Nobody Deserves Poverty

Housing advocates track rental availability, affordability as 2032 Games loom Homelessness advocates fear housing affordability and availability will fall short of the finish line come the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

They should all become public housing

Around 2,000 units will be built around Brisbane's RNA showgrounds to house 10,000 athletes
Ms Caniglia is calling for greater clarity around what portion will become social or affordable homes
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11...

150 police visits in 20 months: Indigenous mother takes action after her boys subjected to ‘relentless’ checks Exclusive: A family has launched a court case against NSW police alleging racial discrimination is behind excessive bail checks

Often police visited in the middle of the night, or in the early hours of the morning when the children were asleep.

“They would knock on the door, bang on the windows with their torches, shine torches through the windows. It was relentless,”

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

This 💯

Our retelling of our traumas over and over and over and over ..

Retraumatises, exhausts, invalidates us

Then if you have the added bonus of being #ADHD you risk a debilitating episode of #RSD when they refuse to help you..

#cPTSD
#TheTelling
#systemic
#cognitivedissonance

What are my rights when I need to see a specialist doctor – and what if I can’t afford the fee? Did you know you can ask your GP for an indefinite referral – so you don’t need a new one every year? Or ask to be sent for free to a public hospital clinic? Here are ways to keep costs down

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

$1,000 for a one-hour appointment: why are fees for Australia’s specialist doctors skyrocketing? Out-of-pocket costs are increasing faster than inflation and population growth – but increasing Medicare rebates might not be a magic bullet

Many experts consistently refer to the lack of publicly available information around what fees specialists are charging, pointing to the failure of the much-derided Medical Costs Finder website to provide that service.

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

‘Set up to fail’: ATO outsourcing to private call centres focused on boosting profit not helping Australians Consumer advocates raise significant concerns as union says contractors use lower-paid staff to boost profit

Call centre staff at one of the private operators typically earn $26.70 an hour, which equates to an annual salary of about $52,800
Workers can increase their pay through meeting call handling targets, creating an incentive to keep calls short.

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

My bdays in 3 days and my bday present it to be able to do a decent grocery shop if you’re wondering about how it’s going for those of us in poverty 😂

"being asked to relive bad experiences is common. We have to keep reliving things to make complaints to get change (which often fails due to power and money differentials), and then organisations also want to know these details. At what cost?"

normalness.com/2025/11/07/t...

‘Poor doors’: affordable housing tenants have to use back entrance to access Barangaroo apartments Those paying discounted rent at Watermans Residences can’t use pool or gym, either. Critics say segregation ‘a dystopian microcosm of housing inequality’

"Affordable" housing isn't even for poor people, it's for people whose wages haven't kept pace with Australia's property investment as passive income fetish. Way to reinforce that society values hedge fund managers more than it values nurses 👍

#AusPol

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Technical Changes No. 2) Bill 2025 Type: Government Portfolio: Social Services Originating house: House of Representatives Status: Before Senate Parliament no: 48 Summary Amends the: Social Security Act 1991 to: validate the use of apportioning employment income when calculating the rate of a mean-tested social security payment for entitlement periods between 1 July 1991 and 6 December 2020; and A New Tax System (Family Assistance) (Administration) Act 1999, Paid Parental Leave Act 2010, Social Security Act 1991 and Student Assistance Act 1973 to expand the special circumstances waiver regimes; provide for a standardised and indexed small debt waiver threshold of $250; and provide for a one-off waiver of the Commonwealth’s right to recover small undetermined debts. Also establishes a resolution scheme to provide a resolution payment to persons whose debts have been affected by income apportionment.

The bill establishes a redress scheme for those identified to have received unlawful debts.

The government were also seeking to retrospectively validate apportionment debts—why would they do that if they'd agreed to repay them?

To cover off Chaplin's expected High Court appeal.

Statement on Centrelink debts decision Legal Aid NSW acknowledges the decision last week regarding the DSS’s calculation of Centrelink debts and encourages the department to consider waiving the historical debts.

You've been asking me why they introduced these amendments—I cannot tell you.

This bill was central to the government's legal strategy re: unlawful apportionment debts and a recent Federal Court decision affirming DSS' preferred method of recalculating them.

www.legalaid.nsw.gov.au/about-us/new...

Enacted and foreshadowed legislation limits the public importance of the matter 23 In its application, Legal Aid contends that the “public importance” of the proceeding for the purposes of s 35A(a)(i) of the Judiciary Act 1903 (Cth) lies in the significance of the interpretative question to a large cohort of social security debts calculated under affected provisions of the SSA: SLA[18]. 24 Two legislative developments mean that there is no such issue of public importance. 25 First, the Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (Simplifying Income Reporting and Other Measures) Act 2020 (Cth) (2020 Amendment Act) carved employment income out of point 1067G-H23 (and similar provisions relating to social security payments other than Youth Allowance) and made fresh, specific provision for the allocation of employment income to instalment periods. The 2020 Amendment Act commenced on 7 December 2020. The issue of statutory construction in this proceeding only affected the calculation of social security entitlements by reference to employment income prior to that date. It is for this reason that the cohort of persons identified by LegalAid as affected by this proceeding are those with historic social security debts that arose prior to 7 December 2020: SLA[18]. 26 Secondly, the 2025 Bill would render the issues of statutory construction raised in Ground 2 of the special leave application irrelevant to the resolution of questions about historic entitlements under the SSA. That is because the Bill would provide that those questions are to be resolved by reference to the methodology for the allocation of employment income set out in proposed s 1117D of the SSA (Sch 1 of the Bill), rather than the provisions in issue in this proceeding: see proposed s 1117D(14).

The proposed appeal raises issues of public importance 16. The Secretary has not shown that the proposed appeal lacks public importance. The 2025 Bill is not an Act and has no bearing on whether special leave should be granted. The courts “can only act upon the law as it is” and do not “speculate upon alterations in the law that may be made in the future”. The Secretary invites the Court to engage in that kind of speculation: see RS2 [17]. In any event, the Secretary has not explained how it is said the Bill (if enacted in its current form) would “determine” the issues raised by the proposed appeal: RSI [3]; RS2 [4]. Disposition 17. Special leave should be granted. If special leave is refused, there should be no order for costs (which the Secretary has not sought). Dated 18 September 2025 Kateena O’Gorman Laura Hilly Tim Farhall Glyn Ayres James Hogan Victoria Legal Aid Solicitors for the Applicant

The Commonwealth argued in this hearing that the High Court appeal should not proceed, as the retrospective measures in the bill resolve any legal questions.

They may have had a point, had the bill been passed. I'm not sure it would have been a good one. In any event, the appeal will now be heard 🙂

National Access to Justice and Pro Bono Conference MELBOURNE 2025 Wednesday 29 October - Friday 31 October 2025 Grand Hyatt Melbourne

The Albanese Government had everything they needed to get this bill passed last week and that was the outcome we'd all prepared ourselves for.

Last Thursday, when I learned of the proposed police amendments—the entire pro bono law sector was attending their annual conference in Melbourne.

By creating some Parliamentary and media opposition to the amendments and by the sum of all sorts of manoeuvrings and spectacle on transparency etc in the Senate, the bill did not make it to a vote by yesterday's adjournment.

The day of Mr. Chaplin's special leave hearing.

bsky.app/profile/mkla...

The Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Technical Changes No. 2) Bill 2025 failed to pass the Senate this session following a healthy dose of luck and community opposition to last-minute Labor amendments to legislate an extraordinary expansion of police powers.

👇

I obviously will never shut up about anything and neither should you but it's entirely possible they won't want to bring it back now the appeal is going ahead. And the Minister's tantrum yesterday was utterly poisonous for the perception of this thing. Those amendments WILL be scrutinised now.

From the Centrelink community on Reddit Explore this post and more from the Centrelink community

I've long criticised the dehumanising and patriarchal partner income test embedded everywhere in the Australian welfare state. The tax on love really does hurt families, and has a real impact on relationship formation or termination.

www.reddit.com/r/Centrelink...

"“The Government is trying to pass legislation that would allow police to cancel Centrelink payments for people who have not been found guilty of any offence."

Holy moly. This is unbelievable stuff.

What does Labor even stand for any more?

Many of the groups calling on @tanyaplibersekmp.bsky.social to abandon her plan to involve police & ministers in cancelling Centrelink payments for someone accused of a serious offence work directly with people affected by family violence.

To suggest they don’t take it seriously is vile. Apologise.

broke: food vouchers

woke: liveable welfare payments for all who need them including those in low paid jobs

bespoke: pay your fucking employees enough for them to live comfortably

what is wrong with the social services minister and why is she in charge of policies that are supposed to be about supporting and caring for people

AI-tainted Deloitte report was worse than previously thought Non-existent laws and a misnamed judge were among concerns raised with Deloitte about its artificial intelligence-tarnished report.

AI-tainted Deloitte report was worse than previously thought: "Department of Employment and Workplace Relations staff identified 59 potential errors in a 'quick review' of the report" after The AFR first reported claims that it included AI-induced flaws. www.afr.com/politics/ai-...

A new FOI into the Deloitte nonsense has revealed:
-there were MORE AI errors in the Deloitte report than previously admitted
-DEWR knew about this for weeks & did nothing
-DEWR's Secretary lied in Estimates, when saying Deloitte never apologised to her
archive.is/F8qtG#select...

Can't afford to be in a relationship with a person who is unemployed or disabled... seems bad!

Placing the person who is unemployed or disabled in a position of absolute dependency on a partner, without any financial autonomy... seems bad!

'Punished before conviction': Is this new welfare law a national shame? Just what is the government's grand plan when it comes to welfare cuts?

"This move by the Federal Government demonstrates its investment in punitive measures above the social determinants, including social security, for safety such as strong families and communities." – Thalia Anthony

Read the full article 👇 (if you can't access the link, send us a DM)

Asking again whether the minister doesn’t UNDERSTAND these changes, or is intentionally misleading the public…

"It's going to have a disproportionate impact on Aboriginal people who are already overpoliced and are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system," – Hannah McGlade

Now, Tanya Plibersek, the minister for social services and ever the peacemaker, told morning television this week that there would need to be strong evidence and that cutting off benefits wouldn't be quite as cut and dried as all that. "After considering any dependents, making sure that we look after the dependents, that person can have their social security benefit cancelled the same way they would if they were waiting on remand to be tried for a serious crime." But guess who this amendment is going to impact the most? No guesses needed. Hannah McGlade, a member of the UN permanent forum on Indigenous issues and an Aboriginal human rights law expert, is blunt: "It's going to have a disproportionate impact on Aboriginal people who are already overpoliced and are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system," she says. There is systemic discrimination against Aboriginal people in Australia - and that's never really been addressed by this government. A bit of tinkering here and there. But we know dispossession leads to poverty and as McGlade puts it: "We mustn't underestimate the impact of poverty and its relationship to crime."

Ty @jennaprice.bsky.social for this article (🔗 below), particularly for sharing a quote that exposes the minister actively lying about what her proposal does.

It will not at all work like a payment suspension for someone on remand – it is a payment cancellation and there is no access to ART review.

Doing Advocacy work for the AUWU shows me the shit people in need have to put up with because the government doesn't care.

It's hard reading these stories.

It should be affecting them equally.

They're too important to worry about the cares of the little people who don't donate to them.

It is a peculiar quirk of the Australian social security system that when given the option to either engage with Centrelink for the disability support pension, or work to death for slightly better yet still poverty level wages, many women will choose the non-centrelink option, and try to hug it

And oh look, a couple posts down my feed and here's part of why:
bsky.app/profile/davi...