buy local – buying Tasmanian-made and supporting local business has never been more important as we look to recover and rebuild from coronavirus, according to Premier Peter Gutwein. “It will be important that government and other large purchasers where possible buy local and support the investment being made by local firms and the jobs that they will create here in Tasmania,” he said. The Premier said the Tasmanian government has already implemented a Buy Local policy which includes up to a 20% weighting of local content when making purchasing decisions, with an aim to ensure 90 per cent of all government contracts are awarded to Tasmanian businesses by 2022. “I have tasked Treasury to consider how we can increase our weighting even further towards Tasmanian content and also consider how the investment that is being made locally by firms, as they innovate to deliver products that in the main have been imported, can be recognised more fully in our Buy Local policy.” He expected the review will be finalised in coming weeks.
Meanwhile Liberal Senator Eric Abetz said buying Tasmanian and Australian made products whenever possible is a practical way to back local jobs, producers and manufacturers. “I encourage my fellow Tasmanians to visit the Australian Made website and literally ‘join the club’ – it’s free, you get offers and discounts, and it helps you identify a range of Australian-made products,” he said. “When you buy Australian Made, you’re not just helping the local jobs, the local shop, you’re also supporting Australian manufacturers and all the businesses in their supply chains from farmers to designers.”
animals – the strength of the bond we have with our pets, not just the presence of a pet, may determine their effect on our mental health, according to Australian research. The study in Australian Psychologist by Lian Hill, Helen Winefield and Pauleen Bennett found that simply owning a pet did not necessarily help people increase their resilience. Instead, they uncovered a more complex relationship, in which both very weak and very strong bonds with pets were linked with reduced resilience and ability to work through adversity. They say this could be because people who bond exceptionally strongly with their pets may use them as a substitute for other human social contact, which could then negatively affect their mental health. But, conversely, people who don’t bond well with their pets may see them as a burden, which could also have negative consequences for mental health.
HomeBuilder – the new scheme by the federal government offers a $25,000 subsidy for renovations of over $150,000. Jacquie Lambie was typically blunt on Radio National: “I don’t think putting a gold toilet seat in your bathroom is going to save 450,000 jobs mate.”
ALP Senator Helen Polley said “initially there was excitement for a plan with many Tasmanians thinking they maybe able to build an extra room onto their existing house or renovate the spare room for a kids bedroom but this plan just falls flat.” She believes the majority of Tasmanians cannot find $125,000 before they would be eligible to receive a $25,000 grant. “A smaller threshold with strong guidelines would have been more sensible particularly for the Tasmanian market so this will be a real opportunity lost to support as many Tasmanian home owners and Tasmanian tradespeople as possible.”
do you serve the people, or do you ‘go to Tasmania’? – Most of us have never heard of Alejandra Reynoso Sanchez. Nor MIKTA. Well, we’ll get to all that in a moment. The Mexican Senator, from the PAN party, had a crack recently at the person primarily responsible for managing the coronavirus outbreak in her country, Undersecretary of Public Health Hugo López-Gatell.
“No wonder they see the curve flattened, imagine if your own data matched … It is incredible that they want to hoodwink Mexico like this on such a delicate subject,” she said on Twitter, suggesting that data had been manipulated to create impression of falling numbers of new cases.
He and his supporters quickly reminded her that she’s still most notable in her own country for an overseas trip from 1 to 9 October 2016. To date it’s the most expensive travel ever undertaken by a Mexican parliamentarian. Ostensibly the trip was to attend a meeting of MIKTA, ‘a new innovative partnership organisation’ whose members are Mexico, Indonesia, Korea, Turkey and Australia. Sanchez attended the 2nd MIKTA Speakers’ Consultation in Hobart during her trip.
López-Gatell made the point that they’d have more money to spend on COVID-19 response if she hadn’t spent a stack on a jolly to Tasmania. For some reason the Tasmania part resonates…in the López-Gatell-Reynoso Sanchez war of words that has ensued in public and on social media, particularly from their partisan boosters, “to go to Tasmania” has become a byword for political rorts and indulgences.
bank loans – long-time real estate professional, Hank Petrusma, has called on Australian banks to speed up the approvals’ process on home loans to assist the post COVID-19 economic recovery. He said it was shameful home buyers were waiting inordinate times for their loan applications to be approved, with banks blaming long delays on the current COVID-19 crisis.
“The number of hoops prospective borrowers of housing loans have to jump through now which is probably better described as ‘brick walls that people have to knock down’, as well as the ridiculous number and type of questions required to be answered as well as a pathetic approval time frame mostly up to 28 days, is beyond a joke,” Petrusma said. Given the federal and state governments’ strong commitment, supported by the building and construction industries, to stimulate the economy and jobs, to building more houses, especially affordable housing, you’d expect that banks would be making it easier for home purchasers rather than making it increasingly more difficult, he suggested. Petrusma said he was also concerned people aged over 60 were being discriminated against in borrowing money. “This seems bizarre when older people have assets, perfect credit ratings and a proven capacity to repay a loan yet because they have reached a certain age, they are not even considered a potential borrower.”
robodebt – confusion still surrounds the robodebt scheme now that the federal government has admitted it lacked a sound legal basis. “Prime Minister Morrison and Minister Stuart Robert continue to refuse to apologise for the discredited scheme, which stole money from Australians, but now they’re not coming clean on the next step,” said Lyons MHR Brian Mitchell (Labor). “Many have assumed that the Government’s admission meant it would refund the $721 million it took from hundreds of thousands of Australians, and wipe their debts, but that is now not clear. Neither Prime Minister Morrison nor Minister Robert are stating clearly what is going to happen with the money.
He quoted Robodebt activist Royce Kurmelovos: ‘The key detail – that has gone somewhat overlooked over the last few days of coverage – is that the department weren’t exactly wiping the slate clean on those debts. It would instead be returning those debts to ‘zero’ while keeping them on the books in case it eventually found another creative way to claw that money back.’
“Mr Morrison and Mr Robert must come clean with Australians,” said Mitchell. “Are they returning the money they took, or are they keeping it? Are they wiping the Robodebt, or are they keeping it on the books? If they are returning debts to zero but ‘keeping them on the books’ do they intend to put these Australians through this turmoil again?”
the north-west – opinions differ about whether the north-west of the state is getting a fair deal in the announced infrastructure spending. No, says Labor MHA for Braddon Anita Dow. “It is disappointing that some key North West projects identified by Labor have been excluded from Peter Gutwein’s COVID infrastructure package,” she said. “While it was pleasing to see some local projects being fast-tracked, including the long awaited coastal pathway project between Cooee and Wynyard, some important infrastructure investments like upgrades to the Burnie Port, were overlooked. We’d like to see investment in the masterplan and dredging that would allow passage for bigger ships to get more product off the island quicker and to market.” Dow said the stimulus package also had no mention of the Cradle Mountain redevelopment or progressing the Next Iconic Walk on the West Coast. “Both of these projects will create much needed regional jobs and give the local community and tourism industry certainty for the future,” Ms Dow said.
Yes, said Michael Ferguson, Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. “What Labor is choosing to ignore is that this (spending) is on top of projects that are already underway or already brought forward, such as the $40 million shiploader at Burnie Port, which is the most pressing infrastructure need at the port and is fully funded and brought forward by the Australian government,” he said. “If Labor were paying attention, they’d know that under the Port Master Plan, TasPorts will invest $80 million at the Port of Burnie to deliver a significant increase in capacity at Tasmania’s primary container port. Key projects that have already been completed at the Port of Burnie under the Master Plan to date include significant capital dredging to support the arrival of Toll’s new start-of-the-art vessels.” He said the $12 million in additional funding for the Coastal Pathway project means $12 million for even more engineering and civil contracting jobs in the region. “It is a rescue package of entirely new funds to support the Waratah-Wynyard and Burnie Councils on this local project, which has suffered due to recent coastal erosion and identified future erosion risk.” Ferguson said the Walk project had $20 million committed and the site was currently subject to detailed feasibility and planning.
