What a whirlwind! Just spend Thursday to Monday up in Magan-djin/Brisbane for the People Against Poverty summit that I helped organise! I’ll post a recap of the event sometime this week (including my presentation which I’ll hopefully get the audio of soon and plan to do an online version of when we all have spoons again), but I’m excited to do a food blogging post for the brekkie the interstate folk had before flying out on Monday at Vulture Street Espresso in the West End.
We were treating ourselves after a weekend, week, and MONTHS of hard work pulling this together, spending our conference allowances on a great feed before returning to the reality of our sub-poverty welfare payments, job seeking responsibilities and, appointments and caring roles. It was a good chance to finally relax a little and eat slowly!
The weather was a little damp all weekend, which threw some plans out, but VSE has a back section that feels open even though it’s nicely sheltered. Lots of plants and wood! I nabbed the large table for what ended up being 10 of us.
They serve breakfast all day, and I was filled in by one of the former Brisbane residents that former lord mayor and brief premier Campbell Newman was one of the reasons cafe’s opened so early every day in Brissie, with the huge spend on bike lanes when he was (a Lycra-clad-cycling-) mayor who needed to access morning lattes with the gang.
Iconic Aussie Smashed Avocado – $19.50.
Many of the meals came with a poached egg, but as I don’t eat that I got my “Iconic Aussie Smashed Avocado” without the egg. There was lemon through the avo, the feta was oddly creamed and squirted but it was tasty as 🙂
Vietnamese Omelette – $18.90
The Vietnamese Omeleltte was intriguing and smelled delicious – filled with bean sprouts, pork mince, onion, cucumber, carrots, capsicum, spring onion, mint and coriander, the fish sauce was noticeable and served with shallots and rice.
Vulture Street Espresso was recommended by a gluten free local who came along and most meals had vegetarian and gluten free options, and a great coffee and drinks selection. They also let us split the bill and individually pay as we each needed to leave, I bought some espresso beans to try at home, which were a good start to today!
(aka why GPs aren’t going to go back to bulk billing but it might save the few remaining bulk billing practices if you’re lucky to have one near you that caters for ongoing patients and more complex needs aka not an urgent care clinic which has a place but isn’t the answer we’re looking for)
The Claim
So, this is the measure that Labor reckons will get bulk billing at GP’s back to 90% of consults. It was a key part of the campaign, along with more urgent care clinics – which are GP practices you can drop into for a one-off consult for something acute but not needing hospital – like back pain or a sprain or something. They say go there for a break but I’m not confident all centres have X-rays so it’d be best to check your local one before deciding there over the Emergency room.
The extra incentive, depending on location, gives an extra $20+ per consult to the practice, if they bulk bill the patient. There’s a loading of 12.5% too in the new version if they bulk bill all patients. They also need patients enrolled in MyMedicare, yeah yet another program rather than upping the medicare benefit paid across the board.
The patient des not get this if they’re privately billed. SO most of us are still going to be out of pocket $40-$60 a visit if we can afford to front up the cash. So, many are still stuck rationing their ongoing healthcare to if they can afford it, or if they can GET to a urgent care clinic (not at all easy by public transport) or waiting it out til it’s an emergency and being thankful in NSW that if you have a concession card you can get free ambulance.
Personally, I’m continuing to schedule my GP appointments for ongoing care and scripts around pension days so I know I’ll have the money upfront. But not everyone can work that, or be able to be down $40-60 after the appointment even with rebates being paid back that night – and not everyone even has a regular GP or one taking on patients in their area.
We’ve used the urgent care clinic for stuff, but it’s completely unsuitable for mental health care or anything ongoing physically.
The base rebate needs to be higher – enough to either incentivise bulk billing or to allow people to get the money together to go knowing they’ll get most of it back to then be able to afford their regular expenses or medications that are prescribed.
Another announceable at the end of April was the “1800MEDICARE“..
Whether you need expert health advice or reassurance, the registered nurses at 1800MEDICARE will be there all day, every day, to provide advice and refer you to the health service you need – whether that’s your regular GP, the local hospital or a Medicare Urgent Care Clinic.
So, at the initial level, the 1800MEDICARE number and service is a rebranding of the Health Direct line, staffed by nurses 24/7 in conjunction with the states. I’ve used that service personally and at work, and have been transferred to them from 000 (don’t worry it wasn’t life threatening) for more thorough triage and consult.
What 1800MEDICARE is adding to this is a GP service between 6pm and 8am, able to give you a prescription after hours when urgent care clinics aren’t open. For me, if I got a script from them it might be helpful and I could fill it at 8:30am weekdays locally when the chemist opened, or if some one was able to drive there’s chemists 15 minutes away open 9-4 Sat, 9-2 Sundays. They can order bloods I guess to then get done in business hours? But I’m not really sure how much more they can offer that the nurse line can’t. So it’s a helpful extra service, but not going to solve the problem people have of not being able to afford to have an ongoing GP.
If you need urgent GP care that can’t wait for your regular GP to be available, the triage nurses will connect you to a free telehealth session with a 1800MEDICARE GP via phone or video, available all weekend and weeknights between 6pm and 8am.
On your phone and in the comfort of your home, a 1800MEDICARE GP will provide the free care you need, like an emergency prescription for your regular medication, or treatment for an illness or injury.
I’m currently waiting for my GP to call, since I changed my appointment today to telehealth since I’ve been snotting up the place. After the call, reception will call me to get my card details for the $80 fee, of which I’ll get $42.85 back from Medicare this evening. Fortunately I have been into the clinic in the last 12 months so I AM eligible for the rebate.
So I’ll save the mental health promises and anything else I think of for next time.
Ahh, well, that was a little disappointing. I remember last election, when Labor got in my mental health nurse saying “you must be happy with that result” and I was extremely cautious in my response, feeling like I was expected to be happy, but very much wanting to wait and see how it panned out for me and the causes I care about.
It all started here.
Growing up, mum was in and out of hospital. Rheumatoid arthritis crippled her joints and she was on the invalid pension.
We lived in public housing. And having a safe, secure roof over our heads meant everything.
The night before this weekend’s election, Albo wheeled out his childhood and how that set him up for success, and boy were we cynical in response. I mean, Labor has not helped people like his mother at all. Public housing is barely a thing and dwindling slowly. Yes, there may be “social” housing builds but the rent is higher and the conditions less kind to tenants. DSP and other pensions have not gone up this term, despite Labor members claiming so. The only increase in them has been due to legislated inflation and much of that because inflation was so high when Labor came in.
The $20 a week that Jobseekers and Youth received is long gone and was less than the previous governments increase ($25/week) in real dollars.
Rent assistance for those 14% of welfare recipients who get it has gone up to a whole $100/week max with those two “real” increases this last three years. It still isn’t giving people access to private rentals in this country, with Anglicare’s latest snapshot showing someone like Albo’s mum (who  would have been unlikely to get DSP for arthritis these days but would have benefitted from Labor reinstating single parent payment for kids up to 14) not being able to afford any private rentals in the greater Sydney area.
So, on Saturday night I had two reactions, one was disappointment and skepticism that Labor will do anything progressive with their second term and continue as they have the last three years – fiddling around the edges, saying they can’t be too bold, working with the LNP to pass watered down legislation like the NACC through the senate. The other part of me wants to be hopeful that the “just give them time” people actually were right and they will actually be bold this term because they have no opposition to fear losing to. (I really don’t believe this but I WANT to be proven wrong about this for so many reasons)
"If we were going to make changes, then why haven’t we?"
— đź’ś phonakins 🍉 speak because your voice shakes (@phonakins) May 1, 2025
Our work here has barely begun. We saw the glimmers of hope that there was becoming enough glaring evidence before the election that the suspensions to payments and compulsory activities for JobSeekers and younger disability pension recipients were illegal as well as useless and expensive to administer for few positive and many negative impacts.
Something needs to give – payments needs to be raised above the poverty line. The country can “afford” it, it won’t impact your precious inflation in any significant way, and the benefits to the health and happiness of people should be enough to sway even the most miserly. It’s the right thing to do.
There ARE easy fixes, and the government has the evidence it needs to implement them. It just needs to want to do it and stop sacrificing the poor.
6 weeks until the People Against Poverty Summit. Trying to get my rest on so I can get back into helping with preparations and be able to travel u there for in and a few other things we may plan for the week before or after. I worked Friday and Saturday supervising exams which rekt me and gave me a cold, and I’m trying to remind myself I made the right call to decline working the Sunday at the last minute even though the money would have been great it would have knocked me out for the week for sure. Pacing pacing, both physically and socially – it takes a lot out of me.
There was a pre-conference online session last week on running a street kitchen – given the despair some a feeling it’s worth a watch if you want some ideas for help to help people practically in your immediate community.
If you’re in a position to help us with the costs of getting people in poverty to the conference, consider donating here. Or if you’re able to host someone from out of town or want help to attend, check the linktree.
Touch grass they say – but don’t repeatedly kick the same toe on things, it gets tiring after awhile, and it doesn’t give it a chance to heal and somehow you’re still hobbling weeks later.
So I got overloaded, took on too much mental load, spread myself too thin, so I’m cutting back on somethings, to make life sustainable.
I’m ensuring I follow my little routine, that includes meds and white hot chocolates, and winding down after dinner. This means I’ll be declining after 6pm meetings from now til the conference in June. I’ll be showered and onesied on time, meds around nine, white hot chocolate before that. Breakfast has gone back to porridge sachets for winter – except this week since my partner bought a dozen hot cross buns I’m trying to get through!
I’m going to go back to (close to) daily Japanese practice and streaming. Started on a new vocab game yesterday. So, the plan is an hour of practice followed by variety game streaming a few mornings a week, no real schedule it’ll depend on everything going on around me and of course it’s more about getting back into good habits that nourish me – and the Japanese language has always been that for me. Recommendations for websites and programs to use are more than welcome – I know Duolingo did that things with more AI use since I was last using it, so while I’ll probably tap into that a little, I’m all for a scattered approach. I’ll set up my second cam for colouring and kana practice, and perhaps my cheap graphics tablet if I can find a kanji program that would work well with pen input rather than mouse. There was a program I had on an emulator that I was going to use with that but then I did a system reinstall and it’s gone.
Also keen to fill this board with stuff – Amazon slips or pictures from frens or whatever may come. I’m pleased to say I’ve a couple of regular monthly supporters here, and it’s such a mood boost even though one’s for $1/month!
You know how some people use all the right buzz words but their heart’s not in the right place? Usually in activist spaces they talk the talk and can focus on the hot topics, but move on once it’s not cool anymore, or there’s a better opportunity elsewhere. Or, their methods don’t work to lessen or get rid of the root cause of a problem but mainly build systems to sustain bandaids around it. These systems and often businesses will call themselves “not-for-profit” but everyone being paid to do it lives a comfortable life that doesn’t need them to challenge whether they’re doing this the most effective way.
That’s a problem with everything being a business, or using the language of business in charitable endeavours. Are you working to establish new markets or expand your footprint? Are you doing ANYTHING to remove the need for your services? Does your model depend on continuing the status quo – do you need a steady supply of people or animals to keep suffering in order for your day job to continue? Are you treading water on their behalf? We’re all part of the systems, but it’s great to know where you fit in and question your role in keeping people down rather than actually improving their lot in life.
Do you claim to speak for the voiceless? If a person is conscious, they are likely able to communicate for themselves in some way. Even the pre-intentional or pre-symbolic communicator can communicate with those familiar with how they communicate. But if you’re seeking to be the voice of someone who can actually say what they need and want, what they struggle with and how they can be best helped? You’re probably talking over them rather than giving them the chance to speak to those in power themselves. Help them to learn “they ways” of policy jargon or talking in the media, rather than saying hey look at these people suffering give us money for short term remedies rather than addressing the problem.
You can help people short term, it’s okay. But you have to stop building your lives and businesses around keeping people down.
I’m repeating myself but so long as we’re seeing organisations aiming to expand themselves without daring to mention the causes of the issues – all the while talking for people in need rather than helping them speak for themselves – I’m going to have to.
We’ve announced the new dates for the People Against Poverty Summit – June 21 and 22 up in Maganjin/Brisbane. You can get tickets here – free and low cost tickets are available and people and organisations with money are encouraged to contribute more when booking or donate to the travel fund to enable us to get people in poverty from around the continent to the conference.
Our first online session is on Youtube for those keen to hear from me, Rick Morton and Kristin O’Connell about “Talking about Poverty” in media and online and IRL:
Also, if you’re inspired – get a Break The Poverty Machine tshirt or tote from the Antipoverty Centre store! It’s a great conversation started about tearing down the systems that keep people down in order to sustain themselves.
