#Australian Labor Government

[claraameliapond]

Tanya Plibersek on the causes of violence against women, now recognised as a national crisis

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[trekkitkat]

Because it appears to have been forgotten in a matter of days. A reminder that the current leading political party of Australia, rejected an official investigation into the sexual abuse of indigenous children.

They campaigned for months for government representation for indigenous people, talking about healing and reconciliation, then four days later, they rejected a Royal Commision investigation into the abuse of indigenous children, and no one asked why!!!!!

Do they care about indigenous people or not?????

Or do they only want to talk about it when it can be a pretty campaign of smiles, music and ceremonies. They don't want to deal with the horror of toddlers being victims of pedophiles and children on the street because they have nowhere safe to go.

The government of this country disgusts me.

[nando161mando]

We bring a sort of "Palestine will be free" vibe to the ALP Christmas party at Albanese office that Labor hacks don't really like

#ausgov #politas

[simplegenius042]

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[realasslesbian]

So subsequent to being a robodebt victim I sort of fell into this funk of ‘not only is there no point in trying, but in fact it’s better if I don’t, bc every time I have ever tried to do something good it’s backfired horrifically, so I’m just going to make like a tree and exist, no trying to do anything for myself, just drink some water, get some sunlight, and that is all’. And recently, after a few years of living a tree-like existence, I thought ‘you know, this is illogical, like there is no rational correlation between ‘trying’ and the universe taking a big shit on you, let’s just try again, yeah?’ So I signed up for a one hour a week job and the Australian government took that as an excuse to call up all of my previous employers of the last decade to ask for payslips and as an aside tell them all I’m homeless. Additionally all my online government accounts are being overrun with entirely fake income data from a century ago, not to mention apparently thousands of dollars in superannuation I have never had. And the logical part of me is just like ‘ok cool yeah, obviously they’re mistaken, someone just got their wires crossed, it’ll work out’, but that’s exactly what I told myself the last time a whole bunch of fabricated data was flying around my government accounts bc of robodebt, so I already know what’s coming. In conclusion: irrational belief system confirmed✅

[thisselflovecamebacktome]

I’ve alluded to the fact that I’ve been having housing issues with the ACT Government for the better part of this year for the last few months, but up until now, I have not found the words to properly criticise the program. And though I am one person with an less than popular blog making what may be the longest post I ever will, I hope that you will all read and even reblog my experience in hopes that it will stop misinformation on the program and enlighten others on why tenants involved are so distressed.

In January this year, the ACT government called my mother (the official tenant of the house her, my brother and I have lived in for 25 years) to ask her if she would like to take part in the VOLUNTARY Growing and Renewing Public Housing scheme. She said no and was told that she would be taken off the list and not contacted again, impliedly for the rest of her life in this house, but told that if she changed her mind, she could contact them.

On February 23rd, the ACT government contacted my mother again, this time to tell her that all three of us would soon be required to move. Despite Yvette Berry and other ministers claiming otherwise, this communication did not come with a knock on the door and explanation. It simply came as a vague pamphlet in the mail. At the time it was delivered, I was at work (a job I have since had to quit in part due to the hostile nature of the government throughout this process as I will explain later) and received a very distressed call from my 64 year old, disabled mother. Later that night, we contacted Minister Berry in good faith as she has been considerate and helpful to us in the past regarding housing issues we were facing. 

In response, she had ACT Housing call us to tell us that the program was no longer voluntary and we were expected to move as it was no longer suitable or maintainable for them to keep up (a laughable statement when you consider we have not had any maintenance for the last 15 years bar essential plumbing which we had to fight for) but that employees of ACT Housing would come to our house and walk us through the process and assured us that any requests we had of the new property could be fulfilled. Out of good faith and fear that we would be offered something worse if we didn’t try to work with them, we agreed to the meeting but made it clear that we would be keeping our options open.

On March 3rd, I read a story from the ACT Council of Social Service (ACTCOSS) where their CEO, Emma Campbell, criticised the Growing and Renewing Public Housing scheme and noted that over 300 houses had not been given the door knock explanation that the ministers claimed were given and like us, were just given a vague pamphlet instead. She also noted that much like my mother, the vast majority of the tenants targeted were above the age of 60 and/or disabled. I emailed her that night to tell her about our situation and spoke to her via phone in the coming days to ask her whether she thought we should go ahead with this meeting with ACT Housing. And though she could not give personalised advice, she asked us to keep her in the loop regardless.

On March 8th, I took the day off work and ACT Housing came for the meeting. Upon them entering, my mother and I made it very clear that we would be recording the conversation, to which they begrudgingly accepted. 

From the moment they walked into the house, it was clear that they were not going to work with us and resented the fact that I (both as her daughter and a law graduate) was there with my mother. When questioned about what we want, they contradicted Minister Berry’s assurance that we would receive all we wanted and refused nearly everything we asked for. The only thing that they would guarantee is that we would receive a 3 bedroom place. They made it clear that there is no 3 bedroom places in our area, let alone ones that would fit our requirements of having a disabled person, as they are the ones being sold off. They would not guarantee us having a garden (something vital to my mother’s mental health over the years) or that our furniture and plants would be moved without out of pocket expenses. And that was the least worrying of the issues. 

Throughout the meeting, they did all they could to push us against even entertaining buying the house before finally admitting that the house was not unfit to live it, it was being sold off at auction. When discussing the potential of seeing new properties before making a decision, they told us that we would have to sign off paperwork to move before seeing any properties AND they would not be giving enough notice for my brother and I to take time off work to be present for the viewers, thereby isolating my disabled, older mother. Thankfully my then boss was extremely flexible and said that he would accept any time off, just let him know as soon as possible, but that only barely made it less stressful. Nor did it help my brother who we also wanted to be part of this process. Finally, and perhaps most worrying of all, we had to fight in order for them to even ask if we could get some kind of confirmation that this would never happen again, even after us raising concerns after knowing people that got put into nice places for 6 months before being moved to worse places without the precedence to rebut it that they would have had in their first house. They were also super vague with any questions we had or the timing at which we would need to move.

In the days after, ACT Housing came to the house uninvited and without notice (which is illegal) while I was at work to intimidate my mother and only left when they realised my brother had seen what happened and my mother took down their car’s plate number.

I contacted Emma again that night and we corresponded via email and phone for the few days after. Alongside agreeing with my mother and I that we should get legal representation at that point, she noted that she had a number of meetings with ACT Housing and Minister Berry coming up and she would keep us in the loop.

On March 16th, I went in to Canberra Community Law during a lunch break in hopes of setting up a meeting. Unfortunately, as I was not the tenant, I was told that my mother would need to phone in to make one. Thankfully, my then boss was incredibly flexible and allowed me to work from home on the 17th so that I could help my mother set this up. As you can imagine, with 300+ households in the same position as us, there was a wait and the soonest we could get in was March 29th, meaning that I had to take more time off of work. During the meeting, we asked every question we could think about whether it be about the legality of what they’re doing, whether we had right of first refusal or even what processes could we take to buy the house. Our lawyer ended by saying that she’d talk to their property expert and call us back on April 1st, meaning, you guessed it, I had to take more time off work. We received advice on all of our questions, but ultimately were told that the least disruptive way forward would be to put in a exemption request when they officially asked as to move as the pamphlet we received was not legally enforceable.

Behind the scenes, ACTCOSS and Canberra Community Law were doing media conferences and having meetings with the ACT Government to put pressure on them to at least be more transparent about the process as my family was far from the only ones feeling overwhelmed and unheard during this process. This coverage held off the ACT Government and got them to announce that there would be a panel looking over the exemption requests, not one of their workers. Given as such, my mother and I decided to hold off on putting the exemption in until the panel was formed or we were advised to.

On April 20th Emma contacted us again to confirm a group meeting with everyone negatively affected by this program which would be held on April 27th. Though I am grateful that it was later in the day and in general for all the work that ACTCOSS and Canberra Community Law has done to help us, it was another day that I had to leave work early to attend. From even the beginning stages of the meeting, it became glaringly obvious that despite being a 64 year old woman with mental and physical (including mobility) disabilities, my mother was one of if not the healthiest of tenants and most “moveable” because of it. As witnessed in the news this week, one such example of this was a 92 year old blind woman. We also quickly learned that the 25 year tenure we had in our current house was peanuts compared to the time most of the others which had been effected have lived in theirs. Most people at the meeting had lived in their house for 40 to 60 years. It also became extremely clear that the tale being spun about moving single or even couple tenants out of 3+ bedroom houses and us being “unfortunate collateral damage” was just blatantly false. We also found out that the intimidation and isolation tactics used on my mother were used on nearly every household who attended, alongside unwanted maintenance visits to install devices (air-conditioning etc) into houses that they planned to pull down anyway, just to seem like they were doing something, especially given that again, like us, ACT Housing had refused to renovate these houses in over a decade. In one case, the son of the tenant had to spend $15,000AUD to build a ramp so that his mother could legally be let out of physical rehab as her house was previously not fit for her to live in. 

It was at this point my mother and I felt compelled to put in our exemption request. We also sent it to Ministers Berry and Vassoratti (both of who welcomed correspondence in the media at the time) only for Minister Vassorotti to pass the responsibility to Minister Berry and Minister Berry not to respond at all.

Meanwhile, after hearing our stories, ACTCOSS and Canberra Community Law have again since been contacting the media, the ACT Ombudsman and ACT Government to try and reconcile the situation and gain more clarity. In response, the ACT Government has grown more hostile towards them and saying that ACTCOSS is just causing tenants more stress.

On June 14th, we received a call from ACT Housing saying that the panel to examine the requests was ready and we were to organise everything we want to say and be at a meeting to discuss it. The date of the meeting? June 16th; less than 48 hours after the phone call. During the phone call, it was implied that this would be the only chance we had to speak on the matter (again unlike what Minister Berry has since alleged) but that we would not be present for the final decision. There was also no talk of being able to nominate a representative to go instead unlike what Minister Berry alleges. My mother and I declined to attend but stated that we would like a copy of everything relevant to why they made the decision. ACT Housing got flustered (”Everything?!” was their immediate response) and told us that the decision is not appealable. We pushed the matter saying that we still wanted it and eventually they agreed and hung up. Stories have since come out that over 350 households have already been moved, 26 are refusing to and only 9 exemptions have been given.

As things stand, my mother, brother and I are sitting ducks just waiting to see what happens next. And the sad part about it is, that at least for my household, it didn’t need to be like this. While it was not ideal, we would have moved willingly had push come to shove so long as we trusted the ACT Government. But in this process, they have done absolutely nothing to indicate that we should put our trust in them. There has been no sense of even meeting us halfway and every action taken on their end has felt underhanded and unjust. 

The worst part about it is that despite so many people seeing it as immoral, we have still been treated like we should suck it up because it is the “lesser of two evils” and “it benefits society more”. And I cannot help but laugh at the irony of knowing how Labor says the same about getting people off of Centrelink, out of psychological clinics and “on their own feet” because before this whole process, they had at least one more person who was. But their state government’s actions has disrupted my life to such a degree during this process that it will take months, if not years for me to fully recover and get back to the point of mostly not relying on the government which I was at literally less than half a year ago. The stress, flexibility of time, and physical work this has caused me contributed to me having stroke like symptoms catching long covid (which I am only just starting to see recovery signs for now, 4 months after the fact) and being mentally unstable enough to go to more therapy sessions than usual, leading me to quit my full time job due to illness and the amount of time I was taking off for these meetings. For reference, I am a 26 year old who is probably in the best position out of everyone here to move. I cannot imagine how cruelly the 92 year old blind woman or those in similar positions that I met at that group meeting feel that they have been treated. And despite what Yvette Berry or any other minister has said, that is the sentiment that ACTCOSS and Canberra Community Law has been fighting for this whole time.

[mossadegh]

• Australian media archive on Iran (1951-1954)

[karingottschalk]

Independent Australia: Albanese Government hits the restart button on NBN

Independent Australia: Albanese Government hits the restart button on NBN

link “After a decade of inaction by the Coalition, Labor is set to put the NBN back on track…. The overarching policy at that stage was to build an NBN that would benefit Australian society and the economy. The focus was on families, communities and businesses — 94 per cent of the population would be linked to a first-class fibre-to-the-home network. This would provide people across Australia, in…

[andrewwhalan]

Abbott After 100 Days : Policies versus the Pamphlett

Abbott After 100 Days : Policies versus the Pamphlett http://wp.me/p1D1R7-gM

There has been much written about the Abbott Government and its achievements in its first 100 days. They’ve even brought out a pamphlett of their achievements. But if one had studied their election pamphlett, the clues to their performance were already there. And the giveaway is mainly in the presentation and only some of the content! Which describes the last 100 days! The introduction stated the…

[trekkitkat]

The same political parties, that just spent months of time and hundreds of millions of dollars campaigning for a Voice to Parliament for Indigenous Australians, just voted against a Royal Commision investigation into the abuse of Indigenous children.

What the actual hell????? All that talk about Indigenous rights and recognition, about reconciliation. And a couple days later, the Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs, an Indigenous woman and daughter of an Elder, made a call for an official investigation into the sexual abuse of Indigenous children, and it was voted down.

Showed their true colours quickly. Nothing but a bunch of political grandstanders who can talk the talk but won't walk the walk. They don't care about Indigenous people.

[nando161mando]

Nothing like complaining about how screwed the country is while still voting for the same parties that refuse to do anything about it.

[everything-anything3345]

This is what I mean about a stolen election that has occurred in Australia. 70% of Australians are embarrassed by their so called new Prime Minister.

[fatehbaz]

The government of Australia’s northeastern state of Queensland has stunned rights experts by suspending its Human Rights Act for a second time this year to be able to lock up more children.

The ruling Labor Party last month [August 2023] pushed through a suite of legislation to allow under-18s – including children as young as 10 – to be detained indefinitely in police watch houses, because changes to youth justice laws – including jail for young people who breach bail conditions – mean there are no longer enough spaces in designated youth detention centres to house all those being put behind bars. The amended bail laws, introduced earlier this year [2023], also required the Human Rights Act to be suspended.

The moves have shocked Queensland Human Rights Commissioner Scott McDougall, who described human rights protections in Australia as “very fragile”, with no laws that apply nationwide.

“We don’t have a National Human Rights Act. Some of our states and territories have human rights protections [...]. But they’re not constitutionally entrenched so they can be overridden by the parliament,” he told Al Jazeera. The Queensland Human Rights Act – introduced in 2019 – protects children from being detained in adult prison so it had to be suspended for the government to be able to pass its legislation.

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Earlier this year, Australia’s Productivity Commission reported that Queensland had the highest number of children in detention of any Australian state. Between 2021-2022, the so-called “Sunshine State” recorded a daily average of 287 people in youth detention, compared with 190 in Australia’s most populous state New South Wales, the second highest. [...]

[M]ore than half the jailed Queensland children are resentenced for new offences within 12 months of their release.

Another report released by the Justice Reform Initiative in November 2022 showed that Queensland’s youth detention numbers had increased by more than 27 percent in seven years.

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The push to hold children in police watch houses is viewed by the Queensland government as a means to house these growing numbers. Attached to police stations and courts, a watch house contains small, concrete cells with no windows and is normally used only as a “last resort” for adults awaiting court appearances or required to be locked up by police overnight. [...]

However, McDougall said he has “real concerns about irreversible harm being caused to children” detained in police watch houses, which he described as a “concrete box”. “[A watch house] often has other children in it. There’ll be a toilet that is visible to pretty much anyone,” he said. “Children do not have access to fresh air or sunlight. And there’s been reported cases of a child who was held for 32 days in a watch house whose hair was falling out. [...]"

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He also pointed out that 90 percent of imprisoned children and young people were awaiting trial.

“Queensland has extremely high rates of children in detention being held on remand. So these are children who have not been convicted of an offence,” he told Al Jazeera.

Despite Indigenous people making up only 4.6 percent of Queensland’s population, Indigenous children make up nearly 63 percent of those in detention. The rate of incarceration for Indigenous children in Queensland is 33 times the rate of non-Indigenous children. Maggie Munn, a Gunggari person and National Director of First Nations justice advocacy group Change the Record, told Al Jazeera the move to hold children as young as 10 in adult watch houses was “fundamentally cruel and wrong”. [...]

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[Critics] also told Al Jazeera that the government needed to stop funding “cops and cages” and expressed concern over what [they] described as the “systemic racism, misogyny, and sexism” of the Queensland Police Service.

In 2019, police officers and other staff were recorded joking about beating and burying Black people and making racist comments about African and Muslim people. The recordings also captured sexist remarks [...]. The conversations were recorded in a police watch house, the same detention facilities where Indigenous children can now be held indefinitely.

Australia has repeatedly come under fire at an international level regarding its treatment of children and young people in the criminal justice system. The United Nations has called repeatedly for Australia to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to the international standard of 14 years old [...].

[MR], Queensland’s minister for police and corrective services, [...] – who introduced the legislation, which is due to expire in 2026 – is unrepentant, defending his decision last month [August 2023].

“This government makes no apology for our tough stance on youth crime,” he was quoted as saying in a number of Australian media outlets.

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Text by: Ali MC. "Australian state suspends human rights law to lock up more children". Al Jazeera. 18 September 2023. At: aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/18/australian-state-suspends-human-rights-law-to-lock-up-more-children [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

[thisselflovecamebacktome]

I am once again pointing out that Barr’s government is creating a environmentally friendly haven for the rich rather than an environmentally friendly and liveable city for all within the ACT.

[afeelgoodblog]

Best News of Last Week - July 3, 2023

🐕 - This dog is 'disc'-overing hidden treasures! Get ready for the 'paws'-itively successful fundraiser, Daisy's Discs!

1. Most unionized US rail workers now have new sick leave

More than 60% of U.S. unionized railroad workers at major railroads are now covered by new sick leave agreements, a trade group said Monday.

Last year railroads came under fire for not agreeing to paid sick leave during labor negotiations.

2. Missing teen found after being lost in the wilderness for 50 hours

Esther Wang, 16, had been hiking with three other people through the Maple Ridge park on Tuesday.

The group made it to Steve’s lookout around 2:45 p.m. that day.However, when they headed back down to the campsite, after about 15 minutes of hiking, the group leader realized Wang was missing. They returned to the lookout to look for Wang but couldn’t find her. The leader headed to the trail entrance to notify a park ranger and police.

“Esther Wang has been located. She’s healthy, she is happy and she’s with family.”

3. A dog has retrieved 155 discs from woods. They’ll be on sale soon, with proceeds going to the park in West Virginia where they were found

Meet Daisy, the yellow Labrador retriever with a unique talent for finding lost Frisbee golf discs at Grand Vue Park in West Virginia. Four years ago, while on a walk with her owner Kelly Mason, Daisy discovered a disc in the woods and proudly brought it back. Since then, Daisy's obsession with finding stray discs has grown, and she has collected an impressive cache of 155 discs.

Mason and park officials have now come up with a plan to return the discs to their owners if they are labeled, and any unclaimed discs will be sold as a fundraiser to support the park's disc golf courses. Daisy's Discs is expected to be a success, with many excited about the possibility of recovering their lost discs thanks to Daisy's remarkable skills.

4. Australian earless dragon last seen in 1969 rediscovered in secret location

A tiny earless dragon feared to be extinct in the wild has been sighted for the first time in more than 50 years – at a location that is being kept secret to help preservation efforts.

The Victorian grassland earless dragon, Tympanocryptis pinguicolla, has now been rediscovered in the state, according to a joint statement issued by the Victorian and federal Labor governments on Sunday.

5. Detroit is going to power 100% of its municipal buildings with solar

All of Detroit’s municipal buildings are going to be powered by neighborhood solar as part of the city’s efforts to combat climate change – check out the city’s cool grassroots plan. Meet Detroit Rock Solar City.

The city has determined that it’s going to need around 250 acres of solar panels in order to achieve 100% solar power for its municipal buildings.

6. Canada Officially Bans Cosmetic Testing on Animals

The fight for cruelty-free beauty in Canada has seen a significant breakthrough as the Canadian government legislates a full ban on cosmetic animal testing and trade, marking a victory for Animal rights advocates and eco-conscious consumers.

This landmark decision is part of the Budget Implementation Act (Bill C-47), not only prohibiting cosmetic animal testing but also putting an end to the sale of cosmetics that use new animal testing data for safety substantiation.

7. Belize certified malaria-free by WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) has certified Belize as malaria-free, following the country’s over 70 years of continued efforts to stamp out the disease.

“WHO congratulates the people and government of Belize and their network of global and local partners for this achievement”, said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “Belize is another example of how, with the right tools and the right approach, we can dream of a malaria-free future.”

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That's it for this week :)

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