Budget asks and existential dread

Feeling a bit like Tweek from the 2016 South Park where President Garrison is threatening North Korea and cupcakes don’t solve the problem but I’m here making cupcakes (or muffins or whatever I throw together) feeding myself, feeding others and just trying to get through the days and weeks.

So, the Treasurer says the budget isn’t finalised, while preparing the ground for cuts to the NDIS, while disabled people just want to be supported to live. We want access to pensions that cover the rent and health care and food. We want governments and financiers to stop with the narrative of rorts, and perhaps approve the supports we know we need and know would make disabled lives worth living. We want some certainty.

We want fairer taxation. We want you to spend money housing people rather than allowing people to build their “wealth” and property portfolios while tent and caravan cities pop up.

I want aged and disabled care plans determined by qualified people, not an algorithm. I want the NDIS to stop fighting people who are just trying to survive. I want to know that my mother will be able to go back home after her stroke and get more than maybe one shower a week. I want to know that while I’m probably going to be my mother’s main carer, I’ll have support and equipment and extra paid supports as needed to make that a sustainable an safe undertaking for us all.

I want us to not suck up to genocidal presidents. I want to stop reading that it’s been x hours since a ceasefire started in an article about a town being bombed in Southern Lebanon.

I want a lot. Or not very much if you look at it as just wanting a rich country to support its people to live happy, healthy and dignified lives. That involves housing and welfare for all, adequate and safe disability and aged care. That involves being able to go to the GP when I need to and afford the medications I need to sustain my mental health.

I’m very much still running day by day. There’s equipment trials and a family meeting for mum on Friday. There’s helping my sister out so she can take care of her own mental health beyond what the NDIS will support her and her kids to. There’s walks with my dog and dinner and snuggles with my partner to sustain me. There’s a new Hello Kitty Island Adventure expansion pack and a mochi cafe to run. It’s about balance.

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