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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How I spent my $20

oh, hai  there. I’m Fiona. You may now know me now as the woman on Q+A with $20 who looked pained at Jim Chalmer’s response to her question about how those on fixed incomes like the disability pension are supposed to make choices between food and medicine (seriously, I better pay that chemist bill as soon as I get this posted – my Webster paks are a lifesaver both literally and metaphorically)… Why are we the ones having to suffer now to keep inflation in check?

My questions and his non-answer:

So, it’s taken me a good couple of days to recover from the trip down to Sydney – got the shuttle bus the ABC organised from Broadmeadow station at 5pm with 20 others, we got there around 7:30, then went through screening, I got handed my question on a card and was told that I was the second question and that like I had spoken to the girl on the phone about, Stan would be asking me followups and she and her chatted about my situation and such a couple of times on the phone in the previous days.

It was a bumpy ride, but to my relief a fellow local Greens member and his mate were also on the bus, so I could chat to them and calm my nerves about the whole process. And we got a photo with our idols in the foyer.

Fiona and Wylie making peach signs with big ted, little ted, jemima and humpty at the abc ultimo studio

We went in around 8pm, I got a microphone attached to me. There was a warm up stand up comic. The questioners were all run through to make sure they got our names right etc, and I was SUPER excited to see that a teacher that I often had in primary school Mrs Turner was there!

I didn’t expect a real answer from Jim, just as I didn’t expect Labor to raise welfare since they walked back their promises and demands that they had in opposition in the lead up to the election they just won. Basically they promised us nothing and we should be grateful for that!

So, back to why you’re here? After my triumphant non-answer getting on Q+A i called home to Bruce to scream into the void and get his reaction and love. Which I got. And a request for burgers on the way home, to which I lol’d “Yeah I can spend my $20 on that!” he laughed and said, don’t worry about it  but then I wanted burgers, and given the rough trip back, chatting with the young liberals and eating lollies and pretzels at dinner, I totally needed those burgers by the time I was back in Tronno at 1am!

So, to all the Daily Mail commenters who commented on my food choices and my fatness, yeah, I had midnight Maccas with that $20 that PureProfile surveys had credited me during the trip down (another DM commenter had suggested them too, don’t worry, I’ve been doing them for 20 years). It was the best Big Mac I’d had in a long time, the chips were salty and fresh, like me, and I needed something in my belly because I needed to be up at 7am to get to my usual Friday appointments of pickup up FoodBank and Ozharvest to share with my sister (and much free bread because there was non in the budget for us) and then to my Antabuse rehab group where we discussed what we like about our sober selves. 20 months sober my friends!

Yeah, I’m fat. And yeah I could exercise more to lose weight, but I’m glad I’m not the bulimic, exercise obsessed skinny girl I once was, 2 hours at the gym a day, running 5kms to quiet her mine. My blood tests are always showing I’m in pretty good health considering, and while I’ve been on seroquel I’ve not been anywhere near skinny. I’m mentally pretty good at the moment, and working on my mental health and life goals, while being a good human being. Looking after myself and my family and friends and being sober and safe. Financially, I’m not making any headway, but I don’t have a credit card to go into debt on, and so long as I can pay my rent and smile, I’ll be okay. Also, so long as the politicians have a food allowance that is five times the daily JobSeeker payment, don’t police our food choices, mmkay?

So, it’s been a big few days. Glad to be home with my boys and love my family, friends and twitter crew to death. Sent Bruce off this morning to work in his little tinny, and I’ve been a good housewife, doing dishes and washing and earning my keep while rolling marbles on Twitch. I also played some Scotty Goes to Centrelink (The Albo Update) earlier, and will probably go another round soon!

The full episode can be seen on the ABC website or YouTube

Please, if you also feel that it’s ridiculous that in Australia people on welfare payments are deliberately kept below the poverty line, sign this petition to parliament to have the rate of all welfare payments raised to above the Henderson Poverty line which is currently $88 a day. The petition is an official parliamentary one so you’ll need to click the verification link in your email when it comes through to complete the process.

May be an image of text that says "signed the petition to #RaiseTheRate to #88aDay because... POOR PEOPLE DESERVE NICE THINGS UINCAPLOYEO AUWU NOINN NOINN Sign and share! auwu.org.au/petition"