Bludger or Battler? Tell me Mr Abbott

Dear Mr Abbott

In October I read a Sydney Morning Herald report which said that, following your election, you had met with NZ Prime Minister John Keys but ruled out any fairer economic rights for Kiwis living and working in Australia.  The report noted that:

"Nearly 55,000 New Zealanders moved to Australia last year alone but, unlike Australians moving in the opposite direction, they do not get access to a variety of social services even though they have full work rights and pay full taxes.

Nor are they able to achieve permanent residency unless they possess certain skills in shortage.”

That is me, in a nutshell, Mr Abbott.  I have lived and worked in Australia for 8 years.  I have paid taxes, supported Australian causes and charities, made some wonderful new Australian friends.  But, through matters entirely beyond my control, my circumstances have changed.

In July, Mr Abbott, I was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm (subsequently found to be two).  In September my employment was unexpectedly terminated. Because I am on a surgery waitlist I have been unable to get full time or permanent work that will in any way make use of my experience and qualifications.  And it seems I can’t even get a “lesser” role because I am “over-qualified” so they worry I won’t stay.  Even though I am in my late 50s and need to work.  Do you know how soul destroying that is, Mr Abbott, let alone to apply for job after job and not even receive a “thanks but no thanks” response?

Centrelink advises that I am not entitled to any sort of benefit or assistance. None at all. Because I am a Kiwi.

I researched a bit more, because I was sure that the Australia I loved when I moved here couldn’t be so heartless.  The National Welfare Rights Network has a printout that confirmed everything in the SMH report.  Other reports further added salt to my wound, and even stuff.co.nz noted the disparity:

“… New Zealanders who move to Australia are considered temporary residents upon arrival. They can work and live in Australia indefinitely - a right afforded only to Kiwis - but they cannot access many social security payments, including unemployment benefits.

To gain the same rights as Australians have in New Zealand, Kiwis must apply for permanent residency and meet strict skill requirements.

It has been estimated as many as half of the New Zealanders who have migrated to Australia in the last 12 years are ineligible for permanent residency.”

Catch 22, Mr Abbot. I am in limbo.  I have no income, I am unable to become a permanent resident, my age and circumstance of birth are entirely against me.  Therefore I can’t become a citizen.  The changes which happened on 1 July 2012 to the permanent employer sponsored visas adversely affected any possibility of my getting citizenship that way when I was still gainfully employed.

I contributed to your country for 8 years, Mr Abbott, and I am unable to get anything in return when I need it most.  Can you possibly imagine, Mr Abbott, what it felt like when Centrelink confirmed I could become homeless and I still would not qualify for any sort of assistance? None at all.  Because I am a Kiwi.

"Home", for me, is Brisbane.  I love it and I don’t want to move.  That would be very difficult anyway, as I have two senior rescue dogs which I adopted, and I have no intention of abandoning them.  But I am weary of the inequity, weary of the insinuation that Kiwis are bludgers, weary of fighting a fight that we ex-pat Kiwis just don’t seem able to win while politicians like you, Mr Abbott, control the situation.

So please tell me what I should do, Mr Abbott.  Because I no longer know.

The lucky country?

I borrowed the title for this post from John Watson's contribution to this morning's SMH. John's article is a very timely reminder of the increasing selfishness of people who live in a country with the highest median wealth in the world. 

The size of our houses - amongst the largest per square foot in the world; the obscenely enormous and wasteful symbols of power in the Parliamentary Triangle in Canberra; 1,500 golf courses throughout the country (frequented by corporate types whose clientele pay for them to play rather than work, despite them calling their games "networking opportunities"); wastefully lavish corporate events put on by wastefully lavish corporate entities; political free-for-all spending - if you're a politician, of course, and it helps if you are in the party in power. These same wasteful corporate types cry woe when they are asked to support a struggling charity, saying their corporate charity aid is decided by head office the year in advance and there is nothing left in kitty. Yet they will financially support a political party.

Millionaires and billionaires get richer, the poor get poorer, the divide widens, and the federal government decides it's okay to cut foreign aid but it's also okay to raise politician's salaries.

And even if you are a hard worker in the middle rank or lower down the ladder, it's just tough if you happen to lose your job due to redundancy (often not legitimate anyway), internal restructure (often a nice corporate way to avoid paying redundancy) or simply because the boss decided, after years of loyal service, that you're no longer really that valuable. He doesn't care, he'll still get paid. 

One wonders how some of these people actually get any sleep at night. But John Watson nailed that, too. "It seems we can live with a world of obscene disparities, as long as we imagine our lives, careers and successes are all our own work. If others struggle, that's their fault, their own mistakes, or lack of skills or work ethic."

Our own mistakes. Apparently being made redundant is our own mistake. Apparently losing our job because the new manager didn't like us is a lack of work ethic. The corporate type can then happily return to his golf course, sup his beer or wine paid for by his company or happy new supplier, and bemoan the lack of "good" people in the world.  Except him, of course.

John Watson's article wound me up considerably, because I agree with every word of it.  Australia has become an incredibly selfish, ignorant and arrogant nation, and the current government epitomises that. Wealth is not for sharing, instead it is to be returned to the wealth generators - the people who need it the least. The environment is not for saving because the same wealth generators need it to generate more wealth. And foreign aid is non-essential, so cutting it will cause no problems. At least, not in Australia.

Don't expect anything better from this government. If you happen to be one who voted for them, maybe you'd best start praying to whatever god you worship that you never find yourself in altered circumstances, because they won't help you. They're too busy helping themselves.

FFS... and all that

Social media is great.  Really.  Mostly.  Okay, sometimes.  Like when you find out first about breaking news via Twitter or FB and beat the Murdoch and Fairfax papers to it.  Don’tcha just love that those outdated print media only run out once a day?  The world is all over that stuff by then.

So it really annoys me – yes, really – when newsworthy stuff that appears in my newsfeed is followed by so many completely un-newsworthy and unintelligent comments… “WTF?”, “Say wah?”, “FFS.” You get the picture.  Yep, I too have been guilty of the odd FFS or two.  But usually only until I delve a little deeper and read the linked report and do a bit more research.  Which, unfortunately, so many morons on social media can’t be bothered doing.

Like a recent “breaking news” story which happened across my feed because someone had passed it to someone who had passed it on because it was so important, only to turn out to be 2 years old.  Yes, it was important, but not in today’s context.  It garnered the usual flurry of “WTF”s and “FFS”s, but very little intelligent comment, and no-one seemed to have realised – or cared – that the story was 2 years old.

Then there are the oft-seen complaints in comments that “the link won’t open for me”.  So Google it instead! Doh!  What are we, your computer technicians or something?? Man, if you can’t find shit yourselves maybe you shouldn’t be allowed to be in charge of technological equipment.  Like D.U.I. (Driving Under the Influence), we need a category for these turkeys – maybe M.I.C. – Moron In Charge.

And my personal favourite?  “This information is great but needs to be backed up by research.”  What is that crap, designed to make the writer look intelligent?  Maybe that is the intention, except I can Google and find the relevant research, why can’t you???  M.I.C!

Social media has had a huge part to play in changing the way we interact with the world around us, but it is only as good as the people who use it, and, frankly, I would hate to see it reduced to the same lowest common denominator as the MSM.  The quantity of information is huge, and it is up to individual users to filter it, but it is all too easy to ignore or bypass stuff that really is important when you get fed up with reading the crap that follows it.  So do yourselves a favour – read the articles and links that interest you – really read them – then do your own research to fill in the gaps, and then, only then, make an intelligent comment to add to the discussion.

And if the M.I.C.’s still persist, quietly leave the page and find somewhere that doesn’t have so many of the MFs.