Monday, June 28, 2010

Friday, June 25, 2010

Friday Brain Dump

Not much to report on this week. Other than SHOCKING POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS.

So Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was up and booted out of office by his deputy Julia Gillard on Tuesday night, which means we have our first female Prime Minister. But that in no way implies it's time for hearty celebration on the feminist front. Oh no. Because the whole thing took place quite literally overnight.

Let me elaborate: Kevid Rudd was the Prime Minister we elected in late 2007. He had his whole catchy Kevin '07 advertising campaign which I believe was the critical element in his ultimate success. Never underestimate the power of advertising. Anyway, people were sick of the previous Prime Minister (John Howard) and the Liberal party of which he was party, so Kevin (from the opposing Labor party) won the election. And he was to say the least, the darling of the nation for a good couple of months.
Now Kevin Rudd did some good things while he was in power. He overturned the previous Prime Minister's WorkChoices program (which was extremely unpopular) and formally apologised to the Stolen Generation (no time to explain, Google it). But after that he didn't seem to do much at all. And after that, he started to do some things the people didn't exactly approve of. His popularity plummeted and the Labor party knew they wouldn't win another election with him in charge. So they approached his deputy on Tuesday night to see whether she was interested in taking over his position. And why wouldn't she be?

But here comes the interesting part. She not only admitted she was interested, but she openly challenged the Prime Minister for his position and helped to organise a cabinet vote to overthrow him. The party called a caucus meeting first thing Wednesday morning so voting could take place. She won the vote, was sworn in as the new Prime Minister, and Kevin Rudd was hung out to dry. As Rudd gave his final address as Prime Minister before handing the reins to Julia Gillard, many of the journalists were crying. They, like many other Australians, couldn't believe what had just happened. And all in less than 24 hours.

I have to say, before this sudden change in leadership, I was quite supportive of Julia Gillard (probably because one of her major portfolios as Deputy Prime Minister was Education). She has some questionable ideas about the education system ie. nationwide standardized testing and the transparency of testing results, but she also has some good ones ie. national curriculum. So in less suspect circumstances, I would have gladly voted for her as preferred Prime Minister. But all this gallivanting around behind each others backs has put a reasonable dent in my perception of her character. I understand politics is a tough gig, what with all the name calling and character assassination and bullying tactics, but what she did to Kevin Rudd was, in short, a stab in the back.

A few days before this all took place, I watched a documentary about Julia Gillard's rise to Deputy Prime Minister. I knew she would be THE Prime Minister at some point, I just didn't realise it would happen within the space of a week. I'm sure many people thought the same thing, but that she would do so by electoral votes rather than underhanded actions.

It will be interesting to see how Labor fares at the next election. Australians don't like tall poppies.

So I guess I'll be buying my own popcorn now.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Friday, June 18, 2010

Friday Brain Dump

Given this particular comic warrants further explanation, as well as heralds the end of my first week of daily comics, I am going to make each Friday entry a comic-slash-blog. 

Why did I type the word "slash"? 
Why didn't I just use the goddamn "slash" symbol? 
We may never know.

Let me begin with Centerlink, a term many of you are probably not familiar with, and believe me, that's probably for the best. Centerlink is a service which provides Australian citizens with a sort of social security. I never used to have to deal with Centerlink because I was a full time student living at home with a part time job, so I didn't qualify for any benefits. 
That was until I had to quit aforementioned job to be able to complete my final teaching internship. 10 weeks without income could have been a lot worse if I hadn't been prepared for the expenses that came along with it, mostly for fuel and teaching materials. I also had my parents to fall back on in the worst case scenario, so I was fortunate compared to the many single parents in my course who had to work nightshifts after school just to keep food on the table. 
Now my internship is over and I'm waiting for my final academic transcript to be released so I can find a job, I am eligible for unemployment benefits. I visited a Centerlink office on Monday to get an idea of what sort of benefits I was eligible for, and as a first time visitor, it was pretty daunting.

You hear a lot of shit about Centerlink, so that doesn't help. I had this impression it would be full of bitter, unhelpful staff and equally bitter, unhelpful people, slowly shuffling along in a endless conveyor belt of borderline poverty. Living south of the river, you are surrounded by poverty, yet it is like a discrete form of poverty - you don't see it unless you are looking for it.
When you go to Centerlink, poverty is staring you in the face. The lines aren't as long as I thought and the staff are reasonably helpful, but the poverty is what makes it so depressing. There was an atmosphere of quiet desperation that made me very uncomfortable. I'm not rich by any means, and I still felt out of place. I must have had a few people looking me up and down, wondering what this girl in reasonably smart clothes reading a book was doing in a Centerlink waiting area.

So I answered all the questions, completed all the relevant forms and went home. I still had no idea how much I was going to get or when I was going to get it. I received a letter from Centerlink a few days later which, in short, approved my application. I was going to get $460 a fortnight.
I was genuinely surprised. Not just at how much Centerlink was prepared to give me, but at how easy it had been to get this far. I don't feel like I deserve that much money for nothing. Usually, you have to prove you are actively seeking work to receive the full amount, but because I am not legally allowed to teach until my WACOT registration comes through, pending the release of my final academic transcript, I don't have to do anything. I just have to sit at home, eating corn chips and browsing Facebook and $460 will magically appear in my bank account each fortnight.

That said, both my brother and my boyfriend are in apprenticeships. They work five days a week, sometimes overtime, for very little. My boyfriend, for example, works up to 60 hours a week as an apprentice, yet he receives no overtime for the extra hours he works. He gets four weeks of holidays each year - two for Easter and two for Christmas. My brother is in a similar situation but works fewer hours. For them to earn roughly the same amount of money per week as I will receive on unemployment benefits is an insult.
It disappoints me that this is how apprentices are treated - as technically unemployed. They work the same amount of hours and do the same amount of work as those who are fully trained in the industry and yet aren't entitled to an income respective of what they do.

Because this webcomic isn't just a webcomic, it's about workers' rights, y'all.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Beginnings

Starting next week, after I have handed in my last two assignments for this degree, I will be updating a semi-regular comic titled "a thing that happened".
It will be mostly about things that happen, as well as the occasional thing that could have happened.
Something to pass the time until I find a job.