Australia’s attorney general Christian Porter has pooh-poohed concerns about the fate of casual workers caught up in the coronavirus crisis, saying they would have “already made provisions” if they have to take time off work.

This comes in the wake of a national discussion sparked by the incident of a casual worker at a Hobart hotel. Forsaking instructions to self-isolate after his diagnosis with the deadly virus, he continued to come in to work. Why? Because with no sick leave, if he didn’t front up, the worker would have had no income.

It’s a national discussion because it’s not an isolated problem. As Australia joins all nations grappling with health and policy responses to coronavirus, our unique logistical complication is an excessive number of workplace casuals – one of the highest in the OECD. Years of Liberal-National governments acceding to business demands for a more “flexible” approach to employment standards means 3.3 million local workers have now been swallowed into labour pool of casuals, contractors, labour hire and gig economy employment. That’s left 32% of our workforce without paid leave precisely when we’re staring down the government imposition of two-week – two week! – self-isolation regimes in order to control the contagion.

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You can see how workers faced with the kind of income reduction that could see them evicted for rental default might feel obliged to make a survival evaluation – and not risk the economic consequences of a taking a test that may come back positive.

You can understand that if they had symptoms, they’d dose themselves up on cough suppressants and stimulants, cross their fingers and come to work, anyway. If you are or ever have been one of these workers, you know that every day on a low-paid, insecure casual roster means costing your choices, minute by minute. Exactly like that guy from Hobart. Coronavirus or not.

Less than 10 years ago, my main gig was still hospo. I didn’t earn enough to bank savings, I kept Sinex and Lemsip in my apron pocket and I came to work sick all the time. Rent had to be paid, I had no one to help me, I had nowhere to go. I was terrified if the boss thought that I was slacking she would cut my precious shifts. You don’t have to be a genius to realise these are the conditions that will spread infections.

What is Christian Porter, then? Apart from an elite-schooled, sandstone “frat boy”, son of a former Olympian and key Liberal party fundraiser whose knowledge of life on the breadline – I dare suggest – may be somewhat thin? Confronted by the dire warnings of union leaders and economists about the looming, omnidirectional disaster that will further cripple consumer spending capacity. Porter claimed the marginally higher rate of hourly pay casual workers receive for their insecure conditions ensured these workers would have “already made provisions” for the income interruption.

Hahahahahahahaha. If ever there was a statement that demonstrated someone had no knowledge at all of the lives of Australia’s working people, this would be it. Mate, even if there was anyone out there working through a constant suspicion that a deadly global pandemic could strike any time, how much spare cash do you think Australia’s minimum-wage, casual workers have on hand to cover two weeks of living expenses with no shifts?

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Maybe Porter has missed the transformation of casual work conditions that his own party-of-government has overseen. As thinktank Per Capita has pointed out, the workers in low-paid personal care, hospitality and retail jobs receive less than 5% loading over their permanent counterparts, but casual office clerks, personal trainers and labourers get no loading at all.

The demand from Australian unions is that the government get over itself and guarantee to funding two weeks of averaged pay for casuals caught up in corona isolation. Even in Tory Britain, the Johnson government has already committed to covering the “zero hours” casuals that make up only 13% of its workforce for their first three days with corona. Porter has said that he “won’t jump to a solution”.

The prime minister, on the other hand, has flagged his own idea – deducting sick days for coronavirus from annual leave entitlements. Because nothing says “well-deserved holiday” more than two weeks of isolation with a flu that you may not have caught if the government had climbed out of its anti-worker bubble for five minutes to take basic precautions.

In the meantime, an army of insecure casuals in aged care, the NDIS, retail and hospitality jobs – healthy or not – are still going to work. Coronavirus rages on.