Category: housing

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 · 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: 👉🏼 Food and petrol vouchers, clothes, bedding, or toiletries. 👉🏼 Australians manage their debt and make informed financial choices. 👉🏼 Food relief providers to increase the supply of affordable food. 👉🏼 Helping people reduce the financial harm of problem gambling. 👉🏼 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!

 

So, Labor, are you going to use your power for the good of the vulnerable or for the good of your donors?

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.

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 image displays information about rental affordability for a single person on the Disability Support Pension. On the left, there's a circular icon depicting a person in a wheelchair. Below the icon, the text reads 'Single person on the Disability Support Pension'. Further below, it states '0.1% of rental listings are affordable for a person on the Disability Support Pension.' On the right side, there is a graphic of a dark blue house shape containing the text '100%' and a lighter blue house shape inside it containing the text '0%'.

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.

A table row with a light blue background. The first column contains the number '4'. The second column describes a family situation: 'Single, one child (aged less than 5)'. The third column lists various Australian government payments and supplements: 'Parenting Payment Single, Energy Supplement, Pension Supplement, Pharmaceutical Allowance, FTB A & FTB B'. The fourth column contains the number '0' in a grey background. The fifth column shows '0%'.

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)

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.

It’s time for the Labor government to take seriously its duty of care for poor people and show compassion for us: Urgently increase payments to the Henderson poverty line as a triage measure, and work with welfare recipients to develop a sophisticated measure of poverty. Deliver on the 2022 promise to abolish compulsory cashless welfare programs such as the BasicsCard and rebranded Cashless Debit Card, now known as the SmartCard. Immediately pause all Centrelink payment suspensions imposed on people with “mutual” obligations requirements and remove all compulsion from (un)employment services. Directly invest in buying and building high quality public homes at scale, and abandon the turbocharging of privatisation through “social and affordable” housing policies.

One in 5 adult suicides are on the JobSeeker payment. Fourteen per cent are on the Disability Support Pension.

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.

Just because it’s better than nothing, doesn’t make it “good”

Oh hai there, just screaming into the void that the messaging coming out from yet another report detailing the material deprivation faced by people on all welfare payments.

ACOSS has just dropped their latest Poverty and Inequality report Material deprivation in Australia: the essentials of life. It doesn’t just report on how much money people have, but also what people are not getting because they can’t afford it – covered by the surveys I discussed in this post when I was doing the Poverty course through ACOSS and UNSW – the same people conducting this study and writing this report.

2. At least 10% of people do not have one or more of five out of 23 essential items. While some of the 23 essential items are almost universally owned (only 0.2% of people did not have warm clothes and bedding if it’s cold), a much higher proportion of people did not have the following five items: • home contents insurance (22% lacked this), getting together with friends or relatives at least once a month for a drink or meal (22%), a yearly dental checkup for each child (13%), new school clothes for school-age children every year (33%), or a hobby or a regular leisure activity for children (14%). The most common items people said they lacked because they couldn’t afford them are: home contents insurance (8%), at least $500 in savings for an emergency (7%), comprehensive motor vehicle insurance (5%) and dental treatment when needed (4%).

“The most common items people said they lacked because they couldn’t
afford them are: home contents insurance (8%), at least $500 in savings for
an emergency (7%), comprehensive motor vehicle insurance (5%) and dental treatment when needed (4%).”

Yeah, I have none of those things. If I needed dental treatment I’d try the NSW health clinic as that’s an option, or I’d ask family for money to help pay, or put it on ZipPay or get a Centrelink advance, but I don’t have the funds for such things as routine. I said to others doing that course that as much as they’d hope the person crashing into them in their shitbox at least had third party property insurance to cover their car’s damage, the reality is we often don’t, Greenslips for injury are compulsory but you’re making a huge assumption that we’ll be able to pay for your damage.

4. People on working-age income support payments face a much higher risk of multiple deprivation: • The rates of deprivation are close to or exceed 10% for 30% (seven items) of the 23 essential items for people on a JobSeeker Payment and for around 26% (six items) for people receiving a Parenting Payment or a Disability Support Pension. • People receiving JobSeeker Payment are five times more likely than all people (the population average rate) to lack two or more essential items (45% compared to 9% for the population). One in two are deprived of at least two items and one in three of at least three items. • People receiving Parenting Payment are four times more likely than all people to lack two or more essential items (38% compared to 9% for the population). Approximately one in four are deprived of three or more items. • People receiving Disability Support Pension or Youth Allowance are two to three times more likely than all people to lack two or more essential items (29% and 23% respectively). One in four people on these payments are deprived of at least two items. • People on a Carer Payment are two times more likely to lack two or more essentials items (17%) or three or more items (10%).But it’s the messaging around this report and others that always gets me. The report straight up says that DSP and Carer’s payments leave people struggling, and yet ACOSS et al come out asking for payments to be raise to that level – the $82/day for a single aged or disabled pensioner leaves them below the poverty line and skipping meals, health care and cheaping out on cooling in this heatwave while trying to stay in a likely substandard rental.

graph of bedroom temperate overnight
Reactivated my bedroom thermometer last night – you can pinpoint when my partner put the air con on in the living room and it trickled down the hall to our room

So aim higher. Ask for an amount that will make a difference. The Henderson Poverty Line is around $87 a day (it fluctuates, but if you need to put a number on it). This doesn’t take into account the extra costs of being disabled or chronically ill, but again it’s a start for adults to have enough money to meet their basic needs.

We have an election to be called any time now (it’ll be by May and that’ll be here before we know it) so get your ducks in a row and ask for good things, not incremental “improvements” that leave people in poverty. They haven’t given you your meagre asks anyway. Maybe Labor will be desperate enough to actually promise something progress, Miles style?

 

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I sleep in a clifftop mansion with my new wife – Antipoverty week and Labor’s weird optics 2024 edition

Copacabana’s pothole problem’s been solved – just have the soon to be (I don’t know how soon but bloody hell he’s trying not to be there past May) former PM move in cliffside (it’s quite the drop) and he’ll get CC council to spend their negative budget on his lil roads, centra coast roads that deteriorate ever rain event, and really weren’t designed for more than holiday traffic.

There were fears of the housing falling into the ocean further north at Wamberal and down in the Northern Beaches of Sydney when there’s severe events, we’ll see if this holiday house up on the hill is far enough from the edge for such events as the impacts of Tony and Tanya’s new coal mines and mine expansions are felt in the coming years.

He did get a bargain though, 300k less than the last sale price. Maybe that can go on the wedding, set to be next spring surely, as it’s gotta be after the election now, and Albo wouldn’t have it in Winter would he?

Lidia Thorpe posted the contrast between Foodbank putting out their hunger report this week with Albo’s new purchase. Andrew Leigh is launching a book, one that Gillard called “fun” which also talks about the haves and the have nots in the country. Fun? Have FUN growing your charity sector and not helping people directly. I’ll give you a hint, you don’t broach divides with golden cheese platters under the giving tree, and more funds for the Salvos. Foodbank charge charities $25 a pop for the food hampers they’ve got their corporate volunteers and school kids packing. Some charities will have to pass this onto the vulnerable families they serve

Those on welfare, while not as worried about the cliff falls that may face the richer among us, food insecurity is just increasing and all of Labor’s protestations that they’re doing stuff to relieve the cost of living isn’t doing a thing to actually help those at the bottom, and while we may fight about the figure, welfare needs to go up, go up a lot, and actually drag the standard of living in this country back past pre GFC levels. We’re also all watching the weather events in the US wondering if this summer will bring us flooding or fires or both and what impact that will have on the people around us living out of their cars if they’re lucky. but, enjoy your cliff face Albo.

So, it’s Antipoverty Week. The official campaigns the well meaning white women and their organisations are pushing are the Valuing Children Initiatives end childhood poverty, Everybody’s Home‘s call for more social housing (not public), and Raise The Rate For Good (that asks for payments to go up to the pension level of $82/day that leaves Nannas in poverty). All of which are “nice” but nice asks aren’t getting us anywhere are they? Asking nicely for Israel to consider maybe not genociding, (not it those words that’s not a polite word to say) asking to maybe stop killing and locking up Blak kids, asking nicely please sir.

 

Social Cohesion is code for assimilation or elimination of dissent and difference. Grace Tame showed us to be true to ourselves, that politeness is no good in the face of people who are making the world worse one smirk or lie at a time. Paint on a wall isn’t violence, not when the other side isn’t doing anything to stop people (graphic content) being burned alive in the new Holocaust.

It’s hard to focus on much this week.

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Housing Relief

Had the six-monthly rental inspection this morning. Spent the week cleaning since I found out about it, and it must have been fine because I got an email offering us another 2 years lease (this was just 12 months to start with) with a $10 increase. So, yes, totally taking that offer up lol it was a one year but still taking it and feeling relieved and going to collapse into a corner with the doggo who hung out with me all morning.


My stephdaughter is signing their first lease today on a place up in Tamworth with their bub, and my sister is exchanging contracts on a house in the suburb we grew up with in just under a month, so lots is going to settle for a bit… stepson’s girlfriend is pregnant and so that’ll be the next challenge, they’re also looking for a place together and saving up for what’s ahead.

So I get that mental settling for another could of years. They can increase the rent annually still but that’s not an concern til late next year anyway. I’m thinking of things I can do now to the place now I know I have another couple of years and in terms of settling into the neighbourhood…
In other news, the People Against Poverty Summit in November has been launched. Tickets are tiered. Facebook event here. I’ll have to organise getting up there etc, but it’ll be nice doing that knowing I won’t have a lease ending the next week! See you there?