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... nobody knows you when you're down and out
The HowardSpeak Dictionary
... the Dreaded Form B ...
Identify the mystery object: First published July 2006. Not much has changed as at Feb 2008.
A hidden oasis runs down the centre of the Balmain Road block that's slated for redevelopment
The "Good LIfe" on $87,69 or what's left of a "moderate income" after rent, utilities, transport and privatised health costs, And yes, that $87.69 does have to cover food, repairs, clothes, and lattes!
Bureaucracy gone mad! No wonder they can't afford to feed us. The money is all in paper generation..
The American dream fails for middle class Americans. They did all the rights things and they still can't get jobs. Not that different here in Oz.
Despite the title, the book struck DH as being a meditation on design, beauty and society. If you've ever wondered why Public Housing design has usually been so godawful, this book could give you the background you need and the ammunition for change
Freakonomics: Check out the chapter "Why is the Ku Klux Klan like a Group of Real Estate Agents" (or shd it be vice-versa?)
Pages
Rescue remedy for the Truly Desperate
2103 Update: Good Grief! This was written when Abbott became leader of the opposition. Now that the Noalition are back in business, it will be more relevant than ever! Except add the Prodigal Christian, Scott Morrison, and the horridly dweeby twins Tweedle-Brandis and Tweedle-Abetz. At least Mirabella is gone...
To be administered on accidental exposure to any of the above.
Take twice daily for next 3 years.
The majority of "the Stupid" is invincible and guaranteed for all time. The terror of their tyranny, however, is alleviated by their lack of consistency.
Albert Einstein
To be administered on accidental exposure to any of the above.
Take twice daily for next 3 years.
The majority of "the Stupid" is invincible and guaranteed for all time. The terror of their tyranny, however, is alleviated by their lack of consistency.
Albert Einstein
DH's political views
Who'dda thought? She's a far-left social moderate
Left: 7.53, Authoritarian: 0.86
The leaning to authoritarianism is probably because she opted heavily in favor of the proposition that the media-tart judges of Masterchef should be hung, drawn and quartered. And left to stew in their own jus.
Political Spectrum Quiz
The leaning to authoritarianism is probably because she opted heavily in favor of the proposition that the media-tart judges of Masterchef should be hung, drawn and quartered. And left to stew in their own jus.
Political Spectrum Quiz
Ancient History
The rest of this column is dedicated to the dark ages of the Howard government, DoH and Centrelink...
Lest We Forget
... nobody knows you when you're down and out
Lowlights of the Howard Decade
The HowardSpeak Dictionary
Promise:
Previously an absolute value, now variable. Divided into non-core for the benefit of mugs, and core promises for the benefit of insiders.
Previously an absolute value, now variable. Divided into non-core for the benefit of mugs, and core promises for the benefit of insiders.
Compassion:
Formerly a Christlike virtue, now a dirty word.
Elites:
Once referred to the aristocracy/ upper classes who had the gold and made the rules. Now refers to anyone who bases decisions on verifiable information and logic rather than resentment.
Reform:
Once meant a political change for the better. Now means demolition
Social security:
Once a form of insurance paid by workers and collected by the government on their behalf. Intended to provide security in the event of illness, disability, old age. Meant to to be contributed to by the elites via taxes, but mostly they manage to wriggle out of it. Nowadays, a dirty word.
Budget Bulimia
- Bloating on money dragged out of the teeth of battlers then
- disgorging it to special interest groups in marginal seats at election time
- Jesus would turn in his grave to see how Howard and Co have created a dog-eat-dog, survival of the fittest, the-strong-shall-inherit-the-lot Australia, all in His name, meanwhile ...
- Good old Christian hypocrisy - the "Right to Life" for disabled people does not extend to the Right to a Good Life, which would require a decent level of disability funding
Centralism masquerading as Anti-Socialism
- Liberalism used to mean opposition to Centralism. Howard had to be the most centralist PM we’ve ever had
- He wanted to take over everything, no wasting money on planning or research, just dream something up overnight when the polls dip, and send in the army to back it up
Robbing the Poor to give to the Rich
- the transfer of $3 BILLION from public housing into the pockets of private landlords: result: inflation
- the "budget surplus" extracted from the nation's rotting teeth
- the transfer of funding from the poorest schools to the richest based on the sham of postcode
Pandering to religious extremists
- for blurring the hard won boundaries between church and state
- no worries about fundamentalist extremist lunatics if they're Exclusive Brethren adding to election coffers
- allowing Hillsong to rip off the welfare system
Pandering to racists
- thick as thieves with the loony anti-semites of the League of Rights
- Nazi Croat propagandist Lyenko Urbancic leading light of the Liberal party
- playing the Muslim card when it suits them
Robbing Women and Children
- gutting the childcare system set up by Labor. This policy has now coming to fruition with the collapse of ABC childcare
Robbing workers of hard won rights
- Serfchoices
- Welfare to Workhouse
- fining individuals for striking
- using the services of a a repressive Muslim state to secretly train strike breakers
- the time-wasting conscription of disabled Australians into pointless low paid jobs
The Wedgie Portfolio
- taking every opportunity to “divide and rule” by appealing to resentment, fear, downward envy, xenophobia
- the harassment and villification of battlers via Centrelink while pretending to be on their side
Kafkalink
- the deliverance of the effective CES (Commonwealth Employment Service) into the hands of unscrupulous private operators
- Centrelink's punitive and humiliating regimes
- the gutting of Centrelink’s administrative infrastructure subjecting welfare recipients to bungle after bungle and desperation-inducing delays in payment
- miserable pensions that don’t keep up with the cost of living
- breaching the weakest
The big lie, spin, propaganda
- Is it $1 BILLION dollars of taxpayers money spent on Liberal Party advertising since they got in?
- non-core promises
- successfully slandering people with a social conscience as the “elites”, while the real elites have never been richer
Send in the army
- Iraq? Refugees? Aboriginals? No problem. No plan either.
- And of course no two diggers can get together for a quiet beer without our egregious PM suddenly popping up between them to clap them on the shoulds
Muzzling the press
- stacking the ABC board with Howard’s cronies
- Draconian Anti-Terrorism Act 2005
- prosecution of whistleblowers McManus, Harvey, Kelly, check out the details http://www.alliance.org.au/resources/reports_%26_submissions/
Shaming Australia
- Toadying to the imbecile Bush
- Children Overboard
- Christmas Island
- detention centres run like concentration camps
- incarcerating children in detention centres
- Siev-x
- the Tampa
- Hicks
- Haneef
Cricket
- It just wasn't...
How to tell DOH your income has increased (in 30 easy steps)
... the Dreaded Form B ...
DOH's Easy 30 Point Income Reporting System.
Read how one tenant overcame almost insurmountable obstacles in her quest to pay DOH more rent!
Guessing competition
Identify the mystery object: First published July 2006. Not much has changed as at Feb 2008.
Clue: it's an important part of the D'oH's Freedom of Information strategy. Click here to solve the mystery.
NSW Labor: Lilyfield Redevelopment Challenge
A hidden oasis runs down the centre of the Balmain Road block that's slated for redevelopment
Can Labor get it right this time?
First posted Dec 2006. As at March 2008, all tenants are finally out. Read the whole story in Housolink
On Dec 11 2006, tenants in the Edward St block of the Lilyfield estate received a peremptory notice informing them that their homes were about to be redeveloped. With scant detail about when and where, many tenants were thrown into panic mode, with rumours flying that they would have to be packed before Christmas. An insensitive start to what is potentially a positive move by NSW Labor to upgrade and increase housing stock. After the debacle of Minto, after the draconian measures in "Reshaping Public Housing", and with populist "tough talk" bordering on the abusive from recent Housing Ministers, tenants are not surprisingly suspicious about the Governments motives. Lilyfield is a chance for Labor to show that they have not forgotten their bread-and-butter voters, or raison d'etre which is to represent low income workers and disadvantaged members of the community.
First posted Dec 2006. As at March 2008, all tenants are finally out. Read the whole story in Housolink
On Dec 11 2006, tenants in the Edward St block of the Lilyfield estate received a peremptory notice informing them that their homes were about to be redeveloped. With scant detail about when and where, many tenants were thrown into panic mode, with rumours flying that they would have to be packed before Christmas. An insensitive start to what is potentially a positive move by NSW Labor to upgrade and increase housing stock. After the debacle of Minto, after the draconian measures in "Reshaping Public Housing", and with populist "tough talk" bordering on the abusive from recent Housing Ministers, tenants are not surprisingly suspicious about the Governments motives. Lilyfield is a chance for Labor to show that they have not forgotten their bread-and-butter voters, or raison d'etre which is to represent low income workers and disadvantaged members of the community.
Sitemeter link
From Welfare to Workhouse
WELFARE TO WORKHOUSE?
Is this Howard and Co.'s ideal vision of a disciplined work-force? Are the poor to have no pleasure at all, lest it incur the downward envy of the debt-ridden MacMansion brigade?
Anatomy of a Work Disincentive
The "Good LIfe" on $87,69 or what's left of a "moderate income" after rent, utilities, transport and privatised health costs, And yes, that $87.69 does have to cover food, repairs, clothes, and lattes!
A month"s mail from Centrelink
Bureaucracy gone mad! No wonder they can't afford to feed us. The money is all in paper generation..
Profile
- DH
- Caught in a poverty trap between the pincers of Centrelink and the NSW Department of Housing.
DH has the soul of a dancer trapped in the body of a computer programmer, but Centrelink still won't accept her claim for the disability pension! Postgrad in Social Science, therefore completely unemployable. Just as well given huge HECS debt. Has more TAFE Cert IV's than any human should have to live through. Computer nerd b4 becoming a carer, chequered career in NGO's, public service since. Now just another Oldtart on Newstart.
Contact
Contact DH with your comments, tips, and vociferous demands that she get a job.
desperate.houso@gmail.com
DH no longer on Facebook
Moved ops to Twitter!
Begging Bowl
Despite what free market fundamentalists try to tell you, the whole goddamn Universe is a free lunch. (Although there may be some administrative overheads).
And here's the cosmic begging bowl to prove it.
Apparently, if you click on the rubbish below, DH will earn a fraction of a cent...
SO CLICK ON IT, WHY DON'T YOU!!!
And here's the cosmic begging bowl to prove it.
Apparently, if you click on the rubbish below, DH will earn a fraction of a cent...
SO CLICK ON IT, WHY DON'T YOU!!!
Great Reading
The American dream fails for middle class Americans. They did all the rights things and they still can't get jobs. Not that different here in Oz.
Despite the title, the book struck DH as being a meditation on design, beauty and society. If you've ever wondered why Public Housing design has usually been so godawful, this book could give you the background you need and the ammunition for change
Freakonomics: Check out the chapter "Why is the Ku Klux Klan like a Group of Real Estate Agents" (or shd it be vice-versa?)
Links
Shelter NSW Peak NGO in NSW advocating for people disadvantaged in housing markets
Shelter Australia as above for all Australia
AHURI The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute.
Our House Swap an initiative by a public housing tenant to make it easier for other tenants to swap
Fact Sheets
Produced by Shelter NSW these fact sheet PDFs are an invaluable guide to the latest housing statistics
Other blogs
The Brown Couch
The Tenants Union witty and erudite blog named after that iconic piece of share-house furniture.
Our House Swap
The blog that goes with the public housing swap site above. Started in Aug 2010.
Blog Archive
Find-a-rant
- 3 Stooges: Abbott Costello et al (14)
- Aboriginal (1)
- About DH (7)
- Affordable Eating. Handy hints for troubled times. (1)
- Affordable Housing Policy: lack of (5)
- ALP (11)
- ALP Housing Policy (2)
- ALP Policy (1)
- Alpha Papa Echo Charlie (2)
- Autism and Asperger's (3)
- Bad teeth (17)
- Balmain (1)
- Banks - Rogue (2)
- Barack Obama (1)
- Bermuda over Broadway (4)
- BMWs (1)
- Budget (2)
- Bungling and administrative chaos (12)
- Carer Stress (4)
- Centrelink (3)
- Charity (5)
- Chicanery (1)
- Christians Jews Moslems (1)
- Church and State (4)
- Civil liberties (2)
- Collapse of Western Civ (1)
- Commonwealth (1)
- Criminal neglect (1)
- criminalisation of poor (3)
- Cultural studies (1)
- D'OH (34)
- David Borger (3)
- Demise of Liberal Party (5)
- Design and architecture (4)
- Disability and Poverty (3)
- Disincentive to work and education (2)
- Divisive media (2)
- DOH (1)
- Election 2007: Shameless gloating (1)
- election 2010; k (1)
- Election comment (13)
- Election. (1)
- Environment - Global Warming (1)
- Erratum (2)
- Evictions (2)
- exorbitant costs of (1)
- Festive Season (3)
- Financial crisis (2)
- Foreign policy tirades (1)
- Global financial meltdown (1)
- Greens (2)
- Gutless Labor (5)
- Healthcare (3)
- Holes in the ground (3)
- Housing Crisis (7)
- Housing Minister (21)
- Housos (3)
- Howard (28)
- Intellectual property (1)
- It's SATIRE Joyce (26)
- Joe Hockey (3)
- John Howard (72)
- Julia Gillard (2)
- Kafkalink (41)
- Kevin Rudd (16)
- Legal (1)
- legislative overkill (1)
- Leichhardt Council (3)
- maintenance (4)
- Malcolm Turnbull (3)
- Mark Arbib (1)
- Masterchef (1)
- Matt Brown (3)
- Media beatups on housos (8)
- Medicare: ruination of (11)
- Mental Health (17)
- Middle East (3)
- Nathan Rees (5)
- National Aspirationalism (3)
- National Housing Policy (2)
- Nomad Hordes (3)
- NSW Labor (7)
- Parasitical Packer family (7)
- Positive govt initiatives (4)
- Poverty trap (4)
- Rear-Admiral Brendan Nelson (1)
- Recruitment (3)
- Rental stress (3)
- Reshaping Public Housing (2)
- Residential Tenancies Act (3)
- Right to Life (1)
- Rogue Corporations (1)
- Rudd bonus; Kevin Rudd (1)
- Scott Morrison (2)
- Spotless (1)
- Spreadsheets (7)
- Stimulus package (1)
- Sylvia Hale (1)
- Tanya Plibersek (5)
- Tenant participation (7)
- Tenant-bashing (6)
- The banality of evil (4)
- The End (1)
- The Heart of Chairman Howard (7)
- The Underclasses: criminalisation of (2)
- The Underclasses: surveillance of (1)
- Things fall apart (1)
- Tony Abbott (1)
- Unemployed (3)
- unemployment (4)
- Waiting lists (1)
- War against Terror (5)
- Wayne Swan (1)
- Welfare to Workhouse (28)
- Witness (1)
- Workaholism (2)
- Working poor (15)
Contact DH
... with your comments, tips, and demands that she get a job
desperate.houso@gmail.com
TagCrowd2010
abbott abc absa affordable anyone applications arbib assessors australia balmain benefits blog budget case centrelink change children christmas class comments community course cowdery create design dh disability election fall family federal ferguson form gillard give going government hard hnsw hope housing housos howard human job julia labor lack liberal life list live local mark media minister money morrison national nsw paid party pay people plibersek pm policy political private public received rent resentful rights rudd social something sorry state story sustainability system takes tanya tenants things think thought training turn understand unemployed unemployment waiting week welfare work workers world year
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Tagcrowd 2008
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afford already around australia bad better budget called can't care carer case centrelink child children comes community costs d'oh daughter department disability doesnt doh doing enough family fees finally food form government govt health heard herself housing houso howard income issues job john knows labor least letter life looks management mental minister money mother mummy nation needs newstart nothing nsw oh once paid party pay payment pension people person phone pm policy poor private public really rent rental service since social staff state stress support system tenants things think times today told values waiting wants welfare work workers years yes
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