LANZ ON THE BOIL: We’re all in this together, they said!

LANZ ON THE BOIL: Dubbed Sydney’s “Night Mayor” by the Daily Telegraph, Sydney Street Kitchen founder and homelessness advocate, Lanz Priestley, begins a new regular column for True Crime News Weekly with a tale of privilege and poverty which the COVID pandemic has only further exacerbated.

Jost Stollmann is a high flying businessman with connections to the Morrison Government. Sammy Engel Wayne and her family are Aussie battlers. 

In the COVID crisis, Jost’s business continued to grow. Sammy and her husband lost their jobs. 

When Jost wanted to travel to Europe to collect a luxury yacht, he quickly negotiated a travel exemption that even he questioned the fairness of.

When changed circumstances  forced Sammy’s family to return to their native Western Australia they continue to be treated by authorities who issue g2g passes with absolute disdain and contempt, with the uncertainty causing stress as they stare down considerable financial losses should the pass not be in place by their departure date. 

Jost Stollmann is reportedly quarantining sunning himself on his luxury yacht in the Aegean Sea because he has access to the Morrison government. Sammy is stressing as she waits over a month for someone somewhere in the bureaucracy to press the right button to release her family’s g2g pass. 

Meanwhile, media and industrialist mogul, Kerry Stokes, has been able to fly into Western Australia to pre arranged quarantine at his own secluded hideaway. Farmers needing to cross borders to transfer stock & hay were told to fly their sheep and stock feed via Melbourne and Sydney. 

Renters and mortgage holders face down a major repayment crisis as they work out how to repay the debt they’ve accumulated during the COVID crisis. Bankers and landlords who refused to reduce their clients debt obligations don’t lose a cent. 

Government quantative easing measures including massive handouts to infrastructure builders, developers and the gas industry will see the generation of young people leaving school now face the bleakest future saddled with the highest education costs ever and repaying the national debts incurred under COVID for the rest of their lives.

Corporations and government use COVID as an excuse to gouge pay and staffing level cuts to increase corporate profit margins. 

Frontline emergency workers who deal with crisis fallout every day face down staff and pay cuts. Politicians and the NSW Police Commissioner get hefty pay rises.  

We’re all in this together may well be the greatest lie you were told in 2020.

Stop letting them feed of your power!

Keep it for your family and share it with your community. That’s what I do. 

About Lanz Priestley 1 Article
Lanz Priestley is an homelessness advocate and is the founder of 'Doing Things Differently', Martin Place Tent City, Dignity Water, Street Kitchen Communities Movement, and the Blanket Patrol. He lives by the motto: “If you see that something’s wrong and you think somebody should do something about it, remember, you are somebody.”

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