Step By Step – Labor Hoping to get a Second Time Around

Who remembers the 90s family sitcom Step By Step?

Step by step
Day by day
A fresh start over
A different hand to play
The deeper we fall
The stronger we stay
And we’ll be better
The second time around
SO we’re getting Labor’s election promises now, ahead of a probably March 25 budget and some time before May 17 election. Today’s was building on their increased bulk billing incentives for concession card holders and kids, something I described as killing universal bulk billing. lol. Was I wrong though? The announcement today is trying to extend that to all Medicare card holders, but only if the GP becomes exclusively bulk billing. I have a  few concerns.
The rate for GPs to bulk bill will be $69.56 in the cities. My GP currently charges $80 upfront for those one concessions and $100 for regular Medicare card holders. Those rates seem pretty standard, and are higher in some places. So you’re asking GPs to take a $30+ cut per session to become bulk billing again.
It only applies if ALL patients are bulk billed. I’m sure many of us have had doctors in the past that have sometimes bulk billed (especially for follow up appointments or if they’ve asked us back) but also sometimes privately billed. So they won’t have that flexibility.
I’m going to assume it won’t, but I hope that GPs currently only bulk billing concession patients won’t lose those current incentives if they choose not to add regular patients to bulk billing.
The Medicare rebate remains around $43 for a regular level B consult, and doesn’t look to be going up any time soon. So privately billed patients who are then claiming rebates will continue to be $35-$55 out of pocket a session (using my GP’s current pricing).
There’s also concerns that this won’t apply to Mental Health and Enhanced Primary Care health planning sessions and these will continue to be a barrier to people seeking mental health and other allied health care.
There’s been lobbying around increasing the number of mental health (currently 10) and general allied health (currently 5 total) session people can claim on Medicare. Haven’t seen much about increasing the rebates for those (HUGE gaps huge huge gaps) especially with trying to keep people out of NDIS who need these. We’ll see.
So those are my Sunday thoughts.
It looks like I’m going to be using my words for an Online panel on March 11 – “Talking about Poverty: How to have conversations online, in the community and in the media” as a leadup event to the People Against Poverty conference mid-year. It’s free to come! And I’m terrified!
Let’s go!

A thousand days – How’s the social cohesion?

A thousand days. A thousand days of the Albanese Labor government.

Have we been at all surprised, pleasantly or unpleasantly with Labor? I remember when they won the election in 2022 the nurse at my mental health and substance use program commenting that I must be happy with the result. I told her I was skeptical and we’ll see what happens.

The image shows a screenshot of a tweet from an account with the handle @PeterKhalilMP. The tweet is timestamped at 6:59 PM on June 21st. It contains a message that reads, “You will have to wait and see hope you are pleasantly surprised.” The text is in English, and there are no images or other visual elements included in the tweet. The account has a verified checkmark next to its name, indicating it is an official account.

Pleasantly, I’ve remained sober for that time, even the last few months since I stopped attending the support group and stopped taking Antabuse – the little drug that basically makes you allergic to alcohol and if you drink you literally feel like you’re dying. So that’s pleasant.

We’ve had a few changes in living arrangements, including having a baby in the house for 6 months while the stepkid lived with us at short notice. They seem to be going alright with their new independence, getting their own rental with bub has been great for them, even if the chaos surrounding and leading up to that was hard for everyone to deal with.

Got the other stepkid with us now. Generally life is quiet, though I’ve been busy with social media and other stuff working on the People Against Poverty Summit and associated stuff, along with the upcoming election. A sweetheart bought me a new chair from my wishlist, and I’ve been optimising my desk setup so it’s nice to be at my desk. Unfortunately we’re still down a car so I’m not getting out much, might end up borrowing one from a friend who seems to be up one, while my partner works on his.

Purple desk chair

Pacing myself is hard to relearn as I’ve picking up tasks, I’m noticing what wears me out, what’s easy to bounce back from, and what means I should probably just make a cup of hot chocolate and chill in front of old South Park. It’s amazingly nerve wracking at times putting myself out there.

I’m still actually saving for my assessment, putting something away each week, some from my pension and some from the paid work I’ve got doing socials for activisty things. Just enough so I hopefully don’t notice it and it slowly builds up without me knowing and later this year I’ll be ready to book something in and decide how exactly I want to approach it and what I want to get out of it.

Take care of you x

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

Food banks are broken, just like the rest of system they are in

So, I’ve been sharing this article “Shopping at Australian food charities can be more expensive than supermarkets. What’s gone wrong?” because I’m the foodbank user quoted and because the whole system is broken when charities on the ground are struggling to afford to buy food from mega charities to continue their essential work on the ground.

Regulars here know the story – I shop around foodbanks and Aldi and occasionally the majors since I have all three in my major town centre, in order to get the best value for myself and my little family that looks different each time I take stock. I haven’t gotten back to doing that this year – the food charities are reopening this week after Xmas shutdown, and I don’t have access to a car all the time since one is off the road at the moment. So I’m shopping at Aldi (or my partner is) and we’re getting our meal boxes and I’m sure it’s better for my waistline to not be able to get more food for less, but ugh I’m bored lol. Also, my stepson’s summer job just ended so he’s eating more at home and earning less until the Centrelink systems are reliable enough to reapply for jobseeker or he can find another casual job around the place.

Foodbank branches in NSW and Victoria operate under different rules: in NSW, charities who buy from Foodbank can charge their customers, while in Victoria charities must give the food away. The money Foodbank charges charities covers its handling fees – the cost of sourcing and redistributing the food. A Victorian-based charity worker, who did not want to be named, said that Foodbank had raised its prices to the point where the charity she works at was struggling to stay open. Screenshots taken last month from Foodbank’s online pantry, seen by Guardian Australia, show some items were significantly more expensive compared with major supermarkets. Composite image of dishwashing liquid prices on websites View image in fullscreen Some products are cheaper at major supermarkets, in this case dishwashing liquid at Woolworths. Composite: Woolworths website/Foodbank website Charities could buy dry dog food from Foodbank for $2.08 per 100g, compared with $0.23 per 100g at Coles. Dishwashing liquid was $1.15 for 495ml at Foodbank while shoppers could buy a litre for under $1.50 at all three majors. The charity worker says Foodbank prices have spiked in the last two years. In 2022, she says a dozen 450g cans of tinned ham cost $3.02 but last month was $64.30. In 2022, a dozen 400g Christmas puddings cost $5.40 but was now $43.80.

I knew that charities on the ground were facing increased costs for their purchases from Foodbank, but I didn’t realise it had gone up so much.

But I don’t see the answer as giving more money to Foodbank itself. They have corporate and individual donors, they have government funding, volunteer labour and other in-kind support, and yet they still have to charge more to the charities on the ground to receive the food and other items.

She stresses Foodbank provides a vital service, that they do good work and are underfunded. But the system is broken, she says. “The point is, they should be well funded so they don’t have to sell food, right? And we should be well funded so we don’t have to sell food.” The federal assistant minister for charities, Andrew Leigh, says “Labor strongly supports the value of food relief”. “Over the past 12 months, we have announced nearly $20m in additional funding for emergency and food relief charities,” Leigh said in a statement.

I also find myself even more cranky at the local charities that on-sell the items with significant markups (to just under full major supermarket prices) to fund their other work. Whether that’s to fund their free food hampers to those even more in need than the regular foodbank shopper, to pay their rent of warehouses, or to go into their missionary coffers (yes it happens), if there’s such a shortage of food coming into Foodbank warehouses as donations or being purchased it shouldn’t be marked up. Selling it on at your cost when it’s an essential item should be expected. (I’ll pay a markup on my short-dated Lindt though, happy to help when I’m able).

I’ll come back to it again – people need enough money to survive. They need to be able to afford to buy the food and other essential items they need to survive. Welfare rates need to be above the poverty line. People need to be able to afford to buy groceries and afford healthcare. There’s a lot that candidates can take into the election this year, and I want to see more of them promising to do the easy thing to lift millions out of poverty – Raising the rate of all welfare payments above the poverty line. That will cut demand greatly for emergency hampers that charities hand out each week. That will enable people to be able to directly support their own families and friends in need.

There is a place for emergency help – but having large corporate charity machines is not lessening the need for it.