Tanya Plibersek - Upturn: A Better Normal after Covid-19

A NewSouth book

Published by

NewSouth Publishing

University of New South Wales Press Ltd

University of New South Wales

Sydney NSW 2052

AUSTRALIA

newsouthpublishing.com

Tanya Plibersek 2020

First published 2020

This book is copyright. While copyright of the work as a whole is vested in the editor, Tanya Plibersek, copyright of individual chapters is retained by the chapter authors. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this book may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be addressed to the publisher.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of Australia

ISBN9781742237206 (paperback)

9781742245096 (ebook)

9781742249612 (ePDF)

Cover design Design by Committee

Author proceeds for this title go to the Rev. Bill Crews Foundation and the Wayside Chapel.

All reasonable efforts were taken to obtain permission to use copyright material reproduced in this book, but in some cases copyright could not be traced. The author welcomes information in this regard.

June Oscar

Peter Garrett

Ross Garnaut

Sally McManus

Jenny Macklin

Wayne Swan

Stephen Koukoulas

Linda Burney

Lachlan Beel and Eli Scott

Annabel Crabb

Rae Cooper and Sarah Mosseri

Cate Blanchett and Kim Williams

Adrian Pisarski

Paul Torzillo

Sharon Lewin

Ian Chubb

Tanya Plibersek

Rebecca Huntley

Tim Soutphommasane

Gabrielle Chan

Fiona Simson

Annie ORourke

Greg Combet

Daniel Petre

Cameron Clyne

Heather Ridout

Jim Chalmers

Andrew Charlton

Lenore Taylor

Gareth Evans

A year ago people would have told you it was impossible for school children to shift overnight to online learning; impossible for banks to offer mortgage holidays; impossible to double unemployment benefits; impossible to house rough sleepers or put a hold on evictions; impossible to offer wage subsidies, and absolutely impossible to get Australians to stay home from the beach and the pub.

In February 2020, as debate emerged about a new type of coronavirus, it seemed impossible that Australia would avoid the fate of nations similar to ours, which had hospitals straining under the weight of new infections and makeshift morgues in parks and public squares.

Yet many of our assumptions have been disproved. In some cases, we have done better than we could have expected. We have listened to medical experts and, for the most part, followed their advice. We have been disciplined and kind. We have risen to the challenge. We have put our lives on hold to protect the health of the majority.

Of course, there have been examples of high stress and bad behaviour: of panic buying and camera phone footage of fights in the toilet paper aisle of supermarkets. A few of these scenes got pretty ugly. Some people have refused to stay home when sick or refused to be tested. Some of the worst behaviour came from people proudly filming themselves behaving badly arguing with police or shop assistants about their human right not to wear a mask. But for every case of selfishness, there have been ten cases of love and community spirit, of patriotism and solidarity at its practical best. We are learning a lot about ourselves, both good and bad: thank goodness for Medicare; essential workers arent always paid according to their worth; insecure work and low wages are bad for everyone if sick people keep working or consumer demand drops across the economy; if you have a complex problem, its worth talking to an expert and listening to the science; our public servants arent all useless shiny bums; and if we want to be more self-reliant, we need a nimble manufacturing sector, preferably powered by cheaper, cleaner renewable energy.

Neither the health crisis nor the economic crisis caused by the virus are over, and it is still possible that things will get worse before they get better. Nevertheless, we have a responsibility to begin to consider the shape of the society and economy we want to rebuild. Australia will face massive questions over the next few years questions as big as the ones we faced coming out of the Second World War.

After the sacrifices of the Second World War, the Australian government promised our suffering population full employment and higher homeownership, and they delivered. There followed many years of unemployment rates of around 2 per cent, and homeownership climbed by 10 per cent in just seven years.

Wars, recessions, depressions and pandemics all of them are devastating. All change societies and economies fundamentally. Changes that would usually take years happen overnight. Things that seem impossible become commonplace and necessary. The Black Death halved the population of Britain in the 1300s, We cant always prevent disaster, but we can determine how we respond.

What are todays equivalents? People have sacrificed so much in 2020. Some have lost family members and couldnt be at their bedside or even at their funeral. Hundreds of thousands of Australians lost their job or business. Children have fallen behind at school. Many of these sacrifices were because of government-mandated shutdowns, which protected the health of our community but came with high costs. The sacrifices were necessary, but they were very painful. This discipline deserves a better future, not a snap back to moribund growth and increasing inequality. Even before the pandemic we had almost 2 million Australians who didnt have a job or enough hours of work, economic growth was weak, businesses werent investing and consumers werent spending. Wages growth was at record lows and our national debt had more than doubled.

Some will now reflexively demand tax cuts for big business and pay cuts for low-paid workers as a way of kick-starting the economy. Some will demand immediate cuts to government spending and our public services. The Government has already forced many to withdraw their retirement savings from superannuation just to survive. These are a recipe for a slower, more painful recovery, and a much less equal country on the other side.

Instead, Australia needs strong, inclusive, environmentally sustainable economic growth. Good wages support confidence and demand in our economy. A well-paid, secure middle class is not the distant end-goal of economic growth: it is the precondition for it.

We should aim for full employment. That includes a strongly growing private sector driven by increased productivity and a fair, streamlined tax system. We must harness the intellect and inventiveness of our people. We need to invest in research and development, but also in commercialisation. We can be a country that makes things, powered by cleaner, cheaper renewable energy. We shouldnt turn our back on global trade, because we are an exporting nation, but it might be that supply chains are disrupted for some time and we need to have a greater capacity for diversification and self-reliance than we imagined.