Labor’s necessary backflip on COVID payments is part of learning to live with governing rather than being stuck in opposition. There will be plenty more tough decisions to come - with less leeway to change course.
At least Chalmers knows his bottom line in the October budget will be boosted by the combination of the lower welfare payments and increased taxes that come from more people working and the lowest unemployment rate in almost half a century.
The answer is more one of hope than conviction. Like the rest of the world, Australia can only operate on the basis there won’t be dangerous mutations that render vaccines ineffective, that governments can no longer afford to repeat emergency support payments indefinitely, that living with COVID-19 really does just become part of living.
But despite the community’s desire to move on from pandemic restrictions, the infectiousness of the latest COVID-19 variants is hitting hard. That’s even though panic about the spread has largely evaporated for most people.
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