My husband has retired at 65years - after 30 years as a self-employed professional Puppeteer and 20years as a Disability Support Worker for the Queensland Government, (with a negotiated Award thanks to the Australian Workers Union). His body and brain were showing signs of stress and strain leading up to his birthday. Worsening osteo-arthritis, needing new knees and then a mini-stroke alarm. Politicians were talking about extending retirement and not being able to access the Aged Pension or Superannuation. The Commonwealth is getting mean-spirited and mean with money. If he didn't retire now he would be at risk of injury at work. Retirement was something necessary - stay home and cultivate the garden and rainforest.
My GreenMan looks after me too as I have a chronic mental illness which is episodic in the severity of the Bi-polar mood affective disorder. I have been economically dependent on Roy's wage so now he is retired it is necessary to apply for some social security of my own. As the Minister of With some anxiety I went for an interview at Centrelink today to be assessed for NEW START which sounds ridiculous to a 52 year old who has had many experiences in the mainstream workforce but failed to keep a job. All Welfare Reports on Mental Health and Work show the common discriminations, stigma and barriers of work flexibility which lead to blows to self-esteem and ending up Poor in old age, and reliant on the tax payers for a decent standard of living. The Australian Medicare system where every citizen has a right to health care including subsidised medicines is much valued(except by stingy, selfish Conservatives of course). Our monthly Pharmaceutical bill has been over $250.00 so now our income is reduced a Health Care Card enables us to keep functioning in society; top example is looking after the grandchildren to enable our daughters to keep up with their nursing and teaching profession. This medical expense does not include disintegrating eyes and teeth. Be warned kids, prepare for fifty - care for your health so you don't fall in a heap! The public health system can't be relied on when Parliament regards welfare recipients as "Malingerers"(Minister Morrison), or should not have a sense of "entitlement"(Treasurer Joe Hockey). THE DRUM: Tim Dunlop writes of -strategy-to-end-egalitarian-australia
"The Abbott Government's game plan for the nation is pretty obvious by now: it is a three-pronged attack on what we might call Egalitarian Australia.
Egalitarian Australia can be defined as the idea that government has a role in managing the risks associated with the inevitable problems that arise in a globalised, capitalist economy." (ABC The Drum)
Jenny Macklin is the Member for Jagajaga and Shadow Minister for Families and Payments and Disability Reform. This link leads to a discussion about Social Policy Renewal.
Once upon a time, there was a lucky country where a lot of people wanted to live because it had great weather, the best wages and employment opportunities, so a better chance to own your own home and have a family.
There was plenty of room for everybody to thrive and when Gough Whitlam was Prime Minister it got even better because women and indigenous people were paid respect with liberating policies.
Working class people called Australia the "Workers Paradise" as the Labor movement negotiated for health and safety, and a decent minimum wage and standard of living. The Proletariat could finally move above the station their ancestors had been kept in by the worst of capitalism.
Australians could expect to build a dream home, and if the Mrs got a part-time job they could also build an in-ground swimming pool....for their first generation Aussie kids.
From Yorkshire to Frankston , Victoria - & jobs at Target and Myers.
.Let's see how citizens are faring on the scale of egalitarian ethos and a Fair Go! The Politicians still express these values as enduring. PLEASE PLAY
The tragedy is I was in the same situation in Melbourne in 1980(though not under a bridge). We were studying Macbeth by the 17th century Bard, Will Shakespeare and it spoke to me across the centuries. I felt at home with the language;
Macbeth: To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.
So what student support progress has been made in these 35 years? Not as much as there could have been!
There is an independent living Youth Allowance, there are Government funded youth welfare agencies - always under threat of cuts - no matter the success of the program.
It doesn't make common-sense to damage people in the short fiscal term or the long-term.
Please Contact your MP - in my region I am on the margin being less outraged by the treatment of Cattle and Greyhounds compared to refugees.
Why is it so easy to see swift action against brutality of animals, proclaimed by Premiers and Prime Ministers, but there is no compassion, only punitive, deterrant, secretive policies towards asylum seekers who arrive by boat?
UN Convention Australia signed on the Rights of the Child
Australians are better educated than the 1920's when the fascist threat to peace and democracy was on show at the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. By voting for the current Lib/Nat. Abbott Government and it's Machievellan tactics people obviously needed to see and feel the threat for themselves to change their vote - WRONG! - the polls say 80% of Australians support what the Blue Ties are doing and what the Opposition are not doing.
Human Rights Lawyer
This is my Countdown to the big hit and misses which will lead me to write to the State Secretary of Queensland Labor Party(ALP), and resign.
It is incredible how swift these ruling Tories, New Barons, New Guards of Australia can persuade themselves sometimes they will have to do things "by hook or by crook" (P.M. Abbott on methods to turn back the boats). The 'National Interest' requires the weeds of fascism to grow above the paddock fences and grab those 'suspected' terrorists without trial because they threaten our way of life! Who thought Tony Abbott would transform into Voldemort - I did!
Being a Labor voter since Bob Hawke came to power, I hate the 'silence' of the ALP in Opposition, State and Federal - who is speaking up for the Commonwealth? Labor should not let legislation pass which encourages miscarriages of justice and untold harm...and raiding the Treasury to do so. The ALP loves to reference historical Labour reminding themselves how the oppressed masses got organised, learned to read and write, reckoned they were morally principled as a Puritan Parliament...but we know how unsupportive of the actions of Julian Assange were and how nothing ever done to give the truth-teller, his Liberty. https://justice4assange.com/ Where was the Labor Government's stand on arbitary detention?
The shining light of equality and opportunity which shone with P.M. Julia Gillard, was the National Disability Scheme and the Gonski Reforms of Education. We would make our society even better. Tory Tony lied to dismiss the real truth of the Coalition intentions. Not so long after all the commemorations of the world wars against Fascist Governments Tory Tony is creating one of his own.
Go on, say the word, Bill Shorten, call them for what their Government is displaying - educate the people, not leave them in the dark. Remind yourselves in this commemoration of the 800 year Magna Carta,
Last year, George Brandis had this to say about the document: “We can trace our constitution back some 800 years to the fundamental principles enshrined in the Magna Carta: limiting arbitrary power, holding the executive to account, and affirming the rule of law.”
Which is presumably what Gillian Triggs had in mind this week, when on the evening of Dutton’s attacks she criticised the government’s proposals to empower a minister to revoke sole Australian citizenship from those suspected of terrorism. Triggs said: “Supremacy of the law over the sovereign – or in today’s parlance, executive – government is under threat in our democracy.
“The overreach of executive power is clear in the yet-to-be-defined proposal that those accused of being jihadists fighting against Australian interests will be stripped of their citizenship if they are potentially dual nationals… Not only may this idea violate Australia’s international obligation not to render a person stateless, but also the detention may be at the discretion of a minister without recourse to judicial processes.” (The Saturday Paper 13/6/15).
Australia is a UN signatory for the rights of all children.
In a forceful speech, the president of the Australian Human Rights Commission argued parliaments had failed to protect democratic rights and many politicians were “breathtakingly inconsistent” in supporting the rule of law.
WARNING SIGNS OF TYRANNY - 'over-reaching executive powers'...
Divert from the evidence, attack personal, the really Honourable Gillian Triggs who ought to be like "Caesar's Wife"(Brandis).
2. Minister for the Arts George Brandis takes wads of dollars from peer reviewed arts funding via The Australia Council - for his own little fiefdom of favoured artists and companies. Back to Menzies way of doing things - political interference par la excellence.
3. The Prime Minister appoints himself Minister for Women and Indigenous Affairs and is like an absentee landlord - lots of things need fixing but it's not important enough.
DEFENDING DEFENSE - DENYING CLIMATE THREAT The total cost of sending Australian troops to the most recent Iraq war was about $2.5 billion.
The total commitment to operations in Afghanistan was far more expensive, at $9.3 billion.
Women and children of Australia can suffer: We want to bomb the Muslims to pieces, even though it costs so much!
Thousands of civilian lives have been lost, and new lives born deformed. Forget what you learn at school - Maslow's hierarchy of needs is destroyed by the Coalition invaders and their allies, corporate profiteers of war. Who wins any war? http://costsofwar.org/article/growth-corporate-power-and-profiteering
You've gotta laugh or you'll cry. Don't listen to the radio so much - dismantle the ABC! Protect your mental health yourself. Fascists love a starched ironed uniform - In post-WW1 MP Moseley from the West Midlands gathered a few London thugs together, coloquially called The Black Shirts.
Today in Australia Prime Minister Abbott's crew share the pride in Liberal blue, but they are not Liberals
- they are Conservative. Queensland Labor calls themTories.
Who needs to wait in long lines of traffic on the highway for Amberley's Open Day - we don't!
As my husband and I cultivate the garden hearing the bird sounds of kookaburra, double-barred finches, rainbow lorikeets and willy wigtails our peace is shattered by protectors of home security: F1-11's, Super Hornets, Caribou...
Reminds me of a sunny morning with a potential boy-friend in my Elwood/St. Kilda days. I was only 19 and didn't understand why the sound of airforce craft overhead made his body freeze, terror on his face.
He told me it was because he had been in the Israeli army. It was beyond my comprehension, 35 years ago.
AND THE WARS ON MOTHER EARTH demand 'fight or flight' response). Airplanes fly over my house stirring me to write poetry, and play Donovan.
SO,
Is the Abbott Government fascist? | Tasmanian Times asked in 2014. This May Day 2015 saw racist Nationalist men in Melbourne baying for a brawl against recent Muslim immigrants and refugees, encouraged by the rhetoric from Parliamentarians. What about the Truth of daily horrendous abuses evidenced in the Human Rights report and others? No Conscience for breaking international law on torture, children's rights, refugees - only about same sex couples getting married! Are The Greens now the only decent human beings who will shine the solar lights on the hill to alert injustice to our planet, our people, who would prevent the plight of human victims of persecution and wars?
The allegation that Wilson Security spied on Senator Sarah Hanson-Young is deeply troubling and must be investigated immediately by the AFP.
To spy on a Senator is obviously wrong on every level, including legally seeing as it's a serious offence to interfere in the duties of a Federal Parliamentarian
If this alleged spying on Senator Hanson-Young is the work of rogue Wilson employees then they should be sacked and legal proceedings initiated against them.
A Growing concern for me as a tight-rope walking member of the ALP is the bi-partisan slow waltz between the two "old" parties on so called National Security/border control/mandatory indefinite detention...
Asylum seeker whistleblowers muzzled by harsh penalties, metadata access
"The Law Council is concerned that the heightened secrecy provisions, as well as the broader powers to dismiss staff and contractors, may discourage legitimate whistle-blowers from speaking out publicly. To aid transparency, there should ... be a public interest disclosure exception to the secrecy provisions where the disclosure would, on balance, be in the public interest."
This recommendation was championed by Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young in her speech against the bill. "The bill entrenches secrecy by making it a criminal offence, punishable by two years imprisonment, for Department of Immigration employees to disclose information," she said, noting that employees could be "summarily fired" for leaking, with no right to pursue unfair dismissal. Hanson-Young said:
"This is an issue that is going to impact on 15,000 employees of the Department of Immigration. Those people deserve proper protections by this Parliament. Those people deserve to know that if there is something being done that is wrong, and which it is in the public interest to know, that the Senate has their backs. Those staff who we ask to go out onto the high seas to carry out these dangerous operations and to work in our detention centres to deal with the human misery of this policy, deserve to know that the Australian parliament has their backs. When there is a matter that is in breach of the law or in breach of government policy, or when there is a matter that is in breach of what is considered to be morally acceptable, those people deserve the opportunity to have a proper public interest test applied before they are simply thrown out on their ears."
When Julian Assange Wikileaked footage of war-crimes by U.S.A. soldiers like gunning down civilians and children etc and the then Labor Government under Rudd and Gillard shunned the principles of his actions I was baffled. Even my local branch of left-leaning union and social activists were against the whistle blowing Australian citizen. Fortunatley we have Independent Tasmanian MP former intelligence officer and whistle-blower against Howards foray into the Iraq invasion based on lies who will speak with integrity inn Parliament. With the Liberal backbenchers supporting an authoritarian approach to foreign fighters and populism a favourite political sport, how are we not stealthily stepping towards an Australian fascism? WHO'S GONNA SAVE US?
LEST WE FORGET First world's floral fields fertile with human waste Dictated, fucked up by well-paid diplomats, Poweful politicians playing pre-Risk board games Then duty done, suffering by neglect except free School dinners to nourish next generation of soldiers. Down the road from Westminster angry men gather Wearing black shirts, infamous new uniform, and In New South Wales, plenty of New Guards on the Harbour Making Humanist's disappear, leading to growing Mussolini hybrids in clubs with cigars and whores.
Hypnotised by Empire poppies, freed from Blood and bone soil. Was it worth it? What about a series of Duels instead? Olympiad rules of war call, On Guard Hitler! By Christ, those big boats of Jews in May 1939 Were not part of the plot of Canberra or Cuba. Fleeing Nazi death camps trying to keep afloat, Left to wonder if they would starve to death Or survive as left-overs of another man's Obsession to conquer and steal the crown jewels! The Hebrew race scape-goats again, such a Cryptically damned fate. The Status Quo commemorates slaughters, the Honourable members lapel pins flag flawed Patriotism, turning back boats again - Too many fleeing victims. Censorship is a means to a murderous end, Out of sight out of minds - bodies are Sacred if they belong to you, the War- Lords And P.M's whilst our cousins of the rest of The human race make voyages of the damned.
Driven insane in tent towns we will forget them, Send Chaplains to schools in case kids see the News, to be assured in the trust of God and Country, rationalise hypocracy. (c)copyright 2015 JMcNeill
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