Tag: budget

But WHO matters, Jim?

Treasury released their Measuring What Matters framework Friday morning with press release and interviews, buzzwords and smiling photos. I admit to having bad feelings towards the word wellbeing. It’s so often used along with things like self-care to put personal responsibility front and centre of your ills, and that your own failings and failure to address them in an acceptable way are why you continue to suffer. The wellness industry is designed to make healthy people that little bit healthier, and the neoliberal economy of hours to for people to make more (money usually) with what they already have.

Stats are great, I love a good statistic that shows whether there’s any measurable change over time in something. The government already has many statistics at its fingers. from job numbers, to how many children are living in poverty, to food waste, to koalas numbers and more.

(not that they care to include poverty or child poverty as wellbeing measures)

They have committees and qualitative research. They the Closing the Gap reports for Indigenous people that are announced and seem to change very little. They have ignored stark recommendations from royal commissions, from committees they commissioned themselves with their preferred contributors. They have us writing letters and sharing our stories every day. But the people on the ground are disappointed and don’t really feel like another way of looking at things will offer any change on the ground.

How’s the wellbeing is going in relation to the “five key wellbeing themes”?

  • Healthy: A society in which people feel well and are in good physical and mental health, can access services when they need, and have the information they require to take action to improve their health.

“Feel Well” gotta love the nerfing of it already. Not be well, don’t be sick, don’t have longterm chronic pain that they can’t get medication for. But then, if you could get the medications best suited to your pain you may actually get to feel well. Let’s do that! Drugs for the masses! At least then it’s a bearable existence, masking the existential dread and foreboding planetary death from climate change. What? The planet will still be here but humans will get wiped out? even better, We suck. Let the orcas take over.

Good physical and mental health: My friends over on JobSeeker are eating one meal a day, getting scurvy, diabetes has spiked after repeated Covid infections. Nobody can get in to see a psych, and if they can there’s only 10 subsidised Medicare sessions now so you can only deal with things for an hour, once a month, ignoring school holidays. And don’t waste those sessions trying to get someone who fits and offers the sort of therapy that works for you. In and out. A dabble of CBT to dull the mild anxiety. Anything more, well that’s too complax, maybe you should access community or NDIS? lol nah. Not likely, and not without a costly diagnosis. I was saying the other day I just need a cool $10k so I can get the adults in my life long overdue ADHD/Autism assessments, because we all have some sort of spicy brain divergency, it’d just be nice to know what type and mix and whether there’s a chance very expensive stimulant medications might make us more productive members of society.

Have the information they need to improve their health: back once more on the individual to use their own choices to improve their health while government deliberately holds back the resources to do that in the name of austerity and continue to approve coal mines. But sure I can fix myself if I make the right choices. Personal responsibility….

  • Secure: A society where people live peacefully, feel safe, have financial security and access to housing.

Apparently “live peacefully” means no peaceful protesting of the destruction of the planet. Be polite, don’t kick up a fuss, accept what Master says what is best for you. While Europe floods and burns simultaneously, we’re locking up people for disrupting traffic. While governments talk climate, they approve more coal mines and still don’t find a good way to tax them to high heaven so if they’re going to raise the temperature another 2 degrees they could at lease pay for us to put in air conditioning.

Who has financial security? The go got their 19 Billion dollar buffer, so maybe it’s theirs that matters. There’s no guarantee of stable housing at the rental level, and even home owners – double incomes, kids or no kids, are stretching and stretching to make their mortgages, with the Great Australian Dream of home ownership passing many by. We have a central bank that states it want 1% more of the population to lose their jobs to stop inflation, but no word from the government from how those people are supposed to survive until they’re needed again, since the JobSeeker payment remains, by choice, below half the poverty line.

So the wanna be homeowners, the ones that in previous generations would be in their houses establishing life, and feeling settled, are still in the rental market. Rental properties are being hoarded, it’s not the people with the second house for retirement security we’re talking about here, it’s the multi-generational property hoarders, where Billy gets 10  houses by the time he’s finished uni on the back of Mum and Dad’s equity and the rent paid by tennants. They’re the ones raising the rents and colluding with the property managers to keep the game running. They’re the ones, along with the investment funds, calling in towards the end of the auction to outbid the young professional couple with a baby on the way.

Public housing is an endangered commodity, being demolished around the country as we speak, being replaced to social and affordable housing, being privatised, but made into something for someone else to profit off. Housing waiting lists are a decade long, and emergency accommodation is capped. Again, people are left to fend for themselves, off the gerousity of others, from family and friends, leaving those who are disconnected and isolated already with nowhere to to and those others stressed about outstaying their welcome.

My grandparents were given a fishing shack across the creek from where I live now by family when they got married because they had nothing. But from there they were able to raise a family and live a stable life there. My mother was able to save a deposit for a house before she got married and she and Dad paid that off. But my generation is a generation of renters and the next generation is one of couch surfers.

  • Sustainable: A society that sustainably uses natural and financial resources, protects and repairs the environment and builds resilience to combat challenges.

“Sustainable” you say? This is again where the governments say they can’t raise welfare because they need to have money for the future. This is where climate policy gets muddled once more with the financial outlays of equipping people to deal with the now inevitable climate-related disasters. Where politicians can promise more fire trucks while approving more coal mines and say they have a balance. Where they can encourage and financially incentivise homeowners to switch from gas to electricity and solar, while leaving public housing uninsulated and reliant on grid power.

Sustainable for me is budgeting my spoons for the day the week or the month. Where I budget how I can with the money I get from the DSP, to make sure I pay my regular bills, to make sure while my balance may be zero on pension eve, it hopefully doesn’t get overdrawn, and I can start the next fortnight afresh. Resilience for me is getting my morning chores done so I can be free to help others with the rest of my day. Sustainable is what they want from the NDIS, and that gets sustained by them not approving or being difficult about plans, discouraging people from applying or asking for what they need, and having others pick up the gaps. Sustained by the labours of love others can provide, and if you don’t have those supports you go back to missing out.

  • Cohesive: A society that supports connections with family, friends and the community, values diversity, and promotes belonging and culture.

Cohesion. Getting along. Mateship? Inclusion, acceptance, tolerance. Throw some more words in there, but hopefully we’re honouring people’s cultures and individuality, but also not letting an obsessive minority run wild, endagering the safety of others. Extremisim in all its forms in a danger and the sensible centre needs to use caution about how much both-sidesing they allow, especially when one side merely believes the other side are less than human and need to be eliminated. TERFs and Nazis, Islamists and Christianist, Zionists and Nationalists have found their little niche of identify built on their own feelings of superiority and need to claim that right at all costs.

Media needs to be aware of their role in platforming hate speech or unscientific arguments that put feelings ahead of rights. Publications need to recall the sub editors and fact checkers from the cull and put them to work ensuring that what they are scaring the public this week is actually accurate and not just repeating rumours and hate. They need to check the backgrounds of who they’re getting quote from, and remember that having Dr or Professor as their title doesn’t mean any expertise in the field being discussed.

The party that promised that the lions will eat the faces of those you fear with not hesitate to et them on you when you outlive your usefulness – queer people aligning themselves with anti-trans hate groups shouldn’t be surprised when their hard fought rights are struck down next and they are not longer loved by the right.

  • Prosperous: A society that has a dynamic, strong economy, invests in people’s skills and education, and provides broad opportunities for employment and well-paid, secure jobs.

Prosperity gospel is something that was talked about a lot in the dying days of the Morrison government. While the Pentecostal types have their own ways of profiting from it, the notions that acquiring wealth and property as a moral good seems to permeate the landlord class of Australia. The rest of us are filthy renters, welfare cheats and ne’er do-wells. We may be worthy of the charity of welfare if we come on hard times, or we may not be if we’re Dole Bludgers or Welfare Queens. We are assumed to be cheating the system and bending or breaking the rules because politicians do it all the time so why wouldn’t we? Sure, break the rules to get your sub-poverty dole check, I’ve said it before I don’t care if Gina Reinhardt’s latest boy toy gets JobSeeker, so long as someone who is a payment away from starving or losing their kids and house doesn’t get cutoff because of a quirk in the system, Services Australia not answering the phone or a job Provider who is trigger happy on the suspension of payments. You can’t prosper when you can’t afford to survive. You can’t thrive when you’re looking over your shoulder.

You also can’t take advantage of any of the “opportunities” that come up to study at TAFE for free if your payment doesn’t cover your rent and food, and your job provider is pushing you to apply for work that isn’t compatible with your timetable. People drop out every day because they need to take on a shift and can’t attend enough uni to graduate. They still end up with unpayable HECS debts that go up by more than people can repay even when they do have a steady graduate job. There’s no rooms for special intests or diabilities, or learning that your own pace. You can’t participate in a way that works for you, that is sustainable for you, the computer will say no.

Prosperity Gospel, The The Prosperity Gospel (PG) is a fast-growing theologically conservative movement frequently associated with Pentecostalism, evangelicalism, and charismatic Christianity that emphasizes believers’ abilities to transcend poverty and/or illness through devotion and positive confession. The PG is popular among impoverished communities, where at best it is considered to offer the poor a means of imagining and reaching for better lives (at times accompanied by sound financial advice), and at worst is criticized as predatory and manipulative, particularly when churches or pastors require heavy tithing. Members of the socioeconomic elite may also be drawn to PG messages, which affirm the religious and spiritual legitimacy of wealth accumulation and reinforce a worldview in which financial success is an indicator of moral soundness.

Do I look like I’m despairing for the future? Well I am, but also for the present. It’s my birthday today, and while I’m getting too old for it to be a thing, it’s always a good time to reflect. I’m okay with my day to day life, I love helping my friends and my family, looking after myself and my partner, pottering around with my dog in the morning, I just wish and hope to help push for the government to do more to help everyone, and to not makes things worse.

You have all your numbers, your recommendations, your experts and your committees. They all point to investing more in your people directly, by Raising the Rate of welfare, but building more public housing, by letting people get on their days because you know what, most people know what they are good at and what works for them? We want government support because you have to money to help us, and the responsibility to ensure your citizens survive and thrive.

People want to feel like they matter. “No-one left behind” is YOUR slogan Jim. You all seemed so promising from opposition, well you at least you said the right things. People matter, no corporations. Voter, not donors. Please listen to us.

Because Albo keeps lying and saying these budget measures are helping people already, here’s when they really come in

Image

I was cranky before I’d even finished my Jenny Craig porridge I’d gotten at the foodbank this morning because dear leader was going around saying that there was a while heap of “cost of living” measures that HAD ALREADY COME IN THIS WEEK that means it shouldn’t be as shit in the welfare class. But some haven’t come in yet, or partially so, so let’s revisit the May Budget (a lifetime ago) and review what we’re expecting and when.

Medicare Bulk Billing – Remember getting bulk billed at the GP? It’s been a few years since I’ve been, and I’ve had a concession card for all that time. My GP currently charges $89 upfront for a standard appointment, and $69 (nice) if you are a concession card holder. The rebate is about $40. In the budget, the bulk billing incentive – which is what the GP gets on top of the standard rebate if they choose to bulk bill you – was bring tripled, from $6.85 to $20.65 (more in remote areas). BUT, this doesn’t actually come in until November first and would mean my GP would be getting less in total than they charge me now still. I’ve seen a few comments around the place from people expecting to be bulk billed already because of it, and GPs and their staff copping flack for not doing it already, because people like Albanese are out there saying it’s already in place. I don’t know if my GP will go back to bulk billing :/ They haven’t said so yet.

On ABC News Breakfast, Anthony Albanese was asked about the upward revision of the surplus to $19bn – and whether the government could offer more cost of living relief. The prime minister didn’t rule it out, but hinted the surplus will be banked to reduce inflation. He said: Well, we’ll always examine what we can do. But just on Saturday, when July 1 kicked over, we saw cheaper childcare come in. We saw paid parental leave be extended. We saw a tripling of the Medicare bulk billing rate so that more Australians, 11 million Australians, can see a doctor for free. We saw the funding for Medicare urgent care clinics so that more people can get access to a doctor. We saw energy price relief, a $3 billion plan between the Commonwealth and state and territory governments to take that pressure off energy price increases as well. We saw all of those measures come in just over a week ago. But we’ll continue to examine what we can do.

JobSeeker and Youth Allowance – Recipients of JobSeeker and Youth Allowance will be getting a HUGE (/sarcasm font) $20 a week or $2.85 increase to their paltry payments from September 20. It’s insulting and insignificant and obvious not enough, and no, it isn’t in yet, despite it being touted as a raise and people assuming it’s there because they saw it on the tele. It also comes in after the regular indexation on the same day for JobSeekers (Youth Allowance kids can still wait til Jan 1 for their next indexation since their is annual), so the go can save a few bucks there. Disability pensioners and carers and others will be getting their indexation September 20 too, let’s see it marketed as the biggest raise ever because inflation has still been flying along!

https://twitter.com/Lisaisalooseun1/status/1673555199879942144?s=20

Single Parent Payment Changes – Labor listened to the biggest noise in the room and agreed to reinstate Single Parent Payment eligibility to 14 years old (not 16 as it was when they helped the libs wreck millions of children’s lives by taking it down to 8 – why yes I’m personally bitter because I truly believe that my stepdaughter’s life would have been better if their mum wasn’t having to go to work when they turned eight. I won’t go into it but there’s a lot that could have been different simply having a parent in the house). This, of course, doesn’t come in til that magical September 20 date. And if your child turns eight before then, you and 9000 others are popped back onto Jobseeker for that time, lose hundreds of dollars a week and have to meet mutual obligations, while trying to somehow retain your housing and so on. Jess on Q+A said it like it was an only got there there’s from the treasurer….

Energy Bill Relief – Concession card holders and family tax benefit recipients have been promised “up to $500” in energy bill relief, dependent on your state of residence. I’m in NSW, so it may be different for you, but mine is promised “BY SEPTEMBER”. So it wasn’t just stuck on on July one, which would have been nice, hey? Some people will still need to apply since they don’t already get a concession. So check your eligibility in your state.

So, in the meantime, costs are going up for everyone, welfare isn’t increasing in a meaningful way, bulk billing may or may not become more common after November, and single parents were just told to suck it up for a few months if their kid’s over 8 before September 20.

Good luck out there people. I love you x

I hate the surplus

Nineteen Billion Dollars

Nineteen Billion dollars isn’t much, they say. It’s also not the amount. The fact that there was any budget surplus while people are struggling to afford food and housing, whether they have a job or not, is a failure. It’s even more insulting that it’s brought to us by the supposed party of the workers, Labor. The party that talked the talk all through opposition that JobSeeker was inadequate and promised that nobody would be left behind. That Labor.

It’s a completely different Labor labour party than the one people voted for or gave their preferences to. We saw early last year, Labor walking back enthusiasm for raising the rate of any welfare payments and then being negotiated into a little panel of selected yes men headed by Jenny Macklin who told them that raising Jobseeker significantly was essential, but they chose to ignore that in favour of almost bringing back single payment eligibility back to where they left it with Gillard, and giving Jobseeker and Youth Allowance recipients a full $20 a week extra (from September 20, none of this is in yet….) Oh and a 15% increase to rent assistance, which for me brings it to $171 to service $820 a fortnight rent.

Rent that I’m just waiting to go up. If I’m lucky, I’ll get a new lease with a substantial rent increase. If I’m unlucky they’ll decide to redevelop this land and imma back back in the rental market, crowdfunding for a houseboat. We muse about our options often, hoping to get this place for another year, while Bruce’s ex has to be our of her place by the end of the month and my stepkids baby is due August 5 (yes I’ll be a grandmother!) Hopefully the stepkids, their partner and the baby will get some emergency social housing, which they said they probably will based on the noises from the not for profits social worker… And we might get our stepson here since he doesn’t have a place yet, but works in town. I’ve adapted to the idea of him moving in. Better than another couple and a baby and cats. No, there are no cats moving in here.

Where was I?

Oh that’s right, thinking about the surplus (did you hear it was $19 BILLION?!?) And how Labor and their Stan’s feign embarrassment while saying they’ve been responsible with the budget and we must think of future expenses (like the stage three tax cuts and submarines) and do our bit by continuing to live on sub poverty welfare payments, minimum wage that won’t get you a rental let alone a home to own, and Coles and Woolies posting mega returns while aski g us to donate to Foodbank and Ozharvest at the checkout on pension day when we only queue for food every other week.

I suppose you want me to do my own budget and write solutions for the government. To say that pleading with them to raise the rate of income support above the poverty line and to build public housing NOW and not say they ought fund affordable housing (whatever the fuck that is) if their little investment pays out. Meanwhile saying the Greens are all talk even tho they are the ones with money to burn but not sharing it where it’s desperately needed

So I wait and see if I’ll be pleasantly surprised.. not by Labor, that ship sank long ago. But by a new lease on this place. For the tent increase to not be too excessive. For my stepkid to have housing of some sort before their baby is born. For them to continue to have hosuk g while they raise the kid. That the threats to exclude more people from the NDIS don’t happen. That my sister and her kids can keep their rental for as long as she wants it and they can access the NDIS supports she needs for them with less off a fight that the previous plans. That the government doesn’t make things worse for everyone. Which they are on track to buy simply fiddling around edges and trying to appease the landlord class.

Nineteen Billion dollars.

What the 2023 Budget means for me

Hey, there’s all these breakdowns of the budget winners and losers and hype and hyperbole, but what does the Labor May 2023 budget mean for me – Fiona, a 40 year old, neurodivergent, partnered DSP recipient without kids of her own but plenty of them in her life whose lives wants to be as good as possible? Specific I know, but hey, it gives me a reference to do this breakdown. Hat-tip this this Guardian breakdown.

Current DSP breakdown totalling $950 a fortnight

Rent assistance: Commonwealth rent assistance will be going up from September 20 (yes, none of the increased welfare payments or changes to eligibility come in until September, it’s going to be a long winter). At the proposed 15%, I will be receiving $170.20 a fortnight in rent assistance to service the $820 fortnight rent that I share with my partner. He is not edible for rent assistance as a low income earner but I get the max amount for both of us.

Disability Support Pension: there was no raise to DSP, carers or Aged Pensions in the budget. I do not work but even if I did get some income from freelance work or online shennanigans, the earning cap before payments start to reduce hasn’t been increased for us on DSP, even though it was listed for Aged Pensioners.

PBS Medicines: The cost of pensioners meds was increased with inflation on Jan 1, raising from $6.70 to $7.20 a script, in amounts Labor’s boasts about cheaper medicines. I’m hoping to benefit from twice as many meds being able to be dispensed at once but I’m not certain it will apply to all my meds due to my previous misuse of some, we’ll see if that does halve my costs as promised.

Medicare: My GP hasn’t bulk billed concession card holders for years. They currently (as in I went Monday) charge $69 upfront for concession and pension card holders and children, and $89 for full fare, with he rebate at $39.75 usually coming back into my account that night. the proposed increase to the bulk billing incentive would mean that GPs would receive an incentive to bulk bill of $20.65 in the city up from $6.85. This is on top of the $40 scheduled fee. So around $61. Hopefully my GP will see it possible to go back to bulk billing pensioners. The urgent care clinics may come in handy.

Psychology: There was nothing announced about any increases in the amount of psychology sessions available through Medicare. It’s currently up to ten a calendar year, which is not enough to get anywhere, and I’d be paying over $200 up front a session if I did engage again. So, since I’m just ticking along I won’t for now.

NDIS: I don’t access the NDIS for myself. It doesn’t seem likely I’d get much support even if I did get into it somehow. I don’t have to current reports and I’d probably have to go through getting a formal diagnosis of Autism, which isn’t worth it from a financial or stress viewpoint if I’m happily ticking along. I’d probably not get it for my “treated and stabilised” BPD which got me DSP either. I’m rather concerned about the talks abut cuts and restraint to funding for my niblings who all have diagnoses and I’m trying to focus on helping them and my sister get the most out of their plans. My niece doesn’t have NDIS, and it’s a matter of seeing that 10 Medicare rebated psych sessions a year probably isn’t enough support going into her teens, but wondering what ASD 1 will get you in an era of restraint and cuts.

Power Bills: I should be getting the full rebates on my electricity bills here in NSW when they come through thankfully. I wish there was more incentives for landlords to install solar, insulation and other energy efficiency stuff in our cold rentals. I’ll also investigate and see if my partner is eligible for any of the discounted appliances for his small business. Can he get a more efficient buffer or pressure washer?

How about you? Were you a “budget winner”?