Advertisement

Your views: on The Gov, Centrelink, landlords and manufacturing

Today, readers comment on the hotel industry’s struggle to survive, navigating Centrelink services, tenant legal protections, and reviving local manufacturing.

Apr 24, 2020, updated Apr 24, 2020
Photo: Andreas Heuer

Photo: Andreas Heuer

Commenting on the story: Governor Hindmarsh Hotel’s future in limbo

The Governor Hindmarsh is one of hundreds of hotels in South Australia, all of which have been forced to shut their doors in an effort to curb the spread of coronavirus.

Whilst the Gov is obviously a high profile live music establishment in Adelaide, we run a hotel in country SA with a similar emphasis on promoting local live music and I am sure that in many of the larger country towns there will be similar venues.

There wasn’t a profit in it for us either. We are doing our best to survive until the restrictions can be lifted and are giving as many staff as possible work they don’t usually do, just to help keep them going.

Unfortunately it appears that many venues will not be able to withstand the financial impact the forced shutdown imposes.

The Federal government’ s Jobkeeper Allowance and the States $10,000 grant for eligible businesses is certainly a great help; however I believe that beyond these measures it would be wrong for the Government to support some individual businesses at the expense of others. – John Wyk

Commenting on the story: Will extra staff help Centrelink cope with virus demand?

I have been extremely reluctant to ever have any contact with Centrelink based on other people’s experiences, and the recent application of a JobSeeker payment as a result of the pandemic has merely reinforced my opinion of what is at best a complicated process but more likely a totally ineffective and inefficient bureaucratic nightmare.

After having to endure 4 days of website downtimes, I finally got through to register.

Two days later I received a text to say that someone would be in touch and three weeks later still no contact.

Got through to the helpdesk yesterday and the very helpful person there was able to access by CRN and provided me with a linking code so that I could actually link Centrelink through myGov account.

Still cannot get to see if my registration has been processed, with errors at every step.

Throwing good money on new staff after bad will not help until they resolve the basic infrastructure and system issues.

No doubt the system has cost an enormous amount of our money but has proven that it is not scaleable. – Graeme Crook

Having worked for Centrelink for 25 years during the Hawke/Keating/Howard years and having kept in touch with current workers I know a bit about this outfit.

More lately, having used Centrelink’s pension program I’ve experienced first hand what it’s like as a ‘customer’.

Under Howard the rot started to set in, with front staff increasingly devalued and deskilled. The past half dozen years have seen a cultural shift where the ‘customers’ are demonised and actively deterred from accessing their entitlements.

The robodebt sham was the tip of the iceberg of the anti-public service culture.

Centrelink/Services Australia is now an arm of the punitive right wing ideologues of the Liberal Party.

The post-COVID 19 era can reflect the cohesive cooperative Australia that has emerged to beat the virus where workers both employed and unemployed are treated with respect – or we can return to the divisive class warfare of the rich and powerful versus the poor and powerless.

Centrelink workers will again be on the front line of government attitudes to their citizens. We must all fight for a better more connected and respectful society because the Liberal Right will be demanding a return to class warfare as soon as it’s safe to do so. – Stephen Fuller

Commenting on the opinion piece: Hasty crisis lawmaking leaves landlords in the lurch

But does the SA COVID-19 Emergency Response law make reference to providing rent relief in the form of reduction, waiver or deferment? 

From my reading it deviates considerably from ScoMo’s rental code in that it offers nothing but a promise not to pursue non-payment during the prescribed period.

After that it’s up to the landlord what they do. – Arthur Shizas

Great article, well written by somebody who is experiencing the same lack of income through no fault of his other than investing in the property market in the hope that the investment returns a fair return.

In most cases we are self-funded retirees with no support from Government when we need it to maintain some income to pay living costs.

We eat food just like the unfortunate unemployed and yet my experience contacting Government has yielded zero help because they do not seem to have funding category allocated.

But they will get back to us and all we get is a code number to try all over again at a later time. – Mal O’Brien

Commenting on the story: Global shutdown could spark Australian manufacturing revival

I would suggest changing the headline to read “should” instead of “could”.

Our inability to subsist in the current economic climate should be ringing alarm bells. Manufacturing across all sectors needs to be brought on shore as much as possible. – Stephen Fitzgerald

Want to comment?

Send us an email, making it clear which story you’re commenting on and including your full name (required for publication) and phone number (only for verification purposes). Please put “Reader views” in the subject.

We’ll publish the best comments in a regular “Reader Views” post. Your comments can be brief, or we can accept up to 350 words, or thereabouts. 

Local News Matters
Advertisement
Copyright © 2024 InDaily.
All rights reserved.