Wednesday, 20 May 2020

Lockdown Backlash: The Death of Empathy, A Sense of Place Magazine, 21 May, 2020.

 Lockdown Backlash: The Death of Empathy

There have been lockdown protests around the world, and numerous academics and pundits querying government responses to Covid-19, from the ever populist Fox News to highly credentialed epidemiologists.

The Australian government, with its inconsistent messaging and highly confusing fear mongering, is losing control of the debate. You can’t censor everybody who dares to disagree with you.

As Dennis Prager has just written in the American political blog Real Clear Politics:

“The idea that the worldwide lockdown of virtually every country other than Sweden may have been an enormous mistake strikes many — including world leaders; most scientists, especially health officials, doctors and epidemiologists; those who work in major news media; opinion writers in those media; and the hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people who put their faith in these people — as so preposterous as to be immoral.

“Timothy Egan of The New York Times described Republicans who wish to enable their states to open up as ‘the party of death’.

“That’s the way it is today on planet Earth, where deceit, cowardice and immaturity now dominate almost all societies because the elites are deceitful, cowardly and immature.”

Prager concludes that for those open to reading thoughts they may differ with, there is a “case for why the worldwide lockdown is not only a mistake but also, possibly, the worst mistake the world has ever made. “

Here in Australia, in his own uniquely colourful writing style, General Maddox of Real Life News gives his take on what our society has lost.


On January 30th, 2020 the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared an Emergency of International Concern due to reports coming out of China of a mysterious new pneumonia like illness.

By March 12th, 2020 the WHO had declared Coronavirus a global pandemic for the first time since its inception. The most recent declared pandemic was for H1N1 (Swine Flu) in 2009 which was responsible for claiming approximately 18,000 lives worldwide that year with nearly a quarter of the worlds population infected. H1N1’s mortality rate was 0.02% or 1 in 5000 of those infected. Very low when compared to seasonal flu strains.

If we are to believe the crude numbers coming in from around the world, COVID-19’s mortality rate is at best 3-4% of those infected. And that’s being very generous given what we know of the highly inflated numbers.

But as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic humanity has seen some very serious casualties and that list is in…

Casualty 1: Logic

COVID-19 has caused logic, I.e reasoning conducted or assessed according to strict principles of validity, to pass away. There are countless examples from around the world where logic was thrown out the window. Here’s some from Australia that people have shared with us.

For example:

  • In many places grocery store staff won’t place your purchases in a bag for you. You must now do it yourself. Even though they just handled it by scanning it!
  • Customer limitations on stores also defy logic. Some I’ve seen in my local mall have a maximum number allowed of 9 customers and the store is quite small in square footage but the store right next to it is triple the size and has a maximum limit of 4!
  • Visitation limits for families wanting to see other family members is also illogical. Our government declared that 2 people could visit a family of 10 for example but that family of 10 couldn’t go and visit the family of 2?!
  • One way isles in some grocery stores! I mean seriously?! That’s to protect me from COVID-19?!
  • 1 person per square meter for as long as you want in a shopping centre but 10 people maximum in a restaurant no matter the size?!
  • You must keep 1.5 metres away from each other!…..Except in schools?!
  • Apparently in order to spread the virus all you need to do is cough or sneeze within 1.5 metres of someone. So by that logic a sneeze or cough has a good concentration of virus in order to infect others. So why does testing for it require the need to shove a swab deep into your nasal cavity? Especially when it’s apparently so easily transmissible by sneezing or coughing?!

There’s literally hundreds of examples of the death of logic from all over the world. That’s merely a snippet from my location. There’s so many illogical measures being taken to “protect” us from COVID-19. What’s worse is many people think they’re a good idea!

Casualty 2: Empathy

Next on the COVID-19 casualty list is empathy. Sadly empathy passed away during the lockdown and restrictions placed on us by governments around the world with little consideration for the impact it would have on society and our lives.

Heavy-handed tactics by police and even military assistance has caused citizens to be fearful of authorities. An activist mother simply walking down a city street with her son was brutally arrested and even had her crying son ripped from her arms because she was exercising her rights.

Trying to gain even a small amount of normality back by flouting imposed restrictions resulted in heavy fines and penalties all under the guise of protecting us from COVID-19.

What has happened to our police services?

They are too busy enforcing ridiculous mandates by the health authorities to see the damage they’re doing to their fellow citizens only to have their actions justified and even cheered on by the wider public that has fallen under this same spell of acquiescence to the state.

Casualty 3: Freedoms & Rights

The third major casualty of COVID-19 is our loss of basic human rights and freedoms.

Across the globe governments have adhered to guidelines handed down by the WHO on how to manage populations during the plandemic.

These guidelines have resulted in governments quickly using them to enact legislations that seize power, remove rights and reduce freedoms for all citizens and all under the guise of protecting us from something that’s far less dangerous than it was hyped up to be. A supposed disease that’s killed less people than seasonal influenza does.

Australia’s Attorney General has even said that Australians could be detained or forced into treatment with powers granted to the government by the passing of the 2015 Biosecurity Act.

But what about going to a park and sitting down to enjoy the warm sun? Not a chance. You have to be “exercising”. You can’t sit still. You know, because otherwise the virus will get you!

According to the rules you’re not even allowed to head into town and protest the very laws that are restricting us! Although some Aussies figured out a way to do it.

Victor from ExercisingMyRights.com

Casualty 4: Truth

Sadly the fourth high profile death we’ve seen due to COVID-19 is Truth.

Unfortunately lies and misinformation have flourished amidst the whole Coronavirus saga while truth has taken a back seat.

Professor Neil Ferguson, also known as Professor Lockdown, at the Imperial College of London was the person responsible for generating wildly ridiculous death estimates for the COVID-19 pandemic based on an incredible amount of false data and fudged numbers. Ferguson is not a medical doctor. His PhD is not even in a medicine but in theoretical physics! His Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis based at the Imperial College also receives tens of millions of dollars from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation annually.

It was largely due to his poor “predictions” and garbage models that the world locked down. All the while he himself ignored the lockdown so he could visit his mistress.

Another truth that sadly passed away as a result of COVID-19 was the true data. Death statistics have been drastically over inflated. Not to mention the infection rates because of shoddy testing and false positives. Especially in the United States. Doctors and hospital staff were being encouraged to put COVID-19 as the cause of death for patients. A memo from the CDC stated that COVID-19 can be used cause of death on death certificates even if its only an assumption!

Not only have they been encouraged in writing, hospitals have been receiving financial incentives. If a patient is admitted with COVID-19 the hospital receives $13,000! If that patient is put on a ventilator the hospital receives $39,000!

Reports from social media users have been going viral where hundreds if not thousands of them have been taking to platforms like Twitter and Facebook to share their dismay and anger at the health authorities and mainstream media for spreading lies and misinformation.

Full list of over 200 examples at the link here.

Casualty 5: Common Sense

Last but not least the final casualty in this plandemic would have to be common sense.

One might argue that common sense was added to the endangered species list long ago. In most societies common sense has certainly seen a decline. The inability to think critically and apply reason to given situations and events certainly reached peak levels when coronavirus entered the vernacular. There seems to be idiots at every turn. Well COVID-19 has most definitely brought them out of the woodwork.

How many times have you seen someone driving alone in their car with a face mask on? Seriously…what’s the point? It’s actually dangerous to your health!

How many times have you seen not just people wearing masks in general but people wearing them incorrectly like around their chin or with a hole cut in it so they can breathe properly?!

How many times have we seen people so worried about “social distancing” when you’re lined up to go into a store to only have them being completely carefree about your proximity to them once inside.

There’s even been examples of people social distancing while lined up in their cars! It’s ludicrous.

Social distancing itself flies in the face of common sense altogether. It’s ridiculous. It’s completely unnecessary in terms of “slowing the spread” or “flattening the curve”. The only thing social distancing achieves is aiding in the establishments divide and conquer tactics. Keep us not only afraid of a virus but also each other. There’s no evidence proving that COVID-19 is spread by droplets in the air and that staying the magical number of 6 feet or 1.5 metres apart will somehow prevent you from catching COVID-19.

Placing everyone in lockdown instead of simply quarantining the sick and elderly has proven to be a disaster. It just doesn’t make sense to destroy entire economies and industries around the world when the former is common sense.

New levels of absurdity have been reached in Nassau County USA putting common sense out to pasture. You can play tennis again…BUT…

As you can see with this small handful of examples common sense surely did pass away during the coronavirus plandemic. Many, many more examples could be added to reiterate this fact. You need not look far. Feel free to add them to the comments section below.

Obituary conclusion

The only way to describe the entire #CoronaHoax is probably with the Face Palm emoji 🤦‍♂️.

Have people died during this plandemic? Yes of course. Have they died of COVID-19? Truthfully, probably not. As we’ve seen this “virus” has targeted predominantly the elderly. Uncannily enough it especially targets those with co-morbidities. Who’d have thunk it! People are dying with coronavirus not from coronavirus.

Add in the fact that writing on a deceased persons death certificate the cause of death being Coronavirus or COVID-19 without doing any testing to prove it just shows us how much of a scam this whole thing is.

We will surely miss LogicEmpathyFreedoms & RightsTruth and of course Common Sense. Our only regret is not spending more time caring for you and protecting you.

Maddox takes his raison d’être from George Orwell: “Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations.”


On January 30th, 2020 the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared an Emergency of International Concern due to reports coming out of China of a mysterious new pneumonia like illness.

By March 12th, 2020 the WHO had declared Coronavirus a global pandemic for the first time since its inception. The most recent declared pandemic was for H1N1 (Swine Flu) in 2009 which was responsible for claiming approximately 18,000 lives worldwide that year with nearly a quarter of the worlds population infected. H1N1’s mortality rate was 0.02% or 1 in 5000 of those infected. Very low when compared to seasonal flu strains.

If we are to believe the crude numbers coming in from around the world, COVID-19’s mortality rate is at best 3-4% of those infected. And that’s being very generous given what we know of the highly inflated numbers.

But as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic humanity has seen some very serious casualties and that list is in…

Casualty 1: Logic

COVID-19 has caused logic, I.e reasoning conducted or assessed according to strict principles of validity, to pass away. There are countless examples from around the world where logic was thrown out the window. Here’s some from Australia that people have shared with us.

For example:

  • In many places grocery store staff won’t place your purchases in a bag for you. You must now do it yourself. Even though they just handled it by scanning it!
  • Customer limitations on stores also defy logic. Some I’ve seen in my local mall have a maximum number allowed of 9 customers and the store is quite small in square footage but the store right next to it is triple the size and has a maximum limit of 4!
  • Visitation limits for families wanting to see other family members is also illogical. Our government declared that 2 people could visit a family of 10 for example but that family of 10 couldn’t go and visit the family of 2?!
  • One way isles in some grocery stores! I mean seriously?! That’s to protect me from COVID-19?!
  • 1 person per square meter for as long as you want in a shopping centre but 10 people maximum in a restaurant no matter the size?!
  • You must keep 1.5 metres away from each other!…..Except in schools?!
  • Apparently in order to spread the virus all you need to do is cough or sneeze within 1.5 metres of someone. So by that logic a sneeze or cough has a good concentration of virus in order to infect others. So why does testing for it require the need to shove a swab deep into your nasal cavity? Especially when it’s apparently so easily transmissible by sneezing or coughing?!

There’s literally hundreds of examples of the death of logic from all over the world. That’s merely a snippet from my location. There’s so many illogical measures being taken to “protect” us from COVID-19. What’s worse is many people think they’re a good idea!

Casualty 2: Empathy

Next on the COVID-19 casualty list is empathy. Sadly empathy passed away during the lockdown and restrictions placed on us by governments around the world with little consideration for the impact it would have on society and our lives.

Heavy-handed tactics by police and even military assistance has caused citizens to be fearful of authorities. An activist mother simply walking down a city street with her son was brutally arrested and even had her crying son ripped from her arms because she was exercising her rights.

Trying to gain even a small amount of normality back by flouting imposed restrictions resulted in heavy fines and penalties all under the guise of protecting us from COVID-19.

What has happened to our police services?

They are too busy enforcing ridiculous mandates by the health authorities to see the damage they’re doing to their fellow citizens only to have their actions justified and even cheered on by the wider public that has fallen under this same spell of acquiescence to the state.

Casualty 3: Freedoms & Rights

The third major casualty of COVID-19 is our loss of basic human rights and freedoms.

Across the globe governments have adhered to guidelines handed down by the WHO on how to manage populations during the plandemic.

These guidelines have resulted in governments quickly using them to enact legislations that seize power, remove rights and reduce freedoms for all citizens and all under the guise of protecting us from something that’s far less dangerous than it was hyped up to be. A supposed disease that’s killed less people than seasonal influenza does.

Australia’s Attorney General has even said that Australians could be detained or forced into treatment with powers granted to the government by the passing of the 2015 Biosecurity Act.

But what about going to a park and sitting down to enjoy the warm sun? Not a chance. You have to be “exercising”. You can’t sit still. You know, because otherwise the virus will get you!

According to the rules you’re not even allowed to head into town and protest the very laws that are restricting us! Although some Aussies figured out a way to do it.

Victor from ExercisingMyRights.com

Casualty 4: Truth

Sadly the fourth high profile death we’ve seen due to COVID-19 is Truth.

Unfortunately lies and misinformation have flourished amidst the whole Coronavirus saga while truth has taken a back seat.

Professor Neil Ferguson, also known as Professor Lockdown, at the Imperial College of London was the person responsible for generating wildly ridiculous death estimates for the COVID-19 pandemic based on an incredible amount of false data and fudged numbers. Ferguson is not a medical doctor. His PhD is not even in a medicine but in theoretical physics! His Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis based at the Imperial College also receives tens of millions of dollars from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation annually.

It was largely due to his poor “predictions” and garbage models that the world locked down. All the while he himself ignored the lockdown so he could visit his mistress.

Another truth that sadly passed away as a result of COVID-19 was the true data. Death statistics have been drastically over inflated. Not to mention the infection rates because of shoddy testing and false positives. Especially in the United States. Doctors and hospital staff were being encouraged to put COVID-19 as the cause of death for patients. A memo from the CDC stated that COVID-19 can be used cause of death on death certificates even if its only an assumption!

Not only have they been encouraged in writing, hospitals have been receiving financial incentives. If a patient is admitted with COVID-19 the hospital receives $13,000! If that patient is put on a ventilator the hospital receives $39,000!

Reports from social media users have been going viral where hundreds if not thousands of them have been taking to platforms like Twitter and Facebook to share their dismay and anger at the health authorities and mainstream media for spreading lies and misinformation.

Full list of over 200 examples at the link here.

Casualty 5: Common Sense

Last but not least the final casualty in this plandemic would have to be common sense.

One might argue that common sense was added to the endangered species list long ago. In most societies common sense has certainly seen a decline. The inability to think critically and apply reason to given situations and events certainly reached peak levels when coronavirus entered the vernacular. There seems to be idiots at every turn. Well COVID-19 has most definitely brought them out of the woodwork.

How many times have you seen someone driving alone in their car with a face mask on? Seriously…what’s the point? It’s actually dangerous to your health!

How many times have you seen not just people wearing masks in general but people wearing them incorrectly like around their chin or with a hole cut in it so they can breathe properly?!

How many times have we seen people so worried about “social distancing” when you’re lined up to go into a store to only have them being completely carefree about your proximity to them once inside.

There’s even been examples of people social distancing while lined up in their cars! It’s ludicrous.

Social distancing itself flies in the face of common sense altogether. It’s ridiculous. It’s completely unnecessary in terms of “slowing the spread” or “flattening the curve”. The only thing social distancing achieves is aiding in the establishments divide and conquer tactics. Keep us not only afraid of a virus but also each other. There’s no evidence proving that COVID-19 is spread by droplets in the air and that staying the magical number of 6 feet or 1.5 metres apart will somehow prevent you from catching COVID-19.

Placing everyone in lockdown instead of simply quarantining the sick and elderly has proven to be a disaster. It just doesn’t make sense to destroy entire economies and industries around the world when the former is common sense.

New levels of absurdity have been reached in Nassau County USA putting common sense out to pasture. You can play tennis again…BUT…

As you can see with this small handful of examples common sense surely did pass away during the coronavirus plandemic. Many, many more examples could be added to reiterate this fact. You need not look far.

Have people died during this plandemic? Yes of course. Have they died of COVID-19? Truthfully, probably not. As we’ve seen this “virus” has targeted predominantly the elderly. Uncannily enough it especially targets those with co-morbidities. Who’d have thunk it! People are dying with coronavirus not from coronavirus.

Add in the fact that writing on a deceased persons death certificate the cause of death being Coronavirus or COVID-19 without doing any testing to prove it just shows us how much of a scam this whole thing is.

We will surely miss LogicEmpathyFreedoms & RightsTruth and of course Common Sense. Our only regret is not spending more time caring for you and protecting you.

RELEASED THIS WEEK TODAY’S FEATURED BOOK:

Tuesday, 19 May 2020

Australia’s Flying Kangaroo Flies Straight Into Trouble, A Sense of Place Magazine, 20 May, 2020.

 Australia’s Flying Kangaroo Flies Straight Into Trouble

Australia’s Transport Workers’ Union is calling on the Federal Government to implement a national plan to lower the risk of infection and spread of COVID-19 in aviation as Qantas announces changes which the union claims fall short of measures of keeping workers and passengers safe.

Ironically, only last year Qantas won the coveted ranking of Australia’s number one preferred employer, thanks to its high flying job perks, including travel benefits for its employees.

Now its reputation is careening into the dust.

The TWU is looking to appeal a court ruling backing a Qantas decision to refuse sick leave to workers battling illnesses during stand downs. Workers, including a man battling cancer and another awaiting a triple bypass both with over 30 years work at Qantas, took the case over the airline’s refusal to pay them sick leave during the stand down period.

At least 60 workers across the Qantas Group have been infected with the virus. A dossier compiled by TWU safety experts revealed systematic failing in how Qantas dealt with an Adelaide Airport cluster, which saw 34 workers infected and over 750 quarantined.

Safe Work NSW is investigating Qantas over its suspension of an aircraft cleaner for raising concerns over the spread of COVID-19.

SafeWork NSW issued Improvement Notices on Qantas, reflecting the airline’s “inadequate system of work used to clean planes” with aircraft cleaners forced to wipe tray tables with the same dirty cloths and handle blood, vomit, soiled nappies, used masks and tissues without protective gear. The Regulator’s Improvement Notices stated that Qantas was at risk of exposing workers to an infectious disease.

Qantas repeatedly referred in communications to its workers that the risk of infection and spread was “low”, even comparing the virus to the “seasonal flu”. The airline stressed “normal processes” were adequate in dealing with the virus and relied on putting up notices about hand-washing rather than providing training or protective gear to workers.

TWU National Secretary Michael Kaine said a plan was needed which should apply to all airlines flying into and around Australia.

“We need a national plan to keep crew and passengers safe and this plan should be done in consultation with the aviation workers who are at the coalface.

“It is not good enough for Qantas to come up with its own plan for how it will resume flying, since the airline has proved itself to have downplayed the risks of this virus right from the start. Other at-risk workplaces are being strictly regulated and airlines should be no different.

“The Federal Government needs to come up with a national plan which should be adhered to be any airline flying in Australia.

“The Qantas measures today are troubling. Qantas talks about providing ‘peace of mind’ and ‘well being’ when the focus should not be on making people feel good but on taking the virus seriously and stopping the spread of infection. Workers want to be consulted on issues such as making masks for passengers mandatory, how that can be enforced and whether the middle seat should be kept free. Contrary to Government guidelines on consulting with workers on COVID-19 plans, Qantas has failed to discuss changes with workers which will not only impact on passenger safety but their safety too.”

TWU National Secretary Michael Kaine said the TWU was focused on getting justice for Qantas workers, some of whom are dealing with critical illnesses.

He said the union was looking to appeal the court ruling backing in the airline’s decision to refuse sick leave to workers during Covid-19 related stand downs.

“The ruling is bitterly disappointing for Qantas workers battling serious illnesses and their families, who are enduring worries about their finances at a difficult time in their lives. We are looking to appeal this judgment and seek redress for these workers. This is about justice and the fact that workers who are battling serious illnesses should be allowed to draw down the significant sick leave they have accrued through years of hard work at Qantas,” Kaine said.

“Qantas is taking harsh management decisions that are heaping concerns on already anxious, ill workers. The airline’s heartless move on sick leave mirrors other actions since the pandemic crisis began, including ignoring workers concerns about the virus, threatening with sacking workers who raise concerns, refusing to implement appropriate systems to prevent virus clusters and arbitrary implementation of the stand-downs. Qantas is proving itself to be an irresponsible employer and unfit to be the main player in Australian aviation.”

Qantas sent its workers correspondence shortly after it announced it was standing workers down last month, stating that: “Sick/carer’s leave will not apply during any period of stand down, so you will continue to be stood down and will not be entitled to any sick/carer’s leave payments.”

Qantas delayed a deep-clean by almost three days of common areas of the baggage room after the first infection case was confirmed; workers who had been exposed to the first infected worker over several days involving close contact were directed to continue turning up for work.

In 2018 the Irish born Qantas head Alan Joyce was the country’s highest paid executive in Australia, on a take home pay of $23.9 million, more than 275 times the average pay. His lavish wedding to his male partner was one of the society events of 2019.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce defends lack of social distancing on flights ...

Amid a welter of virus announcements, including the standing down of 20,000 Qantas and Jetstar workers, in March of this year Joyce grandly declared he would forgo his salary for the remainder of this financial year, ending 30 June.

Joyce says the airline is preparing for the resumption of domestic travel in the next two months – with plans for $19 bargain flights and improved safety measures to entice people back into flying again.

Mr Joyce says he hopes to resume domestic flights by July, and has urged states to lift coronavirus border closures by then.

“We could be operating 40 to 50 per cent of pre-COVID-19 operation in July if demand is there,” he said.

Yesterday he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation his company’s decision not to abide by social-distancing restrictions on flights was the correct one.

He told a press conference it would be “uneconomical” to leave the middle seat in every row unfilled and would lead to skyrocketing airfares.

“It’s not social distancing, it’s a 60-centimetre difference between two people,” Mr Joyce said.

“To get the 4 metres squared, you’ll end up with 22 people on an aircraft of 180 seats … and the airfares are nine to 10 times as much.”

Mr Joyce also said, based on expert medical advice, his airline’s other precautions were enough to prevent the spread of coronavirus on flights and make it safer than being in a train, bus or restaurant.

Professor Marylouise McLaws, an epidemiologist and infectious disease expert at the University of New South Wales, told Guardian Australia the decision “fails the test of logic”.

“Preventing Covid-19 is a bundle of many things. It’s staying at home when you’re unwell, it’s hand hygiene, plus social distancing, plus environmental cleaning. When you can’t have one of those, such as social distancing, you need to protect yourself from inhaling or exhaling the virus with a mask.

“Going to the bathroom is a human right, you can’t stop people doing that … I can’t see how going down the aisle to get to the bathroom is in any way not increasing your risk, without mandatorily requiring wearing a mask.”


Compiled by John Stapleton, editor of A Sense of Place Magazine. A collection of his journalism is being constructed here.

TODAY’S FEATURED BOOK:

Government Debt Was Deepening Rapidly – well before COVID-19, As Editor, 20 May, 2020.

 Government Debt Was Deepening Rapidly – well before COVID-19

By Alan Austin

The Coalition won the 2013 federal election beating their chest about Labor’s “debt and deficit”. Thanks to COVID-19, we’re unlikely to see a surplus in our lifetime or our children’s. But, let’s not forget that the current debt blow-out occurred well before the coronavirus impacted the economy. Alan Austin checks how Australia shapes up against other OECD countries.

We now have government debt figures for nearly all the highly developed capitalist economies for 2019. Two stand out as having stacked on far more debt than the others. They are Chile and Australia.

Of the 36 wealthy members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) the majority has taken advantage of the recent global boom in investment, trade and government revenue to pay back debt amassed during the global financial crisis (GFC).

Ireland increased its debt as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) through the GFC to 119.9% by 2013. Since then, through the recovery phase, it has reduced it to a manageable 58.8%.

Similarly, the Czech Republic increased its debt to GDP through the GFC to 44.9% by 2013. It has now reduced it to 30.8%.

Other OECD economies with similar declining debt trajectories include these Euro Area countries: the Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, Austria, Belgium, Slovakia, Latvia, Slovenia and Lithuania. Plus these countries with their own currencies: Hungary, Denmark, Iceland, Israel, Poland, New Zealand and Sweden.

In stark contrast to these well-managed economies, Australia’s gross debt has continued to soar through the recovery period from 2013 to 2019.

Within the 36-member OECD, 23 countries have reduced government debt, ten of them by more than 10% of GDP. Only 13 have increased borrowings over this period, with Chile and Australia alone doing so by more than 10% of GDP. See green chart, below.

Australia’s gross debt has increased from 30.5% to 45.1%, an increment of 14.6. Chile is only marginally higher, rising from 12.7% to 27.9, up 15.2.

Notes:

(i) Most data is from Trading Economics, supplemented by updates from Statista, as required.

(ii) Four countries have not yet provided debt figures for 2019 — Canada, Japan, Mexico and South Korea. We can determine from 2019 budget figures that South Korea’s debt will likely have deepened, but the other three will not have changed significantly from 2018. We have adjusted South Korea’s debt by 0.5% of GDP accordingly.

New Australian debt records

Readers who experienced the 2008 global financial crisis will recall the furious anger with which the Coalition and virtually all the mainstream media attacked the Gillard Government when gross debt breached $150 billion in July 2010. The screams of outrage were even greater a year later when the debt hit $200 billion. That’s despite the fact that Australia’s debt back then was close to the lowest among developed countries.

Curiously, however, the media virtually ignored gross debt breaching both $300 billion in Tony Abbott’s first year and $400 billion in late 2015, shortly after Malcolm Turnbull had replaced Abbott. Deathly silence in mid-2017 when the debt exceeded $500 billion and barely a whisper when it smashed through $600 billion earlier this month.

Three points to note here. First, debt is not always intrinsically bad. Almost all economists now agree the debt Labor took on during the GFC was entirely appropriate. Second, Australia did not need to take on any further debt after 2013, as is shown by the experience of the rest of the developed world.  And third, the recent debt blow-out in Australia occurred well before the coronavirus impacted the economy.

“the recent debt blow-out in Australia occurred

well before the coronavirus impacted the economy”

The Coalition’s legacy

Applying the Coalition’s strategy of looking at ratios to GDP when it suits and raw dollars when more convenient, the pie chart, below, updates contributions to Australia’s total dollar debt — which first started to accumulate in 1854. The current Coalition is responsible for more than 57% of this — well over half.

Net debt also ballooning

When the Coalition took office in September 2013, Australia’s net debt – gross borrowings minus interest-bearing loans – was a modest $161.3 billion. That was matched, however, by the strong increase over the preceding five years in national assets, including school and community buildings, roads, railways, ports, building insulation, defence housing and other infrastructure.

Since then, net debt has risen above $430 billion — more than two and half times higher. But with no significant infrastructure or other benefit to show for it.

As has been shown elsewhere, the losses to Australia’s budget – and its citizens – as a result of the failure to retain a fair share of the exported wealth, continue year after year.

Factchecking Frydenberg’s gloss

On this topic, Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg continues to make assertions inconsistent with the evidence:

“Australia entered the coronavirus crisis from a position of economic strength. The Government returned the Budget to balance for the first time in 11 years, while government debt to GDP was about a quarter of what it is in the United States or United Kingdom, and about one seventh of what it was in Japan.”

Three problems here. Australia has not been a position of economic strength since the first Coalition budget in 2014. Since then, debt has deepened, the Aussie dollar has weakened, wages have been reduced in real terms, economic growth has fallen relative to comparable countries and the jobless rate has tumbled down the global rankings.

The budget has not been returned to balance. Yes, a promise was made in April 2019 that there would be a surplus by June 2020. But the late 2019 bushfires soon stymied that. The closest Australia got to surplus was the deficit of $9,669 million recorded in last August’s monthly finance statement. The latest statement, for March, has the deficit blown out to $22,359 million. Already. Before any coronavirus impacts.

Yes, debt to GDP is now 42% of the level in the USA and 19% of Japan’s level. But the Coalition and its mendacious enablers in the media cannot have it both ways. Back in 2010, Australia’s debt was only 22% of the US level and just 9.8% of Japan’s. If that was a “debt and deficit disaster” and “Labor’s debt timebomb” and “debt spiralling out of control” back then requiring the dismissal of the Labor Government, it cannot be justly claimed that all is well today.

Alan Austin’s defamation matter is nearly over. Readers are warmly urged to support the final crowd-funding push. The latest update is here; the GoFundMe page is here.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alan Austin

Alan Austin

Alan Austin is a freelance journalist with interests in news media, religious affairs and economic and social issues. You can follow Alan on Twitter @alanaustin001.

This story was originally published at Michael West Media, Australia’s leading investigative news site. It is republished here with their kind permission.

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