labor backbencher putting up their hand in the caucus room to ask for permission to go to the toilet

I'm not sure what these backbenchers expect us to think of them given they only thing they can seem to do is anonymously background the media about how scared they are of Anthony Albanese. You must be the only ones in the country.

“Labor sources have told ABC Investigations the prime minister's office has been putting pressure on advocates for gambling reform within the parliamentary Labor party to prevent them from speaking up.” So pathetic. Backbenchers scared of taking a moral position, Albanese scared of any reform.

Google plans to build a large artificial intelligence data centre on Australia’s remote Indian Ocean outpost of Christmas Island after signing a cloud deal with the Department of Defence this year, according to documents reviewed by Reuters and interviews with officials www.afr.com/technology/g...

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'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...

High Court granted special leave to appeal Fed Court’s decision in the Chaplin v DSS case (related to Centrelink’s assessment of employment income and income apportionment). Comes same day the gov’s income apportionment validation Bill delayed to next sitting www.hcourt.gov.au/cases-and-ju...

#BREAKING 🚨 FOI documents show AI-tainted Deloitte report was 'much worse' than previously thought (by YOU?) or disclosed. It appears DEWR Secretary Natalie James may have misled the Senate in relation to the conduct of her previous employer. ✍️ @paulkarp.bsky.social www.afr.com/politics/ai-...

Thorpe warns Labor’s welfare changes will ‘see children go hungry’ nit.com.au/05-11-2025/2...

PWDA joins Disability Representative Organisations calling on the Federal Government to abandon Social Security and other Legislative Amendment (Technical Changes No.2) Bill 2025 www.miragenews.com/social-secur...

📢 Centrelink Debt? We Can Help! If you’ve been overpaid, you may need to repay it even if it wasn't your fault. Our factsheet covers: ✅ Steps to take if you have a Centrelink debt ✅ How to appeal a debt decision and much more! Download now through the 🔗 in our bio #WelfareRightsCentre #CLC

As a fellow community sector worker, I am so thankful for and inspired by the efforts of @antipovertycentre.org, @maximumwelfare.bsky.social and @jeremypoxon.bsky.social on pushing back against the Labor government's push to further erode the rights of Australians. 👏

congratulations to all who mobilised immediately and tirelessly on this disgusting piece of law. bsky.app/profile/maxi...

Well, unbelievably, Tanya, we actually have ministers in the Albanese government who are arguing that giving police more powers to cause poverty will stop rape or murder or child abuse, that police should cause more poverty and trauma despite never reducing rape or murder or child abuse.

Huge result for now. Rapid response starting last Thursday to establish a united front of community and civil society organisations. Gonna be much tougher for them to get this through from here 👍

Got through to the parliamentary office. That was the single rudest staffer I have ever spoken to when called a rep. Immediately patronising, condescending, talked over me, zero validation of any of my concerns, and then hung up on me after I asked how they were going with increasing jobseeker.

I called @tanyaplibersekmp.bsky.social’s office yesterday at 4pm and again just now. Straight to voicemail both times. You better believe I left one today.

Labor finally running to Sky News for one crumb of reactionary media support fully one week after the horse has bolted:

So, @tanyaplibersekmp.bsky.social lost the public argument on this wretched amendment, allowing police to cancel Centrelink payments for ppl who have not been found guilty So she went on Sky News to defame legal, disability, & community advocates as well as Senator Thorpe revolting stuff

A reminder of who is concerned. We say again: If you think you're doing the right thing, you don't do it like this. You don't lash out, run from even the smallest amount of public pressure or seek to hide this amendment in an unrelated bill and reject all parliamentary scrutiny.

Which is why we're going to use police powers to stop a person’s welfare payment before any court process. Just like Jesus would have wanted.

Egregious defamation of social services/disability/community legal sectors, advocates & crossbench on Sky News by Social Sevices Minister @tanyaplibersekmp.bsky.social, accusing us ALL of supporting rape, murder & child abuse. Labor's amendments supported by: - Police Federation of Aus - Coalition

The CPSU have also done bugger-all work on this for years other than to say the CES should come back. Get serious and involve yourselves please.

I'm boring & repetitive but The Emperor Has No Clothes: 'The CPSU has said Australia’s employment services system are “a complete failure”'; they're not. They generate incomes (profits) for private owners. That's a success. It's both the intent and effect of privatisation.

Senate should vote on proposed amendments to this Bill today (next on the program) www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxZw...

In the senate, @pennyallmanpayne.com now speaking on Robodebt, with @kathmadgwick.bsky.social and @chexabonus.bsky.social in parliament today. Senator Allman-Payne is pointing out the government's failure to take the royal commission seriously, including through "mutual" obligations penalties.

The Law Council of Australia has called on the government to split the unrelated amendment from the income apportionment bill that grants police and ministers power to stop social security payments for people accused of a serious offence. The government cannot claim ignorance of what this means.

Now @justiceandequity.bsky.social has added its name to the list of groups opposing this draconian and underhanded move. These are the groups @tanyaplibersekmp.bsky.social has dismissed. She refuses to address concerns about separation of powers, due process and unintended consequences.

Can confirm. Yesterday I received a phone msg & text from my new provider. Also received an automated email informing me that my 1st appt would be tomorrow! (I won't even be in the state.) Thankfully, they didn't respond after I texted them back that I wouldn't be attending appts until after Jan 5.

6PR talkback radio listeners are having none of it – they say allowing police & ministers to cut Centrelink payments before conviction is "hypocritical", "the government can't arbitrarily impose punishments on people" and that "this is the thin end of the wedge". Full interview:

🤪

The cops have provided an embarrassing response to the ABC. They & @tanyaplibersekmp.bsky.social are utterly failing to engage with the concerns about the clear risk of unintended consequences raised by welfare, family violence survivors, disability, First Nations & legal advocates.

Calling it a "shocking attempt to quietly expand police power into the welfare, tax and workplace relations systems," Senator Thorpe claimed the measures are "harsher than those levelled against people who have been convicted or incarcerated". nit.com.au/03-11-2025/2...

Thank you Dechlan Brennan @nit-bot.bsky.social – most thorough explantion of this to date. "It's a clear breach of the presumption of innocence and the separation of powers. No Minister should have power to punish someone just suspected of an offence without due process." @senatorthorpe.bsky.social

Aus is supposed to be a country where the rule of law & natural justice applies. The Gov’s sneaky attempt to strip welfare from people before they’ve been convicted of any crime is a fundamental breach of these principles. We may as well dissolve the court system. #auspol #politas

Unfortunately for @tanyaplibersekmp.bsky.social scattering some words like 'serious' and 'should not' and 'not appropriate' is not policy or law, nor an argument to do anything.

Spoke to @australia.theguardian.com about what DEWR's job numbers continue to quietly reveal: that the main purpose of employment services is to outsource billions of dollars to punish people, rather than help them into meaningful opportunities www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Bill listed on the draft program ('the red') for second reading debate in the Senate today

A "serious power" is not an acceptable euphemism for breaching the right to due process. The list of groups opposing this move is growing, with NATSILS, the Australian Council of Social Services and Economic Justice Australia speaking out today. Thank you @joshbutler.bsky.social for reporting.

A few previously unreported bits in here: - 68000 Aussies in the Discord leak. - Information Commissioner’s office unsuccessfully sought powers to proactively investigate social media companies handling of age check data - Privacy Commissioner worried about scams b/c people used to handing over ID

Exclusive | "My concern is that in any circumstance that you’re collecting more personal information, privacy risks increase," Privacy Commissioner Carly Kind tells Crikey.

One month out from the under-16s ban and almost all of the users caught up in the Discord data breach caused by age assurance appeals were based in Australia, OAIC has finally confirmed. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Nearly 90% of jobseekers unable to get long-term work despite millions spent on private job agencies

ACOSS and Economic Justice Australia statement opposing the arrest warrant measure: www.acoss.org.au/media-releas...

another utter failure of private delivery of public services “It’s hard to think of another government-funded industry allowed to operate in this way … to continue soaking up so much public money and to spit out so few results.” @jeremypoxon.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/business/202...

National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (NATSILS) Chair Karly Warner called the proposal “controversial” and said it is “an unprecedented attack on fairness and due process which will shake public confidence in our legal system.” The separation of powers is not optional.

THANK YOU @senatorthorpe.bsky.social "Lidia Thorpe plans on moving an amendment to the unrelated bill this amendment is tacked onto to remove it all together in the senate" live.thepoint.com.au/2025/11/the-... @maximumwelfare.bsky.social @antipovertycentre.org

"if you think that cancelling the subsistence people on Centrelink are forced to live on will make a domestic... abuser more likely to hand themselves in, and not subject their loved ones to an even more extreme...form of abuse, you do not understand abusers, or living with one"

ATO is paying private debt collector $42m to pursue taxpayers, including welfare recipients

This Bill is down for debate in the Senate this week. Includes income apportionment measures which affect millions of people plus a new measure allowing a Minister to cancel payments to the subject of an outstanding arrest warrant for serious violent or sexual offences www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentar...