{"id":241797,"date":"2021-07-16T14:51:25","date_gmt":"2021-07-16T14:51:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jacobinmag.com\/2021\/07\/australia-new-south-wales-corruption-coronavirus-workers-pro-business\/"},"modified":"2021-07-17T00:31:20","modified_gmt":"2021-07-17T00:31:20","slug":"australian-business-has-used-the-pandemic-to-attack-workers-now-its-time-to-fight-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/07\/16\/australian-business-has-used-the-pandemic-to-attack-workers-now-its-time-to-fight-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian Business Has Used the Pandemic to Attack Workers \u2014 Now It\u2019s Time to Fight Back"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n\n\n\n

Much of Australia is back under pandemic lockdown thanks to Coalition mismanagement. The Liberals have used the crisis to bolster big business. Now the workers\u2019 movement needs to champion its own measures to counter the pandemic and rebuild the economy.<\/h3>\n\n\n
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\n NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian speaks during a press conference in Sydney, Australia. (Lisa Maree Williams \/ Getty Images)\n <\/figcaption> \n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n \n

In response to the rapidly spreading Delta variant of COVID-19, much of Australia is once again in lockdown. The current outbreak was concentrated initially in Sydney and the mistakes made by New South Wales\u2019s (NSW) Coalition government have refocused attention on the worst aspects of Australia\u2019s COVID-19 response. As lockdowns spread to other states, it\u2019s clear that the Coalition\u2019s response to the pandemic has been a disaster for everyone except big business.<\/p>\n

The capitalist class has exploited the crisis to drive down living standards and boost profits. Now, however, the gloss is coming off the Liberals, thanks to the poor handling of the latest outbreak by the NSW government and the mangling of Australia\u2019s vaccine rollout by its federal counterpart. To seize on this and to rebuild an economy that delivers for the vast majority of people, the labor movement must fight for a pro-worker recovery plan.<\/p>\n\n \n\n \n \n \n

Corruption and Ineptitude<\/h2>\n \n

Even by the eyebrow-raising standards of NSW\u2019s notorious tradition of corruption<\/a>, Gladys Berejiklian\u2019s Coalition state government has been rocked nonstop by scandal. Early on in the pandemic, her government found itself at the center of the Ruby Princess<\/a> fiasco.<\/p>\n

The authorities allowed thousands of people \u2014 including 663 Australians with COVID-19 \u2014 to leave a cruise ship and reenter the community without quarantining or even receiving their test results. At least twenty-eight people died as a direct result. A government inquiry and police investigation<\/a> has thus far resulted in a small slap on the wrist<\/a> for NSW Health.<\/p>\n

More recently, adding further insult to injury for Sydneysiders, wealthy senior students at an elite private school jumped the queue to receive Pfizer vaccinations<\/a>. At the same time, because of insufficient supplies, people under forty are not yet eligible for vaccination.<\/p>\n

Berejiklian\u2019s corruption is by no means limited to the pandemic. For example, in October 2020, Berejiklian admitted to having been in a compromising, years-long relationship with disgraced former Coalition MP Daryl Maguire. Maguire is under investigation<\/a> for using his position to broker and profit from dodgy property deals across the state, including one with racing heiress Louise Raedler Waterhouse.<\/p>\n

So far in 2021, four MPs have left<\/a> Berejiklian\u2019s government over shock accusations of sexual violence<\/a>, shredding documents<\/a> relating to shadowy grants and other instances of corruption. It has compounded the Coalition\u2019s ineptitude in the face of the most recent outbreak.<\/p>\n\n \n \n \n

\u201cThe Woman Who Saved Australia\u201d<\/h2>\n \n

The near-constant reminders that NSW politics is mired in corruption haven\u2019t really harmed Berejiklian at the polls. However, this may be changing in light of her botched response to the latest outbreak.<\/p>\n

Berejiklian was reluctant to implement a hard lockdown and publicly declared<\/a> that the NSW government takes its advice on any lockdown decisions from business as well as health experts. For this approach, right-wing commentators and business leaders heaped praise on her. In April, the Australian Financial Review<\/i> nicknamed<\/a> Berejiklian \u201cthe Woman Who Saved Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, even her admirers have noted<\/a> that only now, \u201cunder enormous pressure [has] she been effectively forced by health advisors\u201d to implement more serious measures. As with lockdowns in other states in 2020<\/a>, critics have accused Berejiklian\u2019s hard lockdown of scapegoating immigrant communities<\/a>. Although the current outbreak started in affluent suburbs like Bondi Junction and Vaucluse, Berejiklian singled out working-class and migrant suburbs in Western Sydney, like Fairfield, Canterbury-Bankstown, and Liverpool, for reproach.<\/p>\n

As mounted police patrols issued fines zealously in those areas, Berejiklian claimed that residents\u2019 cultural values<\/a> were a factor in hastening the spread of the virus. In the face of an immediate backlash, Berejiklian issued a hasty apology and met with community leaders.<\/p>\n