Commenting on the story: Ann-Marie Smith carers didn’t tell NDIS about her death

As an 67 year old woman confined to a wheelchair, I have lit afire with the death of Anne Marie Smith.

How could this have happened in an Australia serviced by NDIS?

Bureaucracies are never the answer. Government SA Disability was like all state organisations, providing one-shoe-fits-all “solutions to individual needs matters. Bureaucracies always spend most of the disability dollar on themselves, with public servants and department heads gaining the most.

The absolutely main trigger cause of this gross situation has been the total casualisation of the workforce for care support. They earn peanuts.

In my extensive experience of lived experience as a disabled woman, they are mainly single mothers trying to put food on the table for their kids and pay the rent.

The new more localised private bureaucracies are mainly managed by ex-state govt bureaucrats making a private enterprise income for themselves. Or social workers doing ditto. They know the ropes and pitfalls.

They know all about getting a health order to get an ambulance to take people to a hospital for medical assessment. They know about “duty of care”.  And some know all about throwing the casual, insecure, poorly trained support worker under a bus to cover themselves. 

The problem here is the casualised, insecure workforce who need to be regulated and partly professionalised through strong training programs with regular up-dating of skills. 

And these new provider organisation should be required to have an advocacy service employing a qualified disabled person to audit the service provision regularly. – Kerrin O’Rourke

Commenting on the story: Marshall’s 11th hour backflip: all licensed venues allowed to open from today

I do realise the need to open up pubs, cafes and restaurants for business: income and jobs are so important to us.

The public is going mad to get back to normal, but the threat is real.

 Our Premier is being pushed on all sides. One day he’s great the next day he is being criticised. Everyone is pushing – pubs, clubs, football.

If we go back to the normal too soon, we could be in a lot of trouble. This virus has not gone away, it is still in our country, and it is vicious.

Please take it easy, we have gone through 10 weeks. Another few won’t kill us. – Maggie McGuire

Commenting on the story: Huge JobKeeper error revealed as costs revised by $60 billion

The reasons for the error don’t make sense.

1000 businesses reported they had 1500 workers = total 1.5 million. Where have the rest gone (6.5-3.5 = 3 million not 1.5 million)

Did nobody check that Joe’s Auto service might not employ 1500 people?

Why weren’t the responses cross tabbed with their PAYG returns?

Where has some grasp of reality gone in government circles?

How about a bit of intelligence being involved in the reporting, rather than swallowing the Govt’s PR handouts verbatim? – John Clayton

What on earth is wrong with Australian journalists.

Increasingly they are swallowing whatever the LNP Government announces without analysis and scrutiny. Whenever they hear verbose, repetitive self congratulatory announcements it’s time to check it out, not just allow themselves to be snowed.

In this case it was not self congratulatory but a rare acknowledgement of a mistake; not their own of course, the ATO application form and employers who misunderstood it, or at least that was what Frydenberg wanted everyone to believe. And they did!

As far as I know, not one journalist has reminded the Treasurer that in the announcement of the scheme on 30 March, still on the Govt website, Morrison clearly says 6 million workers will benefit.

Ironically, the slightly confusing application form and the employers who misunderstood it  actually confirmed that figure until the ATO spotted the error. They didn’t create the error; it was always there! It was there before the first application form had been filled out, but the hapless ATO representative had to take the hit.

The Govt has ready access to oodles of employment statistics from the census, it’s own demographers and several departments etc so they, Morrison and Frydenberg, are responsible for getting it wrong in the first place, not that you would know it from how it has been reported. – David Alan Bridges

Commenting on the story: Coronavirus: What we know today, May 22

In your article you show a heavily defaced / graffitied ‘Welcome to SA “ sign. Can I ask that a couple of things happen with this sign and others like it.

1. Replace it with a new clean sign.
2. Install concealed security cameras nearby.
3. Increase fines for vandalism such as this to a minimum of $5000 or gaol term.

I have driven past these signs a few times and it is heart breaking to see our State disrespected and defaced in this manner. – Grant W Petras

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