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with supports and then make them reapply all over again, but oh look there’s another barrier because a report is now out of date or their drivers license is expired and so they can’t make ID points.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 andΒ  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.

The impact of a livable welfare safety net on this World Mental Health Day

I’ve written plenty before about how different aspects of Australia’s public health care and social welfare systems have helped or hindered my mental health. Getting DSP was a huge factor in being able to stabilise my mental health. Not because of the extra money – My partner rate of DSP is $888.50 a fortnight before rent assistance (singles get $1,178.70), while jobseeker is $726.50/$793.60 without supplements, but because I get to know that I’ll have a steady amount coming in each fortnight, that I’ll be able to pick up work for extra money as it suits me without losing the payment, and I don’t have to jump through the hoops of Job “providers” anymore.

We have data here in Australia that suicides dropped when people were getting the COVID supplement (welfare at the poverty line) and there was less requirements to engage in useless mutual obligations. Internationally – Brazil gave poor people money and their suicide level dropped too.

We hear of the futility of giving people therapy when they don’t have stable housing, when they can’t afford their meds, when they’re harassed by external pressures.

I could only complete the DBT block I did because I didn’t have mutual obligations or a job, it WAS a full time job fore me, even though it was “only” two sessions a week. The amount of energy I had to put into that to make it work and then to carry out the work in my own life left little for other things.

Participants in the DES and CDP systems – being renamed to Inclusive Employment Australia and Remote Australia Employment Service (RAES) respectively will be getting a reprieve from mutual obligations until new year while those services change over to their new programs, logos and contracted providers. But JobSeekers in mainstream services will have to keep jumping through hoops, even though there’s more and more evidence of people being suspended from their payments illegally or incorrectly, and little desire for the government of the day to address it.

Cancellations of payments have been suspended but that doesn’t mean much when you still could find your bank account empty on payday due to error – whether it’s through incompetence, malice or system design. Not good for the mental health I’d say.

Getting to sign a new least for another 12 months on this house, even though it was a $40/week rent increase, lifted another weight that I didn’t know I was carrying. And even though the inspection this week came after the lease was sign, there was still that weight of hoping that we’d cleaned well enough, that the preexisting damage wouldn’t be blamed on us. That having another person living here but not on the lease wasn’t gonna be a strike on our record.

Albanese is bragging about the 2 million visits to the urgent care clinics. Which, as I always say, have their place. But don’t take the place of having access to a bulk-billing GP (lol there’s none here) who knows you and can provide continuity of care. ESPECIALLY for those who need it most. The GPs in this area charge $100 upfront ($80 with a concession card). I really doubt that many at all will be changing to all bulk billing come November First when the extra incentives come in. We’ll see though. My GP DID bulk me last visit, but that was probably because I was near tears about a few things including talking about how one of my meds is $95 a month and not on the PBS. Which I need to not feel guilty about – every time I post something about GPs not bulk billing people encourage me to ask to be bulk billed, but then there’s the flip side of GPs posting about how they hate to be asked, and my belief that the Medicare payments should be raised to a level where all practices are able to viably bulk bill all patients. Such a socialist.

So as we make the rapid run to Xmas, I’m relieved to have signed a lease through to November next year, am doing a couple days HSC exam supervision for the next month, and feel settled again after a few months that just kept throwing things at me.

What little things are you doing for yourself to stay sane, because we can’t rely on the government to do them?

 

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100 days left in 2025

One of the many emails I deleted this morning said there’s 100 day left in 2025. Unless the rapture’s tomorrow, but then I’ll still be here and you probably will be too, so we might as well plan as if there’s still 100 days to go.

I lost another month through other things, not sure if it’s worth even looking back at what I was hoping to achieve for September, we’re already in the downslide – I’ll be supervising HSC exams again this year, including some that will be on computers at the school. So I’m doing some of the training to make sure I’m across that. Which should be fine. But that will all come and go.

I’m making sure I get my meds and appointments all sorted. Making sure my dinners are ordered. I still haven’t gotten to the optometrist this year even though I first planned to in January. I’ll probably also come up on the public dental waitlist in December or Jan, hopefully they’ll agree to take the other wisdom tooth out and that will hopefully go more smoothly.

We got to sign on for another year at this house, so we’ve got a least til end of November 2026. Which means I can think about fun things like fairy lights for Xmas, and putting out my meerkats. We also replaces the corflute in the window with the air con with some wood so that should help with cooling efficiency this summer.

White mug of milo with purple text speak because your voice shakes
Speak because your voice shakes

So yeah, just touching base.

How are you?

Help a girl out or treat me?

I just lost a month (and had my first tooth out)

Like seriously, a few days after my birthday I broke a wisdom tooth. I only even had the bottom two, and broke the other one a month before that but since it didn’t give me any pain I wasn’t eligible to get into the public dentist earlier so was just leaving it since aside from being a tongue magnet since it felt different, it was fine. But then I broke the left one, and damn that one hurt. So I called up public dental and got an emergency voucher for a local private clinic for the next week.

Had a fun few days trying to balance pain relief, but then I got seen, and she recommended extraction and said she could do it right then. So I agreed and off we went.

Problem is, I’m apparently a bleeder. And she’d gotten partway through and the blood just started and wouldn’t stop. So she stitched me up with 1/4 of a tooth left there so she could focus on the bleeding :/ Said she nearly got the Ambulance. Yeah that wasn’t fun, nor was the two weeks after til it’d healed enough to go back in for the rest.

But it’s gone now. And I’m gonna hold off til I come up on the general public dental waitlist and then will probably get the other (also broken but not painful at this stage) tooth out. Yay.

I’d also got blood tests the week of my birthday one going on the Friday after failing on the Thursday. Going back with 2 litres of water in me after getting up for fasting tests. Just tried to get some blood out of me now to check out what might be behind the extra bleeding, but no dice – I’ll go through the week after drinking a tonne of water again. At least this doesn’t have to be fasting. I reckon maybe my veins fear I could bleed out so they wanna protect me.

Ugh.

Anyways. Raging against the NDIS changes, and all the news about mutual obligations/TCF illegality but now my tooth is settled I may have capacity to blog about them

Maybe.

In the meantime I’ve spent 77 hours in Hello Kitty Island adventure, mostly streamed if you wanna check it out!

Self care / self soothing

Love yas!

I got what I wanted for my 43rd Birthday (Takoyaki for lunch at Umi in Toronto) but what do I want from the 48th Parliament?

Labor is back with a bigger majority and only really needing to appease the Greens in the upper house to get anything done. But what will they use this for and will it be at all progressive? Or will they still pretend they can’t do things their supposed base want – such as all the local groups calling for sanctions on Israel, or community groups seeking investment in public housing or increased welfare payments – because I’m skeptical as always, and fell sad that I have to wait and see.

Takoyaki in a black moon shaped dish
Takoyaki, $10

But first – I turned 43 yesterday and all I wanted was to have Takoyaki and chill, and that I did!

Restaurant inside. Umi sign on wall, a fish lamp and Japanese script

Bruce and I dropped his car off for new tyres – finally spending the money I got from the selective schools supervision earlier this year – then we went to try Umi, the newer of the two Japanese restaurants in Toronto. It’s a bit less fancy that Mizumi which we’ve gone to for many birthdays since it’s been there, and it was very quiet being only 11am on a Tuesday, but there were a few people coming in for their Bento as we were heading out.

japanese lemonane and a coke
Ramune, $6

I normally get lemon iced tea with my Japanese food, but went the ramune today as a special treat. They were tempting me with grape soda though!

Miso soup in a black bowl
Miso soup, $4

We started with some miso soup, the takoyaki and some kara-age chicken. Bruce has been watching more Japanese and other Asian food tourism videos, such as from Dancing Bacons and making me want to travel and eat and eat and travel. But that’s not anywhere near in my future, so local it is!

Kara-age friend chicken with a side of saces
Kara-age chicken, $13

Obviously being my birthday we had to follow the tasty fried goodies with their Umi Supreme Variety of sashimi: Hamachi (Kingfish), Hotate (Scallop), Salmon, Tuna, Octopus (3 pcs each), and Salmon Roe. Love popping the little roe balls in my mouth lol. Tasty fresh fish!

Variety of sashimi: Hamachi (Kingfish), Hotate (Scallop), Salmon, Tuna, Octopus (3 pcs each), and Salmon Roe
Umi Supreme, $42

We left full and happy and in no mood for dessert, so picked up a tray of cake pieces from Coles to graze on later, and browsed some op shops til I got over it and just wanted to go home (via picking up the car with the fresh tyres and avoiding the traffic chaos that seemed to be everywhere yesterday!)

tray of cake slices - lemon tarts, brownies and berry and passionfruit cheesecake
Coles Cake Variety, $22

My parents got us a new coffee machine which was on special during the prime day sales and we’d had our eyes one. Slowly getting the hang on the manual pour and getting the accessories to help make the tasty morning brews.

new coffee machine
Delonghi Stilosa, $120 on sale

I’ve also been spoiled by my internet friends, with some items off my wishlists coming already and a few more to come! (and I few I’ve bought with birthday money from other amazing souls!)

lilac backpack and pridge and coffees
Backpack from Leigh and porridge sachets and mocha sachets from Jave from my Amazon list
Hello kitty mug stack
Hello Kitty Mug Stack from Sally off my Amazon wishlist.

So, back to reality after a food coma Tuesday afternoon – I didn’t miss much from the first sitting day of the parliament – lots of speeches and ceremonies and the like. A rally and vigil for Palestine outside parliament has been ongoing and well attended.

They’re introducing the “20% off HECS” bill today which will help a few but again it’s a drop in the ocean compared to recent indexation amounts and the rapid increase in house prices which is the real reason university graduates can’t afford to buy homes, rather than their HECS stopping them.

Historic welfare debts are back, with court backing to pursue them. Labor should have at least legislated the recommended 6 year limit on debt collection, like applies for ATO debts, but they chose not to. They have no excuse not to this term, with their majority overflowing to the opposition benches of the house, but really, they have no will to. Unfortunately there’s gonna be more ugly deaths they can be accounted for by neglect through state enforced poverty.

Meanwhile we get an economic round table with tech, business and mining representatives, but no one from health or disability, even though “Delivering quality care more efficiently” is one of their “productivity pillars“?

One of our local Labor MPs (and deputy speaker) was boasting about their 25% increase in food relief and “financial wellbeing” support – such as financial counselors and food and petrol vouchers and more money for food banks. This is not something to celebrate. You CANNOT budget your way out of poverty – when welfare is half the poverty line you just cannot find that extra money. More happy snaps and warehouses rented, which people just can’t afford to feed and house themselves and their families? Not a win Sharon.

Sharon Claydon MP odSnotspre2 t a m5 d : 12c674t4685c0l 1 a s 7lgf8 7 41 e a 5 Y c t t y e 0 r 968f 2 Β· Labor is boosting food relief and financial wellbeing support funding by 25 per cent. This funding will assist more than 300 organisations across the country, providing support for: πŸ‘‰πŸΌ Food and petrol vouchers, clothes, bedding, or toiletries. πŸ‘‰πŸΌ Australians manage their debt and make informed financial choices. πŸ‘‰πŸΌ Food relief providers to increase the supply of affordable food. πŸ‘‰πŸΌ Helping people reduce the financial harm of problem gambling. πŸ‘‰πŸΌ People to improve their financial literacy.

One of my Antipoverty Centre comrades gave me a great birthday present – a few more FOI requests on food relief charities to go through when I can focus on them. Let’s see how they manage to leverage their gearing this year or whatever business words they use for being a middleman between actual humans and often unsuitable food. GO you guys!