Category: cost of living

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with supports and then make them reapply all over again, but oh look there’s another barrier because a report is now out of date or their drivers license is expired and so they can’t make ID points.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

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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Promises, Promises – Health Announceables vs Their Likely Reality this Election

(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)

Upcoming Changes to Bulk Billing Incentives in General PracticeStrengthening Medicare with more bulk billing from 1 Nov 2025. The Australian Government is investing $7.9 billion to expand eligibility for bulk billing incentives to all Australians and establish the Bulk Billing Practice Incentive Program to support general practices to bulk bill all patients
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 first version of the increased bulk billing incentives came in for kids and concession card holders in November 2023. If your doctor took it on that’s awesome, but very few did in Newcastle and Lake Macquarie. One local practice will do it for under 14s and over 65s, but not for concession card holders between those ages (or 15-17 year old kids). Most practices, including the one I go to has a discounted upfront fee for concession card holds – some have different levels for blue and green concession card holders and for kids. Upfront GP costs about $100 here with Medicare card only and $80ish for concession, with the $42 rebate for a standard level B consult.

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.

To participate in the Program, practices will need to: Bulk bill all eligible services Advertise their participation in the Program Be MyMedicare registered (note that practices that are not already MyMedicare registered and wish to participate in the Program will be exempt from MyMedicare accreditation requirements). To register in the Program, practices will need to: register to participate in MyMedicare register to participate in the Program via MyMedicare.

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.

1800MEDICARE: Free urgent care on your phone and in your home 27 April 2025

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.

24 hour health advice you can count on 1800 022 222 Government Accredited with over 140 information partnersHealthdirect logo We are a government-funded service, providing quality, approved health information and advice Australian Government, health department logo ACT Government logo New South Wales government, health department logo Northen Territory Government logo Queensland Government logo Government of South Australia, health department logo Tasmanian government logo Victorian government logo Government of Western Australia, health department logo

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.

Love yas!

Why we get upset with little lines like “They have aggressively increased pensions and benefits”

Aside from it not being true? Or that it was in an article lamenting that Labor and Albanese weren’t getting enough credit for helping people and the economy?

I think it’s that most Labor supporters seems to be okay with Labor’s record this term on welfare. After insisting in opposition that welfare payments weren’t enough, and that they should indeed be above the poverty line. And that the basic doubling of Job Seeker when the initial Covid lockdowns were on was a good thing actually, Labor in government has been a lot different in practice.

When they stopped the Covid supplement, the LNP gave JobSeekers a $50 a fortnight base rate raise. Labor came in and after being advised by their own Economic Inclusion Committee that it needed to be raised to (?)90% of the pension rate, they gave a $40 a fortnight raise. Which, in case you missed it, nowhere near that. As of today, the base rate of Job Seeker is $693.10 a fortnight, less than $350 a week if you prefer to look at it that way.

But people also got a “boost” (hate that term) to their rent assistance, didn’t they? Well, there were two “boosts” outside the usual CPI indexation. When Labor came in, a single person with no dependents could get $145.80 a fortnight rent assistance if living alone and paying $324.60+ rent. Right now, if you pay more than $430.60 a fortnight rent, you’ll get $211.20 a fortnight rent assistance. It’ll index again March 20, right around when we’re expecting an early budget ahead of the election, possible to about $215 if it goes up about 2%, based on an annual 4% inflation rate (which it’ll be less since, you know, Labor fixed overall inflation). With those two boosts, it’s gone up $70/fn or $35 a week in 3 years. If you’re rent’s gone up less than $35/week over the last 3 years that’s great, but very much an outlier.

So yeah, not sure what’s “aggressive” about those lil increases. Pensions – aged, disability, carer’s, single parent – have only had regular indexation, no little $20 sweeteners, I guess because they weren’t so horrific. But they’re still below the poverty line (running with $88/day Henderson poverty line unless we ever get an updated measure, another thing Labor talked to the talk on in opposition and the economic inclusion committee was ignored on), and “allowing” aged pensioners and carers to work more before losing payments is nice for those who can, and can work consistently, but many are on those payments because, due to age, disability,  or caring responsibility, paid work isn’t going to be the best way for them to meet their needs for food, healthcare and shelter, which of course all cost more with a disability.

So, we get upset when people who supposedly want Labor to raise welfare recipients out of poverty say that Labor have a good record on it and they’ve done great / done their best. When the numbers don’t say that. The numbers have 10,000 more homeless a month, 50,000+ households on energy hardship plans since they took power (I know! even with the energy rebates that kept inflation down and thus the increases to welfare indexation!) and  1500 homeless people dying prematurely each year.

So, help me understand what you mean by aggressive, mmkay?

In a document provided to a senate inquiry into the cost of living, Origin provided the following figures showing a 69 per cent increase in customers on a hardship plan over the past two years.8 FY22 FY23 Increase FY24 Increase Customers on a hardship plan 58,000 71,000 22% 98,000 38% The number of people in hardship was also higher than pre-COVID figures. In its FY24 annual report, AGL published figures showing there were 27,741 customers on a hardship program, a 45 per cent increase on the previous year. Total average debt for all customers (including those who are not on a hardship program) increased by 7 per cent.9

Poverty and Vulnerability

Poverty makes people vulnerable to exploitation. Whether that’s remaining in an abusive personal relationship because you can’t afford to live anywhere else, or you take on unsafe or underpaid work, it’s anything that means you have to give up safety or your values to just survive.

This week, it looks like some of the racist / antisemitic / anti-Islamic attacks and graffiti in the Sydney area may have been carried out by people paid to do so. Kinda like the attack on Burgertory, tho what came of that?

So, let’s say some of the people are doing these divisive things because they’re been paid. They always say that everyone has a price, it just differs depending on the emphasis you place on different areas of your life and how desperate you are to go against your beliefs, or the law, to survive another week. To pay off a debt, to fix that car, to escape the other unsafe part of your life.

If they were social housing tenants, they’re likely on welfare, which is well below the poverty line. They’re guaranteed to be struggling in a country where double income families are struggling. So, whether it’s shoplifting dinner, selling some powertools that fell off the back of a tradie’s ute, or seeing an ad that promises thousands for an act of vandalism that you may or may not be caught for, you’re vulnerable, whether you’re actually racist or not.

Another reason I say social cohesion is something we have to support people to attain, rather than penalise those who are not toeing the line of the day. A fed and housed community is a happy one. That’s where you get your social cohesion, not by leaving people vulnerable to radical acts to put food on the table for their kids.

Albanese and co need to see this, and support people. Support them financially. Support them with housing. Support them to be able to work in non-exploitative jobs. To associate with who they want to because they can afford to choose that.

and yes, it was a Nazi salute.

Nazi salute meme