Poverty Issues

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Meanwhile, in Canada...
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2023/ ... rns-chains

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And, in Oz...

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The Australian Unemployed Workers Union is giving evidence to Parliament's Select Committee on Workforce Australia, today at 1330 AEST.

https://auwu.substack.com/p/unemployed- ... liamentary

[Irrev-Black]

If only this had existed way back in the day...

datakid
@datakid@mstdn.social

Australia has a new landlord/rental property review site. Get in and review your own place if you rent. https://www.shitrentals.org/
Shitrentals.org

www.shitrentals.org

[Irrev-Black]

It's poverty. It's climate. It's a dead cert (pardon) that extreme climate hits poor people first, and harder.

According to a heat survey conducted by the Australia Council of Social Service (Acoss) released in January, low-income households are most affected by heatwaves because they lack access to energy efficient homes.

Of those surveyed, 62% said they struggled to keep their homes cool during summer, and 43% said they faced a barrier to leaving their home for a cooler place. Almost 90% said the high temperatures negatively affect their health.

Acoss called on the state and federal government to mandate minimum energy efficiency standards in rental properties and to invest in a retrofit program to improve the energy efficiency of low-income housing.

More initiatives like the one in this Grauniad story are sorely needed.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... -heatwaves

[Irrev-Black]

If only this had existed way back in the day...

datakid
@datakid@mstdn.social

Australia has a new landlord/rental property review site. Get in and review your own place if you rent. https://www.shitrentals.org/
Shitrentals.org

www.shitrentals.org

ABC News on Shitrentals:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-01/ ... /102922346

[Irrev-Black]

Stick it to the profiteers?

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[Irrev-Black]

And despite the fact Colesworths are gouging the fuck out of prices, their staff are being shafted too.

Coles and Woolworths together dominate roughly 70 percent of the market. On Saturday, October 7, workers at both chains will undertake the first ever national strike of Australian supermarket workers.

Coles’s and Woolworths’s profits for the last financial year were $1.1 and $1.6 billion, respectively. But its employees are some of the lowest paid people in the country, and must now spend over 81 percent of their income on rent if they want to live in a capital city in Australia. Supermarket workers were praised as “essential” during the pandemic, but in practice were often treated as punching bags.

https://jacobin.com/2023/10/workers-str ... permarkets

[Irrev-Black]

The foodbank experience. Sometimes not even a bargain up against supermarket specials. Leave your dignity at home.

People on welfare are the savviest shoppers around. They know when their preferred items are on special and where. You’ll remember your grandparents scrimping and saving, carting their little granny trolley from shop to shop to gather their food for the fortnight on pension day. That’s what we all do now, but the pensions and certainly other payments like Youth Allowance and JobSeeker don’t go as far, so more and more people are using foodbanks for their regular grocery shops, if they have access to one, have the car to get there, somehow luck out on one that delivers (Southlakes in my area does a $10 home delivered box of essentials each week, a rare gem) or are in walking or public transport distance.

Hours at the foodbanks are limited – for example the Salvos here is open 10am-1pm Tuesday and Thursday, the community church 9am-12pm Thursday. And there’s often a line out the front, meaning people get there early (the oldies at the church I’ve seen at 8am for the $2 fresh fruit and veg boxes on offer at nine) or be prepared to hang around until it’s your turn. Which is fine again for those of us with time to kill, but not if you’re wrangling toddlers or have mutual obligations with Centrelink, or medical appointments. Tensions can get high in the lines, everyone’s already on edge from *waves hands* life and all that, having to queue for a free bag of fruit and veges, or to get in to buy discounted items that you don’t have the usual choice over – no you can’t get the cereal the kids prefer or not get lavender as you hate it, because if that’s what’s on offer and you need to fill that gap in your pantry or cleaning products, you get what’s on offer and at the price on offer. They say choice and control a lot during NDIS talk, but people on welfare don’t have choice and control. Beggars can’t be choosers, but when someone cuts in line because they didn’t know the system or the supervisor makes you say “please” when you were being polite already…. that gets to you even when you’re usually easy-going.

https://www.powertopersuade.org.au/blog ... /2/10/2023

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Urban Australia has climate refugees too.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-04/ ... /102901198