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Post by Banjo on Feb 25, 2013 12:12:47 GMT 7
I thought all along that your best argument was that you had been allowed to establish a home and a life overseas and then had the rug pulled out from under you but it was difficult to know how to use it.
Rest assured that we haven't just written you off and many people here have put considerable thought into your case since your AAT.
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Post by zorro1 on Feb 25, 2013 12:41:41 GMT 7
hi lynne, I have missed some of your story. Are you completely off DSP? I thought all you had to do to establish residency was re apply
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Post by Banjo on Feb 25, 2013 13:48:34 GMT 7
hi lynne, I have missed some of your story. Are you completely off DSP? I thought all you had to do to establish residency was re apply Lynne may want to keep too much personal stuff off the main board Zorro, no doubt she will fill us in eventually.
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Post by lynnebali on Feb 25, 2013 20:10:56 GMT 7
Hi Zorro Yes they kicked me off DSP on a technically from 2007. YThought we had it in the bag but the treatment I recieved from CL department heads proves they have targetted a number of us. I have sat back quietly for two months but now gaining momentum. All this has to go public highlighting the fact that they zereod in on us to make a pathetic point iT ime to fight back go public change our tactics and heap embarassment and shame wherever we can. We need to quote numbers and cases of those who were favored to get Indefinate Portability. I also need someone to contact me personally or through Banjo who can do some artist cartooning sketches.
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Post by lynnebali on Feb 25, 2013 20:13:26 GMT 7
ANd no I am not reapplying for the pension to establish residency. I do this then everything that I have fought for in declaring I am a resident goes down the drain by reapplying. Prefer to sleep on a park bench before I take a pension saying returning resident.
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Post by lynnebali on Feb 25, 2013 20:35:08 GMT 7
I am reapplying for my centrelink file. Reason is I want to see what has been erased from the second copy. In my original transcript it states that some CL officer had written in an undercurrent of words that my intentions of claiming for indefinite portability should be blocked, How nice is that one or how stupid not to mention some very comments by others in regards to returning to Bali often.... even before this fiasco started.
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Post by aussieinusa on Feb 27, 2013 10:31:43 GMT 7
Lynne: Thank you so much for doing this. Another angle you might want to consider in pitching to the media, is what some of the younger traveling DSPers like myself face. I have a far better chance of becoming employed again in the USA, where part-time telecommute work is starting to become available in my field, than I do here where it is still a rarity. Australia "rank(s) 21st out of 29 of the OECD in employment participation for people with a disability" (See: dspoverseas.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=disabled&thread=1907&page=1#ixzz2M49sCFmZ ), meaning it's not just me saying I have a far better chance of being employed again overseas; there is some pretty damning evidence showing that young people with disabilities here in Australia are usually thrown on the employment scrapheap, even when we have skills, qualifications, experience... By grounding me here, Centrelink denies me my best chance of becoming employed again, and getting off their books permanently. I used up my own meagre savings pursuing work overseas, and I don't see how Centrelink's subsequent actions towards me could be seen as anything less than punitive. There are also arguments to do with Australian people's ties overseas -- we are a multicultural nation, and many of us do have family and friends abroad -- and to do with Australia's net windfall from pension portability rules internationally (Australia receives far more money from foreign pensions than it sends overseas), which our current short-sighted government is jeopardising by establishing a precedent of cutting this off in the name of 'saving money'. Other countries can and do get policy ideas from us, so it's not hyperbole to say that the government will likely wind up costing Australian pensioners money from other countries' pensions, too. Another angle is trying to figure out how much of the government's 'disability spending' winds up in Therese Rein's pocket (and that of other 'successful businesspeople' like her), how much is spent on staffing costs and overhead, versus how much actually gets to us. Answer: almost nothing. (I have a fair bit of experience dealing with the media, including time in media relations for the federal govt, and I'm happy to help you come up with pitches the media are likely to take up, if you'd like?)
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Post by aussieinusa on Feb 27, 2013 11:21:57 GMT 7
Lynne: Having read a little more of your story (just what's on here), this is how I'd start your media campaign: Firstly, the 'little old lady forced onto the street by Centrelink' angle is the kind of thing that has a reasonable chance of getting on Today Tonight or A Current Affair, so long as the story is genuine (and yes, they will check; don't BS journos at all, ever ). The kind of things that are added hooks for them are: - How long did you live in Australia? How long did you pay taxes in Australia? Are you an Australian-born? - Are you a grandmother? ("Aussie grandmother bullied by government" is a really good hook.) - Were you forced to live in Bali because the pension isn't enough to live in Australia? Can you prove it? (e.g. by showing your expenses in Australia, when you last lived here) - Do you have any particular ties to Bali? Family, close friends etc. - How long did you live in Bali, on full pension, before the government changed the rules on you? - How did it make you feel? (Outraged? Betrayed by your country?) You can submit stories to ACA here: aca.ninemsn.com.au/feedback.aspx or TT here: au.news.yahoo.com/today-tonight/contactus/CHOOSE ONE SHOW TO CONTACT ONLY; if you wind up with them both working on your story, they will both blackball you for life, possibly after running a negative story about you. As a regular person dealing with media 'big boys', you need to give whoever you work with the exclusive on it. Get your story really clear before you contact them; they're only gonna spend a few seconds glancing over a public mailbag letter, if that. You don't need to tell them the whole story there, just give them a summary, but be ready to back up every word you say. If you'd like a hand in getting a story ready to send to them, PM me a draft of your story and I'll give you a hand getting it ready. (Editing is probably as much as I can offer in help atm, but if you're serious about getting out there and being the 'public face' of this issue, I'll do whatever I can to help.) Ignore the other stuff I said for now; concentrate on just getting them to tell your story first, then we can see about getting the other aspects of this issue out there. You only pitch media outlets one message at a time, generally (but be ready to answer questions about other aspects of the issue, if they ask you about it; they all try to find their own 'angle' on the story, so help them do that). Lynne, we all need someone like you, who's willing to take their story public. If we can get some media attention on stories like yours, there will likely be enough public outrage that the government might have to reconsider their stance. Or if Gillard et al hold firm, in an election year, maybe the Liberals will take it up instead. Freeing Australian pensioners to make the best decisions about their own life is the type of thing the Liberal party would once have done -- and is possibly a major vote-winner, if other pensioners knew enough about what's going on to realise the freedom of every Australian pensioner is currently being threatened.
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Post by takeo19 on Feb 28, 2013 8:49:45 GMT 7
Why do people seem to think the LNP will be any better than ALP, they are all part of the same Rot, whch is the shame of democracy the great illusion of choice presented by corporate banking media elite they will enact there policys whatever parties in power, their ultimate goal is the one world government, annilation of welfare, oppression of the poor and control of the middle class..
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Post by Banjo on Feb 28, 2013 9:34:53 GMT 7
Probably the bottom line is that no conservative party in the past has instituted welfare programs. Even the Old Age Pension is a Labor/Socialist invention that is still treated with deep suspicion in countries like the USA.
Free education, a public health system and a minimum wage all came about with the working classes being given the right to vote.
The crocodile can smile at me all it likes, but it's still a crocodile.
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Post by latindancer on Feb 28, 2013 15:37:29 GMT 7
Well said, Banjo !
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Post by aussieinusa on Mar 1, 2013 11:48:28 GMT 7
"Why do people seem to think the LNP will be any better than ALP?"
Given what the ALP's done with its time in office, I'm at the point of wondering whether the LNP could actually be worse. There really isn't any difference between the two, these days.
But for either party... they will do what they can get away with. If it looks like they're gonna lose votes for taking money from pensioners at the same time as they throw it at 'service providers' who supposedly help people with disabilities, they might change it. While the only story getting out is their own propaganda, it's just gonna get worse for us all. Excuse me if I want to do whatever I can to change that.
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Post by newtodsp on Mar 1, 2013 12:42:53 GMT 7
"Why do people seem to think the LNP will be any better than ALP?" Given what the ALP's done with its time in office, I'm at the point of wondering whether the LNP could actually be worse. There really isn't any difference between the two, these days. To say that the LNP will not be any worse than the ALP, and to say there isn't any difference between the parties, is a lazy tactic when people choose to remain uninformed. The sad truth is that Australians deserve the government we vote in (except those who vote for the losing party) and most Australians have a short memory and are largely apathetic about politics. The ALP instituted historic pension increases, and have tied the pension rates to the average total male weekly earnings, and CPI, such that they are to be updated twice a year for cost of living and wage increases. Apparently this is a historic increase in pension rates and indexation to protect us from the ever increasing costs of living. Expect a $33 per fortnight increase from mid March for those on the single pension. This equates to more than $800 extra per year. Everyone knows about Hockey's end of entitlement ideas, and the very compassionate LNP have already started vilifiying minorities once again with their idea of monitoring refugees when they are back in the community, which is a key tactic for conservatives - increase fear against the disadvantaged, poor and vulnerable so they can get away with injustices and lack of social welfare. Refugees apparently are 45 times less likely than the average Australian to behave criminally so it's a waste of funds and very discrimantory. Based on this stat, we are better off monitoring average Australians. But this move is typical LNP. ALP is clearly a centrist party these days, and has leaked left votes to the Greens. Frankly pensioners are not catered for because they don't act collectively and band their votes together, which is really no one's fault but the pensioners. In this age of social media, Disability pensioners can make their presence felt in the twittersphere, facebook, through online petitions, blogs etc, and we can do so anonymously. I think there is some public sympathy out there, disabled people are one of the most discriminated and disadvantaged groups in Australia. A key issue we can raise is the discrimination against us, which means we cannot gain meaningful flexible employment, and our poverty which lead to our social exclusion, which is against our human rights. There is much we can accomplish if we embrace the new technological era and think creatively about how to get our message out there and form a lobby group. I for one will be voting Greens, as they are left of the ALP and they are the most likely to give a sh*& about us and other disadvantaged groups. A recent article in the Brisbane times talks about the Coalition's plan to allow private businesses to take care of more of a greater share of public health, education, transport. For those who have been paying attention, it is clear that privatisation does nothing but swell the purses of corporations and push up prices as has been the case for electricity. We all need to sit tight as the next government will be out to get us and our last dollar. Newtodsp
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Post by aussieinusa on Mar 1, 2013 14:07:33 GMT 7
I agree with you that we need to band together and make our voices heard.
And re voting Greens or another minor party.
But I think you need to take off the rose-tinted glasses re the ALP; the differences between their policies and the LNP's are very subtle, at this point... where they exist at all.
Yes, the ALP has been better about increasing pension rates than the previous Liberal government was -- but they're also finding all sorts of excuses to kick people off pensions, e.g. the new disability assessment tables (designed not by doctors or disability specialists, but by actuaries) which re-classify 38% of people who were previously eligible for DSP as being 'well enough to work' by basically ignoring part of their impairment... and of course, the continued squeeze on portability rules. Howard reduced it from 26 weeks to 13; Gillard's taken it down to 6... how is that not simply a continuation of Howard government policy? They have a stated goal to get people off DSP, but rather than addressing the lack of employment options for people with disability, they do it by kicking people off for any and every reason they can... So at best, all you can say about the Labour party these days is that they give with one hand, take with the other.
Saying that privatisation is a LNP policy is also spurious. The ALP pay $6 billion to disability employment services each year, who somehow all find money to pay staff and make a profit, but rarely have any left over for little things like rehabilitation and training costs for the people with disabilities they're supposedly helping. And that's just one example. I completely agree with you re the effects of privatisation... but as it stands, vote for either major party and privatisation is a major part of their policy agenda.
As for treatment of refugees... how anyone can make an argument that the Gillard government is less heartless than the LNP at this point, I don't know. I can't even get started on all the truly heartless things Gillard has done, re refugee policy in this country; it would turn into a ten-page rant.
I'm not uninformed. I have no great love of the Liberals, but the more I see of what the ALP are doing now, the less chance they have that I will ever vote for them again.
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Post by newtodsp on Mar 1, 2013 16:34:13 GMT 7
Hi aussieinusa, Sorry if my response to your message came across as curt, I actually have been enjoying your posts and have not welcomed you to the board!! I am actually left of centre and typically vote Greens, I don't really have a rose tinted view of the ALP, I think I was defensive of the party as it tends to get a lot of criticism by News Ltd papers and everywhere I look people seem to be blaming Julia for everything. I do believe there is a sexist element to those criticisms by the masses. I also think there are lots of people on this board who are right wing conservative, hence my pointed response. I think you copped some of my pent up political frustration!! I agree with you that the new assessment tables are very unfair and yes, the ALP does give with one hand and take with the other. I just feel the LNP will probably take and not give anything. I totally agree with you, that the discrimination against DSPensioners and lack of employment opportunities is the elephant in the room, the government sees us as the problem rather than changing the culture to accept us in the workplace. I also agree the the Job services networks are a joke, in fact an inquiry found 60-70% of all claims were fraudulent, yet of course none of these companies were charged with fraud but the government is quick to charge welfare cheats. The right wing media is in on this by vilifying welfare cheats but ignoring the billions lost through fraudulent claims by the disability employment services. I am enjoying your passion and your level of enlightenment, and glad that you have no great love of the Liberals! Nice to have more women on this board too! Newtodsp
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