We aim to welcome ALL people who have the misfortune of dealing with Centrelink (CL) to our message board and our group, no matter what their personal attributes. Our group consists primarily of Age Pensioners (APers) and Disability Support Pensioners (DSPers), but we are happy for anyone who has to deal with CL -- or just wants to understand what life is like for those who do -- to join us.
Therefore, we have a 'no tolerance' policy of derogatory comments towards any group of people.
Centrelink clients, people with disability and seniorsSince most of our group members are welfare recipients / CL clients, and many are also people with disability (PWD), a lot of discussion goes on about the life experiences of CL clients and PWD.
We encourage people to talk about their own life experience, and generalisation about experiences many of us have is fine. The odd "bludger" or "cripple" joke is OK, too, so long as we're not the butt of the joke. A humourous take on your own experiences is encouraged; jokes at the expense of others are not.
We don't tolerate calling someone a bludger or disputing their disability status. In the world outside the forum, plenty of people say that everyone on welfare is simply bludging... because it's so much easier struggling to make ends meet on the paltry sum we're given than to have the extra money and respect working people are afforded. This includes most DSPers; there are many who believe all it takes to get DSP forever is to simply say "aw, me back" in a CL office. Since almost everyone here knows firsthand that this isn't true, we don't rush to label anyone a bludger or suggest they shouldn't be getting DSP. You're not in the running for a job hosting A Current Affair, so please don't behave as though you are.
A sizeable minority in the group are also seniors, so similar rules apply: talk and joke about your own experiences all you like. But no derogatory comments about seniors; they're not all slow, irrelevant, technically challenged, smelly or whatever other stereotype you've heard.
Sexist commentsHistorically, the group was mostly male... and the few female members who did join left pretty quickly. It also used to be common for the odd sexist remark directed at women to appear on the forum. These two facts are not unrelated.
Boys, when you make some offhand remark about all women being [insert attribute], what you tell the women in the group is, "this is male space; you ladies aren't welcome here". Mostly we women have learned to let the boys have their own space and go elsewhere.
This is not a group for men on CL; it's a group for PEOPLE on CL, regardless of their personal attributes.
That doesn't mean you can't ever say anything bad about any woman. You're free to say your ex-wife did you wrong, if it's relevant to the discussion at hand. That one woman may indeed be a lying, cheating gold-digger; SOME women are. But if you go on to say women are all lying, cheating gold-diggers (or whatever your opinion), that's not OK here.
Women are not monolithic: we aren't all the same. We possess no special magical abilities men lack, except that many of us can make new humans (with a little male help) and generally men can't. There is no generalisation you can make that would apply to literally every female human being: we aren't all shorter than men; we aren't all bad at maths; we aren't all feminine; we aren't all able to have babies; some of us even lack some of the body parts that supposedly characterise 'femaleness'. So when you make a generalisation that all women are [insert attribute], you're factually incorrect. (The same goes for any other group, too.)
This policy goes both ways; it's equally not OK to say men are all [insert attribute]. Your ex may be a lying bastard who's only interested in one thing, but that doesn't mean all men are.
As for comments about female politicians... ask yourself, "Would I comment about the same attribute in a male politician?" Unless you're in the habit of commenting on male politicians' hairstyles, outfits or backsides, don't talk about female politicians', either.
Boat people, immigration and racist/xenophobic commentsEvery now and then, someone on the forum trots out the myth that new arrivals to Australia are given more money than "real Aussies" (i.e. people whose family came here by boat six whole generations ago, like me). I know you've been listening to John Laws (or one of the many others touting similar 'facts') for years and trust them to tell you what to think about all the big issues... but actually, this is what life's like for asylum seekers in Australia:
www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/seven-months-pregnant-a-floor-for-a-bed-and-6-a-day-for-meals-welcome-to-australia-20130427-2ilrk.htmlwww.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/helping-hand-extended-to-strangers-20130911-2tl13.htmlYou can also check CL's own web site to see what payments are available to asylum seekers:
www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/subjects/payments-for-visa-holdersSee how it's the same payments open to the rest of us? No special payments mentioned that aren't available to 'real' Aussies, at all.
We don't dispute that immigration has caused some issues in Australia. Housing costs have risen, there's more people trying to use the same roads, public transport, hospitals, schools etc. That's not the fault of the individual people wanting to escape despotic governments overseas and come to the Lucky Country; it's the fault of the Howard government, which dramatically increased immigration quotas without ever considering those questions of, "Where will they all live? How will they get around? Where will they go when they're sick? Where will their kids go to school?" etc., and the subsequent Labor governments which didn't do much to bolster those services either; instead saying, "It's up to the states".
Please remember, when you talk about boat people or immigrants in general, that you're mostly talking about people who simply want to be able to get a job, have a home, eat decent meals, raise their kids and go about their lives free from tyrannical regimes that make that difficult. Those individuals aren't in a position to solve the big issues facing our country; that's the job of our politicians and the rich companies and individuals they serve (when they're actually paid to serve us).
Keep your racism and xenophobia to yourself; it isn't welcome here.
Homophobia and transphobiaWhile you may personally find the idea of 'men in dresses' hilarious, feeling like you're trapped in the wrong-gendered body would not be pleasant. So let's keep the jokes at the expense of transgendered people to ourselves, too. Thanks.
The same goes for jokes at the expense of gay, lesbian, bisexual and other queer people. There are plenty of CL clients who aren't straight; they should feel as welcome here as everyone else.
Why we should stop squabbling among ourselvesIt suits the people who do have the power to change things -- i.e. our politicians and the few rich people and companies that have their ear -- very well for us to all squabble amongst ourselves. As long as white people blame immigrants for taking "our jobs", and poor men blame women entering the workforce for their lack of job prospects, etc. we're not looking at the real issue: that greedy companies send jobs offshore where people work for much less. That applies to most 'big issues' facing our country today.
The Aussie welfare system is widely regarded to be too expensive, thanks to various media outlets saying so (even though we spend relatively little on welfare, by OECD standards). Cutting off payments to people earning $149,000 per year or with $1 million in savings is unpopular (well-off people can fight back) so instead, they're chipping away at welfare going to actual poor people, going after one small group at a time. We need to remember Pastor Martin Neimoller's famous quote about the Holocaust:
Just because CL's latest proposed inhumane change doesn't effect you personally, doesn't mean you should ignore it.
If we all stand up together and say, "It is not OK for the government to make major changes to the welfare system that tear apart the lives of vulnerable people," maybe we have half a chance of being heard. If we all look out for one another, there are 800,000 DSPers, over 2 million APers and millions of other CL clients, too -- numbers far too big for politicians to dare ignore. But so long as we blame other vulnerable people for the state of the world instead of taking our politicians to task, they'll keep changing whatever they want... and by the time they come for you, there'll be no-one left to stand up for you.
This is why all CL clients, regardless of race, gender, religion, sexuality or any other personal attribute are welcome here. If they want to take up the fight for a fairer welfare system with us, we are happy to have them.
So please keep your prejudiced comments to yourself.