VoteYES!

I got a No card out of my letterbox this morning. 
At first it just made me mad - I am voting YES. 
But I need to talk about what No has said on that card. 

They claim that "The Voice will divide Australians". It won't. They will divide Australians. The First Nation people belong in this country. It was their own country for tens of centuries. How do they think the Voice will divide this country? They claim that Aus isn't a racist country, but they keep making it that same way. Read the history!! The present Aus was "made" 250 years ago when the Brits arrived to make it into a jail for their own people. They killed too many Indigenous people, thinking they were making the country British. Why?? Why were Indigenous people not included in the constitution when it was set up?

They claim that it isn't fair to "change the national rulebook". What rulebook?? This country became a British area. What is now in the "rulebook"? British rules? Are Indigenous people included? They should be. They say that the Voice "will have special access to Ministers and the Public Service". Why shouldn't they? Why were Indigenous people excluded from voting until 1962? Why were they never accepted in the World War I and II wars, even though there were soldiers who were Indigenous? In May 1964 the Labor opposition leader, Arthur Calwell, set out a bill which would include the Indigenous people in the constitution, but the government didn't accept that. The Indigenous people were not even included in the federal full equality election lists until 1984!

They claim that compensation will cost Australia too much, yet they use capitalism to speak of that. They refer to "reparations and compensation for 'historical wrongs'". Why are they trying to deny that to Indigenous people? A&TSI people have been abused far, far too much. 

• Their culture has been ignored and still is. Writers Taylor and Habibis said "White ignorance has a critical impact on race relations and is implicated in the maintenance of Aboriginal disadvantage. Addressing this ignorance is a largely overlooked capacity‐building opportunity within Australia's non‐Aboriginal population. It warrants consideration as a key component of strategies targeting Aboriginal disadvantage." 
• There are too many Indigenous people who commit suicide when their culture is ignored. Creative Spirits wrote "Almost non-existent in the 1980s, the rate of suicide and self harm amongst Aboriginal people is at crisis levels and has reached "horrific proportions", particularly in remote communities and especially amongst youth." 
• Their children were taken from their own parents! This must be considered today. YES can definitely help that!  

Looking into the history of the British into Māori has met much, much more than the white Australians. In New Zealand (Aotearoa), the Brits signed a treaty with Māori, and the meaning of the Treaty is specified in the NZ law. If the A&TSI had a treaty with the Brits, perhaps they would live much better than they are now. Just saying that.

They say that the Australia Day will be abolished, but this has been fought on for decades. Why are they saying that now? ABC posted an article about this in 2021. According to them, the "Australia Talks National Survey 2021 has revealed a majority of people now believe Australia Day should not be celebrated on January 26, given the historical significance of the date for Indigenous nations." The No vote people should realise that the activists for the change of the Australian Day might think different than the upcoming voters for the YES referendum, but many of them do support the YES vote! Why include them in your arguments? 

I am still rather angry at finding this piece of crap in my mailbox, but I suspect I have read much more history which should be considered when you think of voting No. 

#VoteYES

What has changed, and why?

 

Mostly throughout our lives we all have dreams which don't seem to come real for us. I dreamed of careers, I dreamed of real men, I dreamed of a healthy lifetime. I lost each of those. Too many other people seem to have lost everything or, simply, changed their lives after Covid hit us in 2019. Losing a cheap rental which you lived in for years as the rental price increase far too much; losing your job at the beginning of Covid during the lockdown; never making your bucket list holidays overseas because during Covid all aircraft were stopped from flying or now the prices are far too high. 

My losses were different to those who gave in to Covid, but they seemed similar: I lost my job when I told my employer about my brain aneuryms; after the stroke I was moved closer to my daughter so the rental costs changed; my holidays overseas simply didn't happen because I had lost 2/3 of my annual salary and I was now on DSP. My bucket list seemed to lose much of what I had ever put on it.

I am living now in a senior residential village and I haven't built up my bucket list. My predominant events were graduating from Griffith University with a BA a couple of years ago, and from Macquarie University this year with a Masters of Creative Writing. Both of these degrees were intended to help me recover from the stroke and aphasia (dysphasia) which I haven't, really. I forget words, I forget to discuss when all I can do is write.

When I passed the Masters of Creative Writing I had just finished the three years of research and writing for my family history book, but I still haven't gotten it printed. I found out that I could choose to only have one printed and use that to advertise it. Perhaps that is what I will do but I really need to understand the cost on that, because I sure can't afford to pay for a whole heap of them printed. It should have helped me to feel "recovered", yet I know I'm not. Some people think I certainly am, but perhaps they don't really know me. 

Two things wound me up today. The first was finishing the Jodi Picoult novel Wish You Were Here, published 2021. I found this in the free library in my retirement village, and it was a very good book: perhaps I could have written a review, but my words probably wouldn't help it. I felt so similar to the woman she had written about during Covid. I remembered a dream I had when I was a child, flying away, and I have often remembered that. Why do I? I had no reason to fly away in my childhood, but maybe that was a sensor warning about my teenager future, away from my family. The character's career in Picoult's novel has changed: so has mine. I might read that novel again in the future. Maybe it might help me.

The second thing was an article on First Peoples nation which says that Jacinta Price's "denialism takes the Coalition to a new Indigenous Affairs policy: erasure of First Peoples". I wonder if she even realises what she is doing? That is so wrong. The First People were in this country long before the British turned up and took over. Maybe she thinks that what happened was okay? Has she ever read history??

I am asking everyone to #VoteYES !

Forgotten times

I only remembered today that I hadn't posted another blog since December last year. I can blame my aphasia... and also the recent person I discovered I did not like. He was just a tutor who didn't know any more than I do or may have known more than I did but never chose to discuss that with me. 'Nuff said. I've gotten over that! 

I finished the draft of my book, which I have been working on for 3 years, and I am feeling pretty stoked! Yesterday I found one beta reader; perhaps I should use more, but the first one is my first goal... get that goal and then I can go ahead with more beta readers. I spent too long looking at the different publishers, and I still haven't chosen one. This book is an historical non-fiction work... I just want it published! 

For the rest of this post I am talking about how people are treated over poverty and rent and where they want to live. That includes me - I'm a retired woman and I have been following the politics of rental since COVID. When I moved last year to be closer to my family, I chose a single bedroom unit for less than $300. Except I have been discovering what's not good of this unit for me. There is only one entry/exit which shares access with every other tenant on this level; there is no balcony on the other side of the unit; there are 15 steps up and down that I have to walk every day, and my legs are tired; the oven is rusty; the ceiling is peeling (even after being painted before I moved in); there is too much dust which just happens to come inside from the main road through this area; there are no sound limits through the neighbour's walls; there is no aircon; the mailboxes are very difficult to check - very low and in front of the garden that is too close. Months ago, I requested a permanent set of curtains in my bedroom to stop the afternoon summer sun actually getting into that side of the unit, and I am very grateful that the owner had them put in. That's pretty much the only excellent thing that has been done for me. 

When I reached retirement age, I had my name put on the Housing Dept list for a community unit. A couple of weeks later I got a notice from the property agent to ask if I was moving out. No, I was not! I only put my name on a list, and I might have to wait for a couple of years for a property to become available for me. At the beginning of this month, I received another email which informed me that my rent was going up when I reached the end of my two-year contract. It was going up by $60 a week!! Perhaps I should have ignored that notification, because my contract did not expire until 2024. But I have aphasia, and my brain works by itself and told me I should be upset/angry and start looking elsewhere now. 

I tried looking through property websites, most of which quoted rent for a one-bedroom unit or a studio unit as $350 a week, and some $450. Almost all of these were called a "granny flat", and I, seriously, am wondering how many landlords actually have their own "granny" who could never afford $350. Why, just why call a single bedroomed unit/flat a "granny flat"? 

I have my name on the lists with retirement villages, which have many people on their own list. To find something I can afford for the rest of my life would work for me, but the only one I attempted to get in to inspect, after telling me that I was definitely considered, was signed up by a person chosen by the private owner. I had already been into Housing Dept to arrange for the bond, and they had told me that, even though the rent for that unit included a meal a day, the cost was just over the limit the HD had placed on beneficiaries like me, but they were happy to support me. Which didn't happen. 

COVID has led to payments increased to workers, but very little to beneficiaries, which sees us move out if the rent goes higher than we can afford. That's what leads to homelessness. These days so many of the advertised units/flats are rented as furnished. I wonder why this is happening now, when it didn't happen a few years ago? I have my own furniture and belongings and I have the right to live with my own stuff. 

Very recently I completed a survey and a submission for the Queensland state government where they are looking into availability of housing. They have a website page which looks at Housing Support for Aged People (for people like me) and Housing Pathways for Young People (which probably includes everyone else). If you can provide your own submission then please do so, whether you need a home or already have your own. This suggestion is directed at people who aim to earn what they need to pay for rent, certainly not at the property owners (unless you will support us too!).

A year ago, when I moved closer to my family, I didn't really feel that I could be facing homelessness throughout my future life. I also never considered that the agent would tell me months in advance about the rent increase. But I already knew I could not afford $350. 

I think of anything I could do: speed up the publication of my book (but I can't guarantee an income from it); win the lotto sometime in the future (but I can't really afford that). I guess that, now, I can think about the useless stuff that people with too much money spend on.

I won't miss that stuff.

"Bulldozed" by Niki Savva

 

Savva's book was published in 2022, a perfect time to write this. It is about "Scott Morrison's fall and Anthony Albanese's rise", and so true! Morrison described himself has "a bit of a bulldozer" (p. 7), which proved to be so correct.

My memories of Morrison was that he disputed Albanese as the Labor leader, saying that he had "no experience". He obviously didn't know Albanese, who had been an MP since 1996 in Grayndler, had been the deputy PM under Rudd in 2013, and had held various MP positions under Gillard and Rudd from 2007-2013 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Albanese). He had been Leader of the House,  Minister for Regional Development and Local Government and Minister for Infrastructure and Transport.He had been appointed to those positions by ALP. He had taken over from Bill Shorten in 2019 at the party Leader. He knew a lot about government according to Savva in the book, Morrison "had always underestimated Albanese, who was both resilient and street smart" (p.4). According to Alex Hawke, he had "got addicted to executive authority" (p.7).

Savva had accomplished interviews with so many of the people both in LNP and ALP, and included their words in the book. One of those she interviewed said that Morrison "would only step down if God told him to" (p.19), which, after the 2022 election, proved to happen whatever he thought about. Savva said that "every year of his tenure began with a disaster of one kind or another" (p.24), which showed Morrison had no experience as a party leader or a PM.

Morrison often prayed in the PM's office with his colleagues (p.73), those with a belief in religion. The Constitution, Section 42 (https://www.aph.gov.au/constitution), allows an oath OR affirmation. A bible is not essential in the House, nor the Senate. Morrison conducting prayers was scary, for those of us who had no belief. His approach to other people, regardless to his 'control' of them, was based on his belief, and did not ring true to those he was confronting. His disinterest in "rules-based order" was identified by Senate Fierrawanti-Wells who said that Morrison was "not fit to be prime minister" and that he was "an autocrat, a bully who has no moral compass" (p.214). When Morrison fired Holgate from the AusPost, he thought it was "appropriate to publicly admonish her" her (p.127). The Senate "exonerated [her] and recommended he apologise" (p.127). He didn't. Holgate accused him of bullying. When Morrison had found about the rape of Higgins in Reynold's office, he insisted he had not been told by anyone (p.139). According to Savva, "few believed him" (p.139).

Morrison had walked away from the national bush fires, and went to Hawaii with his family in 2019. On his return (earlier than he had planned, due to being asked by his colleagues to be here), he went to Cobargo where fires had ravaged the community. He attempted to shake the hand of a woman, who refused; he took her hand, and didn't even listen to her (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts71iK2Jx_I). Savva said that he had gone "missing when his country needed him the most", and that he was "incapable of accepting responsibility when things went wrong" (p.51). Buzzfeed had 18 ridiculous sayings that Morrison had made (https://www.buzzfeed.com/louisegong/16-times-scomo-humiliated-australians-over-the-past-year) but there were more, like the "I don't hold a hose", written about by ABC (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-18/scott-morrison-acknowledges-saying-i-dont-hold-a/13886694) on 18 May 2022, and New Daily listing a long list of when Morrison had said "it's not my job" (https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/politics/australian-politics/2021/04/22/scott-morrison-not-my-job/). 

As I looked through Google and Wikipedia, which I am certain Morrison would not use, or would decry them, I found so much info which Savva wrote about throughout the book. Savva acknowledged that Morrison was "to never own up when he got anything wrong" (p.248), had acknowledged that voters "mightn't like him, but at least he got things done" (which he didn't) (p.268), told people that "there are things that we are going to have to change with the way I do things" (which was answered by Albanese who said "If you want to change, change the government") (p.268), supported Katharine Deves for Warringah despite not understanding how she was perceived by women voters and ignored his party members as they asked him to dump her (p.218), and paid no attention to what Barnaby Joyce had been recorded as saying: "[Morrison] is a liar from my observations and that is over a long time." (p.140). This is a very few of what Savva has noted throughout this book.

Savva had an acknowledgement at the back of the book for all the people she got information from, and that list is impressive. The book was an excellent read for me, even though it took me a little bit longer as I went to NZ for a brief visit. It's taken a definite position on my bookshelf, where I can pick it up and re-read it whenever Morrison tries to re-introduce his religion, or still bullies, or still ignores that whatever he does is his job! And he should never have belittled Albanese, who is now a much, much better prime minister than Morrison ever was.

I'm a Kiwi. If you want to understand why I never trusted Morrison, look up Rob Muldoon, a Kiwi prime minister back in 1975-1984, who was, as far I think, far too similar to Morrison (albeit not religious). Thank you, Niki Savva, for this book - you made my day reading it!

I am all & all is me...

Yesterday I was looking for something to blog about when I saw that the previous PM, Scott Morrison, had secretly taken on three departments without letting anyone else in this country know about it! I looked up other blogs and news articles. I found this picture on the Poll Bludger under the comments on “Roy Morgan, Morning Consult and JSCEM (open thread)”, dropped in there by the Dog's Brunch - and I loved it/hated it so much, but it showed, as "Wendy" had said, ScuMo had always thought "I am all & all is me". I hope - truly hope - that he has found his real position: in Hell's deep hole. Excellent time to find out his idiotic stuff! 

I went backwards to look at an ABC article dated 8 April 2022 which spoke about the Governor-General David Hurley who had personally lobbied ScuMo for funding for a "leadership program" which had only been set up last year. ScuMo gave it more than $18 million in the federal funding. Why did that happen? Labor did know about it - but they were, at that time, the opposition. Penny Wong questioned it. 

Very recently News.com.au said that "Scott Morrison breaks silence on secret ministry scandal as Anthony Albanese seeks legal advice", The Guardian told their readers that "Morrison took control of Keith Pitt’s portfolio to reject exploration licence in lead-up to election" and on 15 August The Guardian printed an article by Anne Twomey for The Conversation, and The Australian ($) wrote that "Scott Morrison was appointed by David Hurley to take control of the entire Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources" (no link because you have to subscribe to them - I don't). I have always had problems with how Morrison became a PM. Now I wonder if other LNPs standing for PM would have acted the same way. 

I have read that this over-extension is allegedly based on Section 64 of the Constitution. I looked it up. It says:

"64. Ministers of State

The Governor-General may appoint officers to administer such departments of State of the Commonwealth as the Governor-General in Council may establish.

Such officers shall hold office during the pleasure of the Governor-General. They shall be members of the Federal Executive Council, and shall be the Queen's Ministers of State for the Commonwealth.

Ministers to sit in Parliament

After the first general election no Minister of State shall hold office for a longer period than three months unless he is or becomes a senator or a member of the House of Representatives."

To me, this gave no approval for the Governor-General to do this for Morrison. Hurley did not establish the "departments". This did not apply to him, nor to Morrison.

I wait with a bated breath for whether or not this will be taken to court. I don't think it was relative to S.64. Is Hurley still GG? Happy to hear from others readers.

What an [adjective] time!

Another 6 months since I have written anything in here. I wonder why...

Still, I have now moved and I am in another single bedroom unit in the north of Brisbane (I was south of Brisbane, in case I hadn't mentioned that). I suppose I should have settled down years ago, but my aphasia (with my stroke) has only improved in the past 2 years. Perhaps that was because I used to isolate myself during the COVID-19 pandemic. I know that everyone was supposed to, but I didn't break any laws!

This term I have finished another two papers for the Master of Creative Writing course. I actually didn't really enjoy both the units this time, but I have started another story which might just become my next novel. I so hope so!

I have been so distressed until right now. Right this moment! In April I was very upset with the increase - yet again - of the life (death) insurance which I had taken out in 2013, before I ended up in hospital in 2014 with the brain aneurysm, stroke and aphasia. The aphasia played badly with my memory, and after April 2014 I had no memory of this policy. I was put on to DSP as I could no longer work.I didn't even find out who this company was until 2018.

I contacted Australian Seniors Insurance and spoke to a person whose name I do not know in June 2019, when my previous premium had been increased to $37.59. I asked for the premium charge to be reduced as I could not have afford this - double what I had started this policy with in 2013. I hadn't found out about the premiums for this policy until 2017, which had increased that year to $29.82. It was increased again in 2018 and 2019 and after I found out about the Australian Seniors finally in 2019, it reduced to $33.66 on 19 June 2019. For me, that was still too much. Back then I have no memory of talking to anyone from Australian Seniors about stopping the increased premiums. Three years later I still tried to contact the staff: I spoke to "Marie" at 5.30pm, 8 April 2022. I later rang "Andrew" and "Corinne" on 11 April this year and 13 April this year. I was not told where this had been sent. On 13 April I also sent two documents to Andrew and Corinne: those documents had information about my stroke and aphasia back in 2014, and from the ABIOS person who assisted me for months after I was discharged. On 26 April I received an email from "Emily" advising that my complaint had been sent on to the "Internal Disputes Resolution Department and is currently under review".  

On 26 April Emily had cc’d to customercare@greenstone who I later found out – 16 May - was Maria Pinzon, the first time I had heard from her. She had posted a letter dated 6 May which I did not receive until 16 May. She advised me that my claim had been declined.

I was extremely upset that the Australian Seniors company had no interest in my stroke and aphasia and the fact that I did not again become aware of the company until 2019. Since then it has taken me three years to get this far. I still live with aphasia, and I have very little communication with any person by vocalising. I fully believe that the company Greenstone and/or Australian Seniors should have cancelled my policy from the date of the stroke and aphasia. Since then I had no communication with the company until I found out who the direct debit was for. I personally believe that from 2017 onwards they had no absolute permission from me to continue with this policy. I certainly believe that they had no permission from me for the continuation of the policy while I had begun to live with the stroke and aphasia - which will affect me for the rest of my life. Since February in 2017, when I became aware of the Australian Seniors company, I have paid approximately $4,799.22 for premiums, which I should not have had. I cancelled the policy on 20 May this year. That is $4,799.22 out of my DSP benefit, which I have been paid with since April 2014. What right did Australian Seniors and Greenstone have to continue taking it from me without finding out what happened to me?

Their letter says "There is no need for you to do anything..." I firmly believe that every person should be asked to sign for an increased premium. I have never had to do that. I would like a refund of all the premiums I have paid since February 2017, which is when I became aware of the policy and had to make a lot of attempts to find out the name of the company. I have sent a complaint further up the line, this time to ACFA. I hope they will find positive for me!

When I moved here I got refunded bond from my previous address, and my electricity account was in credit so they refunded that. I wish that other people who became aware of what had happened to me should have/could have had a conversation face-to-face with me to help me sort out the issues. 

Another company which refused to refund six months of a membership fee was RACQ. My car and my contents insurance had been with them for years, and I never questioned the cost, until I moved here and found another insurance company who offered the contents policy for a quarter of the price that I had paid to RACQ! I cancelled my car because I won't be driving it any more (I loved it for the past 12 years, but the cost of petrol has put it right out of my reach), and they told me that I would still be a member until January 2023 - even though I have no car and no contents with them any more! Why do companies do that? I find that insulting. 

Anyway, I am to start the next term of the units for the Master of Creative Writing I am doing, and I really hope these units will be enjoyable. Perhaps I shouldn't have blamed the previous units, because the issues I had to sort out were not theirs.

Still, I am now living within 1.5kms from my daughter and her partner, and their lovely wee girl - my granddaughter! Sometimes I think it's warmer up here than down where I was!

Have a wonderful rest of the year!

The end of this year

It's almost there. Today is the 31st December 2021, and what has happened during 2021? For me, nothing particularly good, except for some of the things I looked up - like a new albatross hatched in February - there's a bit of a tale to that. This is the end of the second year of the pandemic life under COVID-19. It has affected me too often, and although I have had two vaccinations (AstraZeneca) I have not (yet) had the third one. Do I need that? 

2021 with a few things that happened is laid out here for readers.

January: 6 January 2021 was the worst of much of 2021, as the QAnon followers attacked the Washington USA Capitol, and tried to express its significance to them. The majority of the world saw it as a stupid crime during which some people were killed. This event won the PolitiFact 2021 Lie. In the next few months severe reaction by the government and police changed the act from the QAnon followers: hundreds went to court and were jailed; Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and Instagram got rid of contacts who were identifying as QAnonners; some global authors got their history of QAnon published, including Van Badham from Australia, who wrote an excellent story of it; and, as we already know, Joe Biden was the elected USA President, not Trump.

February: a 70-year-old albatross in a wildlife refuge in the North Pacific Ocean had a chick, BBC was told by the US wildlife officials. "Wisdom", the albatross, had been identified in 1956 and was the oldest one the wildlife officials knew of.

March: On 13 March, McGowan, the Premier of Labor's party, lead the party back into West Australia with a bigger majority. Victoria, also a Labor state, had grown immensely with COVID-19 infection as reported in the Federal government Health department.

April: Queen Elizabeth's husband, Philip, died on April 9th. He was 99 years old. He'd been in hospital between February and March this year, and had a ""successful procedure" for a preexisting heart condition on March 3". 

May: USA President Joe Biden announces that his government was heading towards 70% vaccinations before 4 July. Australia didn't make this then, either.

June: Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven resigned on 28 June after a non-confidence vote. Sweden had a temporary PM until November when the first-ever female prime minister, Social Democrat Magdalena Andersson, was elected. Within hours she resigned when her budget was rejected. I wonder if the Swedish politics would work in Australia?

July: In this month I discovered a New Zealand cop drama based in the TV town Brokenwood, titled The Brokenwood Mysteries. It had country music - which I normally don't like - but the series of this programme were well made, and watchable through ABC's iView.

August: While this month had horrifically hot temperatures around the globe ever since records started, bushfires also played their game. Guardian's article was about Hawaii's largest wildfire on record in South Kohala which was finally brought under control, but it had burned through 40,000 acres

September: The Conversation wrote an article about the earthquake in Melbourne on 22 September. Even though it was only a magnitude of 5.8 there was some damage. While Aus seems to be lucky not to have such heavier earthquakes, that brought memories of the New Zealand Christchurch earthquake in 2011, a 6.3 shock which caused so much damage and killed 185 people. This year, the worst earthquake which killed people was in Haiti, a 7.2 which killed 2,248; the worst one of magnitude this year was in July in Alaska, USA, where an 8.2 was in Aleutian Islands but no-one killed.

October: There was a Komatsu PC270 clearing the ground south of my unit from the debris from a demolition. So. Bloody. Noisy! The dude didn't even operate that digger well himself - maybe he'd only leased it. This noise went on into the first couple of weeks of November.

November: Broke my 7th rib on 13 November, falling off a chair I was standing on to try to stop my unit fire alarm beeping. Pain was around 6 then, I drove to Ipswich Emergency department and the pain got worse. I had the ribs x-rayed and they confirmed it was broken. Pain  was 10 most of the rest of that day - and I had to drive myself home! My daughter and her family came round and helped by vacuuming inside and mowing the outside, both which I couldn't have done. The rib was allegedly to repair itself within 6 weeks.

Later in this month my next door neighbour came to my unit and mowed the back lawn again! I am so grateful to those who helped meat the start of this six weeks! Love you all!

December: This is the end of 2021, yet it seems it seems not the end of the COVID pandemic. This year we saw two different viruses, the Delta and now the Omicron. Our borders were opened for overseas and interstate travellers for Christmas and holidays, but the Omicron has picked up - and is working fast. Still, the government has changed regulations, so I wonder how states will react to this? The UN WHO says that 2022 may be the end of the pandemic. Shall we watch and see?

Just after 6pm in Brisbane, Australia. I say to all the New Zealanders, have a very nice NYE. And to all in Australia, the same. Let's just all hope that our new year, 2022, will be better than the last two.

Will you go overseas when the restrictions are lifted?

Lifting restrictions for travelling by air may mean that at least 80% of Aussies must have a Covid vaccination (or two of them)... have you? I have, but I still don't think I'll go overseas. I want to go to New Zealand, where my family mostly lives. I have my daughter and granddaughter living here in Brisbane, but I want to see my three sisters and my brother and his wife. The last time I saw them - and my son - was 3 years ago, for a funeral for my son's wife. I had planned on going back last year, until the pandemic came here. I planned on going over earlier this year when it seems 'under control' - there was a bubble jet between Aus and NZ. But that vanished very soon then. I know there are many Aus citizens globally who have been wanting to come back for months. Maybe they will be able to come back when the restrictions are lifted.  

So how will the lifting of restrictions allow us to live a 'normal' life? Will the pandemic be under control? Every state is differently vaccinated: this link is a pdf report from the government Department of Health dated 2 October 2021. You can print it out. So far, it seems, that the children aged 12-15 are the lowest vaccinated as at 2 October, but are they included in the 80% we need for restrictions lifted? Why has it taken the government so long to include them in the vaccinations?

According to an ABC article dated 9 August 2021, the schools in three states were facing their own problems with Covid. For most of those school, lockdowns were applied and thousands of those children faced home education. In Queensland, at least, they had to wear masks. Their education is drifting off, with no older student thinking now that they will be able to do their end of year exams, and why should they miss out on what we all know is the last of their high school education? Pandemic is the critical issue. 

Many non-vaccinated people - and even some vaccinated - are able to carry the disease and pass on to others. Hospitals at least don't have anywhere near as many vaccinated people end up there, but it seems that most of those non-vaccinated who end up in hospital are the most possible of dying. The Health Department statistics, also 2 October, show that more men than women up until age 80 have been more open to Covid - and more men have died from Covid than women up to the age of 80. Before this year, when vaccination was set up, we were trying to suppress Covid because at that stage we had no vaccinations. Lockdown was precedent. A Reuters article dated 1 September 2021 acknowledged that Australia now realises that they can't get over it, but they must work with it: it seems that Aus dealt with it much better than some countries globally. 

If we meet the 80% but some non-vaccinated want to fly overseas, will they be allowed? What do we need when we have had the two vaccinations? The overseas airlines may demand a copy of a government vaccination passport, as said by IATA (International Air Transport Association). They advise that "governments need to be confident that they are effectively mitigating the risk of importing COVID-19. This means having accurate information on passengers’ COVID-19 health status." They have definitive lists of what passengers must supply, and that includes their proof of vaccination, when they were tested, and have the ability to share their results. Being positive with Covid might mean they can't travel in the IATA airlines. It will be interesting to see whether that does work. Or not. The BBC did a report in July this year on some countries which require vaccination passports. It may be necessary to read.

There is nothing that guarantees we will meet 80% by every state by the end of October - or even November - but many are looking forwards to travelling overseas at christmas time, either on holiday or simply visiting their own overseas families. I would love to go to NZ and visit my family, but who knows how I can plan ahead for that? To lift the flight restrictions state by state will be a real slap on the face for those from a state which has not yet met that percentage. Each state should, in my opinion, keep the flying restrictions in place and help the slower states to catch up. 

And maybe, just maybe, we will be back to 'normal' by the end of this year.

Don't change your name on marriage!

When you were born your parents would have received a birth certificate with your birth name on it. This document is your personal identification throughout the rest of your life. Too many women change their surname when they marry, but the reality is don't change your name - you might lose your identity! Women who now suffer from domestic violence, separation and divorce just want to use their own real name, but have a lot of trouble convincing anyone just by producing their birth certificate. It recently happened when a women was robbed of her identity as she left her rural home and her ex-partner stole everything from her. Now she is homeless and needs help.

In July 2021, ProBono wrote an article about the shortage of social housing which affects women who can't get away from the DV. According to ProBono, 7,600 women return to their violent partners because they can't find any other housing. There are more than 9,000 homeless women and children. This article quoted from a report, written by Equity Economics, about how much is needed to spend to the housing to benefit those who have been living homeless, including families who have left their violent relationship.

In June 2021, as reported, the latest increase of homelessness for these women and children is due to the isolation in homes because of Covid-19. Women reported an increase in controlling behaviour - their finances, their friends, their access of outside supporters, their use of technology and social media - and that Covid-19 is not entirely responsible for this. Bushfires, floods and cyclones also increased the requirement for assistance against the domestic violence which expanded in their homes.

Australian women held a conference in September, endorsing assistance to help women stay safe from DV during lockdown. They looked at "financial security, policing, sexual violence and challenges facing diverse members of the Australian community". Professor Carrington from the QUT said that Australians want a "better national plan" that "takes violence against women seriously that sees it as a number one government priority, that invests in prevention, invests in new services." It's hard to believe that politicians still don't take DV as serious, but many of them still ignore it. 

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare - which is a government service - reported on 16 September 2021 that "Family, domestic and sexual violence is a major health and welfare issue in Australia. It occurs across all socioeconomic, demographic and age groups, but predominantly affects women and children." This is a government service - so why doesn't the government acknowledge this? The website says that DV includes physical violence, sexual violence, emotional abuse and coercive control. This has been noted for years on DV websites, yet this government hasn't done anything to bring it under control. Like providing many more social houses for women and their families suffering from DV.

Women have their own rights, to keep their own name and to live in their own home without DV. How long before this happens? 

 

More to read:

ABC: Domestic Violence Survivors 28/05/21

Al Jazeera: Australia's 'invisible' homeless women 12/08/21

SMH: Government urged to 'fix shocking situation' 12/07/21

Creative Writing: Domestic and Family Violence 19/07/21 

The Conversation: You couldn't leave your husband - it wasn't done 26/08/21 

The Mandarin: Government says 'Use super to flee from harm' 18/03/21 

Nuclear politics

In 2016 the LNP government contracted for 12 submarines - diesel, apparently what the then-PM Turnbull wanted - from France. Now the French contract has been thrown out (how much will we be paying for that?) and Aus has gone into a nuclear submarine contract with the US and the UK - allegedly called AUKUS, (but I would call it AUSUK - "a 'you suck'") agreement. Nuclear... nuclear?? Well, in the climate change... nuclear? Nuclear submarines... what exactly are they?

The Guardian quoted Trotsky saying “you may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.” War, in this globe, is intrinsically evil. Different wars have lasted for decades over centuries: look up the Wikipedia for a list of them. This page splits them down alphabetically, by era, by location, by conflict and by death toll. Haven't they finished yet? This is 2021, why isn't there peace today?

In democracy a government is supposed to work for us, not for themselves, yet democracy is vanishing. According to the Parliament Education Office, our democracy allows 

"citizens [to] choose candidates to represent them in a parliament... approximately every 3 years to select members of parliament to represent Australians and make laws on their behalf." 

That sounds right - so why isn't this government paying attention to that? The Parliament of Australia website says: 

"Political theory recognises three powers of government—the legislative power to make laws; the executive power to carry out and enforce the laws; and the judicial power to interpret laws and to judge whether they apply in individual cases."

The POA website, further on in it, has a report titled "Australian Parliamentary Democracy After a Century: What Gains, What Losses?". This should be read by everyone in Australia, because it represents all of us. In the Major Issues section, in 1975 Gough Whitlam was dismissed by the Governor General, but after that the GG's position means that 

"exact limits on the 'appropriate behaviour' of the Governor-General are still not settled." 

So these days, it seems, we can't get rid of a parliament which does not work for those Australians who voted for them. Who voted for this government to throw out the French contract for submarines and rolled in with the AUKUS agreement? Is it for all of us? Were we asked to agree to it?

PM Scott Morrison has to stop jumping around in his position and contact all of us for permission. That is what "democracy" is supposed to be about. The majority of the population hated the war in Vietnam - it was ended in 1973, as other wars stopped in Iraq, East Timor and Afghanistan up until this year. VAD (Voluntary Assisted Dying) exists through personal feelings within each state government (WA, SA, Vic, Tas, and Qld). LGBTIQA+ marriage rights exists through people voting for it (61.6%) in 2017. So many other things the population has been involved in to make them happen. I'll repeat the quote from PEO which was the first on this page:

"members of parliament [to] represent Australians and make laws on their behalf"

This is Australian democracy. The government is supposed to run this country using the definition of that democracy. If they don't they are not working on our behalf. They need to let us know how throwing out the French contract was decided. They need to let us know who chose nuclear submarines, and how much more that will cost this country. They need to let us know how the new submarines will work for this country. 

We have the right to know.

 

Historical convicts

I started writing my family history at the beginning of Covid19 back in March 2020. I found out a whole lot of information of one surname, but finding out about others was so hard! 

My mother was a young child when her father introduced her mother to domestic violence - Gran divorced him. I didn't want to follow his family - I'd never met any of them. 

My father's father had changed his name in 1949 when Dad was 19 years old, and I could trace his family back to his great-grandfather who went to New Zealand from Sydney in around 1842. I couldn't find any relations before that. His mother, my other Gran, came from a family which I could trace back at least to the 15th century. Those distant relatives would have been... well, not exactly poor, but would have worked for and rented their homes from the rich landowners. Some of this family moved to Australia, and others moved to New Zealand.

There were a couple of convicts I traced from England to Australia who weren't, then, our historical family. The first one would've been young (around 16, I think, when she was transported to Australia in 1790 and sent on to Norfolk Island and back to Sydney. One of her granddaughters moved to Tasmania and married another convict who'd earned the end of his 7-year sentence in 1825, and one of their granddaughters moved to New Zealand and met and married one of my great-uncles - one of Gran's brothers. So, now we had two convicts recorded in our family tree!

History can cause so many problems - like, do you remember all of your relatives? How many kids did your grandparents have? Did you ever visit them? I remember a lot of my father's mother's family - we visited their farms or their town homes, and most of them seemed to live in the Waikato area in New Zealand. A couple of others I remember lived in the South Island, so we didn't see them very often. 

We had the first family reunion I remember - sometime in the 1960s, so many people from that family that I don't remember but I loved that reunion. We had a second one in the 1980s but those I do remember were the ones we'd visited before.

I kept thinking of family reunions and wondered who else does them? Wikipedia has info about them, and some, it seems, are held every year. The pic at the top of that Wiki page shows a Swedish family who are "people descending from a common ancestor born in 1776". The convict I wrote of first here was born in 1772 - there's a lot of our family and other families related to her over the past two and a half centuries: maybe so many people we never got to know.

We're towards the end of acknowledged Covid, but not every state is yet wanting to open this country from it. Maybe, if you're not working or isolated or in lockdown somewhere, then you could start your own family history. If you believe in your relatives, then do it! If you're not interested in it... well, never mind - just decide for yourselves whatever you will do for these last few months of Covid. 

Perhaps that will be part of our 'history' too.

Pioneers, Artists, Leaders, and Activists

I found a Google acknowledgement for a kids 0-5 age book series, the Little Feminists Board Book Set. It's about sixteen women who are the "important people in history" and includes Cleopatra, Emily Earhart, Rosa Parks and more. These women I know about, but I believe it's essential for young kids to find out what these women did for other women. Little feminists could even become one of these later in their own lives!

As a kid many years ago I think I became a feminist - although I didn't know what they were back then. All I knew was that boys - men - should treat girls - women - with respect, and certainly not with violence. I feel very proud of the young girls and women I see today - the youth who have protested about the lack of climate change awareness which needs to change now - see Global Citizen; those who are fighting for equality - see UN Women and Plan International; those wanting to be involved in sports - see Australian Sports Camp; young women getting involved in science through sponsorship - see Forbes; young women artists - see Refinery29; young female leaders - see International Women's Development Agency, IWDA. There are so many new activists and feminists and strong young girls and women.

For the men who do not support them in moving forward, perhaps those men are misogynists. Are they sexist? Have a look at Vox. That article looks at the difference between sexism and misogyny. 

Women have an equal right within this world. Women are not controlled by men-religions, men-work, men-husbands, men-friends or men-anything. Women should be treated the same as all men. Respect-women, friendship-women, care-women, empathy-women. Come up with your own word links. I'm sure that you could. 

Just please treat women with equality. This is a short blog, but it didn't need to be long... you know that

WOMEN. ARE. EQUAL.

Sitting in my blankety blank...

I have no thoughts. This is the third time I tried to start this, but I don't have any thoughts. I'm sitting in my blankety blank... which should encourage me to think, but blankety blank doesn't help! My daughter has been baking. I haven't. Some one changed their sheets. I haven't. A neighbour went out in their car. I haven't. Should I have read? Should I have played PC games? Should I have answered negatively to anything on my FB pages?

What am I missing? 

I thought I should be doing a load of washing. I haven't. I thought I should vacuum. I haven't. I should have mowed my lawn. I haven't. Ihaven'tIhaven'tIhaven't.... 

Some of the lockdowns were lifted from NSW areas, and there were hundreds on the beach. I haven't been to a beach for too long. There are a few cafes available in SEQ, but these days my savings are getting down - actually, they're nearly nothing - so I haven't. I have planned, for ages, to go to a decent restaurant and shout myself... I still haven't. Have I changed? From my normal day-to-day person to an abnormal day-to-day person? What should I be thinking about?

Walking-swimming-enjoying food-loving outlooks-building my attitude-ignoring my routine-getting out in the world! Our lockdowns started in March 2020 - that's 18 months ago, why are we still locked down? Yep, I do know, but after 18 months I have been grinding. And anxious. And frustrated. And scared. And wondering how I can return to NORMAL. 

I can ask if you feel this same way. But I know that you are different. I can ask RU OK? But no-one wants to ask me. I can ask you if you break the law to go out. But I think that maybe I do - like the day I forgot my mask, FFS! Maybe that's why I stay home. In the blankety blank. 

I. Have. To. Think! I. Have. To. Be. Normal! I. Have. To. Stop. Writing. Like. This!