Today we remember Josh and stand with his family and loved ones, and everyone else who continues to be brutalised by welfare compliance.
Our social security and employment systems should lift people up, not put their lives at risk. That's what the Greens will keep fighting for.
Ten years on, the welfare compliance system remains dehumanising, forcing people into unpaid work and demeaning activities under threat of losing payments.
Agencies acknowledge safety concerns, but there's still limited transparency about the harms occurring in these programs.
Today marks 10 years since the death of Josh Park-Fing at a Work for the Dole site in Toowoomba.
Josh died while participating in forced, unpaid labour.
A court later found that Josh's Work for the Dole site did not meet basic safety standards, yet no one was held accountable.
Celebrating getting a pat on the back from the International Austerity Society is a crazy brave move from a treasurer of a country where millions of people can barely afford to eat.
The 1% will fight like hell to keep their billions. Gina and Clive will be furious. The media will come for us. Labor, the Coalition and PHON will circle the wagons.
But there’s more of us than there are of them. And if we organise, we can win. 👇
With all of that unearned wealth comes an immense amount of power. Power over political decision-making and power over how the rest of us live and work.
By taxing the 1% we can break the stranglehold they have over our lives, revive our democracy and take back control.
The political establishment wants you to believe that our economic system is a natural fact of life.
But they’re lying.
This is a system invented to benefit the 1% at the expense of everyone else – and it’s propped up and defended by a captured political class.
Wages are flat, costs are up and people feel like they have no power over their lives.
This isn’t a bug, it’s a feature of an economic system that exploits and dominates workers to enrich an elite and unaccountable few.
It's time to tax the 1% and take our power back.
Screenshot of story in the Guardian reading Labor’s controversial algorithm tool for aged care under investigation by ombudsman Exclusive: It follows numerous complaints made to Guardian Australia, politicians and advocacy organisations about the Integrated Assessment Tool
Labor's aged care algorithm was created to deny care to older people and save a few bucks - and now it's blown up in their faces.
The Ombudsman’s investigation is welcome, but Labor needs to read the writing on the wall and restore clinical oversight before they cause more harm.
Whipping up fear against Palestinian refugees who have fled Israel’s genocide in Gaza – a crime that the Coalition has heartily endorsed – is a sickening spectacle that demonstrates they’re unworthy of governing.
We can and should be better than this.
Demonising First Nations people and immigrants is nothing new. It’s a tactic that’s been used since colonisation to divide and distract people so the rich can continue to exploit workers and extract profits. Why else would Gina Rinehart be funding One Nation?
Screenshot of Canberra Times headline reading 'Shut the door': Taylor argues for ICE-style taskforce in immigration plan
The Coalition has followed One Nation down its anti-immigration rabbit hole.
Legally enforceable values tests and thought-policing won’t make any of us safer. It’ll create fear and hostility and drive a wedge between communities.
Does Labor have the spine to oppose this?
Australia has sent SAS troops into the Middle East while this awful and illegal US and Israeli War on Iran expands. How could the PM not have told the truth about this last night?
A Greens' aged care inquiry has discovered there's no legal basis for Labor removing human oversight of algorithmic assessments, and the department is exploring options to reinstate clinical override.
Letting the algorithm rip has been a disaster. Put humans back in charge.
So-called mutual obligations are counterproductive and legally dodgy. I asked Labor if they would pause MOs, given the fuel crisis triggered by the illegal war they support is going to harm people on poverty payments the most.
Their answer? Mutual obligations are good actually.
The National Press Club needs to explain why they think it's appropriate to invite the Israeli ambassador to speak - a man representing a country that has murdered 300 journalists since it started is genocide in Gaza. Hillel Newman should be expelled, not honoured by the media.
Yellow toy Caterpillar mining truck with words Mining Matters written on the top. In the back of the truck is a miniature Medicare card with the words Every Australian Benefits From Australian Mining written on it.
This is the kind of crap the mining lobby dumps in our office. Shame they didn't stay for a chat!
"Mining matters." Yep. And so does paying your fair share, something tax-dodging coal & gas corporations should think about while people are waiting months to see a bulk-billing GP.
If the National Press Club is serious about its commitment to press freedom and integrity, it must withdraw the invitation to the Israeli ambassador.
If Australia is serious about protecting human rights, we must expel the Israeli ambassador.
Our common-sense proposal on free public transport is gaining real momentum. Victoria and Tasmania have listened to the Greens’ call and are moving to make public transport free.
Cancelling an appearance by journalist Chris Hedges to speak on Gaza and then giving a platform to an Israeli propagandist tells you quite a lot about the media elite in this country.
Trump and Netanyahu are war criminals and they belong behind bars #nowar
Outrageous that an artist in Australia, who makes a living from his creative output, can be threatened with arrest and imprisonment for using a phrase with - at best - contested meaning.
This is normal under authoritarian regimes.
The major parties only ever act in the interests of the community when they’re forced to.
Community pressure works. Organising works. This is the result of that.
It’s a privilege to fight alongside older people who refuse to put up with a system that dehumanises them. 💪💚
Under Labor’s reforms older people are being gouged so the govt can save some money and for-profit providers can keep cashing in.
The Greens and advocates warned that this is what would happen when the laws came to parliament in 2024. It’s no comfort to me that we were right.
Screenshot from the Daily Telegraph website reading EXCLUSIVE Over 100 MPs demand urgent action on aged care reforms harming seniors Seniors are being forced to choose between meals and showers as more than 100 federal politicians unite across party lines to demand urgent fixes to a system they say is leaving older Australians worse off. Julie Cross Social Affairs Editor
Labor's aged care reforms are disastrous - and older people are not putting up with it.
They're organising, they're lobbying their local MPs, and they're making themselves heard.
This is what power looks like.
Here's the motion they voted against, John, and the actual vote recorded. Hope that helps.
Screenshot of the Senate chamber showing the Greens and Senators Payman and Pocock on the left side of the chamber and the Labor and Liberal senators sitting together on the right.
The Greens sometimes cop flak for saying there's no meaningful difference between Labor and the Libs.
Well here they are voting - together- against lifting welfare payments above the poverty line and abolishing the parental and partner income tests.
Maybe we're onto something?
