Postcards from Magic Pudding Land

Two things happened today. I was surveyed by the ABS and I went for a walk. The two aren't usually related, but today they are. Part of the survey was about employment. The enforced physical distancing regime and related public health measures killed every single piece of work I had at the time. Yes I work in arts/entertainment. Fortunately one of my employers came through with JobKeeper so what was a total disaster became an enforced holiday, which as time goes by I am starting to see as just a prelude to the actual disaster coming in a few months time. But not everyone got a holiday. Some essential workers kept working, quite a few of them actually judging by the rather modest unemployment figures out today. One of #ScottyFromMarketing's favourites definitely kept their noses to the grindstone. They were recently rewarded via the renovation bonus, so hey keep up the good work fellas... I'm talking about these guys. Now there has been some coverage recently about...

You know how rich Oztralia is. With a GDP per capita over $55k a year it's quite amazing that four years ago in 2016 there were 116,000 people officially homeless. That was before the Covid-19 depression we are currently in the midst of which is bound to increase homelessness along with unemployment. The Age ran a story a few months ago, again pre-coronavirus, which highlighted the devastating effect of homelessness on older women.  It's a state of affairs conveniently swept under the carpet. According to the Homelessness Australia website , the rate of homeless people is around 50 per 10,000. In the affluent burbs of Canberra that would mean over 1500 people are homeless. Predictably the rate amongst aboriginal and Torres Islanders is 10 times the average. This appalling state of affairs is but one consequence of a housing policy that encourages investment in housing as a means of wealth creation. Successive governments have pandered to the "housing market" ...