Swimming off the deep end @swimmingoffthedeepend - Tumblr Blog

Talk to One Nation voters

Be the person who pierces their echo chamber. Talk to them. Figure out what they are angry about and find solutions, or point out how One Nation isn't going to fix anything.

Are they worried about immigration? Well, immigration is actually steadily declining and population growth is at a record low.

Are they worried about cost of living? One Nation wants to repeal workplace protections and make it easier for workers to lose their jobs.

Are they concerned about people coming here and not speaking English? English competency is a requirement for Australian citizenship and so is a non-issue.

Are they concerned about the cost of electricity? Electricity prices are actually cheaper because of renewable energy. Higher costs are due to the cost of gas. One Nation wants to get rid of cost-saving renewables and doesn't believe in climate change.

What about house prices? Pauline Hanson has consistently voted against measures to increase housing affordability.

What about the major parties being bought for by corporate interests? Pauline Hanson is literally being gifted millions by one of Australia's richest billionaires, Gina Rhinehart. Hanson also repeatedly fails to declare gifts from Rhinehart and One Nation repeatedly fails to give any kind of financial disclosure at all. This is very dodgy! If they're worried about political corruption then One Nation should be the prime target for distrust.

Go forth.

Talk to people.

This is how we save Australia.

theauspolchronicles

Pauline Hanson claims that there are 872,000 people who can't speak English in Australia as a way to complain about multiculturalism. The thing is: that figure includes over 100,000 babies.

Her claim uses self-reported ABS data, which is not an objective test of someone's English competency. Some of the adults in these figures are likely saying they can't speak English just because they don't speak it as fluently as those with it as a first language.

English competency is a requirement for Australian citizenship (unless you're born here, so babies don't need to prove it). The exception being those over 60, those under 16, or people with a permanent mental or physical incapacity.

So the Australian citizens who were born overseas but aren't competent at English? Probably family members like grandparents, children and dependants. Also, deaf people don't speak English, they use sign language. Oh, and some Indigenous communities focus on their language first as a way to prevent its extinction. There are multiple reasons why English isn't the primary language of many people.

In fact, the level of English competency required was already increased by the Coalition back in 2017. The level required is similar to that to be accepted into a university so those who come here to study, get skills that benefit the nation, and decide they like it here so much as to stay and contribute to our MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY will be fine. But that doesn't fit Hanson’s narrative so she's ignoring all of that.

So Pauline Hanson is trying to misrepresent statistics to stoke racist fears that social cohesion is being undermined by not understanding the idea of BABIES EXISTING and people having grandparents etc. Her solution is something that already is in place. This is just stupidity and racism. That's all One Nation represents.

hell-on-sticks

Today in australia they started senate hearings on the bill the government hopes will make enough disabled people die or disappear to make us all less irritatingly expensive for them. We had two weeks to submit feedback on over 400 pages of complicated legal terms. They don't care what we have to say and they don’t care that this will kill people and disenfranchise disabled people across the country.

There are 760,000 Australians on the National Disability Insurance Scheme, the system that - if they feel like it and your personalised plan says you get to have it - provides funding for everything from personal hygiene care to support workers to therapies to assistive technology. It's already very hard for disabled people to get on the NDIS, regardless of your disability. It's near impossible to access most support and equipment without being on the NDIS. And the government has announced that they want that number to drop to 600,000 in four years. 160,000 of us cut off the Scheme - and countless more denied access. This will cause deaths. People will die and people will suffer because there is no safety net. The NDIS is the only option for most of us. Even private health insurance doesn't cover most of these things. Nobody will swoop in to save us.

The bill wants to give the (non disabled!) NDIS minister basically unlimited power to cut our funding. They're already planning what they'd do with that power. What rights they'll strip from us. What dignity and freedom they'll remove to make their budget look better.

The bill wants to force people to try every treatment out there before they're allowed to be on the NDIS. Including if the treatment is literally impossible to access. There’s a lot of us living in regional areas or out bush who can't just pop to the capital cities for specialists. This will especially hurt disabled First Nations people in regional and remote communities, who already experience limited access to healthcare.

If you're australian and worried, the ABC did a good breakdown of the proposed changes.

I know australia stuff doesn't really pop up on the radar on this site, but I want everyone to know what's going on. What we're fighting for here. Your australian disabled friends might be NDIS participants fearing for their life, rights, and freedom. They might not be a participant and afraid these changes mean they never will have access. We deserve better. The government built a system with no backup plan, and now they want hundreds of thousands of disabled people to pay the price for their bad planning.

Sorry we're too expensive to have rights, I guess.

ancillarypancakes

It enrages me whenever they say that they're reducing the NDIS because "it's being used for things it was never meant to support" or whatever, and they claim that those things will be shifted to other services.

they haven't actually set up those other services, as far as I know, so it is just cuts. It's just reducing or removing support from some of the most vulnerable and in-need australians.

what a stupid fucking bureaucratic bullshit thing to care about. "oh, these disability supports should be delivered by many agencies instead of one" okay cool that doesn't justify plunging hundreds of thousands of disabled people further into poverty what the actual fuck

anka-dm

My illustrations the most based poem about tigers by Nael, age 6

Every time I read it I feel space inside my chest expand in very *emotion* way.

I've just watched the Good Omens finale (it's 9.03pm in Australia) and I NEED TO TALK ABOUT IT

#good omens #i have thoughts

museify

creekfiend

people talk about how we need to bring back "don't feed the trolls" rhetoric for modern internet ragebait and I agree but also I think the most useful thing from the Old Internet that I miss is LURKING

be a lurker. just read things and think about them without feeling the need to weigh in or call out or disseminate everything you encounter. it's so nice and so freeing and it's a good way to learn things.

I have frequently regretted getting involved in shit that didn't involve me online but you know what I've never regretted doing? Lurking. literally lurk moar