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Antipoverty Centre

@antipovertycentre.org
1.5K followers 96 following 657 posts

The experts on poverty are the people who live it. Break the poverty machine #BTPM 🍞🌹🏡

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Gin Valentine @chekhovsgundam.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
"The RBA will do whatever it takes to keep inflation in check. Some of you may die – the RBA considers this a reasonable cost."
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Dr Blair Williams @blairwilliams26.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
So... are we, like, not supposed to buy petrol or food? 🤨 #RBA #Inflation
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Antipoverty Centre @antipovertycentre.org · 29/09/2026
the RBA board are unanimously psychopaths with no regard for the pain they cause
RBA board unanimously voted to hike and is ready to lift rates again.

The RBA’s rate-setting board has warned its fears about inflation were coming to fruition and it is ready to lift interest rates again, in its statement accompanying its decision today.

The nine-member unanimously voted to lift rates to 4.6%, showing stronger resolve than ANZ and Westpac had forecast (each predicted a split vote).

It singled out a broadening Middle East conflict and strong AI-related demand for pushing up prices globally. Locally, inflation was higher than the RBA expected and businesses were either lifting their prices or looking to do so.

The board said higher fuel prices were partially being passed on to prices of other goods and services and it was possible the ongoing US war on Iran could push inflation still higher and drag global economic activity even lower.

The RBA has already lifted interest rates three times this year. The board said those hikes appeared to be slowing the economy but another was needed to bring too-high inflation back down “in a reasonable period”.

It warned it was not necessarily done moving rates:

The Board will continue to do what it considers necessary to bring inflation sustainably back to target, including increasing the cash rate target further if needed.
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Yung En Chee @yungenchee.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
When society knowingly puts people in a "position that they inevitably meet a too early and an unnatural death…when it deprives thousands of the necessaries of life… knows that these thousands of victims must perish, and yet permits these conditions to remain"—it's social murder
socialmurder.info
Social Murder — the structural violence of capitalism
Why the deaths capitalism causes are not accidents but social murder — the mechanism behind the body count.
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Antipoverty Centre @antipovertycentre.org · 17/09/2026
Today there is (yet another) senate inquiry hearing that will receive evidence about the extraordinary harm caused by compulsory income control programs. We know the government has no evidence that people want to be forced to use the BasicsCard. If the evidence existed, they would publish it.
apcentre.substack.com
Labor rewrites history on cashless welfare as it quietly traps people in income control programs
The Antipoverty Centre is disturbed by Labor's comments regarding the failure to deliver on the government’s promise to end compulsory income control programs such as the BasicsCard and SmartCard.
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Antipoverty Centre @antipovertycentre.org · 17/09/2026
in government vs in opposition
In an ABC article today, Minister Malarndirri McCarthy said the following: 

"What we agreed to abolish was actually the cashless debit card, and that's what we took to the election, and that's the card we actually abolished," Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy said.

"There has always been the BasicsCard in place, we know that some forms of income management has to be there, usually through the courts, usually it's part of conditions for people either in family and domestic violence situations or in regards to legal circles."

Senator McCarthy said First Nations people had indicated at various points that they wanted to keep the BasicsCard.Senator Malarndirri McCarthy rightly called the BasicsCard "discriminatory and racist" when she condemned it during a senate debate in December 2020. She said: 

"The hurt was palpable. The anger has never gone away. That sense of deep oppression, of racism, has gone on for 13 years since that Intervention, in the policy of the BasicsCard. [The community] are very passionate about the fact that income management that is forced upon them is unfair, is discriminatory and racist. The BasicsCard was imposed as an income management measure under the Northern Territory Intervention in 2007. Twelve years later there has been no evidence to show any success of the BasicsCard."Labor’s shadow social services minister Linda Burney made the following commitment to welfare recipients during the 2022 election campaign. She said: 

"Our fundamental principle on the BasicsCard and the Cashless Debit Card, it should be on a voluntary basis. It’s not up to Labor or anyone else to tell them what to do. At the moment it’s compulsion and that’s not Labor’s position."
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Antipoverty Centre @antipovertycentre.org · 17/09/2026
We have been struggling to find the words to talk about this devastating statistic. One of so many that should cause any government to leap into action to end poverty. Thank you Greg.
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Antipoverty Centre @antipovertycentre.org · 21/08/2026
✅ Free at the point of service ✅ Universal access for everyone who wants it ✅ Direct investment in new public healthcare Labor’s dental care policy seems to meet all the criteria for genuine expansion of essential services. Let’s see more where that came from. Governments CAN do things!
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Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · 21/08/2026
#OtD 21 Aug 1893 Jewish Lithuanian anarchist Emma Goldman led a march of 1000 people to Union Square in NYC, where, speaking in German and English, she told 3000 people that workers have a right to take bread if they are hungry. More about Goldman: shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/...
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Antipoverty Centre @antipovertycentre.org · 21/08/2026
The cruellest effect of the dole bludger myth is how it degraded solidarity among poor people, many of whom have come to blame their peers for government-inflicted poverty and misery. Some people hear “we must punish all to punish the cheats” and believe they are bycatch, not the targets.
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Antipoverty Centre @antipovertycentre.org · 20/08/2026
"The 1 in 10 target for new builds matches the level of public housing construction under the Hawke Government." An extremely modest demand that the prime minister for public housing backstories could surely meet
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Antipoverty Centre @antipovertycentre.org · 20/08/2026
We're not proud of much, but we're incredibly proud of the feedback we've heard from folks who contributed to this ❤️ If you want to contribute the fight against (un)employment services + compulsory activities, you can do our survey: bit.ly/MOs2026survey Unfortunately there's still much to be done.
bit.ly
Centrelink recipients and compulsory programs 2026 - Intellistack
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moby dickgirl @eigenvectrix.northsky.social · 20/08/2026
Please check out @antipovertycentre.org's excellent response to the Australian Department of Employment and Workplace Relations' employment services discussion paper: bit.ly/ReformSubDEWR Legitimately read it even if you're not in the system. It's good work and life is a fucking nightmare.
Part of the title page of the linked report. The title is "'If you self-identify as needing help, that should be number one'".

The subtitle is: "Antipoverty Centre response to discussion paper: Shaping the future of employment services | August 2026".

The attribution below the title reads: "Prepared by Jay Coonan and Kristin O'Connell with input and assistance from dozens of our peers. On behalf of the Antipoverty Centre, we extend deep gratitude to Aeryn, Amy, Andrew, Andrew, Andrew, Damien, David, Debra, Helen, James, Jo, Kim, Lana, Louise, Matt, Niki, Philip, Reenie, Sam, Stephen, Stephen, Chris, Isabelle, Kath, Mason, Nikolaos, Phoebe, Rebecca, Ron, Susan, Trent, Vanessa, Wayne and every person who contributed their invaluable insights to this submission anonymously. We hope we have adequately captured the diversity of your perspectives."
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moby dickgirl @eigenvectrix.northsky.social · 20/08/2026
Just received a copy of an NGO submission to government which was informed by surveys of people including me. As always, my contribution was constructive, civil, and polite :)
A heavily cropped screen capture from the version of the report I received. It is a block quote, attributed to Isabelle Moreton (me). It reads: "I am chronically ill. It is poorly documented. It is still poorly documented after five fucking years on this fucking payment because I can't fucking afford to go to the doctor. If I could get to whatever is the most well I could get, I could at least make a decision about whether it was realistic for me to seek paid work in the future."
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Machinator68 ⚙ bsky.social @machinator68.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Some "mutual" obligation failures by government: * Inadequate payments and flawed indexation of same * No functional recruitment of unemployed workers by employers * No jobs reserved for unemployed workers * Not recruiting unemployed workers for government jobs
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Antipoverty Centre @antipovertycentre.org · 18/08/2026
unfortunately seems to be the vested interests who "elect" the MPs more often than not
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Paul Bamford @paulb237.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Mutual, my arse. If the government had any respect for the concept of "mutual obligation" they'd pay unemployed people more money.
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Antipoverty Centre @antipovertycentre.org · 17/08/2026
our “we do not unlawfully issue millions of penalties a year that drive welfare recipients to the brink” t-shirt has people asking a lot of questions already answered by our shirt
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Brett Doull @bcdoull.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Switching from state pensions to super was generational vandalism that will be incredibly hard to undo, one of Keating's biggest crimes. A criminal handout to private investment services.
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Antipoverty Centre @antipovertycentre.org · 16/08/2026
This is what the super industry wants us to believe. Super represents residualisation of retirement support & supercharges inequality between those who get lucky in their working life & those who don’t. It’s nice for people who get to minimise tax & sit on a pile of money, but it’s bad for society.
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Antipoverty Centre @antipovertycentre.org · 16/08/2026
The people who run this colony love multiculturalism in theory but not in practice. The assimilationist urge always takes over in the end.
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💜 phonakins 🍉🌲 @phonakins.com · 15/08/2026
Spoiler: He wasn't an "NDIS participant"
abc.net.au
Fraud officials charge another over alleged $5 million NDIS dishonesty plot
Continuous investigations have led to the Australian Federal Police arresting an Adelaide man as he attempted to leave the country, following the previous arrest of a 48-year-old woman in June.
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Blakandblack @blakandblack.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
There’s a vocabulary reserved for the poor: “blowouts,” “handouts,” “unsustainable.” There’s no equivalent vocabulary for the $16.3bn a year flowing to mining and gas companies — even as it grows faster than NDIS spending. blakandblack.com/2026/08/15/t...
blakandblack.com
The Unspoken Ledger: Fossil Fuel Subsidies and Manufactured Scarcity
Federal and state budgets choose to neglect crucial supports for people in need in favour subsidies for fossil fuel corporations.
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Paul Minogue @paulminogue.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
@albomp.bsky.social …. more bloody important than $368B+++ on bullshit submarines
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Harvey @harvey-normal.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Social murder. #auspol
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CuntGPT @cunexttuesday.wtf · 15/08/2026
This is Andrew Bragg's utopian future
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Tim Rust @timrust.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
So many problems in Australia can be traced pretty much directly to poverty, yet our governments and their instruments (eg the RBA) think we need more of it
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💜 phonakins 🍉🌲 @phonakins.com · 15/08/2026
yup there's at least 1 adult and two kids (about 10 and 16) in the granny flat next door, maybe another adult some nights. it's 2 br but they're paying $600 a week
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Freya McQueer @freyamcqueer.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
The hardest part and the most important part is to never ever ever stop imagining a better world.
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💜 phonakins 🍉🌲 @phonakins.com · 14/08/2026
The team at @inclusionoz.bsky.social have made Easy Read information about changes to Centrelink Payment Compulsory Activities and the Targeted Compliance Framework (TCF). www.inclusionaustralia.org.au/changes-to-c...
Changes to Centrelink Payment Compulsory Activities and the Targeted Compliance Framework. August 6, 2026. A red and white calendar icon shows the word August above the number 6. The Inclusion Australia logo appears below it. A woman with long dark hair smiles while holding open a large white book that has the words easy read printed on the pages. Text on the right side of the image reads: This information was written by Inclusion Australia on 6 August 2026. Where it says 'we' it means Inclusion Australia. This information is written in Easy Read.
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Antipoverty Centre @antipovertycentre.org · 14/08/2026
This family died of poverty, not fire. The article doesn’t address why a couple and their teenage kid were renting an unsafe granny flat, but we know. We urgently need high quality public homes so that people can afford to live, not more “alternative housing” as this article describes it.
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Penny Allman-Payne @pennyallmanpayne.com · 14/08/2026
Read the full statement from Antipoverty Centre, Economic Justice Australia, ACOSS and the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service here: live.thepoint.com.au/2026/08/the-...
live.thepoint.com.au
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Sirius Star 🍉 🍉 🍉 @siriusstar3.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Women aged 55 to 64 represent the largest cohort receiving #JobSeeker “Amanda Rishworth should not be restarting parts of the penalty system applied to Centrelink recipients who have mutual obligations requirements, which has been found to operate unlawfully.” #Auspol
Excerpt
The TCF Reference Group members are calling on the government to: • Remove the Targeted Compliance Framework immediately, including payment suspensions
and financial penalties.
• Provide full back-pay and compensation to every person affected by unlawful decisions. The groups say cutting off a person's income for four weeks is unfair, disproportionate and serves no purpose other than punishment, especially when these decisions are being made as part of a
system that has such a troubling history of unlawfulness. Independent analysis by Economic Justice Australia found more than 300,000 people were potentially affected by unlawful payment cancellations, with DEWR recently admitting "It's in the vicinity of that" during a Senate Estimates hearing. Throughout the period since unlawful cancellations were identified, most payment suspension penalties have remained in place and have
been used millions of times to punish people.
Antipoverty Centre co-coordinator Kristin O'Connell said: "The decision to prioritise turning cancellations back on is extraordinary negligence on behalf of Amanda Rishworth, who is responsible for both the wellbeing of welfare recipients and the lawful administration of welfare compliance rules. She is ignoring every alarm bell that is ringing about the widespread misuse of payment suspension penalties by privatised employment
services, which are inflicted millions of times a year."
ACOSS CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie AO said: "Removing income support payments for four weeks pushes people to the brink and does absolutely nothing to help them find paid work. People who are already in severe financial distress struggling on poverty-level Jobseeker at $400 per week will again face an oppressive
and punitive system of sanctions and penalties. "The Government has said it wants to reform employment services so people are genuinely helped into paid work. Restarting harsh, unreasonable penalties sends the opposite message to
Illustration 
Person sitting in a van, homeless 
📷Lelievre
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kristin (she/her) @kristin8x.antipovertycentre.org · 13/08/2026
Our organisations were invited to this group to provide input on what is needed to protect people. This is because our organisations have specific expertise in in employment services and/or lawful welfare administration. You can probably guess what we unanimously advised them. 🧵
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Simon Rosenberg @simonrosenberg.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Important 🧵. Despite so much evidence for the government act on, welfare policy is still based on: - illegality - corruption - dehumanizing of welfare recipients - racism against First Nations people. The Albanese govt has entrenched #robodebt culture. #AbolishMutualObligations #auspol
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Antipoverty Centre @antipovertycentre.org · 13/08/2026
In addition to this, around 30% of payment suspensions are applied to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. There are millions of payment suspension notices a year.
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Antipoverty Centre @antipovertycentre.org · 13/08/2026
Today we have issued a joint statement with the other members of the reference group that the government convened in response to the discovery of unlawful welfare administration. You can read more on The Point: live.thepoint.com.au/2026/08/the-...
Last week the government announced its plan to restart some payment cancellations and suspensions that are applied to Centrelink recipients, which were found to operate unlawfully.
Members of DEW's Targeted Compliance Framework Reference Group - which was established after the government discovered its unlawful administration - strongly oppose compulsory activities for people on Centrelink payments.
We are calling on the Government to abandon its recently announced plan to restart some payment cancellations and suspensions, and stop the penalty system entirely.
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Antipoverty Centre @antipovertycentre.org · 12/08/2026
Never forget who the actual winners are when it comes to welfare spending. Thanks @amyremeikis.bsky.social @australiainstitute.org.au for this harrowing article: thepoint.com.au/opinions/260...
This mutual acquaintance had just held a dinner party they had attended & the pair were admiring how wealthy that person had become.

“Of course they were one of the ones who jumped on the NDIS from the ground floor, made an absolute fortune from it” one said in admiration.

“Yes, makes me feel a little sorry for myself I didn’t get in on it – I could have retired years ago!” the other answered, as they both continued speaking about the size of the Sydney harbour apartment they had visited & just how many holidays their friend was taking.

The pair went on to discuss how many of their social circle had made a “killing” from the NDIS, just as other friends had made a “killing” from mutual obligations as owners of job service providers.

In almost the same breath, the pair started speaking about how the NDIS was growing “too unwieldy” & the government “needed to do something to cut it back”.

Their solution was not that people in their social circles, with whom they dined & enjoyed vintage wines – presumably paid for, in large part by taxpayers – stop rorting the system with overpriced services. No, as always in this situation, their “common sense” solution was for fewer people to be able to access the system that had been set up to help people like them in the first place.

Much has been said about who is able to access the NDIS & the diagnoses considered eligible for assistance. But we very rarely speak about how the NDIS became a catch-all because we don’t have enough social services & supports to help people who need it.

Whenever it becomes apparent that needs for a particular service are growing, we don’t look at the gaps, or why such a public service was privatised in the first place, or why people with money were immediately able to exploit public money being spent on private services to blow out costs. We make the decision to cut people off from a service they so obviously need.

This is, as those 2 conservatives were so jadedly offhand about, “common sense”.
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Antipoverty Centre @antipovertycentre.org · 10/08/2026
So, perhaps the ACTU can finally be convinced to take the scandal of (un)employment services and millions of unfair and unlawful welfare penalties seriously… but we won’t hold our breath
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Antipoverty Centre @antipovertycentre.org · 09/08/2026
If private education and healthcare are to exist at all, they certainly should not receive public money that could be going to ensure that our public services are high quality and free at the point of service for everyone who wants to use them.
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Raider @iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Salem Brought a Guillotine To Oppose New Data Center. Company Reps Left, Feeling "Unsafe". Salem rich trials. 🔥🔥🔥
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Antipoverty Centre @antipovertycentre.org · 08/08/2026
Targeting children for the pre-crime of poverty. There are no words sufficient to describe how utterly revolting and evil this is.
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Penny Allman-Payne @pennyallmanpayne.com · 08/08/2026
In related news, ex WA Labor premier Mark McGowan met with ALP national secretary Paul Erickson in Canberra this week. McGowan "consults" for APM, a private equity-owned JSP which makes about $600 million a year from Labor's privatised employment system. It's ALP mates all the way down.
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Antipoverty Centre @antipovertycentre.org · 08/08/2026
We are working on a submission that will feature contributions to this survey for people who have had compulsory activities since 2022. Submit by Monday to have your views included!
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Antipoverty Centre @antipovertycentre.org · 08/08/2026
“100 academics and community organisations – including former DRC commissioner Alastair McEwin – signed an open letter to reject the new powers that will allow the health minister to make sweeping cuts to funding for [NDIS] participants”
smh.com.au
‘The bill should not pass’: Australians with disability escalate fears over NDIS cuts
In the past week, the Australian Human Rights Commission, the major disability networks and more than 100 academics have urged the government to pause its $35 billion cuts.
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Antipoverty Centre @antipovertycentre.org · 08/08/2026
Did you know APM is the biggest (un)employment services provider, with billions in contracts? Did you know they’re also the biggest political donor in the industry, with around $1 million in donations to Labor and the Coalition over a decade?
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Antipoverty Centre @antipovertycentre.org · 07/08/2026
Outsourced (un)employment services who receive billions in public money are dodging taxes & using profits to line the pockets of politicians who hold the purse strings. Thanks 7am & @garethhutchens.bsky.social for this dicussion of @cictar.bsky.social's report: 7ampodcast.com.au/episodes/our...
Quote: They're using things like offshore profit shifting... contracts are awarded to private companies to deliver what are essential services. They are very reliant on those government contracts. 

So you start seeing a lot of large political donations. It's just part of the system.
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Antipoverty Centre @antipovertycentre.org · 06/08/2026
The government is STILL ignoring huge legal concerns about the use of payment suspension penalties for welfare recipients with compulsory activities. At the same time they're rushing to bring back even harsher penalties that they already admitted have been operating unlawfully.
“This is extraordinary negligence on behalf of Amanda Rishworth, who is responsible for both the well-being of welfare recipients and the lawful implementation of all of these rules, and she is ignoring every alarm bell that is ringing,” Ms O’Connell told InnovationAus.com.

An independent review of the TCF could not assure the legality of the compliance decisions after confirming errors in the IT system and a failure to incorporate updated social security law and policy.

Two follow up investigations by the Commonwealth Ombudsman confirmed the decisions were unfair and illegal, with the federal government now bracing for compensation claims from an “unquantifiable liability”.

Despite the issues, the Albanese government has not dismantled the TCF and will instead update it based on dozens of recommendations in the independent review and Ombudsman reports, allowing the compliance regime to continue in Labor’s tweaked version of employment services.

$44 million has been set aside to return the TCF to lawful operation, including increasing the amount of human decision makers in the compliance system, and for some compensation.

The project is expected to take years because the TCF is so complex in operationalising a labyrinthine set of rules used to enforce the “mutual obligations” applied to welfare recipients, and because it is so poorly designed and built.

The reviews confirmed the TCF’s underlying IT system is plagued with “defects and operational issues” because of both fundamental design problems and years of sloppy coding and crude fixes. It also lacks basic traceability controls and appropriate governance to assure decisions in such a crucial system even when it works as designed.
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Inequality News @inequalitynews.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
🚨 Unequal countries such as the UK lock up more people in prisons due to #inequality creating a harsher economic and social environment. Rates of imprisonment are a sign of social failure, the US being the most obvious example... ➡️ equalitytrust.org.uk/evidence-bas...
Graph showing that imprisonment strongly associated with income inequality. US incarcerates most people, the UK also locks up a lot of people. More equal Scandinavian countries lock up the fewest people.
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David @daverino.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
“the proposed cuts to the NDIS - & potentially her own care - instilled fear in her & the wider disabled community. NDIS support is something she has had to fight for, advocating for herself..”Fight, fight, fight for everything. It's never been easy," Ms Carlson said” www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08...
abc.net.au
'Where are the fakers'? NDIS recipient slams argument for overhaul
NDIS recipient Nicci Carlson, who is in constant pain and may soon lose her eyesight, says cuts to the scheme are making vulnerable people living with a disability scapegoats for Australians hit hard ...
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