Category: welfare

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)
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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?

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)

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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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!