You could be forgiven for thinking that Sydneysider Scott Morrison is giving his Liberal-governed home town the gold-standard treatment during its lockdown, compared with the alleged cut-price job Victorians received from the Commonwealth during its latest closure.
The Prime Minister has — quite properly — waived the $10,000 assets test for desperate Sydney workers thrown out of work by the coronavirus pandemic and who are seeking up to $500 a week from the Commonwealth.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has provided emergency payments to Sydneysiders out of work during the city’s lockdown.Credit:James Brickwood
Standing outside his Kirribilli residence overlooking Sydney Harbour, Morrison denied Sydney was getting special treatment for political purposes.
“I reject that, I think that’s an absurd suggestion,” he said.
Melburnians, however, will recall Victoria’s then acting premier James Merlino and Treasurer Tim Pallas angrily declaring at the very start of Victoria’s lockdown in May that they had begged the Morrison government for extra support for workers, only to be refused.
“We asked multiple times [for] the federal government to support workers during this period, and the unrelenting answer has been no,” Merlino said on May 30.
“For the Prime Minister and the federal Treasurer to say ‘no’ is a disgrace and it should make every Victorian angry.”
It didn’t help that when Trade Minister Dan Tehan was asked on ABC TV about support for Victorian workers who had lost their income, he urged them to go to Centrelink, but was unable to say whether they would actually receive any support.
When Victorian workers finally got a Commonwealth package, they were required to use their own savings before they were eligible for $500 payments. No waiving of the assets test for them.
The deadline for federal coronavirus disaster payments relating to the Victorian lockdown closed on Friday, with 57,730 of 75,410 claims granted. Already, more than 67,000 people had applied for the disaster payments in NSW by midnight on July 7. About 57,000 of those had been granted.
Truth is, Morrison and his ministers have long been seen to be critical of Victoria’s efforts to control coronavirus outbreaks.
Late last year, as Victoria cautiously prepared to emerge from its longest lockdown, delaying the decision in order to wait for the latest health data, the PM, Health Minister Greg Hunt and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg combined to slam Victoria’s approach, calling it “a profound disappointment”.
They issued a joint statement that said the move was a clear suggestion that Dan Andrews’ government did not have confidence in its own public health authorities.
But as COVID-19 cases mounted in Sydney late last month, the Prime Minister warmly declared his confidence in the NSW approach, and said he was confident the state would avoid a lockdown.
“NSW, I have no doubt, has the gold-standard contact-tracing system not just in Australia but in the world,” he told Sky News on June 24.
“My fellow Sydneysiders can feel very confident that if anyone can get on top of this without shutting the city down, it is the NSW government.”
Six days later, the NSW government of Gladys Berejiklian locked down the entire Sydney metropolitan area and beyond.
In a gold-standard way, you’d imagine.
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Tony Wright is the associate editor and special writer for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.
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2021-07-08 08:32:14Z
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