Author: phonakins

Well 2025 was certainly a year

Google photos decided to show me pics from my Canberra and Brisbane trips from the first half of the year, so guess it’s time for an annual recap of sorts! 2025 was huge for me, brilliant in many ways, lots of good things, but lots of realities of working as me with other people so I also put myself through a lot of hell for those results.

I finally got to meet Avery in person, catching the train with them to Canberra for the 5 years since the covid supplement presser. Thank you to Kristin and the Antipoverty Centre for herding us cats for that one! “We call that social murder” was one of my favourites, as well as me being brave and doing ABC Newcastle on the morning of the press conference at parliament house.

‘We call that social murder’: Five years on from COVID supplement payments, more of us live in povertyFive years ago Scott Morrison doubled JobSeeker payments, temporarily shielding millions from poverty. As costs rise and poverty rates worsen, why can’t the government do that again? Crystal Andrews Crystal Andrews Mar 20, 2025 4 min read Icon Share Comment 21 Fiona Moore of Nobody Deserves Poverty holds up a poster during a press conference at Parliament House (Image: AAP/Lukas Coch) Fiona Moore of Nobody Deserves Poverty holds up a poster during a press conference at Parliament House (Image: AAP/Lukas Coch)
Get the shirt

I went through several burn out phases this year, and am currently in I’ve quit everything and am trying to resent mode. I loved working with and for AUWU and Antipoverty Centre this year and met some amazing people and learned some amazing things and talked about my pet projects a lot.

I did a pre-conference online workshop with Rick Morton of Mean Streak fame (yeah I still haven’t finished it, though it’s a great read and the SBS docudrama for Robodebt was also INTENSE and there’s another series coming on it in the new year though frustratingly the gov seem to be digging their heels in more and more on treating welfare recipients like dirt)

May saw some exam supervision for the selective schools and opportunity class tests – high pressure for such little kids! (Year 6 and year four kids). Fortunately ours went well (no riot police like in Sydney) with them being all done online on laptops in the venue these days. And I got to catch the new trains which finally started running after so many delays. Gonna miss the old V-sets.

Conference was frikkin intense and I presented on the hidden harms of foodbanks (slides) and ran around like a nutter and yeah, it was a lot and was a lot of positive things, but I’m not putting that much of myself into something like that again. *dies*

It took a bit the recover from the Conference, and then I had a birthday and ate takoyaki. Then a week later I broke both my wisdom teeth and needed one out which was a painful and bloody saga which also took the best pat of a month of the year.

I got heavily into Hello Kitty Island Adventure in that time, which was a good relief from some of the other stuff I was then working though while trying to do my annual Liptember fundraising. Which I made it through but wasn’t able to push nearly as hard as my good years.

Did HSC supervision again. And while doing it and also helping my sister with NDIS and other things were great for feeling like a useful adult with skills, I fell into not being able to maintain it unfortunately.

So we’ve gone into the festive season in home focus mode – back on all my meds including Antabuse, focused on my daily tasks around the home and to look after me. Routine and basics. With festive flair.

I’m running the #PoveratiXmas threads over on Twitter and Bluesky again this year, with the impending age-restriction on the internet looming over the heads with my friends who don’t have ID for whatever reason (cost, being housebound) worried we’re gonna lose them to the whims of the government. Remember that law they only gave 24 hours to respond to? They one-upped themselves in the dying weeks of this year’s parliament with Section 5 being pushed through after being not whispered about in the consultations. This is despite over 40 organisations calling for it to be scrapped and Lidia Thorpe, and others in the cross bench voting against it and fighting to have it removed from the main bill. Now THAT was a flurry of activity that I’m proud of my friends in the anti-poverty sphere for their pushing after dear Tom raised the alarm on Michael Klapdoor’s keen spot.

Thank you all for another amazing year, through all its highs and lows. I’ll hopefully continue to see you all in some form of this weird internet space as society continues to turn in on itself.

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What will 2026 bring?

Get a haircut (not in this ecconomy)

When I lived in Canberra, I’d go to Jus Cuts every school holidays for a hair cut. Often in a lunch break to Woden Plaza, while my schedule was quiet. It wasn’t a luxury, I just didn’t care much for fuss, so it was enough. Then I’d do my box colour, slightly plum or purple and be right for 3 months.

Going to the mall in my lunch break was one of the weird things I needed to do for my autistic coping, though I didn’t know it til I moved to Sydney and my manager told me I needed to have lunch with the other members of the therapy team and I baulked, realising that that 30-60 minutes of lunch was needed for me to reset so I could deal with people for the rest of the day.

This is why stable employment is important for the Autistic or ADHD adult. We need to know it’s okay to spend our lunch breaks regathering, or that Fridays are casual, we need to know we can keep that routine and have that time to decompress before performing our craft (for me Speech Pathology – I was good at it) for the world.

I had an OT colleague who went for a run around the oval next to the old school we worked in, self-regulating, so she could be the professional all the parents needed once we clocked back on.

I loved my misfit, public servant colleagues.

So I got my hair cut today, and my face waxed, as is needed when you’re a  stepgramma. $100 or so down, but I feel better for it. It’s nice to look after yourself, even if it’s painful.

I think I’ll get my sister to repurple me this time, so she can do the bleach. I need to be there for her, given the NDIA being cunts and not even respecting her request for an appointment to be made before calling her to reject the extra support we wanted for my nephew.

Presumption of Innocence? Not if you’re on welfare

Oh, we live in exiting times.

Exiting time where, because the cops couldn’t catch the sov cit who killed a couple of them, we get to seem the “Labor” party try to pass legislation that would mean that all the cops would need to do was issue a warrant, and they could cut off you welfare.

The image displays an excerpt from a legal or official document, likely an outline of a division, with the heading "57GH Simplified outline of this Division". Below the heading, a box contains the following text: "Individuals may lose family assistance if they: (a) are the subject of an arrest warrant in respect of a serious violent or sexual offence; or (b) might prejudice the security of Australia or a foreign country."

I don’t care if you’re a good person or not, I think there should processes for this? Especially when cops aren’t that great at identifying to perp, especially where there’s an Aboriginal woman involved.

*sigh*

Fortunately Lidia Thorpe is trying to get the amendments cancelled, but when the LNP (however dysfunctional they are) they are still more in cahoots with the Labor party than we’d all like in terms of wanting a future for our kids.

So yeah, even though, if you’re “on the run” from the cops, it’s unlikely you’d pop into your job network provider for your fortnightly appointment, Labor’s decided that, rather than bring back the 6 year limit on welfare debts that the frikken ROBODEBT royal commission recommended and that just makes sense, they’d deny Wilkie’s amendment and pop in one to circumvent the rule of law

Cos Labor, the party of what now?

Hilar, they just posted the annual Giving tree nonsense with the salvos and I’m reminded of that time our dear charities minister gave a gold plated cheese board to the salvos giving tree and there’s no way to come back from that lmao

It’s gonna be a long few weeks til Xmas hey

 

(thanks Lidia for trying to scrap that amendment)

(and to all the orgs signing onto this joint statement)

When you have the Capability, but your Capacity screams “STOP!”

It’s okay, my capacity isn’t yet screaming at me to stop – I’ve been managing myself alright given the other things I’ve taken on. But the little twitch in my left eye this morning was telling me to slow down a little.

Ness often talks about the difference between having capability and having capacity (but damned if I can get my head around funding a good post on her blog or socials, let’s see if I can come back with one) in the context of work expectations, but also in what can be supported for disabled people.

Like, I was asked if I’d be presiding officer for the HSC exams at the school I’ve been supervising at for 2026. Yes, I have the skills needed. I might baulk at some of the people management stuff but I can do it. But I know I simply cannot sustain that level of work – not even counting the lead in time and prep – of 12 hour days for the four weeks, with the responsibility of making sure those 150 kids get their HSC delivered, AND not go insane or crash out or something less dramatic but equally threatening to the delivery of the exams and my long term well-being.

So I declined. Which is the right choice. Given that even the 2-3 days, some half some full, I’ve been doing, with days off in between is more than enough for me. I’m thriving off doing it – I like being able to be responsible and capable and respected for my skills and being able to train and support other staff, but an unofficial 2ic role is more my speed than taking on the whole thing.

It means I can also still function outside of that – once I recover from the day of being “on” and do the other things I want and need to do to look after and be with myself and others I care for. Which some have needed more of lately. Which is all good, and I feel useful and closer to them for it. But again, balance and capacity need to be respected. And I need to be in charge of that for me because I know me best and can regulate me best.

tiny coloured ducks in a row
Are your ducks in a row?

Just do the little things to stay sane so you can rage against the big ones

Content warnings – suicide, death, social murder

Just sorting out my meds this morning, making sure I’m ready for another week. Looking after me so I can look after me and then look after others.

rainbow day and night pill box

We lost another community member.

David’s death is at the hands of the politicians who talk about helping others but leave them in the gutter. That put maintaining the status quo of more investment properties for themselves and their mates over having a public housing safety net for all who need and want it. Who want to make sure that the NDIS is seen as tough and efficient but can’t get back to applicants with supports and then make them reapply all over again, but oh look there’s another barrier because a report is now out of date or their drivers license is expired and so they can’t make ID points.

I’m tired and angry and sick of all this and it doesn’t have to be this way but those in the powers that be in governments and social services keep it this way.

Like, is this a good news story from the weekend? Daniel was repeatedly and illegally cut off his meagre welfare payment, surviving off the small amount his father was able to give him to pay for his medications. Daniel was made homeless by an uncaring system that can’t even get his own processes right. Daniel is getting nearly three years back pay – but that is only $52k. And he held off revealing his story until that was paid because through fear it would be withheld by a system that’s known to dish dirt on the poor and vulnerable to protect its own image and keep its system working.

They have learned nothing from Robodebt except that they can get away with it. That Daniel and David will be blips on their radars, that no matter whether it’s the red or blue team they can sweep them aside and keep their jobs or move into better ones. Royal commissions and NACC mean shit when Scotty’s got a new job and Bill Shortens robot got binned but people are still out there dying because the “Welfare” system doesn’t care about the welfare of the worst off.

A screenshot of a news article from the Sound Telegraph by Ava Berryman, dated Wednesday, 15 October 2025.The headline reads: "New SecondBite charity warehouse helps The Crew feed more locals suffering from food insecurity."The main image is a photograph showing a person in a high-visibility vest holding a cardboard box filled with fresh produce, including lettuce and red onions. The box has the SecondBite logo on the side with the tagline: "Ending Waste. Ending Hunger."The caption under the image states: "A new charity warehouse helps feed more hungry locals. Credit: Supplied"The text from the article snippet reads:"The launch of a new $2000 \text{sqm}$ warehouse in Kewdale could see about 20 million more meals per year provided to those in need through the help of one of Australia's leading food rescue organisations, SecondBite.The warehouse will help tackle food insecurity head on, with a goal to increase the amount of food rescued in WA by one million kilograms per year over the next two to three years."

Kylea Tink is Foodbank’s new CEO. You may remember her as a teal independent, but now she’s pretending to make a difference by expanding the amount governments and individuals spend on food relief – on the food itself, on the warehouses, the trucks, the fundraisers and the branding. Oh the branding. She joins former NSW Premier John Robertson who’s the NSW CEO. Because we need multiple layers of CEOs.

They’ll put out press releases about how many are going hungry and how you too cold help out by giving their particular organisation (or OzHarvest, or Second Bite) money to fund x amount of meals or a food hamper. These press releases rarely mention that this poverty is manufactured by supermarkets that would rather over order and over change and feel good donating excess stocks than running their businesses at slightly less profit but still making a motsa and not creating food waste. Or the politicians that give another grant for another warehouse, another charity another photo opp to support the needy, but could lift so many out of this situation with a nimble piece of legislation that lifts welfare payments above the poverty line. Or at all levels buying and building public housing (States and Federal and even local councils) so that people can be immediately housed rather than renting hovels through layers of community housing providers that don’t provide guarantees of tenure.

Poverty has risen over the three years of a Labor government, and people are dying. People are dying because they’re being left behind. They’re not able to afford to feed themselves properly or to attend to their health care – people can’t afford to go to the doctor or to buy the meds their need to stay healthy. NDIS is cutting supports that are working for people while telling us that no, noone’s losing supports and here we are losing our minds. Being house should be a given but relying on the private market when public housing has ten year wait lists and crisis accommodation is two weeks in a seedy mote with a dozen others at the worst points in their lives is certainly not helping anyone.

It’s a thousand straws on each camels back, and they all carry so much weight. People can’t do it alone but too many are forced to. And they struggle on and if they get the hand their need to make it through they just might. Is that hand going to be on a case by case basis from and for an individual or will our governments actually step up to provide the supports that people need? To everyone?

So I’m going to take my meds that I’m blessed to be able to afford and  stay strong for myself so that I can look after myself so I can look after others.

In terms of mental health numbers, in NSW I’ve found the mental health helpline useful for support for myself and others. There are other services and ideas listed on that page. Lifeline also has sms and online crisis chat in certain hours as well as the usual phone – 13 11 14.