Raising Hell: Issue 2: Of Thoughts and Prayers

When I started this newsletter, my plan was to kick off each issue with a few hundred words talking about some issue before briefly summarising current events.

The problem with that right now is years are taking place in the course of weeks. At the time of writing, the Prime Minister has spent the last fortnight stalling economic collapse by spraying a fire hose spewing a constant stream of dollar bills. World economies are crumbling. All ideology is out the window. Organised money is working to ensure they reap the lions share of any bailout even as the global financial economy heaves worse than September 2008 — and Pell has just walked free on appeal.

That said, with one eye on a very full news cycle and the other on the job, I’ve decided to keep it short this time around and get right to the heart of matters…

Reporting In

Where I recap what I’ve been doing this last fortnight so you know I’m not just using your money to stimulate the local economy …

• Australian Airlines in Turmoil (2020, The Saturday Paper, 28 March)When this in The Saturday Paper, it ended up being the most-read story that weekend. Since publishing, things have moved quickly with S&P downgrading Virgin Australia’s credit rating from BB- to CCC and the company quietly approaching the government for a $1.4 billion loan. When Qantas CEO Alan Joyce got wind of this, he asked for his own $4.2 billion loan — not because his company needed it, but just because. That detail was quietly leaked to the press by an unnamed yet “well placed sourced with knowledge of discussions between the airline and the government”.
• Should we bail out the airlines? (2020, 7am Podcast, 1 April)If you haven’t had enough of me running my mouth at this point, the 7am podcast kindly invited me on to talk about my story in The Saturday Paper at length.
• ‘Covid-19 will slam the door shut’: Australian family violence services brace for domestic violence spike (2020, The Guardian, 28 March)This story was produced on a quick 24-hour turnaround for The Guardian. Since it ran, the government has announced an additional $1.1 billion for the health and family violence sector but last I checked it has not said it will renew funding for the Safe Phones program.
• ‘The homeless and parklands mob have been provided with hotel accomodation in Adelaide’ (2020, NITV, 7 April)This is one of two stories I’ve been working on for NITV in the dying days of last week. The other is due to go live today, but hasn’t at the time of writing.
• Page Proofs and Additional ChapterLike other authors, the wave of event cancellations has affected me, with the Canberra Writers Festival (to which I was invited) saying they will not be going ahead this year and Melbourne Writers Festival expected to follow soon. This makes life harder as my upcoming book, Just Money, is due for release this year. Having written the book before our present moment, it has been a curious experience for me to watch events unfold, as it is possible to see the outline of the crisis in its pages. My publisher, however, as asked me to contribute an additional epilogue to drive home the point that the fragility we have all discovered has been deliberate and has consequences for what happens next.
• Industrial RelationsLast fortnight, I had been asking probing questions of the Australian Society of Authors (ASA) and the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) about their associated Benevolent funds and whether they would be opened up for those directly affected by Covid-19. It was a serious inquiry, underscored by recent news that the editor of Vice Australia, Julian Morgan, has been diagnosed with Covid-19. Though these questions have now been made redundant with the new JobKeeper program, asking them has revealed a few potential issues with the management of these funds given that nobody seems to have thought about while times were good.Instead much of the focus has turned to the JobKeeper payment, to which state politicians and major institutions are now directing pretty much everyone. As a freelancer who works under an ABN, my sense right now is including “sole traders” in the payment makes for little more than a nice headline for the government. While the payment is great news for anyone closely associated with an employer (for 12 months), for someone in my position it is not entirely clear. Using myself as an example, I may have been busy this last fortnight but I have no way of knowing whether this workload will be sustained. It is uniquely different to quantify losses from the present crisis, especially in the time periods required by government departments. Cancellations from writers festivals, for instance, flow through to future book sales and lower advertising revenue means potentially fewer commissions.In other words, should I apply for the program I would be required to prove my income has fallen 30 percent in recent weeks (how, exactly?) and then maintain records to prove this going forward. With the federal Coalition government only just now taking steps to suspend its Centrelink debt-collection activities days before this newsletter went out, I have no doubt that should I see a sudden spike in income thanks to a random flurry of commissions, I will be forced to do a whole load of complex maths to compensate or come out of this period with a large debt to the government. The MEAA has said it is investigating further and has, very kindly, offered a two-month fee waiver for its members. Still, I am curious to see how this pans out…
  

Chalk One Up For The Good Guys…

For all special announcements, gloating and all-purpose schadenfreude

If the inspiration for this whole damn thing began when my investigation into a chemical spill was lifted by the ABC, I am pleased to report there have been developments on that story. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced it will prosecute the Belgian company which owns the Nyrstar refinery over the spill which saw 700 litres of sulphuric acid dumped into an estuary last year.

The estuary in question…

In reporting the EPA’s decision, the ABC — which did not include a by-line for the reporter on that story — has claimed bragging rights while kindly axing the phrase “exclusive investigation”. Elsewhere, however, the story notes:

Documents from the EPA, released under Freedom of Information, alleged sulfuric acid leaked from Nyrstar's factory into Port Pirie's First Creek on January 31

The documents in question…

It is worth mentioning in passing that by omitting who made the applications for these documents, a reader might reasonably conclude that it was the ABC which made the application. While this is disappointing, the result is more a product of bad timing than anything else. After having spoken to one of the original reporters on that story way back when, we came to an agreement about how I might be credited in any follow up but it appears that reporter is currently on leave. Which sucks, but that’s how it goes. Sometimes you don’t get the glory, but you still get the result.

You Hate To See It

A dyspeptic, snark-ridden and highly ironic round-up of the news from our shared hellscape…

• Sick And Alone, Boris Rediscovers Society

  In perhaps the most poetic of ironies, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, having been diagnosed with Covid-19, has declared – in direct contradiction of conservative prophet Margaret Thatcher – that society does, in fact, exist. The revelation hit Johnson just prior to his recent hospitalisation while sealed behind the doors at No 11 Downing Street for the health and safety of the general public. The missive was released via recorded video statement, and unfortunately for the UK, has only taken conservative politics four decades and a Prime Minister to be personally affected by a crisis for them to learn something.

• Round one?

  As the US continues to let Covid-19 rip through its population of 327 million people, those speculating about what the future holds are already worried about the prospect of a second wave when governments tentatively attempt to reopen their borders. Consider this your timely reminder that climate change is still happening and our unabated drive to cook the biosphere risks a second, even worse pandemic. As was first noted in 2017 fun new (read: old) diseases have begun to reawaken from their ancient slumber as the permafrost thaws thanks to climate change. Good times.

• No Good Deed Goes Uncharged

  Billionaire mining magnate Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest has ridden to Australia’s rescue after his personal charity, The Minderoo Foundation, flew in 90 tonnes of medical supplies last week, worth $160 million. The “donation” was reportedly made to alleviate a critical shortage of personal protective equipment in the country and, as intended, earned the billionaire mining magnate warm praise. Under the arrangement with the government of Western Australia, however, the charity would be reimbursed for any supplies the state government actually used — a fact that was hard to miss in the foundation’s press release. The very long document curiously included a quote the state’s Health minister Roger Cook who enthusiastically expressed his undying gratitude by thanking the foundation — and Dr Forrest — for its “extraordinary support”.

• Britney Spears Moves to the Left of Labor

  Perhaps the West Australia Labor government might learn a thing or two from Britney Spears, Queen of the Proletariat, who caused a stir by seemingly endorsing a general strike and a radical programme of wealth redistribution. The pop star flagged her changing political allegiances when she re-posted the work of Brooklyn based writer Mimi Zhu to her Instagram. Spears may be worth $59 million and once publicly expressed support for American Emperor George Bush II, but her sudden change in political creed makes sense given she remains subject to an oppressive conservatorship set up by her father after a public meltdown in 2008.

• Staying In?

  Well, Honey Birdette remain at it. While some sections of the retail sector have been profiting from hoarders bugging out, the Australia retail sector has been inching closer to total collapse. Honey Birdette, bless ‘em, are still leading the charge in the sector’s desperate and deeply weird pivot-to-the apocalypse. This time the chain has eschewed the obvious “Locked Down?” and to instead asked connoisseurs of its poorly-made bondage gear the coquettish question: home bound?

  

Failing Upward

Where I recognise and celebrate the true stupidity of the rich, powerful and influential…

• Of the rogue’s gallery of screw ups to make an appearance on the national stage this last fortnight, one man stands alone: Stuart Robert. If the biggest story of the last two weeks was the total failure of the country’s social safety net in a time of crisis, it would take a 10,000 word screed to properly detail every failing — a screed, editors should note, I am totally prepared to pen. Until such time as a commission comes through, it is perhaps easier to write off the moment, objectively, as a total shitshow.

  In service to this, I submit for your approval the elegantly timed gaffe committed by the minister of government services. Shocked at the hordes of people who found themselves freshly laid off — despite a decade spent by the federal Coalition encouraging the growth of on-demand labour — Robert seemed totally unable to cognitively process events. For a government that has spent years insisting that the best way to help the unemployed up was to kick them while they were down, the very notion anyone might actually apply for social security in good faith was apparently something Robert could not conceive. Instead, Robert dutifully informed parliament that Centrelink’s systems — which had been built to only handle 6000 simultaneous users — had come under a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack — where hackers flood an IT system with traffic until it is overwhelmed — from some unnamed malicious actor, at the precise moment when people needed it most.

  It is safe to say that no one believed Robert and the minister quickly ate his tasty, tasty words during a live interview on 2GB radio, telling the shows host Alan Joyce:

  “I didn’t think I’d have to prepare for 100,000 concurrent users. My bad not realising the sheer scale of the decision on Sunday night by national leaders that literally saw hundreds and hundreds of thousands, maybe a million people, unemployed overnight.”

  “Alan”, it should be said, had already absolved Robert of his sins by this point having told the senior federal Minister moments before:

  “It’s to your credit to say that you most probably jumped the gun and that’s probably understandable in these circumstances, so you are forgiven for all that…”

  And just like that, Robert was given a free pass by the talk back king — a curiously common occurrence for the Prime Ministers’ housemate. Robert is a man whose career I have followed with interest. On background, the consistent presence of the Pentecostal former Australian Army officer has added to the weird Christian-warrior vibe of the current federal Cabinet. Since entering national politics in 2007, his work as a Liberal Party fundraiser and his status as best-buds with Morrison have largely seen Robert side-step any consequences, any time he has pushed the boundaries of the law, a very brief summary of which include:

  • An “unofficial” Beijing trip in August 2014 to attend a party with his mate, Nimrod Resources chairman Paul Marks. At the time, Marks was negotiating a deal with Chinese state-owned-enterprise China Minmetals Group. Marks was a long-time Liberal Party donor, and Robert a minister in the Turnbull government, making Robert’s presence at the party a signal to the Chinese that the deal had the backing of the Australian government, even though it absolutely did not. When questioned, Robert stuck to his guns, insisting that he was there purely in a personal capacity.

  • That time Robert was called to give evidence (transcript) before the Crime and Corruption Commission as part of Operation Belcara which investigated attempts to screw around with local government elections in the Gold Coast to favour local developers. Investigative reporter Michael West has the detail of that saga.

  • In 2017 it was revealed a company owned by Robert had shares in the GMT Group, an IT company which received millions in government contracts, putting Robert in violation of s44 of the Constitution. To escape scrutiny, Robert’s had listed his parents as directors of the IT company. When that didn’t work, Robert managed to escape the ignominy of being thrown out of office on the basis that he had severed ties with the company before being re-elected. That said, ASIC was supposed to be investigating.

  • Then there was the infamous $2800-a-month internet bill Robert charged taxpayers, leaving people to wonder what the man was doing with all that bandwidth. I’m not sure any explanation was ever provided, though as was noted by Twitter, if it turns out Robert has been running the Centrelink servers out of his home office, it sure would explain a lot…

  Reviewing this extremely abridged version, it’s almost as if shameless cronyism is a bad way of deciding who gets to old positions of public office, especially in times of crisis….

Good Reads, Good Times

• Swinging briefly to US politics, The Atlantic ran an interesting story documenting the tepid acceptance of Joe Biden in the US Presidential race among a public tired of the daily-calamity that is Donald Trump. Biden might be the Democratic Ronald Reagan with none of the strengths (and an alleged rapist) but as the story — ambitiously titled Stay Alive Joe Biden — shows, Biden stands to win any Presidential contest thanks to basic attrition. Inspiring stuff.
• I enjoyed the indignation of Musa al-Garbi writing in The Baffler about the US experience with Covid-19 and the way in which both those on the progressive left and the conservative right have simply pulled up the drawbridge and retreated to their comfortable homes while relying on a corps of precariously and mostly immigrant workforce to bring them food and keep everything functioning until this all blows over.
• Australia might be getting by, but the world is another story. Professor Branko Milanovic, who studies global wealth inequality, has a dark vision for how Covid-19 may rewire the global economy.
• Australian political figures might be privately telling friends and associates that social distancing regulations will likely be lifted in six weeks, but what will happen to the US remains to be seen. Steve LeVine has this on Medium talking about the possibility the world’s largest economy is going to slide into a Depression.
• Ben Eltham writing in The Guardian has this piece talking about how, despite a wealth of funding being distributed, the Australian government has continued its culture war against the arts, starving organisations of funding even as it hands out fat checks to big business. In writing about a totally arbitrary and absurd funding model, the only thing Eltham’s excellent piece didn’t highlight was that those organisations who missed out last Friday were but a minority. There were many more who weren’t even invited to submit an application.
• And finally Sally Young in The Conversation has been talking how Covid-19 is exposing the loyalties of the right wing commentariat and, to the surprise of everyone, it turns out they are more loyal to business than their audiences. Who knew?

Listen Up!

• Check out this interview with Stephanie Mudge, Professor of Sociology at the University California and author of the book Leftism Reinvented. Though her work tracks how the four major centre-left parties in the US, UK, Sweden and Germany lost their way, Mudge’s research can also be applied to Australian Labor. If you ever wanted to know how the parties of the left became best friends with bankers and financial professionals, you will find no better explanation than this. When asked what this means going forward, Mudge said:

  “People know. I sometimes describe third wave politics as a politics of bait and switch. They know when they’ve been lied to, essentially, when they’ve been had, when they’ve been told if we pursue these policies you’ll be better off. And then 20 years pass, 30 years, 40 years and they haven’t had a real wage increase in all of that time. They know that those promises were not kept. And you can’t expect people then to continue to have faith in parties and in politicians in what is the so-called establishment if their experience is a lifetime of bait and switch.”

  The current government might also take note.

• Also take some time to listen to the interview(s) Katie Halper recorded with the woman who accused Biden of raping her.

• If that wasn’t enough horror, give this interview with Professor Anthony Costello, former director of the World Health Organisation a listen. Costello fingers world governments for systematically underfunding and undermining the organisation charged with coordinating a global response to a pandemic. Remember when we were all told we never had it so good?

They Say The Camera Adds Ten Pounds (Of Pressure)

• I hate to be a killjoy, but those looking at present events and hoping against hope it marks the re-awakening of some latent social democratic feeling may need to rethink a few things. After taking weeks to act, the recent attempt by governments worldwide to do something may has little to do with helping people. Looking more closely, talk of Job Guarantees and getting people back to work as quickly as possible are more about bailing out the finance sector and its stock of securitised debts. Should these debts turn sour, the resulting financial crisis would dwarf the 2008 GFC. Don’t believe me? Check this interview Bloomberg did with real estate billionaire Tom Barrack who lays it all out.

• In fact, I have been mildly surprised at the commentary running in Australia right now about how the world has changed. What happens next will depend (as it always has) on who is in charge at the critical moment and that man right now is Scott Morrison. The Prime Minister has been clear that his federal Coalition government has no intention of sticking with their newfound embrace of socialism — even if these socialist policies are proving hugely popular. The safe bet is that when this is all over, the federal Coalition will go right back to running brutal austerity measures in an effort to drag us “back into the black”.

• In fact, whatever comes next, the only thing we know for sure is that we are in Scott Morrison’s thoughts and prayers. After all, as he told The Canberra Times, the Prime Minister’s “prayer knees are getting a good workout”.

Before You Go (Go)…

• Are you a public sector bureaucrat whose tyrannical boss is behaving badly? Have you recently come into possession of documents showing some rich guy is trying to move their ill-gotten-gains to Curacao? Did you take a low-paying job with an evil corporation registered in Delaware that turns out to be burying toxic waste beneath children’s playgrounds? If your conscience is keeping you up at night, or you’d just plain like to see some wrong-doers cast into the sea, we here at Raising Hell can suggest a course of action: leak! Download the encrypted message app Wickr Me onto your phone or laptop and contact us securely at my handle: rorok1990.

• If you’ve come this far, consider supporting me further by picking up one of my books, or leaving a review or just tell a friend about Raising Hell!

  Subscribe now