State Govt runs out of Gambling Revenue! Counselling services forced to close!

Oh GREAT!

The State Government has decided to rationalise the free counselling service it offers via church based community centres. This means that if DH wants to continue to receive this counselling, she will have to go to Hornsby. HORNSBY!!! And she lives in Rozelle.

DH has a great counsellor who really has been one of the cornerstones of her stability.

This service is actually paid for out of revenue gained from GAMBLING. Casinos. Pokeys.

The State Government doesnt make enough money from gambling to support a few lousy counselling services for gamblers???

Where is the money going then?

DH is not a gambler BTW, nor does she drink, smoke or take drugs, stereotypes abt housos notwithstanding, but ended up in this service because she needed financial counselling.

Later on DH will explain just how Centrelink and DOH's combined mercies leave people without family support to live off credit cards.

Want to know how come the Lucky Country has huge levels of credit card debt? Look no further than this diary. With incomes dropping and every single formerly-free public service now on the gouge, how else do families make ends meet?

Anyhow, this is a huge blow for DH, because there is no way she can afford to keep seeing her counsellor privately.

There is a medicare fund for low income earners for 6 sessions a year. A YEAR!!! And all you get back is abt $30 - $40 dollars a session. Heaps of read tape and forms to fill in. A joke.

And HCF, (another great little contributor to bankruptcy in this state, I bet) to whom DH pays $100 dollars a month, gives NOTHING for counscelling.

ESPECIALLY hard as DH need her counsellors independant support more than ever now that she is in unemployment free fall.