ideologies that aim to define, establish, and achieve the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes’. Yep that’s me. Equality for all. In fact, if you took a peek at my census entry for ‘religion’ you’d see ‘equalitarian’, though I think it will be a while before the movement catches up to ‘Jedi’. Equality for all, including animals (I am an annoying vegan), women, children and even men – ALL earthlings. I had to go to Wiki to see if there was an International Men’s Day – I didn’t know if one existed. I know some of my sisters shuffle their feet and say ‘isn’t EVERY day men’s day?’, but I think if we are going to be real feminists, fighting for equality of the sexes (let’s add gender to that as well) then we need to be really equal. But wait… The reason this occurred to me was that I was thinking about what International Women’s Day means to me. In my view, it’s a day to celebrate being a woman, as well as a day to find out about being a woman – a good woman. A day to look at ways to deal with my weaknesses, to learn how to promote and develop my strengths and find out how to help a sister out, and be helped. International Men’s Day is just as much not about sinking beers and talking shit and watching porn as International Women’s Day (March 8) is not about covens, communal menstrual bleeding, drinking chardies, talking shit and watching porn. Mandy Nolan is abso-bloody-lutely right! The patriarchy is broken (see Soapbox page 29) but most men aren’t, and the ones who are, deserve help too, but not Bettina Arndt style – they need to be able to access the types of things we celebrate on International Women’s Day. Back to Wiki – it says International Men’s Day (Nov 19) is an occasion to celebrate boys and men’s achievements and contributions, in particular, for their contributions to community, family, marriage, and child care. The broader and ultimate aim of the event is to promote basic humanitarian values. The International Men’s Day website promotes ‘Men Leading by example’. It continues, ‘Manhood is the foundation for fatherhood. Good men make good fathers’. I’m down with that. As a woman who had babies to a wonderful human who was also an alcoholic – who sucked at being a responsible father – who fucked up time after time till he died. I wish he’d had better mentors, better examples, other blokes who said: ‘Dude – pull up. You have a missus and kids. Get yourself unbroken.’ International Men’s Day seeks to address many different issues surrounding men’s mental health. If my kid’s dad had been able to access mental health help, maybe he wouldn’t be dead now. Maybe if he’d had the wonderful support that can come from an event like International Men’s Day the way women can celebrate International Women’s Day, who knows? Guest editorial Eve Jeffery
he COVID-19 pandemic is no longer just a cloud on the horizon – it has developed into a full scale cyclone, and its effects on Australia, while still unquantifiable, will clearly be severe, if not disastrous. The health experts now tell us that the virus cannot be contained – in time, many Australians will become infected. The good news, such as it is, is that in some 80 per cent of cases, illness will be minimal – no worse than a severe cold. Not bad odds for individuals, and they can be improved further through elementary precautions. But that still leaves some five million who will be seriously affected, and some fatalities are inevitable. This is an emergency, a crisis in anyone’s language. But like so many catastrophes in the making, in political terms it can also be seen as a challenge, an opportunity. And Scott Morrison is not one to let an opportunity go by. Desperate for political rehabilitation after his negligence and mismanagement during the bushfires, our leader has taken full control of the situation, with daily bulletins designed to show that he is on top of things, balancing warning and reassurance, offering both strength and comfort to his chosen people. And just by the way, COVID-19 makes a very handy excuse for the broken promise of the rolled-gold surplus he prematurely announced two years ago. It can still go horribly wrong; if casualties mount and the measures provided prove ineffective, Morrison will not be absolved from blame. But if things work out, he will receive a lot of the credit. And brother, does he need it. COVID19 is obviously the big one, but there is another risk to the political health of ScoMo’s government – the stench of festering pork, now breeding maggots and disease, across an increasing part of the country. And as with the coronavirus, it is proving almost impossible to limit the ongoing damage. The opposition, and sections of the media are determined to bring it to a head, to force Morrison to drop his risible defence against the clear and present subversion of taxpayer funds for party political advantage. This has now gone far beyond the initial revelation of sports rorts, and the ritual defenestration of Bridget
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McKenzie; it has embroiled much of the government, up to and including the office of the prime minister, whose noisy and manic insistence that black is white and two and two actually makes whatever he chooses have now become so unconvincing as to lead to the suspicion of a major cover-up among his own staff, not excepting the leader himself.
This has gone far beyond the sports rorts... it has embroiled the government, up to and including the şǓ ĶĈĕ şĪ ƐIJĕ żſĶŔĕ minister Mungo MacCallum The most ludicrous argument came last week after the revelation that Sydney’s Olympic Pool, just out of the city’s CBD, had received $10 million just before the last election, under a program designed to aid rural and regional areas. Morrison said in his announcement of the handout it was for communities around the country – technically true, but he and everyone else took it to mean what his department actually said, that it was for needy rural and regional communities, not for one of the wealthiest Liberal electorates in the nation. Others, even more absurdly, said the fact that people from rural and regional communities sometimes visited the pool made it legit – it was actually a rural and regional facility in its own right. On this basis, the obvious fact that people from the bush sometimes come into the big smoke means that rural is actually urban, or perhaps vice versa – nothing to see here. On any test, in any pub, in any part of Australia, this will not wash – and it is puzzling, to say the least, that Morrison will not let it go. Presumably he is adamant that he must not, and will not, give an inch to the opposition. Maybe he is afraid to, given the fragile nature of his fractured majority. But as the allegations of corruption – as Anthony Albanese now characterises it – multiply, the gangrene has to be
cauterised one way or another. The smart way would be to admit the obvious – pork-barrelling has been part of political life in Australia since well before federation, and all parties exploit it, when they can. Although the scale of the current malfeasance is remarkable, it is not unprecedented. Once again, an opportunity; accept the reality, but do something about it – take action to reform the culture, restore a modicum of faith in the ailing system. But to Morrison, that would look like weakness, and so he will go on blustering until something breaks. The way he keeps shouting – it may well be his voice. On this issue at least his credibility is beyond repair. But the coronavirus may offer a path, if not to redemption, at least to a breathing space in which he can regroup – until the next disaster/ challenge/opportunity. And so far so good – he had carefully avoided politicising the issue, and Albanese has been caught flat-footed and ungracious when he attempted to do so. If things go pear-shaped, there may or may not be a time to start apportioning blame, but now is the time for solidarity. Albanese has claimed bipartisanship on many issues, some of them highly dubious, but this one is a no-brainer. National emergency, national unity. So Morrison is going to use it for all it is worth, and fair enough. And perhaps he has noted a bizarre coincidence in history. The last time the word ‘corona’ came in to the political lexicon, it was in 2014, when the then Treasurer, Joe Hockey, and the thenand-now Finance Minister, Mathias Cormann, were snapped puffing their corona cigars in triumph after delivering their first budget. The budget was deemed a disaster; breaking election promises, and grossly unfair and divisive, and the coronas became a symbol of everything that was wrong with the nascent government of Tony Abbott. Scott Morrison, as a cabinet minister at the time, copped a bit of collateral damage from the fallout. Six years later, the word ‘corona’ may be brought back into a more useful political context. And so, ScoMo devoutly prays, may his tattered regime.
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