60 — Lie to me, I'm begging you

We respond to some listener feedback, discuss the LNP's miserly raise to the Jobseeker Rate, and the media's response to some basic new rights for Victorian renters.

 

Cap watch

• One “cap” of cocaine, please young sir.

Listener feedback

• Listener Tara Nipe’s blog post on the practicalities of a fly-in-fly-out COVID quarantine.
• Victoria have instituted dedicated agency, the COVID-19 Quarantine Victoria (CQV), to manage the hotel quarantine program.

Raise the rate

• The Coronavirus supplemental payment helped people escape from a cycle of poverty.
• After an extended campaign by advocates, the Government has raised the rate by… $3.57 a day.
• The Government has announced a “dob in a dole-bludger hotline”.
• We almost had some good news, with Greens Senator Rachel Siewert putting forward a motion to recognise that the Jobseeker rate should be be raised to above the poverty line, like Phoebe teaching Joey.
• Labor then agreed to back the Government’s misery bill.
• Anthony Albonese on Insiders, refuses to name a number.

Media watch

• The media love to use the words “dole bludgers”.
• Victoria is introducing new rental reforms, to give renters basic rights.
• The media have freaked out about the reforms.
• Contact the Renters and Housing Union if you need help understanding how these laws effect you.

Slave labour watch

• All of Victoria’s number plates are made using prison labour, earning (up to) $2 and hour.
• Victoria also proposes to use prison labour to pick fruit.

Shoutouts

• Play some Australia videogames! Untitled Goose Game, Hollow Knight or Armello are fantastic.
• Listen to two great podcast episodes on the Facebook news debacle: Banning Australia from this Machine Kills, and Lizzie O’Shea on Tech Won’t Save Us
• Listen the Pop Test ABC podcast.
• Read the Chaser and Matthew Davis’s rundown of LNP bullshit.