Van Badham and Ben Davison breakdown the Morrison budget. This latest instalment of neo-liberal waste and vote buying STILL doesn't address the fundamental issues of insecure work and low wage growth that is dragging down the economy and people's household budgets.

While the average worker has already gone backwards $1,300 over the last 18 months this budget locks in another $1,355 cut to the living standards of the average working Australian. Union member's have been campaigning on the need for more secure work and better pay, you can go to australianunions.org.au/wow to join them. 

There's plenty of pork being slushed around with 123 of the 144 projects announced in the budget not stacking up to the standards set by Infrastructure Australia and $600M going into more gas projects.

While the media focuses on the one off cash handouts and temporary petrol tax cut (that might be eaten up by oil price rises anyway) this waste and vote buying is being paid for with cuts to schools, universities, the arts, public sector workers, climate change prevention and $3 BILLION in cuts "decided but not announced".

These sneaky cuts have been exposed at the same time that soon to be former Liberal Senator from NSW Concetta Fierravanti-Wells has opened the lid on Morrison's take over of the NSW Liberal Party saying "There is a putrid stench of corruption emanating from the New South Wales division of the Liberal Party", claiming Morrison is "a bully with no moral compass" and that party members "don't like Morrison and they don't trust him". 

These claims follow on from Barnaby Joyce calling Morrison a "hypocrite and a liar", Gladys Berejiklian calling him a "horrible, horrible person" and another minister calling him "a fraud and a complete psycho". With the holes in his budget becoming apparent and his own leadership called into question it is clear why Morrison has canceled his appearance on ABC 7:30....

Van and Ben talk about how the COVID booster program is becoming another "strollout", with the time to reach 90% boosted getting pushed later and later into the year. This mismanagement is happening just as floods once again consume Lismore and northern NSW, making it harder to rollout boosters, and COVID cases rise, hospitalisations increase and more Australian's are tragically dying.

But there is good news about wind turbines!

Plus we give a shout out to all our Cadre and Extending the Reach supporters who have signed up to make a regular contribution towards helping us grow the audience through www.buymeacoffee.com/weekonwednesday 

Van Badham joins Ben Davison for a very special edition of the Weekend Wrap to bring you The Week on Wednesday, on a Sunday.

Van and Ben dive into the Morrison government's pre-budget leaks, analyse Insiders and Jim Chalmer's focus on wages and job security during his interview.  The budget will benefit from rising commodity prices but Morrison's renouncement of old policies, leaking of cash hand outs and continued waste on rorts doesn't look like addressing the job insecurity, real wage cuts and increasing living costs that are smashing Australian households.  Australian Unions are taking action in workplaces and communities around the country to make work more secure and lift wages join them at australianunions.org.au/wow

Morrison's record on delivering lines up with his record on lying as he was caught out in yet another needless lie about his connection to the Hillsong Church and its now disgraced former leader Brian Houston.  Van and Ben look at how the 2022 election will be impacted in a very different way by Morrison's trust deficit from the way it impacted 2019.

Putin's four day war in Ukraine enter's its 30th day with another dead general, senior staff missing, field commanders turning on each other, civilians ejecting soldiers from cities and Biden condemning Putin as a war criminal while the autocrat of Russia starts to talk about withdrawing to the most eastern parts of Ukraine.

There is good news for cows, methane emissions and seaweed farming as Chris Bowen points out Barnaby Joyce's call to shoot every cow in the head may have been pre-mature.

We have had two new Cadre supporters join us on www.buymeacoffee.com/weekonwednesday since our short Wednesday edition.  Our next episode will have the full shout outs for our Cadre and Extending the Reach supporters.

Technical issues mean that Van Badham wasn't able to join Ben for this week's episode but The Weekend Wrap will be a special extended, post Insiders and pre federal budget Sunday edition.

In a shorter 30 minute episode Ben looks at how Morrison is leading the charge on cutting wages while the reserve bank admits that under the current government policies workers face another wage cut this year, on top of the cut last year!

As Morrison tries to make the election about fantastical culture wars (while ignoring the suspect behaviour of not only his own members but his spiritual advisor!) Albo has doubled down on what Labor is about: Delivering material improvements in people's lives that give space for progressive social policy as we've seen in Queensland, Western Australia and Victoria.

The budget will see an improvement in national income from higher commodity prices driven by Putin's war in Ukraine but while that is good for the budget it is increasing the cost of living here and literally killing people in Ukraine.

Ben gives a quick update on the bogged down mess that is Putin's war as it enters day 28.

Even a shorter Week on Wednesday needs good news and this week it is about International Forest Day!

And as always Ben gives a shout out to all our Cadre and Extending the Reach supporters who've headed to our page www.buymeacoffee.com/weekonwednesday and to everyone who has joined their union at australianunions.org.au/wow 

Don't forget to check out this Sunday's special Weekend Wrap with Ben AND Van Badham

Ben Davison looks at how Peter Malinauskas won the South Australian for Labor focussing on health, ambulance waiting times, public ownership of assets and jobs while the Marshall Liberals, blinded by infighting and scandal, set the wrong, wasteful priorities.

Morrison minister, Simon Birmingham, appeared on Insiders this morning to claim the people of South Australia had been "tricked" and that there were no lessons for the Morrison government.  The Morrison government will be handing out some form of one off payments in the budget but doing nothing to address the systemic issues of insecure work, declining wages or rising living costs.

Greg Sheridan offered the insight that under Morrison and Dutton we "couldn't stop an invasion of penguins" given the hollowing out of our defence capability, despite huge amounts being given out to contractors and offshore suppliers.

Morrison's attempt to pork barrel the flood relief has backfired with one NSW coalition upper house MP resigning in protest and another claiming it would be "hard to vote for him"

And Morrison minister, Stuart Robert, has called public sector teachers duds as new research shows they in fact working 60 hours a week, 1 in 3 is thinking of leaving teaching and the independant and catholic school teachers are now looking at taking industrial action too.

A sharp 20 minutes to wrap up your weekend.

Van Badham and Ben Davison dive into the cost of living crisis that is smashing Australian households with some people going backwards by as much as $1,500 a year.  Morrison may be trumpeting low unemployment but more and more Australians are in lower paid, casual work and having to work more than one job just to survive.  Australian Unions are achieving better outcomes in workplaces with more union members both for job security and wage increases.

Van shares her own story of going to work in hospitality while extremely sick in London just to make the rent.

With the Victorian government stepping in to offer a sick pay guarantee to casuals to help stop the spread of illness and address the symptoms of insecure work Morrison has chosen to attack the Victorian government and unions.

Albo is promising that Labor will address the insecure work, systemic low wages and rising costs of early education and childcare that are driving the cost of living crisis.

Morrison's solution?  Cheaper beer, from taps, in pubs.  Not even Andrew Bolt supports the idea.  Even the mainstream media seems to have finally had enough of Morrison's opportunist politics.

Peter Malinauskas looks set to topple a one term Liberal government in South Australia this weekend, in what Ben and Van are calling a microcosm of the national mood, the chaotic, ineffective and mismanaging Liberal government looks set to be punished by the public.  And Steven Marshall isn't even as unpopular as Scott Morrison!

Putin's War in Ukraine is failing.  Van looks at how his autocratic rule of Russia allowed Putin to build a fantasy world where he only hears what he wants to hear.  Now Russian forces are stuck in the mud, Putin is running out of money and the world is laughing at his "retaliatory sanctions" against American officials who have no dealings with or in Russia.  But, as Ben points out, sanctions can cut two ways with the oil situation in India a development worth watching.

And the good news is that scientists have developed the kind of technology that might allow us to build "moisture farms" like on the Star Wars plant of Tatooine using solar panels and hydrogels!

Plus we thank all of our Cadre and Extend the Reach supporters.  To become a supporter check out our www.buymeacoffee.com/weekonwednesday page.    

Ben Davison breaks down Labor shadow defence minister, Brendan O'Connor's, Insiders interview in which he exposes the wastefulness of the Morrison-Dutton government.  Billions spent on equipment that doesn't work, given to Liberal donor companies that have no staff and on contracts that will never be delivered.  All in pursuit of an arbitrary "Spending as a percentage of GDP target" while Dutton fails to effectively deploy the defence forces we have to support covid controls and flood relief.

The nation dug deep to support a flood relief telethon overnight but with the insurance bills likely to top $1 BILLION Ben asks the question; is this the Liberal party just once again trying to deflect from its failings and push the role of government onto the people?  

Morrison was on the Today show this morning rejecting that very claim and calling it a "Labor narrative".  The 865,000+ Australian's having to work two or more jobs, millions who've had a pay cut, tens of thousands who were abandoned during fires and floods and thousands who's loved ones have needlessly suffered and died in aged care might disagree.

Morrison has banned the flying of the Eureka flag on construction sites.  Despite failing to implement the recommendations of a review of workplace health and safety laws and standing to one side while two major construction companies have gone under Morrison's Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) have spent two years getting a ban upheld by the federal court.  The Eureka flag, flown by our first diggers, remains a powerful symbol of grass roots democracy and is a part of union iconography while also being a key part of Ballarat's cultural identity.

Van and Ben will be proudly marching under the Eureka Flag at the Ballarat Labour Day march tomorrow.  Don't forget to join you union and check out our supporter page!

Van Badham and Ben Davison look at how the Morrison government's current failures around the floods are deeply rooted in their obsessive small government ideology.  From defence readiness to aged care, from the NDIS to flood relief the ideological obsession of Morrison, Dutton and the Liberals has seen billions collected in taxes then doled out in rorts and dodgy deals while the sovereign capacity Australians need to keep us safe, employed and prosperous has been eroded.

Morrison has flown to Lismore to declare a national emergency in a photo-op but refuses to acknowledge that the undermining of the public sector, the sell offs, favours for mates and dodgy grant schemes, coupled with a refusal to acknowledge the science of climate change, is the root cause of the problem.

With people hiring helicopters, setting up their own field hospitals and Chris Hemsworth donating tonnes of food people are rightly asking "isn't this the role of government?"

Putin's War in Ukraine hasn't gone to plan with high casualties, equipment failures and stubborn Ukrainian resistance throwing his "special operation" into a chaotic second week.

The West has responded by imposing sanctions, the latest of which strikes at the rivers of black gold that Russia has been selling to Europe, the UK and USA.  Bans and rapid transitions away from Russian oil, coal and gas by the Western nations will cripple the Russian economy and speed up the global transition to renewable energy.

The good news is that South Korea has floated giant flower shaped solar farms that not only provide renewable energy but are also beautiful tourist attractions.

As always we thank our Cadre and Extending the Reach supporters, check out https://www.buymeacoffee.com/WeekOnWednesday, for how you can help us keep making The Week on Wednesday.

Ben, live from the Adelaide Writers Week, breaks down the Peter Dutton Insiders interview that failed to ask a single question about his involvement with a Queensland business man, who he has made commercials for in the past, which FriendlyJordies has exposed as having been involved in questionable behaviour.  Dutton sabre rattled about China, made up defence policy on the run, refused to be accountable for his failure to properly deploy defence personnel to assist with the floods and in aged care.

While people in Queensland and Northern New South Wales are forming a "mud army" to deal with the disaster Dutton railed against suggestions his government hadn't done enough to support the people.  Despite even NSW Liberal Premier Perrottet admitting they had failed to do enough.

Ben looks at how this part of a broader picture of failure by the Morrison government on everything from a federal ICAC to un-needed car parks and how this weeks economic figures show that failure is being paid for by working people with wages FALLING while profits SKYROCKET.

We round out with a shoutout for the International Women's day events happening this week, including the big union rally in Melbourne this TUESDAY.

Plus there's a shout out to our supporters who've said hello while in Adelaide and made a contribution at www.buymeacoffee.com/weekonwednesday

Van Badham and Ben Davison take a long look into whats happened in aged care now that Morrison has had the Aged Care Royal Commission findings for over a year.  Hundreds have died, minister Colbeck cannot guarantee that funding for nutrition was spent on food, nursing homes don't always have a nurse, minimum care times are not being met and the workers need a 25% pay increase just to get a liveable hourly wage. 

But unions have taken up the issue with a claim to lift wages to $30 an hour, have nurses in nursing homes, have staff to resident ratios and ensure people are feed more than $6 a day worth of slop.

The Australian Union movement also released a report this week called "Morrison Missing: A record of his failure for working women".  The report shows how under the Morrison government 2 out 3 working women have faced sexual harassment at work, women are paid nearly $500 a week less than men, retire with half as much as men and are more likely to experience insecure work, unemployment and homelessness.

The report coincided with the union movement bringing a case for paid family and domestic violence leave in the workplace commission.  While employer lobby groups were happy to contest the claim no employer was willing to put their face to opposing a paid day off for the victims of family and domestic violence.

While the Australia Services Union has asked Qantas to get rid of some outdated gender bias uniform laws, Tony Abbott has been spouting American right wing talking points that "gender whispering" is basically why Putin has invaded Ukraine.

It is not.  Putin has invaded Ukraine because he believes in a fascist ideology espoused by one of his advisors and praised by people like Steve Bannon.

Putin's War in Ukraine has highlighted how his far right ideology has been supported by bad faith actors in the west and is based on a written doctrine of fascism, "Greater Russian" rule over large parts of Europe and the "destruction" of "liberalism"

While the war is not going to plan for Putin it has unified democracies against his authoritarianism in some interesting and unexpected ways while also having devastating economic consequences for Putin and his cabal of oligarchs.

The flooding disaster in south east Queensland and northern NSW has claimed 10 lives and left over 50,000 properties without power.  Van and Ben rail against the failure of Morrison and Dutton to understand the role of government in supporting people in a time of crisis while praising the selflessness of the volunteers and community members on the front line.

Plus there is good news about Guinness and carbon capture! 

And as always we give a shout out to our supporters, you can check out the supporter page at www.buymeacoffee.com/weekonwednesday

Ben opens the podcast with the Ukrainian national anthem and a call for peace. 

The Week on Wednesday focusses on issues that impact working people, whether in work, looking for work, unable to work or retired for work, and Putin's war will impact working people in Ukraine, Russia and around the world.

While giving a breakdown of how Putin has misjudged the resistance of the Ukrainian people, and their President, Ben explores how Putin used his puppet Trump to deny Ukraine weapons, his pawns to spread division and chaos in our democracies during the US election, Brexit and through the Qanon Cult.

Ben gives a rapid summary of the sanctions, military situation, international pressure and domestic unease that surrounds Putin's war. 

Here in Australia floods have claimed at least six lives in Queensland with flooding rains expected to continue in the days to come.  Emergency services are receiving as many as 1,000 calls an hour for assistance.

Ben rounds out the wrap with a call for peace, a hope for the safe return of AWU National Assistant Secretary Misha Zelinsky who is in Kyiv and a thank you to all those who are helping protect people from the floods in Australia.