Posts by Emma Hart
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Up Front: Cui bono?, in reply to Hilary Stace,
That requirement to reconfirm an ASD or other permanent diagnosis went about a decade ago. They shouldn't be asking, but yours is not the only recent example I have heard about. I mentioned it to someone senior in MSD who didn't believe it was still happening.
It's certainly still happening for Deaf people.
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A comment from another friend has made me remember something I really should have included: basic competence. The piles of contradictory letters. The losing of the important documents they've made you give them.
When our children were little and we were living on an Invalid's Benefit because I was too sick to look after the kids, WINZ stole from us. We'd received payments we were perfectly entitled to. They sent us a letter telling us they were taking that money back - they'd already reached into our bank account and started taking it out. Now, we're smart articulate people and after a few days of furious phone calls we managed to get it sorted out. But there is such a high level of screw-up, and the stories I hear are all so similar, that it's clearly not just a couple of staff. It's the system itself.
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A friend has messaged me to let me know my stand-down periods in this post are wrong. I will edit the post, just as soon as I can get the site to freaking load that page. Stand-downs are here. Usually two weeks (though also they pay in arrears, so it's really three weeks), and can be thirteen weeks.
She also says that removing the stand-down would save them having to collect information from previous employers, who often don't provide it in a 'timely manner'.
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Polity: Let the big lies flow, in reply to Raymond A Francis,
And is $200 a week going to be enough
No, it's not. It's a ridiculous amount. Yes, a Jobseeker Allowance is $210/week, but almost everyone also receives an Accommodation Supplement, because you cannot live on that. In Christchurch, it's up to $65/week, and in Auckland it's higher. I support a UBI - because of artists, the disabled and chronically ill, people leaving abusive relationships - but it MUST be enough to live on, or it's pointless.
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On other news, Pricewaterhouse Cooper is now saying the real cost of the plebiscite will be more like $500m.
PwC economics and policy partner Jeremy Thorpe notes the impact a stand-alone plebiscite would have on the LGBTI community saying; "What we find is the cost to the LGBTI community are in the order of $20 million for dealing with additional mental health costs that arise, just because of the stress and the public nature of the plebiscite.”
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Up Front: The Up Front Guide to Plebs, in reply to TracyMac,
To be honest, I think this boils down simply to the fact there is no federal human rights/anti-discrimination legislation for queers in Australia. If I go to rent a house in the Northern Territory, I can simply be denied just because I’m a big old dyke.
This 'order of things' has boggled me a bit with the US as well: there are still thirty-odd states where you can be legally fired from your job for your sexuality or gender identity. And yes, because these aren't specifically protected grounds in the Constitution.
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Up Front: The Up Front Guide to Plebs, in reply to Moz,
headline today was one school has withdrawn, 30 have signed up. The bigot campaign appears to be unsuccessful.
Lovely. I do love a good unintended consequence.
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Up Front: The Up Front Guide to Plebs, in reply to Moz,
Something I discovered today. In England, adultery is grounds for divorce if you're married, but not for dissolution if you're in a civil partnership. But if you're in a same-sex marriage, you can only divorce your partner for adultery if they sleep with someone of the opposite sex. So if your husband sleeps with another man, that doesn't count as adultery.
I have no idea how this plays out for trans and intersex people.
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Yeah, we've had a wee chat about this, and I'm going to close the thread. As Ian says, the point has been made, and made, and it seems there's nothing constructive to add to the discussion, and genuine pain being caused, so hopefully people will understand why I'm making the call.
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Up Front: The Up Front Guide to Plebs, in reply to Moz,
Luckily the plebiscite is compulsory, so we should avoid the problem of “meh, whatever, why not” voters staying home and handing the process over to the die-hard opposition.
Oh, yes, one of the links I have in the piece on plebiscites in general says they're NOT compulsory, so good to note that this one IS.