I'm in shock. Nobody expected Labor to win the Queensland state election. Newman just conceded defeat, bowing out of politics forever after he also just lost his own seat. A Lieberal bloodbath. They have lost gov after only one term in an unloseable election. As Paul Keating said when he won for federal Labor as the Lieberals lost the unloseable election, "This is the sweetest of victories!"
The Lieberals are crushed. Humiliated. QLD was their jewel in the crown, the most conservative state in Australia with their puppet Newman. Now they've lost their own heartland :)
If the polling is correct, and I don't see why it wouldn't be, Newman will lose his seat tonight. This would make the first premier in 100 years to lose his own seat. Predictions from professor type people are that the Leiberals will win with a small majority and without their leader.
What a bunch of weak kneed yellow chooks. Dead set. So, the Lieberal MP's, so enraged at the pathetic-ness of their once beloved leader, have approached both asbestos Julie and NBN Turnbull to step up and do their duty for the party, and get rid of the clown. You'd think that they'd jump at the opportunity. but nope. Abbott needs more time to recover, after now spending as long as Howard did without winning a single poll for the Lieberals. Then Howard lost his own seat in the election. Perhaps they're looking further forward and can see taking over now is a poison chalice. I mean seriously. Can a gov come back from this with just a year and a half before the next election? And the front bench is still all full of Howard era old wood. Career politicians grown up in privilege and not the slightest clue about the rest of us mere mortals living in in the real world. The lot of them need to go. Perhaps a big clubbing at the next federal election will decimate the Lieberals and give them an opportunity to rebuild from the ground up. Something has gone seriously wrong in that party. How else can you explain Abbott? Abbott has become the Lieberals version of Labor's Mark Latham. Only much worse, they don't seem to be able to find the off switch on their version.
The two leading contenders to replace Tony Abbott as Liberal leader are resisting the efforts of their colleagues to draft them to challenge the Prime Minister.
Despairing of Abbott's ability, Liberal MPs have approached deputy Liberal leader and Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop and Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull to urge them to run for the leadership. Both are refusing to challenge their leader. more
Latest polling has the the Lieberals and Labor neck and neck at 50/50. Newman though is set to lose his seat and will have to retire from the Queensland parliament. The Lieberals are now going into this election not knowing who their new leader will be.
There's something very funny about prim and proper looking women calling our PM a dickhead :) This is the point it's reached, the village idiot has now become a public laughing stock. Oh the humiliation of one once worshiped by the far right wing nuts.
More love from the christians..... Well, they're onto us. Very soon we're all going to turn into cannibals and start to eat each other. *sheesh* Is that like the gay zombie apocalypse?
Team Abbott has struck an iceberg. The gov is paralysed. Lieberal MP's have their phones running hot discussing who can replace Abbott. So far the favourite looks to be NBN Turnbull; a moderate who got knifed last time he was leader by the looney right in the party. Team Abbott has gone into a huddle, attempting to fend off the advancing barbarians, trying to salvage a semblance of political face. This isn't going to end well for the huddled fascists, deluded right to the end and refusing to take the blame for destroying Lieberal hopes and dreams of a new austere Australia. It's mutiny now, with the troops switching sides. Will Team Abbott fall on their swords? Will this be a bloody public battle fought in front of the nation? The Abbott opera continues.....
Nervous Liberal MPs have begun discussing alternative leadership options, and the pros and cons of switching to either Foreign Minister Julie Bishop or former leader Malcolm Turnbull are now being "actively" considered.
Fairfax Media has been told worried backbench MPs have been phoning each other in a state of agitation over the government's continuing woes.
...............
However, it has been played down by other Liberal insiders who insist the mood is one of disappointment rather than insurrection. Another described a feeling of hopelessness, but dismissed talk of a possible change as exaggeration.
However multiple sources have said that consideration of radical corrective action, including a possible leadership change within months, is under way. more
The senate is having an inquiry into corporate tax avoidance in Australia and is asking for submissions. GetUp has put together one and is asking for people to sign their name to it, thereby being one submission with thousands of signatures to give a unite voice to the senate from the community. Sign here. I've also put the submission here in it's entirety:
To the Senate Economics References Committee,
This is a submission supported by thousands of individual Australians.
We write to thank you for your work, and to reiterate the outrage that we feel as a community over the lack of concrete action to address corporate tax avoidance.
The fact remains that our corporate tax watchdog, the Australian Taxation Office, has had its budget slashed and critical staff pushed out the door. Its audit team has dwindled in size and internally people at the ATO have questioned how they can really 'crack down' to recover the billions lost from corporate tax avoidance while their organisation is being gutted.1
Despite the pledges of future action at the G20, there are a lot of things the Treasurer could be doing right this minute in line with international action to curtail corporate tax dodging. For example, there was a whole raft of corporate tax loopholes the Government kept open in 2013 — costing Australia $1 billion dollars.2 The Treasurer also recently abandoned an important anti-avoidance measure (by allowing deductions under section 25(90) of the Income Tax Assessment Act) in his Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook, which was projected to recover $600 million alone.3
Despite the fact that we're losing billions in tax revenue from the top 200 ASX companies each year (over half of them have subsidiaries in offshore tax havens), the Government is still refusing to support this Senate Inquiry into the extent of corporate tax avoidance in Australia.4
Meanwhile, the least well off Australians are being asked to shoulder the biggest burden in the federal Budget – as the Government tries to remove income support for unemployed people, make higher education unaffordable through university fee deregulation, and hit the sick by cutting the Medicare rebate. The double standard is obvious.
We hope that this inquiry will shine a light on both the immoral tax practices of multi-million dollar companies, and on the Government's disappointing inaction to help fix this problem, despite their strong rhetoric.
Parliamentary secretary to the finance minister is his title, whatever that is. A Mr McCormack, has now joined the fray. He appears to be a far dinkum Abbott supporter, who also is in agreement that the internet is "Electronic Graffiti". One of Abbott's yes men. So he's taken it further, basically saying that those who criticise Abbott online are simply spoilt brats in inner Sydney and Melbourne. Or as he put it:
Mr McCormack said unlike the "texting, latte sipping, keyboard warriors who frequent the tapas bars of Melbourne and Sydney", "real fair dinkum Australians" in the country didn't have time to tweet all day but had time to reflect at the end of the day and would be unafraid to give the Prime Minister an "honest appraisal" of his work over a shandy. more
Lovely. Just go out to the country because fuck all of them have the internet out there as receptions so bad, so they've not been corrupted by the online virtual consciousness. Just feed them full of corporate crap and you know they're gonna love you, the epitamy of their wealthy subsidy's for trying to farm a desert. Yeah, just get the dumb fuckin hicks to tell you what you want to hear, that'll fix it :s
Or maybe take the online world seriously and don't dismiss the rage coming through at the gov as being fringe edge graffiti. People have more of an idea what's going on in this country from online media that the PM ever had or will have.
But here's some Murdoch media that will shock you :) Oh I'm loving this shit. The finger pointing is on!
“Queenslanders need skilled, secure, full-time jobs as a base for their families’ future,” Mr Webb said.
“The LNP have no interest in manufacturing, they’ve encouraged employers to try to drive down wages but the community knows that struggling in casualised, contract or labour-hire jobs for rock-bottom wages is no future for families.
“The LNP record of sacking 14,000 government employees and driving unemployment well above the national average shows they can’t and won’t deliver job security for anyone.”
Mr Webb lauded the efforts of AMWU members who had used their holidays to volunteer to spread Queensland’s Unions’ message to PUT THE LNP LAST AND NUMBER EVERY SQUARE on the ballot paper.
Members have been particularly active in supporting their AMWU comrades standing as candidates against the LNP, by doorknocking, street stalls and talking to electors by phone.
They’ve supported Arnotts’ delegate Jeff Frew in the seat of Everton, Rowen Holzberger in Southport, Peter Russell in Sunnybank, Shannon Fentiman in Waterford and Brittany Lauga in Keppel.
Mr Webb said concern over jobs, power bills, cutbacks in health services and larger school class sizes was obvious among members across Queensland, particularly when he visited regional areas like Rockhampton. more
Oh I'm just totally salivating at the impending Queensland Lieberal bloodbath. It will send Abbott ga ga. Sit back and watch it folks, this is going to be good. Lieberals aghast and tearing themselves apart. Abbott won't have a chance.
You're gonna fuckin get it Newman, and so are you Abbott. My my, how the times are a-changing.
Some very vocal protestors, did a good job at getting their message across. I just about clapped at the lady protester, she was on fire man :) Good to see a bit of good old fashioned protesting against the gov.
If anything shows the laws around euthanasia need to be modernised it's this video. Reminds me of back yard abortions. A consequence of euthanasia being against the law is that these people have to find back yard methods of death, and have to die alone to not incriminate their family.
The momentum is unstoppable now. The media is openly asking the question of who can replace Abbott. Not much of a list there. SSJoe? Good grief. Aspestos Julie? crazy eyes. NBN Turnbull is a moderate and last time he was leader the far right nutters in the party didn't like him. He actually believed in climate change for example.
With just two days left before voting day, Campbell Newman is seriously loosing it in his own seat of Ashgrove. He's now further behind than ever, the two party preferred at just 46 for the Premier. Labor 54. If the polling is accurate Campbell Newman will be booted out of the Queensland parliament leaving the poor old Lieberals with no leader. There will be much wringing of hands in Lieberal ranks this Sat. It looks like it's going to be a Queensland Lieberal bloodbath. Newman's mate Tone isn't doing too well in Canberra either. Another poll has the federal Lieberals at the same number as Newman, 46/54 to Labor. Some are suggesting that after the Queensland bloodbath will be the time Abbott gets rolled by his party. If so he could be gone by the end of next week.
If you've been living under a rock, or perhaps not taking notice of that "electronic graffiti" thing our PM says is the internet, then you may not know what the Trans Pacific Partnership is. If not this is the video to watch, explaining the TPP clearly and succinctly in 3 minutes. Sign the petition against it here, to pressure the Abbott gov not to sign up to the TPP.
Come on Queensland voters. This Sat vote for the Reef not the Lieberals! Australians in other states, in this case NSW, are asking you to do so. The Reef can't vote, you can.
Meet our new knight. This is the world according to Abbott; where the age of entitlement is apparently over for pensioners like me, but one of the most entitled people in the world he awards his new knighthood thing.
Just look at his face. He looks like that bloke on Game of Thrones who shows off all his ugly daughters for marriage, before killing his guests at a feast in revenge of the son not marrying any of them. Oh he's utterly revolting.
There's nothing like a gov bleeding to death from the top, and that's exactly what's happening now for the Canberra Lieberals. Another major gaff from the PM, this time in knighting bloody gaff prone Prince Philip who's not even an Australian. The feathers are a flying and the party is any thing but partying. In fact it looks like they're starting to rip themselves to bits. The calls for Abbott to step down have now reached the point where party members are openly speculating in the media of who could replace him. Not that there's anyone that could, they're all as bad as each other the lot of them.
The MP said the decision to knight Prince Philip, in an apparent violation of Mr Abbott's own pledge that knights and dames would be for pre-eminent Australians, was a "total disaster".
"He's doing whatever the hell he wants in a self-indulgent fashion and everyone is deeply embarrassed," the MP said.
"Liberals are turning on Tony Abbott. There's a changing climate, things are very serious, they're progressing and progressing very fast."
The MP said Foreign Minister Julie Bishop was a likely option to replace Mr Abbott but other candidates are possible in the current climate. Mr Abbott is not facing the imminent threat of a challenge. more
Once it reaches this point it's almost impossible to come back from. The media feeds on it and the gov spirals into chaos, paralysed by the leadership issue. You've only got to look at Gillard and Rudd to see that. But this is much worse. I'd assert the anger is bottled up in Lieberal ranks and so far hasn't found a resolution. Labor is much better at resolving things like this than the Lieberals. They just seem to stick with the same person no matter what.
Mind numbingly stupid. Almost as stupid as making Prince Philip a knight FFS. WTF is Prince Philip going to do with an Australian knighthood, knighthoods only reintroduced to Australia under Abbott. Even his own ministers are openly critical of it. Anachronistic and stupid on so many levels. WTF does that say to Aboriginals then? And what average Aussie gives a slightest fuck these days about the monarchy? Anyway, so Abbott is defending himself against the entire social media online world in Australia, who is having a field day with him knighting Prince Philip. He comes out with this:
"I'll leave social media to its own devices. Social media is kind of like electronic graffiti and I think that in the media, you make a big mistake to pay too much attention to social media," Mr Abbott said on Australia Day. "You wouldn't report what's sprayed up on the walls of buildings." more
I wonder what the Sydney Morning Herald thinks of it being described as "graffiti"? Talk about a fossil. What's the real media then? Rupert's paper edition of the Daily Terrorgraph? Fox News corporate brainwashing? The Australian; another of the Lieberals cheer squad? Does he think those are the proper media? No wonder he's out of touch.
I've said before there's a whole new area of study that's developed. Virtual consciousness, or the online consciousness of the masses all connected together, sharing information, and seeing things as they really are in the world. Not through the eyes of corporations or gov propaganda. Abbott has really missed the boat on this.
This is the so called "evidence" from the witch hunt Royal Commission into union corruption, that Campbell Newman is basing his allegations on that the CFMEU is getting money from evil bikies. The Victorian police are the ones who assert this, in this case assistant commissioner Fontana. Watch as cross examination rips his claims to shreds. The so called "officials" that are supposed to be connected to bikie gangs, turn out to be only one bloke who held no position in the CFMEU. In fact he wasn't even paid up, having made no union contributions since 2012. The commissioner just looks stupid. This is evidence? *pffft*
The propaganda coming from Fox News is getting mental now. Out and out lies. Put some head on the screen to preach some crap and call him and "expert".
Things are getting pretty bloody bizarre up there in Queensland now. Newman has thrown in the great bikie peril threat! Apparently the bikies are everywhere and about to steal your very soul if we let them! Or something like that. So now he's come up with the bizarre allegation that Queensland Labor is getting funds from bikies. And how is this supposedly so? Well from the evil CFMEU union, which has allegations against it of involvement with bikies for debt collection by the Victorian police commissioner. I say allegations, because no evidence was produced by said Commissioner. Also, this is at the Abbott inspired royal commission witch hunt into the CFMEU:
But council for the CFMEU, John Aguis, challenged the Assistant Commissioner to approach the union directly about the allegations.
"Would it not assist you to inform the union you are aware that particular officials may be breaking the law, without naming them?" Mr Aguis asked.
Assistant Commissioner Fontana said it would not assist police "when we've got different investigations going".
Mr Aguis accused Assistant Commission Fontana of waging cultural warfare against the unions.
"You're not about cultural change are you - this is about cultural warfare," he said.
Mr Noonan said Assistant Commissioner Fontana had not provided any evidence to support his claims to the royal commission.
"The Victorian Police have a very important job to do in tackling organised crime and have the full support of the CFMEU," he said in a statement.
"In his appearance today ... Assistant Commissioner Fontana was able to provide no evidence or detail to back up broad allegations of criminality among union officials in the construction industry.
"I again today repeated to the Assistant Commissioner our commitment and willingness to assist where the police have any evidence of corruption or criminal behaviour by union officials," he said. more
Opposition leader Palaszczuk has called the claim ridiculous and desperate, and if he had any evidence of the Labor party getting donations from evil bikies then he should go to the police.
BTW when reporters asked Newman how he knew this, he told them to Google it. Or more specifically "CFMEU bikie links". So I did. All I can find are allegations.
Lovely isn't it. An email sent around by the Queensland Lieberals, which Premier Newman has now defended. In it this picture is used of Labor opposition leader Annastacia Palaszczuk depicting oral sex, with the slogan "Don't wake up with regrets":
I wonder what pastor Anderson in the US, who recently preached to kill the gays and the video went on YouTube of it, would think of this. Again, I don't understand why YouTube has left that vile video up. In this case it was Twitter. Three people in France have been convicted and fined for hate speech against gays.
A French court has handed out convictions for anti-gay hate crimes on Twitter for the first time, after three people used the hashtag “let’s burn the gays”.
In what a major French LGBT rights group called a “significant victory”, three people were convicted in a Paris court this week after they accompanied tweets with hashtags including “let’s burn the gays on...“ or "#brûlonslesgayssurdu).”
During the same period in August 2013, “#Lesgaysdoiventdisparaîtrecar”, or “gays must die because...”, was also trending.
Got the official Housing letter rejecting our application to be put on the priority housing list. Have scanned it and emailed it off to our social worker as I don't know where the fuck to go from here. The news isn't all bad, as they say we may still qualify for some kind of private rental assistance, whatever that is. Will wait and see what the social worker thinks.
What really got me though was how much rent they say is "affordable" on what we currently get. The affordability assessment is $360 a week, they have declared from on high, is only $20 less than what we pay now. In other words just about the same. Which means even on $360 a week our $ would be pretty much the same.
Which is my pension covers the rent, that's it. What's left is David's Newstart and Carers allowance, totaling about $600 a fortnight, or $300 a week. After rent that's what they say we both can afford to live off.
That's $300 a week for both of us, or $150 a week each.
What crazy moronic bureaucrat came up with that? I can guarantee whoever it was had never tried living on $150 a week FFS. It's just ridiculous. No fuckin wonder we keep having to bail ourselves out of debt. It's just not a livable amount.
On a rough calculation, that $360 is about 55% of our total income, an income which is fuck all. How can the Dept of Housing, of all people, claim that that is an affordable rent to pay?
Alan in the closet Jones gets special attention from the Angry Aussie. BTW Jones was caught years ago in toilets in England and charged with having sex in there or something, hence the comments about him liking cock :) Jones is now being sued by the Queensland premier Newman for defamation over his claim that Newman lied about not building a coal mine in Queensland.
Very interesting report out from the Australian Council of Social Services. SSJoe's been bleating about well off people paying too much tax, ridiculously saying:
Mr Hockey told Fairfax radio on Monday that Australians paid nearly half their income in tax. "When Australians spend the first six months of the year working for the government with tax rates nearly 50 cents in the dollar it is a disincentive," he said. "You're working July, August, September, October, November, December just for the government and then you start working for yourself and your own household income after that for another six months - it is a disincentive." more
Which is completely and utterly wrong. What's more he's not limiting it to high earners but saying simply Australians pay half their money in tax. Absolute crap. Where oh where is he getting this shit from? In fact in this ACOSS report they take into account everything, not just income tax. Overall this is the real tax picture in Australia. Note that the bottom 20% pay a much higher amount in tax than people would think, due to the GST and other indirect taxes.
The bottom 20% pays an average of $129pw or 24% of their income
The top 20% pays an average of $1,006pw or 28% of their income
I've not posted much at all about the situation on Manus Island at the hands of the Australian gov. What's going on there is just to heart wrenching to comprehend. This video from the US is very informative however. So now the international media is starting to take note.
On Monday, in his first interview of the year, he repeated his claim that Australians pay half their income in tax. He told Neil Mitchell on 3AW that “Australians spend the first six months of the year working for the government with tax rates nearly 50 cents in the dollar.” more
Hey SSJoe, it's not rocket science man. The rich do not pay half their income in tax. FFS this idiot is our treasurer.
Unbelievable. After getting through everything with flying colours, after beating 100 or so applicants, after about a month of them saying the job is yours, they make a mind boggling decision at the very end.
Part of getting a nursing job is a police check. Of course what came up was that malicious AVO that shithead in Queensland dreamed up. An ex of David's who faked a fall and claimed David hit him. It was all just lies and the magistrate saw through it all, that he was using the police and court system to get back at David for booting him out. David never laid a finger on him. The magistrate gave David a token AVO (I say token as the guy is in Queensland nowhere near here) which was section ten'd; supposedly not recorded. For some reason it came up on the police report anyway.
A lady rung him from the work and asked David about it. He explained and she was happy with the explanation, and said she'd have to take it to the board but that should be fine. She rang him again yesterday. The board had decided not to hire him over it. At the 11th hour FFS.
David was devastated. I couldn't believe it. How could they be so cruel? He didn't do anything wrong. WTF is wrong with these people? Owned by the Catholics, typical, they love inflicting pain.
So he's continuing as before looking for work through the Centrelink agency thing. He had an interview yesterday that was very promising, will hear back from them next week.
Meanwhile we're running out of money again. We're putting into David's super this time for severe financial hardship money.
Have been feeling quite unwell for about a week now. Some days have been better than others, but certainly not OK. There seems to be something going on with my pills, dunno which ones. After I take them in the morning is when it starts. Feeling weak and short of breath and having to lie down until it passes. Or getting waves of hot flushes and nausea.
The nausea when it happens has been really bad. To the point of not being able to eat anything and spewing up even just water I've drunk. I spewed three days in a row earlier in the week. Even when the water was gone I ended up still dry retching. Horrible. That sort of throwing up where your arms go a bit numb and you have to lie down afterwards from the intensity of it.
Was going to go to the doctors today but it was a morning appt and I had to cancel as I felt too sick to get there. Last thing I want to do is throw up on a bus again! Need to go soon though, am overdue for the quarterly blood tests. I guess I'll have to make an afternoon appt.
Bizarre isn't the word. Weird, disrespectful. This is what he thinks of voters? This is up at Mermaid Beach. Reminds me a bit of that infamous Abbott brain freeze.
This is back before he was premier of Queensland and was the mayor of Brisbane. Great song follows too :)
This leaked footage was captured exactly 4 years ago. Queensland Premier Campbell Newman was then Lord Mayor of Brisbane and clearly stated that “rather than digging up huge piles of black stuff a few hundred kilometres north of here” (The Galilee Basin) we should be setting things up differently for future generations. His statements have changed dramatically since he became Premier, becoming passionately pro-coal at the expense of the environment and affected communities. more
There's rather a lot of anger in Lieberal ranks at Abbott's abysmal performance. First, we have the back benchers revolting. Not just a little revolt by the sounds of it, but a full on mutiny, even going so far as to say Abbott's position would be terminal if he didn't wake up to himself:
Tony Abbott is facing growing backbench anger over his government's mishandling of the GP co-payment and university funding changes from last year's budget, as MPs returning from their electorates express frustration over the government's poor standing with voters. Some described the atmosphere in the government as tending toward "anarchy" because the "command and control" mode by the Prime Minister's office had been shown to be politically hamfisted, prompting leaks from the cabinet, among other problems. .......................... Speaking on condition of anonymity, one senior Liberal said the Prime Minister had "lost the respect" of some colleagues, and another said he had "just months" to turn things around or his position was terminal. more
So there it is, out in the open now. People in his own party want Abbott kicked to the back bench. Now there's been a fiery radio interview this morning, where an alleged Lieberal voter ripped Abbott a new asshole.
"What are you going to do to turn it around because I have got to tell you you are the world's worst salesman, Prime Minister," he said. Mr Abbott responded: "What is the specific problem, is there a policy thing you don't agree with?" "Prime Minister, it's the way you do things, like the Medicare thing, with the education, you've done so many backflips, people don't know where you are going and business is saying there are roadblocks because there is no direction and no leadership … as a Liberal voter, I don't particularly like you," Andrew replied. more
BTW Abbott ressurected his slimy wink during the interview as well. Oh so creepy.
Also earlier on in the interview Abbott was asked about the possibility of him not being PM at the next election. This from the ninemsn page. I love the poll at the end, ha ha ha. That sites usually very Lieberal friendly Murdoch readers. A lovely touch to the end of the story.
And so what is Abbott's response to all of this? Psychotic la la land stuff. He thinks he's doing a good job. He even names getting rid of the carbon and mining tax's (both major sources of gov revenue) as great achievements :s
He urged Australians – and his colleagues – to look at the government's record of achievement in 2014, including the repeal of the carbon and mining taxes, the signing of three free-trade agreements and the stopping of asylum seeker boats.
"I think last year's record was a record of solid achievement and the important thing is to build on that," he said. more
Obama is flying to India soon to negotiate some sort of agreement with India. Big pharma is up in arms about their generic medicines undercutting their outrageously priced drugs and is putting pressure on India about it. Hopefully India and the US can come to a sensible agreement that protects the poors access to affordable medicines. The PBS in Australia would also be put under strain from increased drug prices. A world petition about it is going here.
President Obama’s visit to India in days could spell life or death for millions of poor people in Asia, Africa and Latin America, but if we move fast we can ensure they can still get the medicines they need.
India produces cheap HIV, malaria and cancer drugs, but Big Pharma wants to stop this, to sell their own products at higher prices. Their fierce lobby has got the US to push their line hard, even threatening trade sanctions if India doesn’t change its patent laws which put people before profits. Now pressure is rising as talks begin on a new investment treaty.
Before Obama flies, let’s build a million-strong call to protect India’s proud role as the pharmacy to the world’s poor, make it a mega media story while he is there and then deliver it with our own common sense trade plan developed by experts that protects access to medicine. Add your name now.
Suddenly realised it's been ages since we lodged the housing form last year and still we've heard nothing from them. So went up the road to the local office to find out what was going on. Got seen straight away.
It was the same lady that we lodged the form with last October. She remembered me as well. She looks it up on the computer and can't find it. Part of it is lost somewhere in the innards of their system. This was why we'd heard nothing for so long. She eventually goes out the back to some computer guru they've got there who finds it somehow. It's been so long since we lodged it she assesses the form herself there and then.
Well we almost got over the line to qualify for the urgent housing list, but not quite. She did this calculation on the rent, the calculation that I can never understand, and announced the gov decrees that with our money our "affordable" rent is $360 a week. How the fuck they figure that out I don't know. But anyway as our rent is $380 a week then we qualified there.
We also qualified for eastern suburbs as all our support is here. Hospital, doctors, specialists, psychologists. No worries there.
But then we came to the last hurdle. This was the one that I found huge problems in trying to do. She said there was nothing on the medical reports saying that we weren't able to look for private rent on our own. I did try that when doing the form, looking up places and expressing interest online. But when it came to going to the open house look thing I got a complete mental block. Just couldn't do it. Going there, filling out an application, knowing that we'd be rejected in Sydney's tight rental market because neither of us were working. It would have been soul destroying.
But anyway after all we've been through last year I wasn't upset or angry. Or anything really. She said she'd put us down for a one bedroom place on the normal housing waiting list as those places came up a lot and can be hard to rent as everyone wants a two bedroom. In fact she said one might come up even sooner than being on the urgent list. So the news wasn't all bad. We'll get a letter presently explaining it all.
Zach has fallen in love with Natasha. They've been playing together chasing each other and Natasha is mothering him; keeping him in line. Now they're starting to sleep together. Awwwww.....
*Update: FOX defends Milo in it's usual hysterical way; making assumptions and not looking at all at the facts. See video below :) ...
About me
After 30 years of very physical full time work in the printing industry our print dept was outsourced and we all lost our jobs. As I'd gotten HIV beforehand and was having trouble attending and doing work I discussed with my HIV doctor whether I should apply for the Australian Disability Support Pension. He agreed,and I became a DSP pensioner under the new Gillard rules of adherence that now sees 75% of DSP applicants rejected.
Have been diagnosed with PTSD, severe depression, chronic kidney failure, and of course HIV. I'd become suicidal in 2009 after 3 extreme life events in a row; My best friend killed herself in the US (I don't make friends easily BTW), my teenage/young adult daughter had me charged by the police with a minor problem, and I was diagnosed with HIV. All in three weeks.
Some say god won't give you more than you can bear, my reply is "Well what happened to me?" If not for the HIV support here in Australia and me being able to have access to it I'd likely be dead by now. Unbearable pain often causes suicide, no matter physical or mental.
Today I've not worked since being made redundant. I remain with episodes of depression and panic attacks, sometimes severe. I may be fine and happy to leave the house, at times I'm paralised in bed, secure and safe and not willing to face the world.
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