Last week I posted a TikTok about why I quit my job in the NDIA call centre (run by Serco). It has now received 125k views and counting; and dozens of comments from other ex Serco employees and even some ex Agency staff about the toxic culture within the NDIA. It's so much worse than I thought.

*also* I have heard from ex colleagues that they were funnelled into the job by Unemployment Industry/Job Service Providers or whateverthefuck they're called. Those systems are intertwined and both of them are rotten.

yes, this will kill people, along with many other devastating costs borne by disabled people, our carers and our communities

In 18 years of closely watching federal budgets, I've never seen a budget measure with this level of social spending cuts (not even in Joe Hockey's 2014 budget). $36b in NDIS cuts over the forward estimates

But Justine Elliott said and her band of rusted idiots said........ Oh, never mind, Indue is still on the payroll

The Indue Card is a scam that our most vulnerable are forced to accept. This is a disgrace. #auspol

Pretty big cuts to the department of climate change etc, health disability + aging, and social services

While Gas firms reap untaxed giga profits, our most vulnerable are being punished by an unlawful system that hands over billions in public money to private corpos for the sole purpose of appeasing capital and keeping the middle class scared. #auspol #federalbudget2026-27

🧐

The ongoing unlawful payment cancellation saga in the employment services system has it listed as "unquantifiable". They don't know how much it is going to cost them. 🧵

🧵 Cruel, inefficient and counterproductive 'social security' measures continue, while the govt again refuses to #RaiseTheRate. A budget leaving 1 in 7 households (1 in 6 children) in poverty shows a government punching down. #auspol #inequality

Compulsory income management to continue #Budget2026

Which of course doesn't actually make any more houses, just means they might actually pickka young person over a pensioner when choosing who gets a roof

The Albanese government is funding and continuing the income control program and have hidden how much they're paying Indue to run the program through Services Australia. $202m for another five years to continue a program that in 2022 Labor said they'd abolish. 🧵

@clareoneilmp.bsky.social @chris-minns.bsky.social @australianlabor.bsky.social go to Google maps & type in Liverpool NSW & vast areas, including suburbs Casula, Green Valley, Lurnea, Cabramatta, Busby are shown, zoom in & vast numbers of 1960s Housing Commission Homes still stand. Do it again!

Government Housing Commission needed to build public housing rented at affordable rents. Housing is a fundamental human right. Taxpayers paying for profit providers to deliver social services is absurd and opens welfare to rorting by those who are supposed to be helping.

Just build public housing. We shouldn't be offering corporate landlords incentives through the social security system to house people, the government should just build enough public housing (NOT "community" housing) for everyone who needs it. michaelwest.com.au/budget-boost...

we worked very hard to get over a dozen Labor MPs to break ranks in the lead up to the 2023 budget, but since then have heard from MPs that they're not allowed to bring it up anymore

No one in govt is talking about before the budget, but just FYI, the level of Jobseeker is now 42% below the poverty line - worse than it was during the Howard years... live.thepoint.com.au

1.6 million people are in electricity and gas debt, with more people in debt being referred to collection agencies – this is only going to get worse as rents keep going up and the RBA makes more people unemployed. Wipe the debt. Stop the Bill Shock. www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

this has to have been what the abc wanted when they flat out lied in the headline, there is no other explanation that could explain why they included people taking days off work via sick leave in the stat

In which the ABC's national work reporter uncritically reports that sick leave entitlements are a form of income support equivalent to welfare payments.

Mourners are encouraged to wear pink to the vigils and light a candle for the Warlpiri girl who was allegedly murdered in Alice Springs. Hundreds of people are expected to gather at vigils held nationwide on Thursday to mourn and remember five-year-old Kumanjayi Little Baby on the one-week anniver…

Come and do a thing in person. We’re covering the current (un)employment services mess, what we can do to protect individual’s’ rights and actions we can take collectively. It’ll be lovely despite the subject matter because we’ll be together.

I wonder if this figure also includes ABC journalists who’ve taken leave of their senses

But those problems are not solved by cutting public services, spending savings on tax cuts, or shrinking the state. If anything, doing so would deepen the very inequalities the intergenerational frame claims to address New from @jaycoonan.bsky.social @maiyazize.bsky.social @antipovertycentre.org

The ABC reporting that regular welfare indexation is "draining the government's coffers" is incredibly dark stuff. all aboard the austerity train

Next week we're expecting an announcement on employment services as contracts are ending in a couple of years. Whatever is said, it won't be good. You can join us a few days after budget in Naarm/ Melbourne to hear more. You can also sign up for updates. linktr.ee/antipovertyc...

Because I've love to see remote/indigenous folk in particular tell their energy rip off stories/get debts wiped, can you spread the word @firstnationscen.bsky.social @indigenousparty.bsky.social @cqjewellery.bsky.social @robertarnol.bsky.social @big-tony.bsky.social ? Thanks in advance :)

Sure. But Tim Wilson is leading a class war on behalf of the rich. The current system doesn't work for the old or the young, it only works for the wealthy. Older people without assets go homeless and jobless, as young families without wealth struggle.

FOI docs show around 650 social security recipients were to be paid around $900k in compensation (in total) for unlawful cancellations of their payments under the Targeted Compliance Framework www.canberratimes.com.au/story/923278...

Along with Anika Legal and the Consumer Policy Research Centre, we asked over a thousand people for their thoughts on our housing system. Their answers helped inform the vision we set out in a landmark report: a vision of renting as an essential service.

Most essential services "run" by state and federal governments are mostly private and the companies pay little tax. Public housing? Privatised. Public Transport*? Privatised. Social services? Privatised. You rent these services and fund them through paying tax.

If you're behind on your electricity or gas bills and struggling to pay them off please get in touch, we're keen to share stories with journalists and also help try and get some debts wiped. Comment below or send us a DM.

The Albanese government will contract the same private "human service" companies, the same orgs who are currently being accused of milking the scheme, to test how disabled people really are... in their own homes. The money always flows to their mates, not the people who need it.

Please come, this is going to be awesome

If you're in Naarm/ Melb come join us on 14 May to hear about the unlawful payment cancellation scandal. We'll be screening a short doco and hearing from people in the system and how to fight back. Sign up or register for upcoming events near you 👇 events.humanitix.com/profit-from-...

"The only reform equal to the scale of the crisis is to urgently end handouts for property investors [and] provide high quality, beautiful public homes." Statement from us + House You, Everybody's Home, @betterrenting.bsky.social, @thinkforward.bsky.social, Tomorrow Movement and FYA.

Treating peak bodies of charities or CEOs of social housing companies as the go to representatives of homeless politics has really held back homeless rights and organising in australia

No public housing authority is hosting a CEO forum. Corporate charities & "non profits" are incentivised to put their own interests first, not those of the people they claim to "help". This isn't shocking, it's the inevitable end point of governments outsourcing our basic needs to careerists.

Few people who aren't directly affected by it understand how intensely racist the welfare system is: from forced unpaid labour, to compulsory income control with cashless welfare, to the extraordinary rate of penalties doled out for "failing" to complete compulsory activities. If you're affected 👇

people simply love it when you storm out of the gates to support an illegal war, then lecture them about personal responsibility after it makes their lives worse

“In response to [the global fuel] crisis, the Antipoverty Centre has called for an urgent increase to Centrelink payments to help people weather the storm." - Kristin O’Connell, an antipoverty activist with the @antipovertycentre.org. Read the full piece on The Point: https://theaus.in/4dD9e1R

“That decision to stop compulsory activities, taken almost 6 years ago to the day, was coupled with a payment that doubled JobSeeker, lifting it to the poverty line. These were decisions that met the moment we were in.“

Meals on Wheels is a life saver, prepared and delivers decent meals to homes, allowing thousands of seniors and PWD to remain independent at home. Foodbank is just a middle man

The @antipovertycentre.org said it is “unacceptable” that people in poverty are being forced to “spend even more of the little money they have” on fuel or taxis. Read the full piece on The Point: https://theaus.in/47sa8u6

@tanyaplibersekmp.bsky.social Raise the rate

moar coverage: thepoint.com.au/news/260326-...

"For someone on jobseeker the cost of fulfilling mutual obligations has just skyrocketed past their ability to pay given the truly meagre level of jobseeker"