From superannuation and Gaza to the gig economy – this week’s writers and readers show why independent journalism matters, and why P&I will remain free to read.
Barnaby Joyce – One Nation’s explainer-in-chief – looked a little uncomfortable this week. He stumbled through interviews with the ABC’s Sally Sara and Sarah Ferguson on One Nation’s latest thought bubble about taking ‘wages’ out of superannuation.
Or did he?
Some commentators called the interviews train wrecks, but perhaps they were just as Joyce intended: short on detail and long on confected outrage about big-G government ‘stopping people getting at their very own money’.
My favourite part of the ABC 7.30 interview was when Joyce went right to the top. Sarah Ferguson pressed him, saying that, given he was treasury spokesman, it was reasonable to expect him to be able to model the impacts. His retort was that he was “the treasury spokesman [yes], not Jesus Christ”.
He added that he would need to use an “annuity table” and do some “linear regression”. He is betting not many people even know what that means. But he knows. Remember, despite all his farm-guy schtick, the former National Party leader is an accountant by trade. He is completely capable of doing the sums, but he chooses not to.
I will stop there. It is hard not to get sucked into furious analysis and condemnation of what is clearly bad public policy. So this week we spend some time unpacking the superannuation kerfuffle with the help of quality analysis from Kos Samaras and Saul Eslake. Saul myth-busts, reminding us that superannuation has not meant more people are on the pension – quite the opposite. Kos points out that while One Nation is shouting from the rooftops about the rights of average citizens to get at ‘their’ money, what they are actually doing is proposing, once again, that those in the most financial pain dig into their own pockets for help.
Also this week, hugely important news from Palestine and Israel, with UK sanctions on products from the West Bank, and evidence that Netanyahu was warned before 7 October 2023.
And my favourite piece of the week, a beautifully written first-person account of a day in the life of a HungryPanda food delivery rider from a new author to P&I, Luke Mesterovic.
Finally, I spent a few hours this week replying to emails from a small, special group of P&I readers. They had all received our letters asking for financial help as part of the ongoing August/September fundraising campaign. All were deeply apologetic that they couldn’t help this time because they just couldn’t afford to. All were stalwart readers. Some were worried this might affect their access to read P&I. Of course it will not. P&I is free to read and will always be so.
I shouldn’t have been surprised by the letters, but I was. The P&I community is courteous, loyal and precious.
We continue the August/September campaign to keep P&I growing and fuelling intelligent debate around the increasing number of issues the mainstream ignores.
If you can donate, please do. Your support helps keep P&I independent and free to read for everyone.
Catriona Jackson is the Chief Executive and Editor of Pearls and Irritations.