Weekend Wrap 9th January 2022: COVID explosion in Australia, staff shortages, school return delayed and what the Djokovic saga shows us about asylum seeker policy

"The Week on Wednesday" with Van Badham & Ben Davison

Ben looks at the explosion of COVID across Australia which has seen the country exceed the case load per capita of both the UK and USA. With over half a million people currently diagnosed with COVID 19, hospitalisations climbing to record levels and daily death numbers the worst in NSW you would hope the Let It Rip strategy of Morrison and NSW Premier Dom Perrottet was keeping the economy booming.

Ben explores how Let It Rip has crippled the economy, created staff shortages, bare supermarket shelves and has the Morrison government scrabbling to strip away workplace health and safety protections and create an even worse set of conditions going forward. The union movement is pushing back against the Morrison government and is pointing out the crisis is only made worse by sending sick and exposed people into workplaces.

QLD has confirmed schools won't go back until the 7th of February as the state grapples with the outbreak and a cyclone that has crashed into at least 80 homes and sees a 14 year old girl missing in flood waters.

Novak Djokovic is due to have is day in federal court tomorrow but the real story is what his case is telling us about the 30 asylum seekers being held in the same hotel. Here's a clue: they are genuinely in need of asylum and should be released from the "prison like conditions" in which they are being held.

Plus we've launched our contributor page https://www.buymeacoffee.com/WeekOnWednesday where you can help support the podcast, which will always be free to listen too and download.