SYDNEY'S PHANTOM NEW 24/7 INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT THREATENS BLUE MOUNTAINS WORLD HERITAGE STATUS

Doubling Sydney’s population is now opposed by NO main political party – though there is some political resistance to some of the disastrous new transport options fueling it in main cities like Sydney (ie by the Greens).  Mainly such opposition is to old “solutions” Westconnex superhighway whose interchange currently impacting on the oldest part of Sydney Park – which is about to widen one exit road, heading madly through narrow roads to the eastern suburbs.  The Greens, apparently, still fail to acknowledge that Westconnex is all about building up road links to the old Mascot (Sydney) Airport.

(Since initially writing this article as a draft in late August, the Baaad NSW Govt had finally admitted on TV that Westconnex is indeed about building up the old Mascot Airport – while planning no rail link to the supposed new 24/7 International airport near Liverpool – at Badgery’s Creek). The federal Turncoat conservative Govt pretends to back the building a new International airport out west (near Liverpool) at Badgery’s Creek – with no overnight curfew on any flights there.

The unlikelihood of this Cargo Cult of a project to ever go ahead, is indeed seen in the refusal of the Abbort/Turncoat federal Govt to include ANY rail-link to Badgerys Creek Airport – with the private owners of Mascot Airport still able to exercise its right to “built” it, or not. Those private owners are the same (Turncoat’s old Macquarie Bank) that opposed building a Very Fast Train from Sydney to Canberra, as part of their deal to buy Mascot airport. By then, the Labor  federal Govt had built a Third Runway – later causing a large part of Sydenham housing to be demolished.

Meanwhile NO main political party (again including the Greens) is publically calling for that Very Fast Train section to be urgently built from Sydney To Canberra (let alone north towards Gosford as well). As mentioned, Macquarie Bank had ensured the Govt would not build it once they bought Mascot Airport. To sweeten the deal, the ALP federal Govt had built that Third Runway – sending many more large planes north of the airport. The UPE was involved in the “community advisory committee”, set up by the Govt – tasked supposedly to gather views of locals about dealing with the resulting noise.

As part of Save Our Sydney campaign, we made a half hour documentary about the resulting double cross, involving demolition of whole blocks of housing under the new runway. It is called “The Planes That Ate Sydenham” – though this excellent movie has yet to get any public screening during the twenty years since it was built. An expert points out that the Third Runway was built by the Govt specifically to delay the building of a new international airport at Badgerys Creek – a “solution”which had long been ALP policy.

This gross betrayal helped launch the Greens as a force in Sydney inner city seats, where its former “safe seat” MP’s are now falling over each other to implement inner-city-centric policies, like “gay marriage”. Meanwhile urgent policies like starting the serious decentralisation of increasingly overpopulated Sydney with the long planned Very Fast Train are being sidelined.– are being ignored by the major political parties. Building the cancelled section to Canberra from Sydney (Parramatta will do) through Campbelltown and Goulbourn to Canberra – with an International Airport, say at Goulbourn - would allow people to live outside Sydney, without losing speedy physical access to it. The only alternative it would be to urgently drastically cut Australia’s world beating high migration rate. Without such high migration, Sydney’s population would be decreasing – as so many residents keep leaving it for cheaper and better regional areas.

A Goulbourn international airport would allow 24/7 in bound longhaul flights for overseas tourists – who could either shoot in to Sydney in 30 minutes by VFT, or stay overnight/day at a local hotel, which would be far cheaper than in Sydney. Meanwhile, locals who are leaving Sin City (Sydney) in droves for cheaper housing (with backyards) in the regions – will still be able to commute by VTR, to Sydney jobs. Sydney is only growing uncontrollably because most of Australia’s crazy high migration rate – is drawn there by the ethnic ghettos created by earlier migrants in this “world” city. These migrant cities are losing any coherent cultural identity – creating distinct non-English language groups around various “CBD”s across an increasingly population dense Sydney.

IS NEW LIFE - LONG "CENSUS" JUST A POLICE STATE GONE FERAL?

Security high rise public housing is being overlooked in the 2016 Australian Census. Such as Redfern Sydney tenants who apparently often didn’t receive the anonymous Coded letter addressed to each unit – (ie without their name). This means they probably didn’t get information about how to request a Census form be posted to them – with many not online at home.

These letters may never have been sent to them or were stolen or disguarded (?) as being just unaddressed junk mail. In addition, Census folk don’t seem to be following up, prior to the September deadline – their hand-delivered Census forms to tenants who hadn’t logged-on or rung up for a form in August.

One long time public housing tenant felt that Census workers wouldn’t be allowed through High-rise security – unless they already know someone in the high-rise building. One female Census worker was seem in late August before 6pm in inner city Sydney, crying in some distress that her partner wasn’t around to defend her against someone who had just tried to rape her.

This whole debacle was  partly caused by the negligence of the Federal government in cutting back funding for this Census – so the ABS then cutback on staffing to deliver/collect the census forms all on one night. There is also the increasing resistance to many people disclosing many personal details on the Census form – now it is to be kept for 4 years.

A local Government councillor (or employee) objected to how the Census was now going to be used to track people throughout their lives – surely a gross breach of trust from the Government ( he now refusing to fill in the Census form). The Census has previously been only used to collect data, not help spy on where people move to different addresses throughout their lives and other details that should remain private.

The Census, in addition, it also becoming less and less relevant for its supposed purpose for data collection to help design services for different areas. Already Sydney City Council’s “social plans” acknowledge that Aboriginal people usually avoid filling in Census forms – due to their past treatment by Government agencies. Now it seems that the ABS is now also failing to even include many low income people in public housing (not to mention homeless).

Yet another bungle by the Turncoat Government – though the ABS cutbacks were probably brought in by the previous Abbort mini – Government. Either way, the Census is now wildly seen as Big Brother exercise – that like Australia’s weird “compulsory” voting, is being increasingly rejected by citizens who want their democracy back.  

Demand letters to residents from ABS in September - threatening large fines for them supposedly not filling out a census form , point them to a phone their phone number (which they answer with a recorded message saying it is too busy to answer). This situation was witnessed by Redfern Legal Centre, who are offering to help people fined in this exersize in an increasingly police state environment 

ALP SHORT-ON POLL STRATEGY

By mid June, only weeks from the 2 July Federal election – after weeks of campaigning, Bill Shorten let slip his supposed radical election strategy. On ABC TV, he acknowledged that the conventional wisdom for Australian election campaigning for the major parties duopoly was for the opposition party to run dead (ie use a small-target strategy of no new policies).

It seems that with the change from Abbort to their new saviour Turnbull as “leader” in 2013, Shorten thought he would not win the double-disillusion election – and so brought out some Big Gun policies that he would normally keep quiet about until ALP won an election.  Abbort brought out things like delay dole for six months and Unions Royal commission.

The Shorten ALP team’s hidden contentious “nasties” (not meant to be revealed until the first year of a new ALP government) – were to be not just a revenge-style Royal Commission into the Banking/financial sector. Bill now promised paring back of the untouchable middle-class privilege of multiple housing ownership, the sacred negative gearing tax concessions.

We were contemplating writing to the ALP, before the early election was announced – to suggest that they make some kamikaze type promises if they win, just not those type of conservative ones. Instead we have lobbied both ALP and the Greens about several seriously radical proposals – almost all of which we put in a poster for the 2013 election.

Our key one was about starting the construction of the Very Fast Train (VFT) rail infrastructure – in particular the long mooted section from Sydney to Canberra through Goulbourn. This was first proposed before Mascot airport was sold off (whose Banking purchaser killed it off) so there must already be plans about the exact route, if not complete land acquisition.

ALP Deputy Leader, Tanya Plibersek personally indicated early in the election campaign that completing the NBN had priority – which opinion polls later showed was far less important to voters. The ALP, through her and “cities” shadow Minister Albanese failed to respond in writing to us on this and other important proposals in our 2013/2016 “WHY VOTE” posters.

Since the Greens also didn’t respond in writing to our poster and letters to them on the VFT and other proposals (except our arts ones seemed to prompt them to suddenly get on TV with policies in response) here is our election strategy for the public to see. We wished to propose that at least the ALP propose building the Sydney-Canberra phase of the VFT.

This should include Goulbourn as an intermediary stop for it, as originally proposed – where an International Airport with 24/7 access be built. Any construction of an airport at Badg-ery’s Creek should not have 24/7 international aircraft access due to existing dense residential population around it. VFT would quickly get international passengers to Sydney. 

Any airport in western Sydney would destroy the hard won Blue Mountains World Heritage status as planes would be constantly flying over it. Since any real kind of construction won’t start at Badgery’s Creek for several elections off – the VTR could easily be earlier construct-ed through Goulbourn to Canberra from say Parramatta, once the ALP/Greens win in 2019.

So the kamikaze type promises made by Shorten/Albanese for the 2016 should have been to start building the VFT from Melbourne/Sydney/Brisbane.  That could have been to urgently start building sections of the VFT to ease overpopulation by decentralisation (ie unafford-able housing) in the eastern cities, accelerated by building Goulburn International airport.

Instead, the ALP and Greens effectively failed to give the voters a real alternative to pointless “concrete bank” concentration of more freeways and tin-pot driverless trains and dinky trams on public streets and parks in the cities. Obviously no amount of such expensive “infrastructure” will be able to cope with projected doubling of population within decades.

Effectively, the ALP/Greens have accepted the idea of high immigration concentration in these increasingly unaffordable and environmentally degraded cities – rather than plan ahead for major intercity VFT infrastructure. We wanted to suggest to the ALP and even the Greens, to propose in the 2016 election that they would start the VFT, at least from Sydney.

Given that the ALP would likely lose that election, they could then appear to drop that proposal by conducting a “small target” strategy at the next election – when they could try and avoid talking about it specifically. Instead, they were already avoiding talking about VFT and foolishly run just building NBN as their signatory policy (+Banking inquiry, tax gearing).

Unfortunately, the Greens then also failed to grasp the nettle and lead their campaign with VFT – but stuck with bottom draw policies like onshore boat-people processing, gay marri-age plus copying ALP goofy policies. Curiously, the Greens have long advocated the VFT to Canberra at least, as well as a new International Airport at Goulburn – so what happened?

It seems the ALP is trapped in a time-warp of thinking it is a mass party, though its chief backers – Trade Unions keep having its industrial worker base decimated by “free trade” agreements with low wage countries. Besides a growing workforce of part-time workers, unable to afford union dues – the movement is being taken over by female occupations.

This feminisation of ALP politics was heralded by the Julia Gillard PM years – where she squibbed the mining boom tax but shot to international fame by calling the Opposition leader a “misogynist”.  The electorate soon came to hate her so much that the PM she disposed of (as his Deputy) had to be returned to try save the ALP from poll annihilation.

Meanwhile the Greens married the Gillard ALP after the 2010 election, though they never divorced or even separated from the Unions first. The Greens still fancy themselves as the left-wing mistress of the ALP – though the official Conservative coalition have been seeing eye to eye with the ALP for so long, they should just elope. Shouldn’t the Greens grow up!

Showboating “policies” like gay marriage don’t seem to be increasing tolerance for that minority community – nor do guilt games thrown at the mainstream public on “invasion”, to get a treat-ie. Most Australians are either descendants of "convicts" from brutal land-enclosure evictions of tenants farmers in Ireland/Britain centuries ago or else migrants since from those and other lands.

DOLE NEWS IS BACK FOR 2014

It turns out that we can still update on this site - but there are some difficulties. Dole News was first published in 1976 on a gestetna broadsheet press, and we hope to do some issues on a A3 paper output printer before long (when we figure out the system). Meanwhile, these blogs provide a very good way to extend documentation of our investigations of human rights violations of the unemployed (including those with disabilities). We are trying to properly expand and adjust current material - so apologies for any remaining text problems.

The paper issues of Dole News of course cost us money or worse - such as begging for limited printouts from "community" centres. However these give-away issues do help get the core blog address out, so we are getting into the thousands of hits online. We hope to get into mnore audio podcast sometime - though we already have a 3D animation about the Greens (in outer space naturally). We also hope to use this site to promote various related related books (and even e-books, when we can work out how to do that too).

We have some links to some of our websites, but only the oocities one comes up properly - though we can't update that one now it seems. The MAGX websites have lost their design formats, which we are trying to correct. This means that people have effectively lost a means to contact us by email. However, our contact details are in listings in the Sydney WHITE and YELLOW pages. At the moment we can only give our ODD_JOB_CENTRE@HOTMAIL.COM email address - until we locate an easier one to use.We are a long tiime registered non-profit organisation, if there is assistance being offered.

ULTIMO TAFE "SECURITY" THUGS THREATENED MIDDLE AGED MALE STUDENT ON PUBLIC STREETS ON 29 MARCH 2012

A Sydney middle aged male then student of Ultimo TAFE complained on 30 March 2012 about their discrimination and victimisation in a 2012 Diploma course. In March 2012 he was being harrassed through emails by some young students who were only just joining a group work class well into the first semester. The female teacher "Felicity" had asked him to try and "get things going" through email exchanges with the supposed new "group" - as the first assignment was due soon. She got two of them to supply emails details in a class on 9 March. He had already been complaining to her by emails - about how the three all young female groups (already formed in late Feburary), had not included him. "Felicity" repeatedly promised to see him about the issue - but never did, claiming ot was too late to change the makeup of the original three student groups in her class.

On 29 March he come in ready to start classes again for the week - only to be greeted by an inidentified stranger dressed like a cowboy, saying he was going to escort him from TAFE (for no reason given). Though he soon quickly left by himself - not knowing why this was happening, he was later pursued on public streets outside Ultimo TAFE by their "security" goons - and forced to run across a busy street to get away from them threatening and abusing him. This was a great risk to his long time lower back disc problem. He had then just wanted to go to the shopping centre, but had avoided going back through TAFE campus. In 2013 he complained to the NSW Antiddiscrimination Board (ADB), after getting no identifable mailed or email response from Ultimo TAFE to his original complaint on 30 March - (which continued even after a year).

A recording was made during his "interview" on 23 March 2012 (by acting head teacher "Peter" and head teacher "Catherine"), with their knowledge - after they got him out of the start of a Friday afternoon "Felicity" class, for no reason. This recording and earlier ones at "group" meetings, show he was being unfairly treated by the new young students, late attenders to the class (in the fourth and last class group being formed around him). As in past SydneyTAFE courses, he was being unfairly austracised from class group formation, due to him being a middle aged male with disability - among mostly much younger students. The emails between them, permitted by "Felicity (as a communications strategy) are gradually being released elsewhere on this network of UPE blogs.

They show that he was following instructions in class by "Felicity", to be a "peer" leader until the young members of the new "group" started to take responsibility (eg turn up to all classes and excursion on time, read the first assignment and meet outside class to agree on group decision methods). By the time an out-of-class meeting of the "group" was held on 15 March, to try and set up a proper Team decision making structure - email exchanges had finished. This was after these younger students had been using them to intimidate the middle aged male student,(eg to do ALL of the demographics research for the assignment - though they agreed at the 15 March meeting that they should have been sharing in that "group" assignment work). They had been grossly misrepresenting what he had been trying to do with the permitted email exchanges - ie get the new "group" going, as instructed by teacher "Felicity". Redfern Legal Centre recently affirmed again that his teacher permitted emails to the other sstudents were proper.

Other recordings, made in self defence on 15 and 16 March - show how he was unfairly being set up with false claims by the young other members of this late forming "group" (they admitted was being co-ordinated behind the scenes by the teacher "Felicity"). On 16 March, in a "Felicity" class, a recording shows he is pleading to be allowed to leave the classroom - due to fear of another Panic Attack, that he'd just had two days before (where an ambulance was called). This was after the "group" members on 16 March, made untrue statements to the class about him, (ie they unfairly excluded from the in-class meeting),. The teacher, "Felicity" refused to let him leave - though both she and the new student group had been intimidating him with these false claims (easily refuted by reading the emails exchanges - which were virtually their only means of communication).

Once excluded by the new later-comer "group" on 16 March from their in-class meeting, he sought to join the Internationals group of young women from overseas - which they accepted (knowing him from the Ultimo TAFE class of the previous year). However, "Felicity" ignored the fact that he could transfer to their Inbterenationals group - which favoured his arts oriented activities ideas (for working with young people at a local youth service). He told her about his proposed transfer to their group - prior to her 23 March meeting, where he also lodged an application for dropping her class (based on a Prior Learning application she claimed to supportr).

He had had earlier experiences, such as at Randwick TAFE - of intimidation by younger students, which teachers refuse to discipline - even after written complaints about it. That put him on sleeping pills all of 2007, when he had his first severe Panic Attack (going to RPA Hospital suspecting a heart attack). In 2005, in a part time course there - a female teacher told him (and an other middle aged male student) to leave the course because they were supposely "holding back the younger students". Though he soon complained about that blatant gender and ageism discrimination to the then Head Teachers - no verbal apology resulted, let alone a written one from Sydney Institute TAFE. The younger students in that course had eariler raised a petition to the Head teachers to get rud of the middle aged students from trhe course.

Ultimo TAFE also showed that they have no real Discipline practices for young students - who gang up on middle aged students (especially male ones). Nor do they have any real Complaints practices, for acting on complaints about such young bullies (or their teacher accomplices).His formal discrimination complaint to St George TAFE in 2011, received a letter in reply admitting that the Workplace Learning teacher had said "they usually get a female" for placements. Ultimo TAFE, however, didn't even bother to post a letter in reply to his 30 March 2012 complaint of discrimination. Sydney Institute of TAFE finally admitted late in 2013 to the ADB, that he had been making previous complaints of discrimination - but added unspecified preposterous false defamatory claims about him

The complaint made in 2011, about being denied a placement in 2009 to complete a Diploma at St George TAFE (because they "usually get a female") - resulted in them falsely telling Centrelink he was only doing 5 nominal hours study a week in 2010. No such notice was ever sent to him, but instead they sent a form saying he was doing 20 nominal hours a week. He, in fact, did a full time placement in 2010 and a cert 4 full time course in 2011. It took him till 2013 to defeat that false Centrelink $18,000 Austudy "debt" through the Social Security Appeals Tribunal. The whole experience now has him going to a "disability" employment services agency for his back condition and anxiety. He warns other middle aged males to avoid doing full time TAFE courses dominated by young students.

This is though he generally found the much younger students got to like him after getting used to him being just a human being - and not just the Media stereotype of the middle aged male (see Snickers TV ad). "The danger zone is in the first semester, when they haven't got used to a middle age guy being there. The teachers have to ensure you are included in class group work subjects - not let the majority younger students form their usual schoolyard gangs" he says. He has lodged a number of in-class anonymous notes from other all-younger students, from 2011 (very complimentary of him) with AAT as well as with the ADB.He added that university courses also ganged up on middle aged males, even in part time courses - given most have female tutors in BA courses. He is writing a Docu-book on his experiences at UTS (where he got a BA degree and Diploma, and Sydney Institute TAFE - where he got a Diploma and severat cert 4's).

The irony of his situation in the 2012 Diploma,that he negotiated moving to one of the three original class groups during the 16 March "Felicity" class - and told her about it before the 23 March class - was ignored by head teacher "Catherine", who had been ignoring his weeks of complaints by email to "Felicity" The interrogation by "Peter" and "Catherine", out of the beginning of the 23 Mach class (illegally detaining him without drinking water) - ignored his complaint that the others in the fourth "group" were ganging up on him. "Peter" kept claiming that he was still in the fourth group - that since their last exersion on 16 Match, wanted to do basketball as an activity (which he couldn't do with his diagnosed lower back condition that TAFE was supplying Kneweling Chairs for in classes).

Why are middle aged males and males with disabilities being forced by Centrelink to do these VOCATIONAL courses, if they aren't given decent "placements" (if any) to complete them - and the mainly female teachers allow some of those younger students to bully and intimidate them? Are older male students REALLY "holding back younger students' (eveb when they out grade them) or is Sydney TAFE ruled by the majority of its "customers" - who are mostly school leavers (some early leavers) who still think they are at high school. Sydney TAFE should admit NO MIDDLE AGED MALES AND MALES WITH DISABILITIES need apply for their high-school level "tertiary" courses. They should at least add a WARNING: BEWARE YOUR HEALTH IS AT RISK - AND YOU WON'T GET A DECENT PLACEMENT FROM TAFE (ie you have no real chance of getting a JOB through a TAFE course - just bullying from younger students and teachers, and false attacks on your good reputation.

FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS - THE POVERTY OF ASPIRATION

The Unemployed Peoples Embassy is declaring war on rapacious credit card companies, that are trapping the jobless (including casual, low waged, financially sruggling students and pensioners) in debt with high interest rates. This move has been partly inspired by Channel 7's Today Tonight's story of 14 May - where it is claimed that someone in credit card can negotiate a low "transfer" rate on their existing credit card (see their website for the story).

The Gillard government failed to legislate to ease the financial pressure on low income people who have been trapped in unmanageable credit card debt for years. They may have used credit thrown at them by the greedy banks etc to try and keep their car going so they can get to colleges for education and for casual/part time work. Both majot parties have only been interested in lowering the interest rates of middle class mortgage holding swinging voters.

Most new jobs in the major cities, like in Sydney, are casual and un-unionised - which young people and the over 55 males, are being forced to accept. Such underemployed and unemployed people cannot get lower interest loans from banks, so they have to resort to getting high interest credit from xredit card providers. If they can't get much or any work, they can end up being trapped into struggling to just pay the "minimum" monthly repayment - which includes a large proportion of full interest repayment. Their "hardship" provisions only mean paying part of the monthly interest rate alone.

The Embassy has in the past fought the very low income limit on the dole, the fake offer of  jobs in the government run Commonwealth Employment Services's "work test" (see our expose book of the same name) and expose of corruption in privatised Job Network (www.oocities.com/unemployedembassy). We are demanfing that not only that credit card interest rates are lowered, but that "hardship" provisions on credit cards (involving cancelling of credit cards) include substantial lowering of repatment interest rates - at least while the "customer" has only Centrelink income or very low wages - to repay with.

Our aim will be to embarrass the credit card companies and inform their victims of their rights. It will of course be not physically confrontational - from our side at least. We will not use the generalist perspective or strategies of the so-called Occupy campain in Australia. We are fighting to force a future Labor/Greens "Labor" government to save our most vulnerable citizens from financial ruin. If the ALP refuses to ensure we can all have full time work  - at least they can get the big financial rapists off out backs. Our contacts are in the Sydney White and Yellow directories - or you could email us through our Odd Job Centre website - www.unemployedembassy.magix.net before it lost its formating. Try ODD_JOB_CENTRE@HOTMAIL>COM until we sort it out.

Now in May 2014, we are getting close to getting some justice for a jobless person who has been trapped for years in credit cards debt - only being able to pay "minimum" monthly amounts on them. He is getting assistance in getting the interest charges waivered through "maladministration" provisions in the law. We will gibe some details whenm this is achaived. The State and Federal governments should make such fightback actions against rapacious credit card companies - easier to obtain. In this case - it all came from a jobless man trying to keep an old car going (with costly repairs) - i norder to do staties and try and get a job (a car often a prerequisite to getting one).

TONY'S MIDDLE CLASS WELFARE

TONY ABBORT'S COALITION STANDS UP FOR "POOR" FAMILIES EARNING OVER $3000 A WEEK.!

$150.000 income per year for a family is "not rich", according to Tony in his Budget 2012 reply speech. He also affirmed his policy to increase taxes of "big business" to give high income parents six months parenting leave on full pay. He seems to be promoting middle class resentment about Gillard's school kids bonus being means tested. Afterall, the New Poor with their big mortgages, private school fees and overseas holidays - pay their taxes, or as little of them as possible (except, of course for the billionaire miners who pay none at all). It was an academic speaker at Sydney's Politics In The Pub, some years ago - who summed up the  middle class welfare cult of entitlement, when he said something like:

We don't mind the government giving handouts to the poor, as long as we get it too - since we're paying the taxes

At least the rich can afford to "blow on the pockies", the obscene hundreds of dollars involved in the bi annual bonuses. No doubt he will cancel any further annual bonus of $210 to jobless and students. Even Gillard won't increase the dole to pension levels, or even increase the income limit to Austudy or pension heights (as encouraging casual and part time work among the jobless only discourages then from accepting full time work - you see). Gillard now claims that the jobless can now be reduced to 0%, now its officially under the magic 5% level - ignoring the fact that the jobs increase is mostly part time plus people giving up looking for work.

Tony now is taking full credit for the corrupt "Job Network", the so-called employment services system he says he founded - as minister in the Howard government (though it was the Keating Govt that started it off - as it privatised everything except Telecom). Rebadged as "Employment Services Australia", Gillard won't pursue with criminal charges, the big religious charities (Catholic church, Salvos etc) dominating the privatised system - who have been caught ripping off taxpayers money with fake job subsidies. Tony of course, will only go after corrupt union officials. Meanwhile Centrelink's Brisbane based hit squad is going after jobless struggling to pay impossibly high city rents, by doing arduous casual work (that only reduces their dole) and middle aged males with disabilities, trying to survive full time TAFE courses, run by its young students (who gang up on oldies - who they don't want in "their" classes).
  

WE CAN'T PAY YOU - JUST BECAUSE YOU LIKE TO STUDY

This was the warning by Centrelink in inner Sydney to an older mature age male, who was struggling to finish a TAFE Diploma in Community Services (case management) in 2010, after St George College had failed to get him a work placement for the 2009 one year course. The Course was due to finish then - but the workplace learning teacher told him she couldn't find an organisation to take him for the 240 hours placement required, because they were saying - "we usually get a female".
They only offered him an unsuitable placement at the end of 2009 - which they didn't bother to re enroll him for for the next semester, starting in 2010 (which it would run into).

His Austudy payments ran out after Xmas 2010, while he was still at the placement - so on Centrelink (Student Team) advice, he enrolled in a Youth Work course at another TAFE nearer his home (given that repairs on his car was making it unaffordable). The St George placement teacher wasn't responding to his emailed pleas to be exited from the Xmas placement - where he was complaining by email, to the usually absent workplace "supervisor" of students there - about the fact that their promise to let him work with the senior case worker, was not being honoured. (He has emails, given to him by TAFE, showing that his observation of case management sessions with clients at the placement - would be part of the student placement experience).

Instead he ended up just doing the filing work for all the case workers - and not being allowed to sit in on any sessions (except with a junior case worker in the last few days before they kicked him out - with a false claim that he'd refused to do some filing). The real reason was that he had to give them a Dr letter saying he had a lower back issue - after they were trying to get him to work in their Clinic lifting clients. The "supervisor" claimed his objection amounted to a "refusal to work" and unfairly dismissed him soon after - while cruelly and repeatedly claiming he was "unemployable"-  (though there had been no complaints about his work during the months he was there three days a week). Another female manager, in a different part of the organisation, was abusing him - apparently because he is an older male (an example of which we have direct evidence of).

This was after falsely promising to let him use his multi media qualifications and demonstrated skills in group work with their mostly disadvantaged male clients. He left that placement after 166 hours there (that he has signed documentation of) and St George finally let him withdraw from the subject with no penalty (since that placement was failing to let him negotiate a Learning Contract or Work Plan with them so hecould develop a Portfolio for marking at TAFE). In early 2010 he withdrew from the Youth Work course (Centrelink had suggested he enrol in) that had secured him continuation of Austudy to continue the first placement. Then St George asked him to re enroll to do another work placement in the new semester. The head teacher has since stated in a letter that the first placement should still be counted as study load hours.

This second placement in the far off western suburbs, he was able to complete as the supervisor was more co-operative - with his Portfolio on it and other paperwork signed off by a new placement teacher and the Head Teacher by the end on semester 2 in 2010. He was awarded the Diploma document at a mid 2011 graduation, after which he made a written complaint to St George about its sex discrimination - in not standing up to the female preferences of its placement organisations in 2009, during that supposedly one year Diploma course. He was just finishing the Youth Work course in 2011, when Centrelink falsely billed him for a $18,000 debt for Austudy he received in 2010 and 2011.

He is now trying to prepare to fight this outrageous decision in the Social Security Appeals Tribunal, after Centrelink's Authorised Review Officer in Brisbane told him, on the phone, that "placement hours" are not counted towards the 20 hours per week required for a student to considered full time enrolled in NSW TAFE. Full time TAFE courses rarely involve as much as 20 hours of classroom teaching per week as placements have become common practice. In 2010 he had done two 240 hour placements - when counting the off-workplace preparations he did for draft Work Plans etc (and for presentations to clients in the second one). Head Teachers from St George and Ultimo TAFE colleges have produced letters saying he was studying fulltime and that the placements he did with the courses were an essental requirement - ie hours doing them counted as "study load".

The Sydney Morning Herald has failed to respond to his outline of this Federal Govt injustice, to their "investigation" of Centrelink linked corruption (ie Job Services Australia rorts - where he has also had experiences - see www.oocities.com/unemployedembassy). His letters to federal local MP Tanya Plibersek, then apparently Minister for Centrelink (Human Services), have been unanswered. He has been writing her office for years about his mature age education problems. Unfortunately for Centrelink though - he is still so in debt from credit cards on expensive multiple repairs to his ex car (thanks to Kmart Auto) that they were unable to collect any of the $73 a fortnight they tried to take from the dole he is now on (after he phoned their debt collection department). He now only has about $100 left a month, from the fortnightly payments, to pay for food AND electricity (let alone anything else like transport) - after minimum payments for several credit cards is taken out.

A "hardship" arrangement with a credit card bank expired in Jan 2012 - where for about 6 months previously they were letting him just pay part of the (full interest rate) interest due on the accounts. They will not give him a lower interest loan unless he can get a job. He is now about 60 year old - but he thought doing some practical vocational courses could get him work and out of his car repair debts. He spent all of the 2010 Xmas holidays applying for jobs in his field of study - with only two interviews resulting. The interviews however made it clear that his lack of recent sustained paid full time employment and his age were barriers to employment - even in the "community" sector. Also most community sector employers prefer to employ females. He was still being paid Austudy during those holidays - as he had re enrolled in the Youth Work course for 2011 (delayed a year by St George TAFE's anti male sex discrimination in 2009, forcing him later to do unsuitable placements to try and finish the Diploma course).

After the shock of the 2 year Centrelink Austudy debt - he became sick with severe flu-like symptoms, which his Dr says are probably stress related. It could be related to the heightened hyertension he has been on higher medication for since early 2012. This has impeded his job search efforts. He then enrolled in the Youth Work diploma - but cannot afford to do it it on Austudy (which he's reapplied for). He cae up against agesist anti male prejudice in that course dominated by young females. He has again complained formally to TAFE about it. On Austudy previously he was not able to afford to keep up the monthly minimum balances on credit cards - as it was then almost $200 a month less than the dole per month. He is seeking more legal advice on how to try and deal with his greedy creditors - which charity "financial counsellors" seem so tardy in providing legal advice about to desperate job seekers who approach them. He has a manageable physical disability, which TAFE to its credit, has provided simple means to counter. Employers however, have been found to be highly reluctant to provide similar support.

TO RECAP

He had to complain by email to the Xmas 2010 placement "supervisor", when they suddenly decided to require him to do client lifting tasks that his disability couldn't handle. Soon after they decided to terminate the placement (that he's been pleading with TAFE to have him exited from) on the fabricated claim that he hadn't done some filing. His very complaint to them and TAFE was that filing and other routine tasks, were all he was being allowed to do. He couldn't see how he could pass the subject - that required him to negotiate a Work Plan with the workplace - related to tasks that demonstrated his classroom learning. His written complaint to St George TAFE raised this issue - but they ignored it in their reply. He now plans to complain about discrimination by the two TAFE colleges.  They have said that they would review allowing holiday placements and the Work Plan "competencies" approach has now been changed - thanks no doubt to what he went through (and is now unfairly stuck with a $18000 debt he is trying to appeal against).

Perhaps the Aged Pension should just be restored to 60 - since employers are so disinterested in using the talents and experience of older mature age people. WELCOME TO THE LUCKY COUNTRY.

Check out our other blogspot at http://unemployedpeoplesembassy-tube.blogspot.com  where  new discrimination by TAFENSW, including Ultimo TAFE threatening violence against a middle aged male with a physical disability - is being exposed.

WHAT IS THE EMBASSY - AND HOW TO CONTACT AND SUPPORT US

See our contact details in the Sydney White and Yellow pages. Our websites http://www.unemployedembassy.org/ (which has disappeared now due to difficulty of paying for the domain name) and http://www.unemployedembassy.magix.net/ which give background to projects run by our organisation. There was email contact sections on both these sites, but only the latter site one can now be found - though perhaps most easily by clicking on the link here. The former (.org)  site is on a "domain" apparently run by an overseas outfit called Magix - who had blocked our website unless we  give them a credit card number online.We have emailed them twice, offering to send them a cheque - though we don't know for how much USD is in $A and what the amount is actually for. We rely on people to join our registered non profit organisation and volunteer their time for our campaigns and activities - to give some hope to jobless and disabled people interested in being involved in the community.

We rarely get government grants - and they are usually only a matter of a couple of hundred dollars and only for specific community projects. Private donations are even rarer. For a pluralist society there needs to be more involvement from citizens in the democratic process, that being forced to vote every so often for political parties who don't value the input of their "members" - doesn't really provide. Our organisation has been able to make a difference to public debate - if hardly ever public policy.

ARTS JOBS & TRAINING

The Odd Job Centre (OJC) was the project that really kicked off the UPE in 1978. A 30 minute video made about it was publicised in the SMH - and an expanded version is now on DVD. The OJC recently supplied a 15 minute singer/songwriter/poetry act for an opening of the South West Artists Network exhibition at TAP Gallery Darlinghurst.

A video was made of the act - which won fans - plus some other performers. A DVD of the whole show is being worked on. Other performers with original acts are sought - which can be put on a sampler DVD for approaches to suitable venues. One new venue in the western suburbs is being looked at.

People wishing to learn how to shoot videos and edit DVD's are also sought. Also people to help form a band and act in short original plays are needed. Contact odd_job_centre@hotmail.com -the OJC a registered non-profit project which survives on donations and support from the UPE.

FOREIGN AID FOR OZ ARTISTS

Given the pathetic lack of support for mineral wealthy Australia for the arts and artists - we propose that foreign aid be sought from other countries to help artists survive and artistic events and venues be supported.

Perhaps some asian and even african natiins could sponsor some artists so they can keep being creative. Maybe some countries will allow them to migrate there and be supported while they work creatively.

OUR ARCHIVE WEBSITE STILL ONLINE

By googling www.oocities.com/unemployedembassy you are taken to archives of the geocities hosted websites before they started charging producers of those websites. Just scroll down to "unemployedembassy" to be taken to the whole website - starting with the index page from which the various webpages can be accessed.

UNDERGROUND TELEVISION via net and dvd

As a protest against the digital TV oligopoly in Australia - where the many new channels have almost no new local content - we plan to screen our are other programs via dvd and broadband. We have already sold videos to Council libraries and had programs screened on Community TV test broadcasts.

We are seeking public venues to do show our and others programs - though some programs we have made may be "acceptable" to the conservative tastes of community TVS (channel 44) which has failed to respond to our emails in 2010. Broadband transmission looks like a hopeful future direction.

Sens a SAE to our UPE address (see Yellow Pages listing) for a fuller catalogue of our DVD's of programs so far. We are looking for a reasonable aized flatscreen to use for screenings in inner Sydney venues. Of course we also need some transport help to get it to and from those vrenues.


Otherwise email us through our Odd Job Centre website http://unemployedembassy.magix.net - which has a page called "Your TV". Some DVD titles now available for public screenings and sale to Councils and schools for their libraries include:

DVD LIST;

THE PLANES THAT ATE SYDENHAM is our first 30 minute offering - in our Save Our Sydney (SOS) series. SOS originally had a half hour pilot, shown on the first Sydney community television pilots broadcasts. Made in 1995, this movie comes with an A3 size illustrated background leaflet.

WAYSIDE REUNION running about 30 minutes, was shown on Lismore community TV test broadcasts. It covers a  a reunion of people from the late 1960's and early 1970's who were involved with the Kings X icon - then still run by Ted Noffs.  A Question Time format is run in the old Wayside Theatre space - laid out like a cafe. Russell Morris donated his Real Thing song for a Timestream Productions film of the Wayside  Passion Play along Macquarie St - that was screened.

ODD JOB CENTRE (OJC) running over 30 minutes, outlines the founding of the Unemployed Peoples Embassy at 41 Phillip St in the late 1970's, after the OJC was first developed there in 1978. The UPE campaigned to raise tthe income limit on the dole as well as to save the row of historic terraces and the adjacent site of the 1788 Govt House Site under threat of a Sydney City Council road widening. The UPE developed a Learning Co-op - including a music and media workshop. Performances at demos and at the Embassy are shown. Dole News also became a regular publication with some infouence

WORK TEST running about 30 minutes, outlines the UPE struggle against unfair treatment of jobless by the Fraser Govt's Commonwealth Employmrernt Service (CES) leading to a book of the same name. Video reenactments of typical sessions with the Embassy President with a key CES officer is shown. The exposure of compulsory fake job interviews in Dole News and in "Workn Test" the book led to a Fraser Minister ordering the Embassy President to be framed by CES operatives. This probably led to Lib/Lab governments privatising "employment services".

EMBRiO Alternative Festival of Arts - doco and videos of annual events szince 1990.  DVD's still being developed. 

GILLARD KEPT DOLE/AUSTUDY BELOW PENSION - WOULD SHORTEN BE DIFFERENT?

With a supposed unemployment of 5% now considered notionally a full employment rate - the "Labor" government had felt it acceptable to raise the future age pension age to 67. That was purely driven by the fact that the large taxpaying Baby Boomer population is now hoping to retire. Their taxes helped keep many of their their parents alive with new subsidised medicines - and they themselves except to live longer than their grandparents. Though superannuation is failing to fill the life expectancy gap - they will have to wait longer than age 65 if they were born after 1950.By 2013 there was even talk of raising the aged pension to 70 (as it will be 67 before long)

The International Monetory Fund, that is still advocating currently slashing jobs and wages in Europe - is now aiming to link aged pension entitlement to increases in "life expectancy". Of course, few jobs exist for the over 50's, let alone the over 70's. The corporate media like to run the odd story about some someone still working when they are 80 - but that would only be someone who owns their own business. With housing shortages and high rents in main capital cities, epidemics of granny dumping are sure to follow.

Meanwhile, students are being expected to work part time to supplement their meagre Austudy - as well as study full time and do unpaid work "placements".  This is lowering the education standards in Australia and discouraging foreign students to spend expensive $A to come here. America apparently is becoming a better prospect for those international students wishing to learn English language as well as get a degree. Cost of housing for students near the big city based universities is also a big problem.

Students though at least have the option to move to regional universities. The jobless are cut off the dole if they move out of unaffordable cities like Sydney. That supposed "hippie" dole law was brought in by by the the Hawke/Keating Govt - and extended by the Howard Govt. While Labor and Liberal governments now talk about the Baby Boomers moving to the country (tree & sea changers) in their retirement, the jobless won't be able to easily move there to work in service industries the boomers will need there.

As usual, the major political parties are just not thinking beyond the two or three years of the electoral cycle - to prepare for what's coming up over the horizon.     

RUDD'S MAD MONK DOCKET PLAN

PM RUDD IS NOW PINCHING THE CRAZIER IDEAS OF COALITION LEADER TONY ABBOT (KNOWN AS THE MAD MONK)

Legislation is about to be introduced into federal parliament to "quarantine" 50% of the dole and single parent's payments so that it can only be used directly to pay for the necessities of life - such as rent, food and clothing

Of course - there are very few such Centrelink recipients who pay LESS than about three quarters of their meagre dole on private rental (given the lack of public housing. Already the dole is $100 a week less than the pension - while Austudy is $140 less a week.