A Bishop in the right place can be a very handy thing - especially for children living in poverty

Bishop accuses ministers of "studiously ignoring" the views of almost everyone

The Rt Rev Paul Butler

Tuesday 26 January 2016 / News

THE Bishop of Durham has led the House of Lords in defeating the Government over plans to down-play income-related measures of child poverty levels.

Peers voted by 290 to 198, a majority of 92, to back an amendment to the Welfare Reform and Work Bill proposed by the Bishop of Durham which forces Ministers to present a report to Parliament each year setting out the percentage of children in low income households.

The Rt Rev Paul Butler said the income-related situation needed to be recorded so that it could be assessed with other measurements of deprivation.

Read more here

Join the Freedom Ride to Canberra being organised by the Grandmothers Against Detention of Refugee Children in March.

Grandmothers Against Detention of Refugee Children Ballarat are participating - with other Grandmothers groups in...
Posted by Brigid O'Carroll Walsh on Friday, 22 January 2016

In a video appealing to the Australian government, released on Wednesday evening, a group of about 35 children sit...

Posted by Grandmothers Against Detention of Refugee Children Ballarat on Thursday, 21 January 2016

The Seniors Supplement for the very wealthy needs to go

Seniors Supplement is poorly targeted to people who don’t need extra support   Tuesday October 28, 2014 The Australian Council of Social Service today urged the Federal Parliament to support the budget proposal to abolish the Seniors Supplement, which is poorly targeted to people who do not need additional support from the Government. “At a time when we need to be restoring revenue and better targeting expenditure, in part to fund the needs of an ageing population, this supplement represents an unjustified excess,” said ACOSS CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie. “The Seniors Supplement is available to those who are not eligible for the Aged Pension because they are in a much better financial position than most.” It extends to older people with assets in excess of $1 million apart from the family home. By excluding superannuation income from the income test for existing recipients, it also extends to people with significant superannuation incomes. “A couple could have a million dollars in a superannuation fund paying them an income of $100k a year in addition to significant assets and still receive the supplement.” “ACOSS strongly supports the need for an adequate safety net system to ensure that everyone is supported when they fall into hard times. However, this supplement cannot be justified on those grounds. The supplement entitles people to $858 each year for singles and $1,295 for couples. “Abolishing the Senior’s Supplement would not affect people entitled to the Age Pension, who are the vast majority of retirees, since they are not eligible. They would still qualify for the Pension Supplement. “We think the fairest approach is to restrict supplements to those entitled to receive an Age or Veterans Pension. These are the people who need a supplement the most,” Dr Goldie said. Media Contact: Fernando de Freitas 0419 626 155 ~~~~~~~~~~  Further information supplied by Advocacy @ St Paul's Wealthy pensioners get a good deal from Hockey - Australian Financial Review “Middle-class” welfare goes to seniors, too. - Adele Horin Spare the poor, hit rich retirees - MacroBusiness

Keeping an eye on our politicians - and how they vote in Parliament.

Picture below from here.

The media has been telling Australians for some time of declining trust in politicians and political parties.  There is much evidence concerning our government - particularly about things promised and not delivered and things being done yet not mentioned at the 2013 election.  Now The Guardian tells of something that might allow the mushroomed voters to keep a weather eye on their local representatives...........

When politicians vote in parliament, you won’t see the breakdown of votes reported in the media unless it’s a prominent policy.

To find out how your representative voted on an issue it’s currently pretty tricky. You have to track down the proceedings on the parliament house website and then work out how the question has been phrased so you can determine what an aye or no means in that context.

A new website, launched on Tuesday, aims to demystify the voting process.  Please continue to read here.