Anti-Poverty Network SA | Community organisation

Anti-Poverty Network SA

Phone: +61 8 8451 1589

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25.01.2022 Australia, 2020.

25.01.2022 ‘WE FELT HUMAN AGAIN’ Anti-Poverty Network SA member, Rita, spoke to The Bunyip last week about being on JobSeeker Payment, here are her powerful words: 'Munno Para West resident Rita McDonald spoke at a community forum on Thursday about her battle on NewStart payments.... Ms McDonald, 56, spoke about how she would ration her food and medication, sometimes going days without eating to survive under the $40 a day NewStart scheme. However, she said the impact of the JobSeeker payment rise on top of the NewStart payment has been unbelievable, both in her own life but in her community as well. The rate was doubled with the COVID supplement, since then, I’ve been eating every day, fresh fruit and vegetables, she said. I remember the first day I received the supplement, I was in Coles and I picked up an avocado and started to cry because I could afford an avocado. It wasn’t a diamond ring, it was an avocado. For the first time in a long time, we were eating every day, we were buying our medications, getting haircuts, buying new glasses, getting cars serviced, having coffee with friends, buying presents for our children and grandchildren. We were supporting small local businesses again. Gardiners, cleaners, hairdressers, we could do the things that made us feel human. We could hold our heads up high because we felt human again. Ms McDonald said between May 4 and October 7 she received almost $5000 extra put back into her community and its economy. For the first time in a long time, we had the poorest and most vulnerable people living with dignity and feeling like they were worth something, she said. Multiply that spending by all the unemployed, and how much have we put into the community over the last few months? Walk around, look around, the benefits to our community is tenfold. Small businesses are opening up in Davoren Park, Elizabeth South residents are cleaning streets and opening community gardens. Anti-Poverty Network SA spokesperson Eileen Darley said the proposed cut is cruel and maddening. The recent and devastating $300 a fortnight cut has caused huge stress for people who, even with the full supplement, were only just surviving, she said. It has meant people have had to cut back on fresh food, medicines, and are finding it harder to cover their rent and bills. To make matters worse, it appears the government is considering a further cut, right before Christmas, at one of the hardest times of the year for people on low incomes. Any cuts will not only make life harder for those who are already not coping, but will also do further damage to our fragile economic state. To do this, when we know there are so few job vacancies at the moment, and 1.6 million people on JobSeeker, is cruel and maddening.' *Jack Hudson, The Bunyip, 11 November 11 2020

24.01.2022 That's because dry zones are classist and racist. is.gd/COQ636

24.01.2022 45min until we go live.

24.01.2022 Let's continue contacting the crossbench, telling them why they need to vote down the Cashless Card. Today, we're gonna get Rebekha Sharkie MP on the blower. Email: [email protected]

22.01.2022 TOMORROW, 2.3 million people - unemployed people, students, and parents - will have their incomes cut by $300 a fortnight. That is the population of Brisbane. 1... in 7 working-age people. For the briefest of periods, and one of the only times in Australian history, job-seekers were living above the poverty-line. Not living luxuriously, just not starving. Every day I received stories from people about how the COVID Supplement changed their life. It meant no more skipping meals (and no more surviving on the cheapest, least nutritional food), no more rationing medication. People having the money to see a dentist, or a psychologist. People buying fridges and freezers. Not going to sleep anxious about how you will cope between now and your next payment. I have no doubt the cut would have been more substantial, if it was not for months and years of tireless work by countless individuals and organisations. Can we stop further cuts (like JobSeeker returning to $40 a day straight after Christmas)? Can we ever lift Job-Seeker and other payments back above the poverty-line? Only one way to find out. The well-being of millions of people is at stake.

22.01.2022 Vigil.....[**EILEEN Darley is one of Australia's top theater actors...a week after receiving universal acclaim for her part in GASLIGHT at Her Majesty's, she is...n't basking in the glow of effusive reviews, or being driven around in a limo - rather, she is advocating for the forgotten people, as she has done for years. I took this photo of her at the Anti-Poverty Network vigil last night at the Elizabeth Centrelink. The vigil was in memory of people who had been hounded and harassed and robo-debted to their graves in recent weeks and months. See more

21.01.2022 Gather round, gather round, as we tell you the story, the story of how Morrison stole Christmas from millions of everyday Australians in 2020!

19.01.2022 Poverty was always a choice. Not a personal choice, of you and I, but a choice of government and big business. They have free choice while we get poverty. #PovertyDay

16.01.2022 3 NIGHTS TILL OUR JOBSEEKER LIVESTREAM PANEL!! Join us on Wednesday night (7pm AEST) for our JobSeeker Livestream Panel And Forum to discuss how we can keep pus...hing for a permanent, adequate raise to JobSeeker. Hear from people taking action, people on JobSeeker, and others. We will be joined by guest speaker, Alison Pennington, Senior Economist at the Centre for the Future of Work.

15.01.2022 credit where credit is due #keeptherate

12.01.2022 Robbing the poor; tax cuts for the rich. is.gd/Qzva9B

12.01.2022 Jobactive 2: Attack of the Obligation

10.01.2022 MIGRANT WORKERS AND STUDENTS LIVESTREAM - TOMORROW 7:30PM SA TIME There are over 2 million migrant workers and students in Australia, here on temporary visas, and many of them have to battle poverty, insecurity, and exploitation. To make matters worse, the Government completely ignored this group, as part of its response to COVID (no access to JobKeeper, no access to the COVID Supplement, hardly any financial support).... We will be discussing the challenges faced by migrant students and workers, and how we can support their campaigning for justice. Join us on Zoom, or watch the discussion from Facebook. More info at Online Discussion About Migrant Workers And International Students.

10.01.2022 Sydney's Shore School, which charges more than $33,000 annually, is investigating a document coined the "Triwizard Shorenament" that would see students spit on homeless people during a pandemic and sh*t on public transport. is.gd/UwSKmT

05.01.2022 IMPORTANT PROTEST TOMORROW!! Protest the job agency that visited a job-seeker's home and pressured them into signing a contract!! Unemployed people have rights, just like everyone else!! We will not accept this kind of treatment!!

04.01.2022 JOB AGENCY PROTEST!! Our friends at the Australian Unemployed Workers' Union are holding a protest against Multiple Solutions, the job agency that, outrageously, showed up at the house of one of their clients and pressured him into signing a contract!! (Read more here: tinyurl.com/y2lqxkfg)... Protest happening on FRIDAY JANUARY 29, 11AM, at Alton Reserve, Reynell Street, Kilkenny, we will be attending, and we want you there with us. We have rights!! We deserve to be treated with respect and dignity!! We must say NO to this treatment!! ****Remember to follow all COVID-Safe guidelines. Stay at home, if you are unwell, practise physical distancing, and we recommend wearing a face mask. Latest health advice here: tinyurl.com/yxbomvsg

04.01.2022 This Week's Office Hours 21-25 Sep 2020 Mon - 2pm - 5pm Tue - 2pm - 5pm Wed - 10am - 5pm... Thu - 10am - 5pm Fri - 10am - 3pm We are located upstairs** at 111 Franklin St across from The Bus Depot. Feel free to drop in and have a chat with a friendly face and see how you can get involved. *Our office hours will vary from week to week depending on our members capacity. However these are our office hours for this coming week, August 31th to 4th 2020. **If you have any trouble accessing our office or we have stepped out for a minute and left a note on the door, ring us on: 0884511589.

03.01.2022 Candlelight Vigil for those who were harassed before their deaths by Jobactive Providers, Robodebt and Centrelink. We are outside Centrelink with families of those who have lost loved ones and who gave first hand experience of this bureaucratic harassment that has very real human costs. This vigil comes the day before the LNP govt is about to push one million low-income people back into poverty, back into physical and mental strife.

03.01.2022 'The most expensive suburbs are also the coolest the harbour and coastal areas are often 10C cooler than inland. The highest temperatures are usually recorded in low socio-economic areas with a high proportion of people who are vulnerable to heat, including the elderly, those who are socially isolated, and those on pensions who cannot afford to run the A/C. "Air con is so important because [when temperatures rise] over 35C fans just don't cut it, but running the air con is ...so expensive," Dr Loo says. "Many of my patients cannot afford it. I advise them to go to shopping centres." Parts of Western Sydney may be 'abandoned'

03.01.2022 The class-divide charges interest.

03.01.2022 Moving nite. A cold code blue nite. And a windy nite that extinguished many a candle's flame. Yet we persisted, remembering the flame that burnt so bright in our loved one's hearts. Our friends and partners; our fellow workers and comrades, whose light was extinguished too soon. Too soon.... Why in their last days did the irrational bureaucratic Centrelink cause them nightmares; Why in their last days were they punished by private punitive dead end job agencies; Why in their last days did they face crisis inducing illegal Robodebts; Why in their last days did they have their right to Social Security ripped away and replaced with small carrot and big stick 'mutual' obligations. Why in our loved one's last days were they pushed to the very edge? They were burnt by a system but their memory still burn bright in our hearts. Thank you to everyone who spoke and shared their experiences.

03.01.2022 IS THE JOBSEEKER PAYMENT & HYPER-EXPLOITATION OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS UNION BUSINESS? The base rate for Jobseeker stays at $40 per day. The government has now cut $100 cut from the COVID supplement for unemployed workers from January 1st until March 31. They are testing to see how many other wage earners in jobs actually care, and whether or not NGOs, unions and welfare groups can muster enough opposition to reverse the decision.... The government knows that these organisations have not yet shown an inclination to organise in a big way against the cuts and their harsher implementation. The government is trying to work out how much more cutting they can get away with. Can they cut the total unemployment benefit back to $40 per day or will they have to live with an ongoing rate at about $50 per day? Meanwhile, 260,000 workers have had their unemployed payments suspended since the mutual obligations regime was reinforced a couple of months ago, and policed by private corporations who make a profit from unemployment set up as a commodity. The government’s intent here is to convince the majority who is not unemployed that the unemployed are not deserving. That is, the dolebludger mythology. Minister Ruston’s and Morrison’s self-satisfied smugness reflects who they are and who they represent. It should not surprise anyone. On the surface, This approach is driven by their belief that unemployed workers actually prefer that state and that the longer one is unemployed the more likely it is one will prefer to stay that way -- Beneath the surface, their intent is to create enough poverty and destitution to keep downward pressure on wages, thus helping the employer led recovery. That’s why the Living Incomes For Everyone (LIFE) Campaign is saying that the unemployed and employed must be United into a new movement that can defeat this regime - both as government policy and as a diseased way of thinking for those in work and looking for it. --- Don Sutherland

02.01.2022 Tonight For those we've lost.

01.01.2022 From 2011 but mandatory sentencing continues. Must end NOW. is.gd/s6Kxqa