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Search Results: Centrelink

  • AUSTRALIA

    Lessons from the referendum

    • Frank Brennan
    • 07 February 2024
    10 Comments

    The referendum result was a disaster for the country and a tragedy for First Australians and there has been little appetite for public discussion about lessons to be learnt from this abject failure. If we are to move forward, it’s time to begin the conversation about past mistakes.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Best of 2023: How Australia's asylum seeker policy has evolved over thirty years

    • Kerry Murphy
    • 04 January 2024

    Throughout recent decades of Australian history, the stance every government has taken on asylum seekers has reflected the shifting political landscapes and challenging humanitarian issues that have continually shaped Australia's response to those seeking refuge. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Eureka Street person of the year 2023

    • David Halliday, Michael McVeigh, Laura Kings, Michele Frankeni, Andrew Hamilton, Julian Butler
    • 21 December 2023
    7 Comments

    To close the year for Eureka Street, the editorial team wanted to nominate who we considered to be the Eureka Street ‘person of the year’ based on this year's newsmakers.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    From public good to private gain: The failure of employment services

    • John Falzon
    • 14 December 2023
    4 Comments

    No doubt there were some who genuinely believed that privatising  employment services would result in better services at a lower cost to the public purse. But the engineers of the socially destructive projects of the neoliberal era knew very well that they were more likely to result in the enrichment of some to the detriment of many.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The pain of shopping

    • Michele Frankeni
    • 14 November 2023

    As Christmas (aka for many the season of shopping) fast approaches, it’s perhaps time to articulate an unpleasant truth: shopping is not a relaxing or pleasurable experience. In fact, it can be downright masochistic. Somehow as consumers we’ve been conned into accepting that all large stores need to do is be the repository for goods for sale.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The Robodebt reckoning

    • Mark Gaetani
    • 02 August 2023
    5 Comments

    Despite causing despair and even leading to lives lost, those who orchestrated Robodebt from 2015 to 2019 appear unrepentant. Yet one fact remains unchallenged: this scheme lays bare a troubling disregard for the dignity of the most vulnerable in society.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Three steps back and one step forward: Three decades of asylum seekers in Australia

    • Kerry Murphy
    • 28 July 2023

    How has Australia's asylum seeker policy changed over the past thirty years? The approach of every government has reflected the shifting political landscapes and challenging humanitarian issues that have continually shaped Australia's response to those seeking refuge. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Robodebt: Anatomy of a scandal

    • James Massola
    • 14 July 2023
    5 Comments

    Catherine Holmes' Royal Commission report exposes the staggering mismanagement and human cost of Australia's Robodebt scandal. The scheme burdened over 500,000 Australians with non-existent debts and is linked to at least three suicides. This report unravels the culture behind the disaster and the potential repercussions ahead.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    'They think we're rubbish': Life on welfare in Australia

    • John Falzon
    • 06 July 2023
    9 Comments

    Dr. Eve Vincent's book, 'Who Cares? Life on Welfare in Australia', provides an in-depth exploration of the intricate dance between power, control, and social policy, unearthing unsettling truths about our society's inherent power structures. This discourse further underscores the urgent need for a radical reimagining of our socio-economic systems.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Recognition of Aboriginal rights: A contemporary Australian perspective

    • Frank Brennan
    • 05 June 2023
    19 Comments

    The wording of the proposed change to the Australian Constitution to enshrine a First Nations Voice might not be perfect. But whatever the imperfections and the risk of future complications, it is high time that Australia’s First Peoples were recognised in the Constitution in a manner sought and approved by a broad cross-section of Indigenous leaders.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    It's time we ended politically induced poverty

    • John Falzon
    • 23 March 2023
    11 Comments

    As jobseeker payments are indexed for inflation, increased payments are still well below the minimum wage and age pension. With successive neoliberal governments dismantling social infrastructure, people living in poverty have little means of escape. Poverty is not a personal choice but a political one.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Can the Class of '22 fix Australian Democracy?

    • Tim Dunlop
    • 22 June 2022
    5 Comments

    Concern about political malfeasance in Australian politics was one of the issues that drove the influx of new members (mainly women) into the Australian Parliament on 21 May, and they are promising a raft of reforms. The astounding thing is that we managed to leverage the change of 21 May 2022 within the confines of a system that inherently favours the status quo, the preferential voting system tending to channel votes back to the major parties.

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