good morning🌞happy Sunday! Today on #Insiders are Guardian editor Lenore Taylor, ninefax economics writer Shane Wright and Phil Coorey who files political gossip and Liberal Party leaks at the AFR. This thread is not fact-checked.
what is the government’s plan? David Speers is here to #ScottySplain the [absence of a national] Morrison government plan. Recall the Liberals spent an entire election campaign last year claiming to have a plan #Insiders
the montage heavily features what the Treasurer said in his three seperate set pieces this week, the income support cuts announcement, the REFU (revised economic and fiscal update) and subsequent #NPC explainer #Insiders
#WhatThePapersSay apparently corona virus has “become” the major concern in Victoria. The income support cuts get a mention. Speers makes the usual error of comfy people and says the government “is continuing jobseeker” which is the rebranded newstart #Insiders
we go straight to the interview with the treasurer. Why are you cutting jobkeeper? Frydenberg recites some numbers. So it costs too much, is that what you are saying? The treasurer jabbers his hero narrative about “saving jobs”. Not people. Jobs. #Insiders
Speers cites the RBA Governor on “support” - meaning counter cyclical government spending during a recession. Frydenberg says he is in close communication with the RBA Governor. So that’s okay then. As long as powerful males talk to each other all will be well see. #Insiders
detail on the cuts to jobkeeper FTE and part time/casual (under 20 hours) from September. How will you know who does what hours? That will be up to employers #Insiders
about 975,000 of the 3.5 million - individuals, via businesses - receiving jobkeeper are in Victoria? Is that what he said? Speers is trying to get some headline news about the federal government extending support due to higher level restrictions in Victoria. No go. #Insiders
asking if the Morrison government will #RaiseTheRate. Frydenberg answers a different question, about the official and real unemployment rates. This is his go-to for baffling journos with bullshit on the unemployment figures. Not people. Numbers. #Insiders
Speers persists on the base JSP rate. The gallery are very keen that their speculation about the government eventually agreeing to #RaiseTheRate be right. Frydenberg repeats his fatuous “prime minister leaning in” line. What does that mean? asks Speers. #Insiders
IR flexible changes shovel ready training and skills number one priority work jobs, says the treasurer. Greenfield sites compliance casuals agreements he recites. These are the “streams” set up to make more boss-friendly worker-hating policy seem consultative #Insiders
lmao Speers puts the Thatcherism/Reganomics line that has been kicking around this week to Frydenberg who says they were “very successful” (yeah at kicking workers to the kerb) and quickly pivots to the “lefties are irrational and emotional haters” projection #Insiders
#TheCurve: aged care, Singapore, Victoria. Ending lock down in Victoria inside 3.5 weeks “might be a bit of a stretch”, says Briggs #Insiders
panel time. Opening Qs are on the pre-REFU announcements on cuts to income support. Wright is cautious. He knows the policy settings are contractionary. Coorey tells us the treasury report was “underpinned by the vibe” that we should have been open by now #Insiders
it really will come down to Victoria, says Coorey, which is the Morrison government comms line. If they don’t clean up that mess down there, he says disdainfully, there might have to be a re-think. #Insiders
still on the deliberately confusingly named income support payments, designed to create two-tier “deserving and undeserving poor” as per liberal ideology. The [much lower, harsher cut and shorter term] corona virus supplement cuts out at christmas, observes Wright #Insiders
this is money [low income] people will spend in the economy? Speers confirms the obvious marginal utility of increasing JSP. The government has given itself flexibility says Coorey. It’s a wait and see game. There are arguments to be had.

Quality contribution, Phil. #Insiders
Coorey also reiterated the gallery truism that JSP will not stay at $40 a day. They are all wedded to this prediction, probably because for as long as it is wrong, it can potentially be right next week or the month after #Insiders
Taylor puts the case for “certainty” about end date for corona virus supplement/increasing JSP. Coorey asks if that should be announced in October? Lenore says families need to be able to plan. Coorey segues to the October budget instead of this weeks policy settings #Insiders.
don’t talk about Thatcher, is Coorey’s advice. Chortle chortle at the lives of workers under Thatcherism. He harks back to productivity under Hawke-Keating. Taylor says this Thatcher-Reganite rhetoric makes federal policy look more substantive than it is [paraphrased] #Insiders
lotta Coorey today. He repackages what are weak, flim flam, uncertain and contractionary Morrison government policy settings “the path of least resistance”. Presumably this means “path of clinging to sacred ideological cows and serving donor client interests” #Insiders
Let’s talk about debt says Speers cheerfully. Yay! We’ve seen some great big numbers this week.
Wright, thankfully, goes to debt and not the budget deficit. It is on track to a trillion, he says. #Insiders
but that couldn’t last. Speers goes back to budget deficits, with clips of Cormann saying there was no alternative but to spend during a pandemic and Cormann talking shit about his political opponents back in the day #Insiders
Taylor is asked the horse race hypocrisy question. She invokes the debt truck the Coalition used in past campaigns. She agrees with Cormann that there was no alternative but to spend big in the current circumstances #Insiders
clip of RBA Governor Lowe on how cheap it is to borrow atm, the affordability and necessity of government borrowing rn. It is a lot of dough, says Coorey. He cites the December MYEFO which is completely irrelevant (except to the Liberals economic management narrative). #Insiders
clip of Dandrews on hot spots in Vic. Aged care is a tragedy, says Taylor, mentioning Newmarch House in NSW as well. Speers repackages this as “you have to wonder what happened in Victoria” #Insiders
the military are down there now, says Coorey, following a lengthy point about contact tracing where he implied that Victoria dragged the chain on contact tracing but didn’t mention the app launch and campaign being quite the sound and fury signifying nothing #Insiders
#TalkingPictures the toons are pretty grim this week. Kudelka’s ode to a jobseeker in the Saturday Paper, applying for the job that wasn’t there #Insiders
#FinalObservations 1 Wright says paying down government debt by 2060 is optimistic [paraphrased] #Insiders
#FinalObservations 2 Lenore Taylor draws attention to the appalling Morrison announcement this week about amending the EPBC Act essentially to devolve responsibility to the states and enable rampant development #Insiders
[rate limit exceeded]
#FinalObservations 3 is Coorey schilling for Tim Wilson, who has written a book on our time and coin. #Insiders
we go out with that clip of Professor* Mark Kenny being so unfunny he apologised to the Treasurer for not being funny. This incredibly weak attempt at humour was to trivialise and mock the most important function in any human society. #Insiders
in other words #Insiders just kicked along the insulting and offensive idea that women should bear more children into this patriarchal society, currently run by pig bully misogynists, *for the economy*. It’s just a joke, laydeez.
this has been another edition of watching #Insiders so you don’t have to👋🏼👋🏼👋🏼
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