"Black-headed Ibis Flock" - created from photos of weathered drippy paintwork on an old wall. #birds #ibis #waterbirds #waders #wildlifeart #wildlife #noai #wetland

Inequality campaigners have highlighted that Australia’s new rich list shows the wealth of our billionaires has surged by almost $50,000 a minute in the past year. Yes, $50,000 per minute! www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

so funny that they got breathless coverage about a "massive overhaul" to employment services, when the details are like "we're replacing the job plan with an employment goal plan"

June 1st

Whenever I hear of ppl donating groceries, I always hope someone's donating Zymil milk for ppl like my mum. But I also think, even if someone donates it, will it get to the ppl who need it?

ABC Melbourne is providing emergency rations. Late Night Live is debating which expired fruit delivers the best mouthfeel. Costa is going door-to-door telling people roadside plants are edible

Common knowledge is that you never get DSP on on your first try Which is really fucked up for a long, gruelling and expensive process that is aimed specifically at the disabled and disadvantaged

Centrelink's Disability Support Pension, form SA466 is a beast of a document, 37 pages total, 144 questions, and must be submitted along with medical and specialist reports. If you can only see a family GP, who may or may not bulk bill and has limited time to spare, you are likely not getting on it.

Above and beyond this is form SA472, a sub-document of the above, that authorises Services Australia to access your personal medical information, effectively giving them, or assessors engaged by them, surveillance power over you

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Cheaper by miles often sources the same stuff as foodbank, with the original seller choosing to sell their excess to them rather than entering into an agreement with foodbank etc that offer sees end users paying about the same anyway. Not sure if there's anything like CBM outside Victoria

One weird thing, my JSP has told me they're pairing me with an In Work Support Coach. I got my job myself 4 years ago in Jan 2022. I don't need any support. I haven't given the JSP permission to contact my employer. I have a good relationship with work. www.atworkaustralia.com.au/inworksuppor...

Note to Raf on ABC Melbourne: Unemployed man "John" getting attention and help is great, but a FoodBank drive is only papering over the underlying problem. Why doesn't he get the Minister responsible for welfare on and ask why the unemployment benefit is so low

Follow up question: why are we giving so much to food relief organisations instead of giving straight to the people in need. If they still have to rely on strangers' kindness, is it working as intended?

Honestly, for-profit grocery clearance stores like Cheaper Buy Miles have been more help to me than any charity except maybe the food pantry in Sunshine. For profit stores don't check my address or limit how many times I can visit in a month.

In Jan, I started at a new Job Search Provider. In my 1st appt my caseworker, after telling me I had nice eyes, asked Q's from a poorly thought out questionnaire. When I kept giving critical feedback, she started talking over the top of me to make me shut up. Today, she told me she's been promoted.

I still can't figure out this announcement. This article makes it sound like the 3 groups are determined by length of time on Jobseeker. But when I went on JS in 2014 & 2021, I rightly went straight to Disability Employment Services. Now that DES is Inclusive Employment Australia will it be bigger?

Look, I commend the effort. But the reality is we don't need more de facto food banks. People like John need the ABC to push the government on raising the rate On that front, the most useful thing the ABC could do is establish a national welfare reporter. Australia doesn't have one!

I think I'm going to go hide in the vents for a bit

Please read, sign (if you are a cis woman) and share! Far right politicians think attacking trans people is a strategy that will help them erode everyone's basic rights because no one will stand up and support us. Show them they are wrong! Teach them how solidarity works!

There was a long period of time where I wasn’t employed a few years back and I preferred to lose my access to Centrelink benefits than deal with Job Service Providers at the time. Fortunately, I had free housing and food at the time so I could do that. Most people are not so fortunate.

I'm starting to think the reason they changed Disability Employment Services into Inclusive Employment Australia was so they could move non-disabled ppl into it. Now, IEA is just for ppl with a Partial Capacity to Work of less than 30hrs/wk. Rishworth's speech suggests the 3rd tier will be broader.

Worse than useless. They hinder job search with useless requirements and inappropriate comms. MO is a nightmare for employers too. My local farmer vowed never to use them again due to the time cost of their uselessness. (Small biz doesn't have time or $ to be fucked around) Corruption for profit.

Back when I had to deal with a JSP, I already had experience using real job agencies for temp hospo and office work. I was stunned by the huge difference in staff not actually having knowledge or contacts with employers.

TL:DR JSPs are fucking useless. They have no tools, knowledge or contacts within industries to effectively help people obtain work. Dismantle them. #RaiseTheRate

My sister had a client forced to make the decision of giving her children up for adoption last week after she was cut from the NDIS. The real human costs that our politicians rarely see.

Why is Julian Hill lying?

So, Food banks is Victoria aren't legally supposed to charge for food which is why the anon person from a food charity here says they struggle more and more each tome FoodBank(TM) put up their prices. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Other states it's pot luck whether a frontline service is able to give you food free, charges the cost to you that they bought it from Foodbank for, or marks it up to cover their exorbitant rents for warehouses and flashy digs phonakins.com/2023/09/10/w...

One charity in the greater Newcastle area was given 3 million dollars last election to buy a warehouse so they no longer have to rent for 300k a year, but they still charge more than colesworth for some things, and you're better off shopping specials than assuming you can get cheap cereal there

But it's all a branding and expansion execise for the the major food charities and apparently fun to represent as a Tetris game

A 60 year old man shares his experience with Sarina Russo He says they forced him into a course that told him how to dress and showed him videos of Sarina talking about herself "Get rid of the whole thing. All these jobseeker agencies are just thieves in the night"

Job Search Providers in a nutshell. One page describing the 'help' they offer followed by two pages describing the Targeted Compliance Framework. Basically engage! Engage! Engage! We don't have excuses to pay them if you're not doing the busywork... oh, sorry, I mean, if you're not being 'helped'.

it also takes like 3-6 weeks to actually get help when you ask for it explicitly even when giving out paysips and being Da Perfect Client

This is how the Employment Fund has usually been explained to me by caseworkers. You reach your assessed capacity (number of hours per week) in a job and we can pay for new shoes, etc.

One thing I learned a few years ago is that employment services providers are authorised via the 'Employment Fund' to pay for your food and rent if that's a barrier to looking for work. FROM THE LAST BUDGET: 'As at 31 January 2026, there was $684.4 million in unspent Employment Fund Credits'.

It can be used to pay for 'vocational' costs, being items necessary for work: clothes, transport, training and accreditation for instance. It can also be used for 'non-vocational' costs, including essential costs-of-living. JobSeekers are not advised of this, but providers are given this training:

It's important to note that John's consultant is probably completely unaware of this—but her site manager probably isn't. The underuse of Employment Fund credits shows that private providers will never lift a finger to help you anywhere they can't also make a buck for themselves or steal from you.

My provider often would often insist that I apply for them to cover things like public transport from the fund. Did so five times, the money never appeared. “Oh, did you send us an email?” Felt like a cruel joke.

Never occurred to me until now that they might have been rorting the fund. But it was probably just incompetence because they were really fucking incompetent. Like the stupidest person you know being in charge of whether you can eat

Why is the Albanese Government so keen to take credit for inflation? Are we supposed to be impressed they've done so little on the rates of payments that they've been outperformed by CPI?

I was once placed with Sarina-Russo and given my issues was immediately assigned an in-house psychologist who gave me a Myers-Briggs questionairre to fill out. I immediately looked into changing agencies.

Such a revolting lie. None of the employment services "changes" give John more money to eat. He'll be stuck in the same system that suspends his payments if he misses a stupid appointment

The handbook from my old Job Search Provider. They lost their contract with the govt's changing of Disability Employment Services to Inclusive Employment Australia. Is the govt describing anything different to this? At all? It's the same old vague promise of "help". Currently sold as "changes".

Unemployed Australians are Australians. There’s no reason for their government to bully them, other than perpetuating the bludger myth. Unemployment is a feature of our economic system, essential, not an accidental by-product. Our government should acknowledge this and offer dignity and respect.

Instead the Minister for the Titanic has directed their staff to transfer the outdoor furniture to more advantageous positions.

I'm curious about this line: "Rishworth gave the example of the disability job service Inclusive Employment Australia, which had changed compliance action to be a “last resort”." I apply for fewer jobs in IEA, but I'm still applying for jobs I can't do. You do the number, or payment is suspended.