Oh how lovely, the King and Queen are here. Yeah, much excitement. They made it all the way out rural Parramatta today to meet the RFS and CWA… Yes, they may have still been rural when Victoria was queen, but certainly not now.
Camilla made her way to have a vegetarian lunch with OzHarvest, since they say it was made from the usual daily cookup of rescued food does that mean someone missed out? Where in the budget does the tiny silver spoon go? is it paid for by the labour of the Sydney Street Choir performing for $150/ticket which they will not see? I did ask on Twitter whether they were paying the choir members or whether they were just using them. Pay your fucking talent, especially if you’re exploiting their story and goodwill for your charity. Or will they get a tshirt and have to go back to the foodbank queue in the morning?
Was it a fun night for you? Speeding down I-5, no cops on the map Screaming out, “I’d die for you” But after all the stops and starts, crashes and carnage I’m just carsick
I’ve mentioned a couple of times how you get more sympathy for some things when you’re sober – some rightly so and some perhaps a little harsh. Some, like running your car up on the kerb – way more sympathy when you’ve done it because you’re anxious AF about something (finding a new rental in this case) than if you’ve been drinking – are extremely fair. Some like having an emotional meltdown gets less sympathy if there’s alcohol involved, even if many times it’s just tipping you over the edge of things that are there and crap regardless of your commitment to sobriety.
Got my copy of Mean Streak – Rick Morton’s Robodebt book…
Done two mornings of supervision – the two English papers. Long mornings on my feet, being responsible. Only a few bad dreams reliving my own HSC. Caught the bus and the train. Which is okay, but doesn’t give me the freedom for anything outside of there and back. I’ve masked on the public transport, but didn’t in the school, so that may be where this snuffle is from. Hopefully it’ll resolve over the weekend and I’ll be good to go for an 8.15am start Monday for the maths exam, I’ll probably even be able to drive in as the brake pads just arrived. Along with a heap of porridge and dog treats that were on sale on my wishlist so I ordered them.
Albo has mentioned poverty on twitter 8 times from 2011 to 2021. He hasn't mentioned it since https://t.co/r7LfuzERIl
Antipoverty week is coming to an end. Very few mentions from the politicians, a few from the Greens. No use of the word poverty on Twitter by Albo since 2021, despite protesting in 2019 that the LNP wouldn’t say poverty during Antipoverty week
34 mentions of Labor. Zero mentions of poverty during Anti-Poverty Week. https://t.co/yZeosHdFcj
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.
So, this is going to be a gratitude post, but it will divert into complaints at stages. I’m doing alright, I’ve been enjoying being paid to post for Nobody Deserves Poverty in an official capacity, with a payslip, superannuation and all. I’m even accruing leave!
I braved taking the Corolla down to the community centre yesterday – I needed bread and this seemed the easiest way to accomplish that. It’s still not fixed – one more part got fixed yesterday but now we need Bruce to have time and energy to put it in, and he’s busy today and tomorrow so I’m back on the trains and buses to get to things still. It’s okay, and doable, just wanna see an end to this saga, which will just kick off the saga of the repairs that are needed on the Ford. There’s some taillight bulb housing and cabling coming today from ebay.
When I got down the foodbank, the giant truck delivering the Foodbank NSW order was pulling in and attempting to navigate the parking lot. These items on the palate are ordered by the local foodbank (and paid for) then shipped up from the giant warehouse to be on-sold or given to clients depending on how the foodbank works on the ground. This one on-sells most things with a nominal markup and provides emergency hampers when needed. Bread comes from the local supermaket and is free. The fruit an veg bags are usually $2 here, and sadly the tomatoes were moldy in the bag I got 🙁
Last week they sold the bag for $1 because it only had Granny Smiths and Potatoes, but that’s totally what I was hoping for so I was super happy.
I’ve also learned why I don’t buy dirty potatoes, they’re SO MUCH MORE WORK.
Downloading Red Dead 2 again, because I haven’t since we reinstalled windows, so I can play the Halloween content soon, and gotta go in and do week three of Sims 4 Reaper Rewards. it seems that plan to just give everyone the max speed of their NBN at no extra cost has gone away. That’s a shame, it would be really useful for these giant downloads!
Started some Xmas shopping with the Amazon sale and popped some things on Zippay that have heavy discounts that have been on my wishlist. Sadly the monitor I want isn’t on sale, might wait til Black Friday, otherwise I can justify it with the HSC supervision work I’m doing over the next 4 weeks. And for “productivity” lol. Got some festoon lights for the back deck which will be way nicer than the current fluorescent that’s out there. Hopefully we can use that area this summer. Bruce put up one lot of my purple fairy lights this week, so I moved my Halloween meerkats to the front porch.
Anyways, I’ve got some cleaning to do while I wait for the downloads to finish, wanna get my place clean and tidy. Make the most of my little life because I’m just looking at my twitter feed and thankful my only problems are so small and there’s not an Israel or a Milton bearing down on me.
You’re repeating yourself, grinning over the same shit, so I’m going to repeat myself. I hate the surplus. I hate it when it’s 9 billion or nineteen. I hate it because it leaves my friends suffering with welfare payments below the poverty line. It leaves public school massively underfunded. It leaves public housing being sold off rather than being bought or built. It leaves you and your colleagues grinning at foodbanks, grinning because you’ve funded more charity, grinning while dental isn’t funded for adults. You’re grinning while women are rejected for domestic violence payments, when you could raise welfare above the poverty line and remove partner income tests. You’re grinning a year after the Disability Royal Commission handed down it’s findings while you’re holding your cards close to the chest on what will be allowed in NDIS packages after Wednesday. Grinning about Urgent Care Clinics while GP’s continue to walk away from bulk billing.
Just 76 hrs until #NDIS 2.0 is in force & the rule defining support (therefore, our daily lives) still hasn't been published.
