Open COVID states to be punished with crushloading

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Careful what you wish for. COVID states are to be punished with open borders and we all know what means:

States that fully vaccinate 80 per cent of people aged 16 and older will be able to resume international travel, as the Prime Minister said a new deal will double Australia’s vaccine supplies for September will speed up reopening.

National cabinet also discussed which other restrictions can be dropped once double dose targets are reached, and considered home quarantine for vaccinated return travellers, but no decisions have been made.

While people from Victoria and NSW may be able to go overseas within months, they will not be able to travel to Western Australia until next year. WA Premier Mark McGowan said he will keep his border shut until well after 80 per cent of the state’s eligible population is fully vaccinated.

Good news for tourism. Bad news for everybody else as the great people ponzi returns with the Morrison Government hell-bent on the swift resumption of cheap foreign labour imports. These will come in a rush.

As we know, the Government’s most recent efforts on this front are downright scary. Its Report of the Inquiry into Australia’s Skilled Migration Program recommended opening the migrant floodgates via:

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  • Abolishing labour market testing requirements.
  • Lowering costs and speeding up approval times for importing foreign workers.
  • Expanding the skilled occupation list to include almost any role.
  • Providing all ‘skilled’ visa holders with a clear pathway for transition to permanent residency.
  • Granting ‘skilled’ visa holders priority access to flights and hotel quarantine ahead of stranded Australians.

In announcing these recommendations Liberal MP Julian Leeser declared:

 “Right across the economy we are hearing that there are real issues in relation to businesses getting the skills that they need here in Australia. During the course of COVID, we’ve lost half a million temporary visa holders. Many of those people are skilled migrants. And they are skills that just don’t exist across Australia. We need to get them back to get Australian businesses moving again…”

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It’s true. Australians have no skills and must be replaced with half-priced coolies if they are to prosper.

Farewell wages growth and productivity gains. Hello advancing Third World labour conditions, capital shallowing and more house price pressure.

Enjoy the vibrancy of getting sick and poorer.

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About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.