Random Observations of Life

Work for the dole

Posted by Robyn Dunphy on January 27, 2014 in General

Work for the dole is a very, very contentious issue in Australia. Let us make no mistake here, there are valid arguments for and against, despite what both “sides” have to say.

.@MinhKular @MikeXcaberate As always, they're just slapping a bandaid on without checking to see what actually caused the bleeding.

— Delly Lama (@deltrimental) January 26, 2014

People on the NewStart allowance are in many ways like asylum seekers: they are a demographic a proportion of the population loves to hate, labelling them “dole bludgers”.

I was once unemployed for five months and my husband lived for a time with no working rights. We can both say that doing something, anything, during those dark days saved our sanity. My husband did volunteer work and I did casual work for the employment service provider I was registered with (so I actually received very little NewStart at all). I know I would have been in a very dark place had I not done that casual work.

Right now we have a Miss 19 who would LOVE the opportunity of an internship to learn some basic office skills and add experience to her resume. She hates being at home and I see the stress it is causing her.

Getting out of the house and having contact with other people is so very necessary, being able to actually feel useful is so necessary, in our personal experience. Would work for the dole really achieve these for job seekers?

Tags: Australia, income support, Job hunting, news, NewStart, politics, work for the dole Permalink

12 Comments

Religious beliefs and regional conflict

Posted by Robyn Dunphy on January 24, 2014 in General

My mind has been churning since I published “Who can we believe?” yesterday. The comments on that article and interaction on Twitter made me delve deeper into the potential for conflict, which we should avoid at all costs.

I have always held grave concerns about the impact Abbott’s religious fervor has on his decision-making. As I am an avowed atheist, I do try to temper my concerns but it has been difficult. Abbott’s declaration that all children should read the bible, his attitude to women as the little woman in her place in life doing the ironing and his attitude to non-white, non-christian asylum seekers has worried me (and many others) for some time.

Even before his government was elected, essentially he was telling Indonesia what Australia would and would not do, despite Indonesia disagreeing. There seemed to be little real consultation. Abbott had an election to win, bugger the neighbours. What I detect from that is a sense of superiority over our neighbours. Let’s be real here: a good diplomat who respects his neighbouring countries as equal, doesn’t humiliate them, as if not worthy of respect. Then there was the phone tapping. Michelle Grattan wrote a very good article in November on that diplomatic screw-up.

The current situation, however, is much more serious. The disclosure that Australia tapped the phones of Yudhoyono, his wife and other senior figures has outraged Indonesia, not least because the eavesdropping is seen as a humiliation of the country.

I can only imagine how insulted Indonesia must have felt by the proposal to buy up the fishing boats.

Tags: Abbott, Asia, Australia, Cory Bernardi, diplomacy, Indonesia, Mark Beeson, Michelle Grattan, politics Permalink

30 Comments

Who can we believe?

Posted by Robyn Dunphy on January 23, 2014 in General

Edit February 06 2014: Since I wrote this on January 23 I have added links at the end of the article to later media reports. Today a new report has been published which casts further shadows on the whole debacle.

Details aside, though, his account has been consistent from the first. He says he has no doubt that what he saw at close quarters on about January 3 was three people’s hands being deliberately held to a hot exhaust pipe by Australian naval personnel to punish them for protesting, and to deter others from doing one simple thing: going to the toilet too often.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/investigation-burned-hands-on-the-high-seas-20140206-hvbdl.html#ixzz2sWjrPkQv

As an Australian I still want to believe our Navy personnel, however now, two weeks after I wrote this original article, I am no clearer on what happened, despite the pressure put on the ABC to apologise for the initial reports.

The ABC managing director, Mark Scott, has refused Tony Abbott’s calls for the national broadcaster to apologise for its handling of allegations made by asylum seekers against the Australian navy.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/feb/06/abc-mark-scott-refuses-apology-navy

Sadly, my original article stands. Who can we believe?

* * * * * * * *

Is Australia about to become involved in a “regional war” of our own making? The media is alive with politicians of two nations determined not to lose face.

I feel incredibly sad because I don’t know who to believe here. I WANT to believe my country, I so very much want to believe my country. But I can’t, because there are too many doubts generated by past performance and behaviours. I see many rusted on right/left supports screaming for each “side” here but not enough of us taking a “can we have the facts here please” stance. I want the facts. Who is with me on this? Drop your rusted on party allegiances for a minute and stop and think – BEFORE lives are lost.

Tags: Abbott, Asylum, Australia, Indonesia, Morrison, Navy, Royal Australian Navy Permalink

8 Comments

Captain, Captain, I don’t know where we are

Posted by Robyn Dunphy on January 18, 2014 in General

sextant

“Captain, please come to the bridge. I’m not sure where the border is.”

“WTF? What are you talking about?”

“Captain, I am serious. We’ve had a Ephemeris error. Or a Propagation delay error. Or maybe there are bubbles in the compass. I’m not sure!”

“Are you sure the helmsman didn’t just stay on autopilot too long? You know that is a warning in navigational school!”

Navigator stared at his feet glumly. The Captain tried to determine the underlying problem.

“Are you suffering information overload? Did you become too dependent on the electronic display and neglect your duty to maintain a proper look-out?”

” I don’t think so”, replied the hapless navigator.

The Captain continued, “Morrison has ordered us to go as close as possible. The DGPS is accurate to within 5 metres, but you know that by the time the land station processes all the satellite information we have already passed the location!”

Tags: asylum seeker, Australia, Human Rights, humour, Navy, news, politics, refugee, satire Permalink

2 Comments

250 breeding lions left in West Africa

Posted by Robyn Dunphy on January 16, 2014 in General

I often joke I went all the way to West Africa to get married and never saw a lion. I have loved lions since I was about three years old. I dreamed of having a pet lion for years: highly impractical on a sheep and cattle farm, probably, but I dreamed nonetheless.

Lion

Photo courtesy Melanie Bryson Photography

Isn’t he beautiful?

Today I read a small article in the Herald Sun. The story is not beautiful at all.

Tags: animals, endangered species, lions, news, West Africa, World Wildlife Fund, WWF Permalink

What if your job is a major health risk?

Posted by Robyn Dunphy on January 14, 2014 in General

It is one thing to have your health suffer as I have, at the hands of faceless bureaucrats. It is quite another to face the possibility of being made ill by your professional life.

Today, laying in bed feeling nauseous and with my teeth nagging at me yet again, I was reading. One way to reduce the impact of “unwellness” is to try to focus on other things. The news is always a good place to start!

I came across a situation I was unaware of and I stand with Andrew Wood all the way on this one.

Firefighters everywhere come in contact with chemicals and other materials that pose serious health risks. Materials than can be harmless in normal conditions can emit toxic fumes when on fire. In most states in Australia there is legislation that recognises firefighters have a greater chance of developing cancer due to this exposure and they may not be able to pinpoint the date, time and hazardous material they were exposed to, due to the nature of their job. Victoria does not have such legislation so making a Work Cover claim can be difficult.

“Victorian firefighters are unable to access WorkCover for cancer because they are told to prove which chemicals, at which incident, on which date,” Mr Marshall said.

State Assistant Treasurer Gordon Rich-Phillips’ spokeswoman, Justine Sywak, said it was important career and volunteer firefighters knew they could make compensation claims for any injury or illness they suffered while firefighting, including cancer.

The above quotes, read together, confuse me. I suspect both may be correct. Is the reality that while firefighters know they CAN make claims as stated by Ms Sywak, the burden of proof is so high given the firefighters’ work, many claims are not approved?

Tags: Andrew Wood, CFA, firefighters, health, Kylie Adoranti, MBF, news, Victoria, Work Cover Permalink

9 Comments

This is a MUST VIEW for men and women

Posted by Robyn Dunphy on January 2, 2014 in General

Chimamanda Adichie says it all for me. Please listen to her wonderful, wonderful view of and vision for feminism. Thank you so much to Betty for drawing my attention to an article by Sunili Govinnage that lead me to this wonderful speech.

Don’t tell anyone, but this is now mandatory viewing for the males in our house, Nigerians all! 😉

Beyonce explains why she sampled Chimamanda Adichie’s work (doublesixfive.wordpress.com)
Beyoncé samples Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s call to feminism (theguardian.com)

Tags: Australia, Chimamanda, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, feminism, Nigeria, sexism Permalink

11 Comments

Small government philosophy? Then cut the waste

Posted by Robyn Dunphy on December 29, 2013 in General

Taxes (Photo credit: LendingMemo)

If there is one thing that irritates me about governments it is their propensity to introduce additional administration for what seems like the sake of it. Perhaps due consideration is not given to streamlining an existing system, who knows. Certainly there is not much of a Lean approach taken in most cases.

Back in April 2012 I made the following observation about expensive government systems.

Then let us look at the wonderful Tax Benefits A and B. Back in the day, if we had dependents, we claimed them on our tax. If we had dependents, less tax was taken out of our pay each pay period. A simple and relatively inexpensive system. Now? Heaven help me! We have a whole Family Assistance Office managing a massive system where I ended up getting TWO (wouldn’t one have been enough) direct credits to my bank account each fortnight. The whole process of even applying was a nightmare.

So scrap the whole damn system and go back to people simply claiming on their tax. Far cheaper to the taxpayer. We could even use the saved funds to provide some more tax relief for families, one would think.

https://teamoyeniyi.com/2012/04/20/entitlement-mentality-a-personal-perspective/

I cannot tell you the number of letters I have received from this marvellous system. There are the stationery and postage costs, not to mention all the other associated costs. Who pays for all this? The taxpayer. Not only that, the taxes used to manage this system could SURELY be better used in other areas, like education and health! Reduce the subject levies at public schools, provide class sets of text books to reduce the costs of education for those living in poverty.

Tags: Australia, General practitioner, Government, Medicare, news, politics, Small government, taxes Permalink

48 Comments

Feminism and white privilege

Posted by Robyn Dunphy on December 27, 2013 in General

Yaa Asantewaa in her battle gear, with gun. This image is in the public domain. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There is something not quite right about the massive amount of time and effort devoted to the question of white privilege in relation to feminism: I’m not 100% sure what yet, but I’m working on it. Maybe together we can get to the bottom of it, maybe I’ll work out what the issue is for me as I write. You may agree or disagree, we shall see.

I’ve been watching and engaging in various dialogues lately. I’ve read some brilliant articles and some awful ones. All the while something hasn’t been sitting right.

The concept of “white privilege” as a framework is constructive in the modern context, however it whitewashes human history for all women and I’m not convinced this is a good thing. Intersectionality (we HAVE to find a new word for that) is perhaps a better, more inclusive term.

White privilege ~~implies~~ allows conclusions to be drawn from* just those two words a) women of colour have forever been oppressed and, b) white women have never been oppressed. We know in the history of the human race neither a) nor b) are true.

There have been many powerful women of colour throughout history. The Ashanti Queen of Ghana, Yaa Asantewaa, who lead her people against British rule is just one example of so very many. Yet every time I hear or read “white privilege” I feel Yaa Asantewaa and others like her fading further into oblivion. What of the Amazons of Dahomey? Are they too forgotten? Whitewashed out of our modern view of women’s history as if these women never existed?

Tags: Australia, feminism, United States, White privilege, Yaa Asantewaa Permalink

15 Comments

Have I misjudged Tim Wilson?

Posted by Robyn Dunphy on December 19, 2013 in General

The following is a snippet of Tim Wilson’s persuasive essay framed to convince us all he is a suitable candidate. Do read the article in full (it is quite short) if you haven’t yet done so.

The Australian Human Rights Commission is statutorily charged with promoting the principles within the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. That obligation is entirely consistent with my view that the government’s role is to create the legal framework to preserve and protect traditional human rights, such as free speech, association, movement, worship, property rights and self-determination.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/tim-wilson-as-officialdom-tries-to-dilute-them-human-rights-must-be-defended-20131218-2zlcc.html#ixzz2nuGV7lZs

Those who have read Love versus Goliath or followed this site since inception will know I have a deep and abiding love for the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). It was the provisions of the ICCPR that allowed me to lodge a case with the AHRC in relation to my husband’s visa. I don’t apologise for using my own situation as an example – it is one I know intimately and can speak about knowing the facts.

Here is Tim Wilson, whose ideologies I queried recently as being unsuitable for the job of a Human Rights Commissioner, sounding very like myself. So why am I not convinced? Because it is very easy to sound convincing when selling concepts and ideas. Practice is a different matter.

What is the difference between his approach and mine to protecting “traditional” human rights? I suggest it is in the interpretation of the provisions by each of us as individuals with different fundamental values and beliefs.