Our Projects update

Who are Sydney Homeless?
Sydney Homeless are Rough Sleepers living in the City of Sydney municipal area.Our mission  is to devise provide or act towards an end to social and economic marginalisation in locally regionally and nationally. We currently do not work with any other organisations or government bodies believing that their current aims objectives and strategies do not seek to end marginalisation, but focus on using marginalised people as tokens to transfer taxpayers funds to their own purposes.


What do Sydney Homeless stand for?
 We stand for ending the drivers which cause economic social and housing marginalisation.
We oppose current Government Homeless Plans as they are exploitative of both marginalised people and taxpayers.They outlay huge amounts of taxpayers money to sustain a ten year plan which will at best result in a further call for yet more tax money to continue what amounts to a band aid "shut the gate after the horse has bolted solution".We consider it a federal government duty to consult directly with the marginalised communities via a process conducted in an environment and on terms conducive to marginalised communities having direct input into a genuinely consultative process; as a preliminary to further consultation with other tiers of government and the business community to arrive at a strategy to implement sustainability in the appropriate supply and management of sufficient appropriately located affordable housing. 


How are Sydney Homeless Funded? 
@SydneyHomeless do not solicit or accept funding donations. We facilitate the direct donation of goods to our constituent community. We offer online promotional & service management to businesses and organisations and signage support to businesses in the Greater Sydney area,supporting ourselves and a growing number of our Sydney Homeless community in this way. 


Need workers in Sydney? A growing number of businesses in the Sydney area are recognising the efficiencies and convenience of being able to contact us often at short notice for one or a team of workers. Our workers are available 24 hours a Day including weekends and have experience in stores, logistics furniture removals, cleaning and construction work. We do not charge recruitment fees and our role is to find work for people who need it. As well as Aussies we have Vietnamese, Bengali and Mandarin and Korean speakers available.


Street Distribution
  Sydney Homeless Street distribution is ongoing providing the opportunity for donors to give direct to the Rough Sleepers and Housed Marginalised with the greatest need. This winter we have been able to distribute over 600 sleeping bags as well as ad hoc bedding to rough sleepers,thanks to the continued support of our donor base, who often receive small thanks for their unselfish efforts.Unlike the Charity sector, our donors do not enjoy the benefit of tax deductibility on their generous donations and efforts.They do however take comfort from knowing that their is no taxation of their goodwill.100% of what they give goes to the people who need it most- not into the bottom line of some multimillion dollar a year Not for Profit or to offset the budget people are told governments and their attendant bevy of NGOs get in tax dollars to fund services to homeless people.We and our homeless and marginalised community thank our donors very much.


Short Term Accommodation:
 By leveraging informal relationships with accommodation providers we have (just) been able to meet a steady unrequited demand for "off the radar" family emergency accommodation.  These short term arrangements have been made available to over 180 family groups since December. Its a study in government incompetence that State or Federal Governments don't make formal arrangements to leverage these often vacant business resources, offering the operators a tax deduction. This would vastly and immediately improve government agencies access to just in time affordable and appropriately hygienic accommodation at little dollar cost to taxpayers while providing a useful tax offset to businesses in return for donating their excess capacity.We know Housing NSW pays premium rates for slums which should be condemned.Bureaucrats and their advisors on huge taxpayer funded salaries simply wait for people like us to connect the dots for them for free, so they can use our ideas to justify their next salary increase.If thats the case peepz,we've connected the dots..get off your fat arses and Go for it.


Our community and beyond zero environmental initiative


 Our Youth Wing are a self managed group of teens who are working towards reintegration into their natural communities while pursuing their studies.We can't say too much about them for their own protection, but it would be remiss of us to not thank the slowly growing but extremely supportive business people without whose support this project would not be possible. 23 of our Youth Wing will be completing their Year 12 studies this term.We are very proud of the manner and dignity with which all youth wing conduct themselves under trying circumstances.


   

Fair Pay for Sustainable Living: The Superannuation Ripoff

The major drivers of marginalisation in Neo Conservative Capitalist Australia are legislated constraints of workers rights to assert for fair pay and the unregulated freedom given to a few greedy directors to rob the population blind. While businesses can and do charge extortionate prices for their increasingly shoddy services, workers are barred by legislation from using any effective methods of lobbying for fair pay,ensuring that they have access to their fair share of the nations wealth.These unequal policies and law combinations have the bipartisan support of the Liberal National Coalition and The Australian Labor Party (or at least its current dominant ultra right wing). 

The Superannuation Trade-off Debacle

 Since the Hawke years, Australian Liberal-National and Labor Governments have foisted the furphy of Superannuation on a gullible workforce as an alternate to Fair Wage increases.The following Keating,Howard Rudd and Gillard administrations have all succumbed to the ease of control Superannuation provides over workers (but not politicians) Superannuation.

Trade Union advocacy for and involvement in the administration of "Workers Super Funds" has shifted Union leadership interests from serving the needs of workers to working collusively with capital. This formula has had the effect of channelling workers compulsory savings into the control of a few neo conservative capitalists who enjoy unfettered access to an ever increasing revenue stream of workers funds - to use as they wish.The entirely predictable result is that workers capital is actually used against their own personal and familial interests, driven in part by the need of Super Fund managers to show returns consistently higher than other forms of investment. The problem is, those largely wholesale borrowers of those super based funds MUST drive even higher returns for their shareholders. With residential property a leading commodity, values inevitably will rise, driven not by the demand of residents alone, but by speculating investors, who want to maximise their return on investment while minimising their outgoings. And thats the point at which the superannuation dog comes back to bite the superannuant squarely on the posterior. The superannuants money, under the control of greedy financial manipulators, has become a mere figure on the excel sheet whose aim is solely to maximise profits-for the borrowing capitalist. The worker has as little effective control of their superannuation as they have over the so called democratically elected governments who govern not for,but over them.

What, you ask,does this have to do with homelessness?? I say it has everything to do with Homelessness- it is among the three core drivers of homelessness and social marginalisation. Superannuation is the government decreed tool which forces you to trade off your right to a Fair Wage now - for an insubstantial "nest-egg" when you're just about dead. Superannuation forces all workers,except politicians, to give over this "savings" to capitalist exploiters-effectively 5 international companies- to control.Several of our homeless and marginalised would NOT be in such dire circumstances if they could access this bounty which a few wealthy financiers get to use as play money in the casino they call the financial markets. And this money comes back to bite your arse with very sharp teeth every time you try to take another step up the financial ladder.Crippling bank practices and rampant fees.The Gillard Rudd Governments sop to the publics outrage at these practices was to regulate brokers but not the financial institutions themselves.


  Workers need this income in their pockets now.Just to keep pace with the cravings of capitalism which under the mastery of a few seeks to gobble and consume all in its path in the name of driving annually focussed profit.

Homeless call for Smart Political Solutions

  As Australia goes to the 2010 Federal Election , the taxpayer is burdened with " The Road Home " $600million plus over ten years -and repayment of $6billion in economic stimulus funding. A substantial percentage (over $2 billion) of this considerable expenditure of your taxpayer funds has gone and will continue to go to bureaucracies and infrastructure within various areas of government and its NGO or NFP partners. Since launching The Road Home to much fanfare in 2009 as fulfilment of Labors 2007 election commitment the Federal government has been presented with compelling evidence that their stated strategic aims (if they were ever about reducing homelessness) are not working. Even on the basis of their statistics (which we believe hopelessly understate the problem),the numbers of homeless people have increased dramatically - in Sydney and, by all accounts, across Australia.


 Despite an expensive cynical band-aid dressing of the visible homeless "problem" in the leadup to Australia's federal elections neither the Federal Labor Government nor their State counterpart have permanent affordable acceptable accomodation solutions for many of Sydney Citys rough sleepers, including myself. The style of case-managed "housing" delivery on offer is a staged process conditional on engagement with organisations whose role is to collect information on clients.Or to put it bluntly,they are spies.We value our privacy and independence,in many cases more than we value having a home. We emphatically do not need our privacy invaded. Another common issue is that of broken trust- Housing NSW and government in general along with their NGO service providers use housing as a bait in their quest to gather information.When they get all the information they want they offer a completely inadequate accommodation alternative-knowing it to be unacceptable-on a take it or go to the back of the queue basis.None are known to have been offered housing in the city, aside from mental health patients.


 I could but won't go on about the issues.Government and NGOs are well aware of the shortcomings which they have purposely put in place to ensure that there is no solution to homelessness and preferably that nobody looks in the appropriate direction to identify appropriate solutions.Why? Continuance of funding,courtesy of you,the Australian Taxpayer, to continuously provide band aid quick fixes which virtually guarantee a continuance of the problem.


 This blog is about solutions to homelessness.
The major driver of homelessness is affordability at location.There are two principal focal areas at the intersection of which is growing homelessness.

• The first and major cause is unregulated and collusive marketing driven valuation of rental (and property purchase) rates.Regulation is needed to set maximum market rentals,based on configuration.
• The second is the failure of local,state and federal governments to ensure that housing stocks available match the labour demand and sector affordability by postcode.
• The third is restrictive regulation of the workforces ability to negotiate meaningful wage outcomes prioritising the interests of bankers and employers.While these conditions are allowed to prevail, look forward to steady growth in homeless numbers. 

 Our intention is to identify solutions for the Sydney City Municipal area.We hope that these solutions identify parallels in other municipalities.


 Sydney City has sufficient accommodation already to house all who live work and live homelessly in this urbanity.The barriers are affordability and designation.Much of the municipalitys residential accommodation is in the form of "Serviced Apartments" , Hotel and Traveller accommodation services.A levy of 4% of available accommodation units in each complex,whether hotels serviced apartments or other accommodation, should be made available for social housing use.These proprietors are hogging an essential commodity in a City which does not have unlimited land to build on.A progressive "phase in" period of 2 to four years may be necessary to accommodate the business projections of affected businesses.

• Develop an accommodation index per postcode.Identify actual incomes and use an accommodation cost of 30% of income to arrive at Accommodation Pricing.
• All New developments including must contribute 4% of their worth to a social housing pool administered by Council,not State.If the development has a residential component then that social accommodation must be taken from that complex.Social Housing allocation offset purchases(for non residential development)must be in the same postcode.
• Transient Workforce Accommodation. Many workers today have skills or work in industries which have short term project life and require constant relocation. Transient workers might consider it preferable and more economical to live in mobile homes, as compared with traditional housing.This scheme would most effectively be implemented via Centrelink and involve a "buyout" of the persons Centrelink and Housing entitlements for a number of years. 
• Housing Authorities should consider keeping storage facilities for tenants who wish to travel for extended periods (such as aged pensioners) 

 The common thread with these proposals is that none require repetitive taxpayer funding. All except Transient Workforce Accommodation require no taxpayer funding at all and obligate municipalities to plan appropriately and sustainably for growth. 

Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan

Featuring:

Bob Carr, Former Premier NSW
Malcolm Turnbull, Federal MP
Matthew Wright, Executive Director Beyond Zero Emissions
Allan Jones, City of Sydney

MC - Quentin Dempster, journalist and broadcaster

Free Entry

You are invited to attend the Sydney launch of the Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan.

This cutting-edge plan, the culmination of over 12 months and thousands of hours of pro bono work by engineers, scientists and postgraduate students, is a collaboration between the climate solutions think tank Beyond Zero Emissions, and the University of Melbourne Energy Institute.

This plan is unique in Australia. It is a detailed and costed blueprint for transitioning our stationary energy sector to 100% renewable energy in ten years. The technologies utilised in this plan are commercially available now.

This free public event will cover the details of the plan as well as the state of renewable energy in Australia more broadly. A panel discussion with technical experts will follow the presentations.

Don't miss out!

If you would like to take a look at the report or synopsis they are available here:
Synopsis 16 pages:
http://media.beyondzeroemissions.org/ZCA2020_Stationary_Energy_Synopsis_v1.pdf


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@CycleRescue on Twitter
The Cycle Rescue Blog

A clean green and heathy path to economic self determination for Sydneys Homeless and at risk of homelessness communities. Check out what they do The Cycle Rescue Blog .

Gillard Regional Estates Plan a sop to Miners,risky investment

Incumbent Prime Minister Julia Gillards regional expansion may seem like reasonable policy to many. Like all other proposals, this one requires serious scrutiny.

 My initial and lasting impression is that the Prime Minister is a tad too close to the Big end of town in the mining industry.Earlier this year she was reported in the Northwest mining belt attacking Unions who were at the time engaged in a campaign for better conditions. Upon her traitorous ascent to the Prime Ministership, her first consultation was with the miners...well...not all miners, but with the big end of town..Rio and BHP Billiton, with little guys such as Fortescue and a gaggle of other miners struggling and unconsulted.Its a fair bet that "independent" MiningSuperTax implementation team member Marius Kloppers will do what is right for Rio (his old charge) .. but the process is very secretive with all other miners aside from Xstrata,BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto shut out of the process.

  So to Gillards regional housing policy, which makes perfect sense for miners. They get workers to pay the cost of housing rather than face the expense of providing or subsidising housing themselves.Workers and private investors should be wary of investing in mining driven towns. The world is littered with mining ghost towns, and your equity invested in premium priced slick marketed property may be worthless in 30years as the mine reaches its use by date.Sooner, if China suddenly decide that they no longer need to pay the generous premiums they do for ores and fossil fuels. This policy is reminiscent of government releases of outer urban estates for housing without social amenities or work availability and the social and personal economic mischief those policies have caused. We know many who are or have been homeless after "investing" in these high risk low investment value properties financed by virtual loan sharks.

Greens challenge Coles on cheap smokes

And we challenge Govt and Greens on Cigarette tax.

Australian Greens challenge Coles over cheap tobacco:   The Greens support of Labors 25% extra Tax impost on smokers is policy which impacts our homeless community and low  income communities Australia wide.The Greens falling into line with Labor on the notional health impact leaves our community concerns on cigarette costs without a political ally.

 I have personally seen, and spoken to several of our community who have noted the effects of this illogical tax grab on not only our community, but a growing number of workers and besuited professionals.These are the Sydney City folk who are regularly seen collecting cigarette butts from the ash receptacles and footpaths of the city.Smoking recycled cigarettes is a practice long associated with Mexico City and Manila slums.We can now report that Sydney has finally caught up. 

 The Cancer health figures are doubtless genuine, but attribution solely to smoking, and unfairly burdening only smokers with this tax is highly suspect.Many of the chenicals added to foods such as colourings flavourings and preservatives have the potential to contribute to the cancer count, but we see no tax on those foods.Then theres the carbon monoxide which our national love affair with cars and #bigoil produce, but no 25% slug on the motor or petrol industries. Or the cancer causing (and climate debilitating) industrial pollutants associated with the array of chemicals burned and used,but no 25% Tax on them either.In fact Rudd / Gillard Labor quietly exempted the biggest polluters from mitigation responsibility in discussions leading up to their abject failure on Climate in the Senate,and their subsequent rating as virtual climate deniers by The Copenhagen Climate conference. Hard to see the level playing field from our kerbside perspective...

 We haven't looked much at the impact on crime, but we know that ChopChop is now freely available along with "Paraguay Marlboro" and some other brands.Carboot sellers pop up doing the 1 man flashmob thing selling packs as fast as they can take the money in. These people contribute positively to maintaining the sanity of many in our homeless community, including myself, who would be driven absolutely mad without a nice relaxing smoke, a diversion from the rigours of corporately driven homelessness and marginalisation.

 I smoke about a packet of rollies a day.If I get cancer,I get it, same as if I get hit by a bus or shot by a cop. Treatment??I haven't been to a doctor since about year 8 so I'm probably not too concerned about it- I'll take my chances.

 The important issue here is freedom of choice, something which Australians have become too used to rich serving governments usurping because they know best & we don't. Freedom is undermined by draconian Tax imposts. i choose to assert my freedom to smoke the cheapest healthiest ciggies I can buy -legally or not

Building Sustainable #Fairpay in Sydney

In our many years of dealing with homelessness and marginalisation, we are yet to see a government supported program which has a sunset clause, a measure of success involving zero ongoing government funding because the marginalisation issue has been successfully and permanently resolved. 


 Under the current Rudd/Gillard #Labor and the immediate past Howard Abbott Coalition Governments we have in fact witnessed a rise in the income bar at which social marginalisation kicks in, a rise in the number of marginalised and a progressive increase in repetitive funding calls on the taxpayer.


 There are no government or Poverty Industry strategies to end poverty and marginalisation. Yet there are billions of Taxpayer dollars spent in the name of Homeless and other marginalised community sectors. The inconvenient truth is that our homeless name, along with that of the long-suffering aboriginal community, children, families and economically marginalised workers, is being used by State and Federal governments and a gaggle of co-dependent NGOs, to bilk the Taxpayer out of billions of dollars annually. This daylight robbery of the working Australian taxpayer has to end - and soon. 


 While State and Federal Governments wax lyrical about "sound economic management" they in fact produce the economic results they claim by digging deeper into the legislatively thinned pockets of working Australians. Ever more taxes, and ever less solutions has been a consistent characteristic of the Charlatan Australian political leadership of the past two decades. A recent example is the 25% hike in cigarette taxes which severely impacts low income workers & Benefit claimants,as it was designed to.
 For every social marginalisation issue,there are swelling numbers of people and swelling government and NGO budgets,but no solutions.Despite the diabolical Patrick McClure inspired "Workchoices" and "McClure Report" Howard era millions spent on NGOs, homelessness and marginalised numbers rose. The Rudd/Gillard Labor "The Road Home" and Stimulus Package spend of $6billion plus in the name of homeless people has seen asset increases for State Governments and NGOs, and an alarming growth in homeless numbers. Surely a sign that this program is not working?? Instead, Government and NGOs promote one self serving scheme after the other-including diabolical families and aboriginal schemes which actually exacerbate the perceived problems. And so with homelessness. The furphy of solving homelessness and aboriginal issues with jobs is undermined by bi-partisan legislation severely curtailing workers rights to organise and lobby effectively for #FairPay. For example Agency workers cannot picket their actual place of employment, due to Howard era anti-worker secondary boycott laws which Labor disliked so much,they kept. 


 I could,but won't,continue forever with a discourse dissecting the disastrous policies of past and present governments, or their NGO parasite friends. I will tell you what we ( and you are welcome to join us) are doing about it.


 Our initiatives aim to provide homeless, at-risk-of-homelessness and other marginalised community members with a self directed strategy to exit marginalisation by building an income base in which the participant owns or shares in the developed equity.Without govenment or NGO support -and without benefits to those parties.


 Our most successful project commenced in June 2009.Our IT based off the streets concept leverages a number of pre-existing online tools and strategies which participants use to derive an income.Our measure of success is an income of $Au1300 per week, which is the minimum a single person needs to live comfortably and make choices in Sydney. We have as of last night successfully helped 245 people to achieve this goal online.Delivery has been manually and we haven't charged for training or anything...but it will be available to all online as soon as we can guarantee it is not usable by parasite JobNetwork NGOs to claim $20000 success fees for doing nothing...or contact us @SydneyHomeless if you're in Sydney..more soon.  


 We are launching @BannerBikes in about 3 weeks - a powerful promotional service commencing in Sydney in August . Further info  This service will allow Sydney Homeless people to participate in and build an income and equity share in a viable workers community controlled collective,providing innovative service partnerships to Sydney and Australian businesses 

Rudd & Keneally,Macklin & Burney Hopeless on Homeless

These politicians just don't seem to get it- As Keneally sets up yet another committee of Pastors and homelessness industry parasites, its clear that the only voices your politicians are really interested in are those they choose-those advocating excessive funding of pariah Christian NGOs and expansion of costly government departments.

 Lets start with Housing.NSW announced 4000 affordable homes built, but waiting lists at least quadruple that. And the social housing comes with draconian strings attached.Todays social housing tenant is not afforded the same rights and protections as other tenants-Social Housing Tenants have special clauses in the Residential Tenancies Act which pertain exclusively to them-clauses making it easier to end your tenancy.Ultimately, a useful tool for governments who don't hesitate to stoop to blackmail as a means of exerting population control.

 Jenny Macklin and Kevin Rudds "The Road Home" is not working,and will not achieve its objective of halving homelessness by 2020.While Stocklands report 200,000 houses short in NSW now, these people focus on how they might give more money to NGOs, to "solve all our other problems." Our perspective might sound exceeding simplistic, but we cannot fathom how the multiple genius NGOs whose speciality is everything except housing, and who are being funded out of this massive mismanagement of taxpayers money, will contribute one iota to lowering the housing shortage.The critical housing shortage, despite the spin emanating from ACOSS,NCOSS ,the parasites they represent,and their bipartisan political allies will not be addressed by proclaimed "mental health experts,"nor any other experts who are not part of the property business.

 Many disillusioned homeless have already walked out, disgusted with the draconian reality of the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP) a cynical excercise in using marginalised people as income generators for NGOS.

 Of extra concern is the insertion into the equation of Data Mining by State and Federal Governments, and their contracted NGOs, which accompanies "The Road Home." Relying on Patrick McClure's ( The McClure Report) erroneous, but thus far unchallenged concept of "mutual obligation", the logic is that unemployed claimants should do something in return for receiving allowances such as Newstart.The "mutual obligation" Test was met preceding The McClure Report:Pay Taxes when you work- collect allowances when you don't. Any other obligation is an extra obligation.In addition,we are reliably informed,a contract signed under duress is generally null and void if tested against existing case law.So much for the furphy of mutual obligation -just a Howardly attack on marginalised people.


 While assisting a Newstart applicant with her mandatory Job Network contract recently,I was disturbed to find a clause authorising the Network Service Provider to access ANY personal information the client provided, AND "to use the information...or for any purpose (the Service Provider) saw fit. This amounts to giving the Service Provider carte blanche to sell the information to anyone, for marketing, debt collection or any other purpose.It also neatly ties in with the Federal Governments quiet deployment of new internal surveillance measures. When challenged,the Network case manager quickly called Centrelink, who granted an exemption from using the Job Network to their client.


 If you are asked to sign such a document, as a precondition to accessing essential government services, such as Centrelink or Housing, this amounts to blackmail-You should refuse to sign, unless you are unconcerned with the privacy of your personal information.

 We have noticed in the past 6 months many new impacts upon marginalised living in the city.There have been more ex-mental health patients than ever presenting on the Streets.Some more able to fend for themselves than others.A few TOTALLY unable to take care of even the most rudimentary self care.Many periodically violent, or presenting a threat to themselves and unaccustomed members of the public.All whom we have been able to communicate with tell of recent release from one or another mental health care institution. Simultaneously, State Government signs on a new "Homelessness Services" contract provider in the inner city, Neami Ltd, a Mental Health specialist organisation with NO previous experience of Homelessness management.Using the information we have available, we strongly suspect a callous Federal and State Labor manipulation of mentally ill people, out of the health and into the social housing budget- ahead of prospective tenants who have waited years. A neat little excercise which keeps the NGOs in cashflow,the government departments growing, lowers numbers in Mental Health care (Success-wooohoo!!) while showing a rise in socially housed persons-using the same people,with a few token "genuine long term homeless" thrown in. We note that on the information supplied to us,just 25 housing units are available per year via this new "Inner City Homelessness contractor." We do not blame the contractor for doing what they are contracted to-far from it, we applaud them-its what they are capitalistically contracted to do.But we do question the disingenuous government tactics, and chronic waste of taxpayers money.We also wonder what will happen to other mentally affected people-the residue who will remain homeless.

 We have noted the rise in Political rhetoric from Macklin,Burney and such, painting a wide brush public persona of homeless people as mentally deficient.Quite apart from the unnecessarily disparaging (and often untrue) portrayal of homeless people, Labor politicians strategy is actually leading to increasing homelessness. There have been several who have been recently evicted from long term month-to-month tenancies, because the government is seen (reasonably) by landlords as a more stable tenant.The lie that "properties must be priced at 20% below market value leaves two commercial options for those realtors less concerned with ethics. The first is to reserve the "lowest quality" properties and only offer these options to social housing tenants- but charge the government 20% below the premium quality price for the area.If necessary,let the property (bogus lease,phantom lessee) at that premium price for a month.Option 2 is to just inflate all advertised rental prices,then discount to the premium area rate.Not rocket science. One agent cheerfully admitted doing the second. But the government is renting at Fair Market value? No, they have a closed list of agents who can provide these properties.

  Government Budget measures flowing from the Henry Tax Reforms failed to do away with, or lower the attraction, of negative gearing for residential property investors

 Our humble analysis is that this program will lead to further residential property speculation, and attendant rises in residential property values, prompted by the lucrative and comparatively stable leases offered. It will drive more low income people out of the residential housing market,or into illegal overcrowded occupancies. It will inevitably make home purchases less affordable,and rental a prerogative of those on middle incomes only.

 The Road Home and all other Federal and State Government programmes, do NOT address the issue of turning the tap off on homelessness.
  Federal Labor has failed to legislate wage increases or remove the legal constraints preventing effective worker lobbying. Labor aligned Unions have submitted application for a paltry wage increase of $29 per week.or 70c an Hour, taking the minimum wage to a whopping $15-30 odd an hour-for adults. This level of #wageslavery is unacceptable and unsustainable in any metropolitan and some regional areas.
  As #wageslavery continues to permeate up the income scale, higher qualifications become meaningless tokens. The Prime Ministers spouse Therese Reins former business is a primary Howard era and current driver of #wageslavery.

 The many smokers among our marginalised community are most affected by the "Health NGO & departmentally driven 25% extra rise in cigarette tax. We note that no parallel attempt was made to raise the cost of deadly carbon monoxide producing petrol by 25%, yet we are all forced to inhale this cancer causing toxin as we walk the sidewalks of Sydney. If the Cigarette Tax is a genuine Health initiative as portrayed, why is it not also applied to the products of the nations biggest polluters who cause countless respiratory problems. It is because,like Howard / Abbott, the Rudd Labor Machine attacks those most defenceless, economically.

 The only successes we see in The Road Home are as with its predecessors, as outlined in The McClure Report. The successful expansion of government departments and political power for certain ministries AND the rapid growth of the pariah NGO sector. If that is the Rudd Governments criteria for success then they will succeed magnificently.

 This post should not be read as an indictment of the Kevin Rudd Government alone, but equally of Rudd Labor and the previous Howard Coalition. The Abbott Coalition? Well, their policy is summarised most succinctly by their good leader,Tony Abbott (if we can believe him) "The Poor will Always be with us."

 Our election advice for #ozelection2010 #Ruddfail #Laborfail #abbottcide Vote balance of responsibility. Vote for REAL CHANGE. Why just change drivers when you have the option to change racetracks?

 Don't do it for us!! Do it for your children.Do you want them sentenced to a life of #bank servitude??

TAXING The Miners To Feed the Greedy

For Marginalised, homeless, low to medium income workers, the Rudd Federal Governments take on the Henry Report is a grotesque "feed the bankers" strategy - what we have come to expect from the Rudd - Abbott alliance.
 There is nothing in this Tax strategy which promotes home ownership,or specific investment in social housing . Instead, Federal government has kept the negative gearing applying to residential properties,keeping those people who buy housing to exploit renters for their own personal gain in the market - and excluding your children and grandchildren from the opportunity to own their own home.
 I have read with absolute contempt some Union Tops congratulatory remarks concerning super - or taking a proportion of the extra tax on miners, and placing it for the long term benefit of the approximately five super fund managers who actually benefit from super - they get all the benefits of your hard work now, not when they turn 70. And,by @KevinRuddPM s formula, this windfall Tax will last just long enough to fund the baby boomers retirement.I'd like younger generations to consider that as polling time draws near. Why should the most government pampered and exploitative generation ever, get the 1 off benefits of resources which rightly belong to all generations- including the great great grandchildren of Generation Y.