Key events
Good morning
We’ve made it to the half way point. On this Wednesday, 14 September, the national cabinet will meet – virtually – and decide on whether or not to continue pandemic pay.
With the states and territories on a unity ticket and a five day isolation period still in place it looks like, yes, the national cabinet will agree to keep the payments going.
Given how many people don’t have sick leave entitlements, it makes sense. Covid absences are already having a pretty big effect on the economy according to the ABS, with it contributing to the labour force issues. Taking away much needed income from vulnerable workers who get sick, given how much Covid is in the community, would have further on-going effects.
Anthony Albanese is in Sydney today with the NSW premier and has flagged he’ll be making an announcement at 8.30. That’s about a CBD project apparently but it points to everyone getting along rather well at this point.
Meanwhile, grade one students in Victoria will have their reading skills tested through a new phonics test, which will use real and fake words from next year.
It’s designed to find children having issues before the problems take hold for the rest of their schooling. NSW and South Australia already do it. Using fake words is designed to catch students who have memorised words to mask some of the issues they are having.
We’ll cover all the days news as it happens. I hope you have your coffee (or whatever it is you need to get through the day). Ready? Let’s get into it.