Tom Studans

Cafe Paci in Newtown

www.instagram.com/cafepaci/

The big increase in 10+-year JobSeeker recipients in January 2023 is probably the group of Parenting Payment Single recipients shifted to Newstart in January 2013 (when Gillard Gov ended grandfathering protections against the 2006 Welfare to Work changes)

Ben Phillips from ANU is quoted in the Oz article saying something similar: 'He said the long-term JobSeeker cohort was growing because it was taking in people who previously would have been on other welfare schemes such as the disability support payment or those for older Australians.'

This recent Parl Library publication showed working-age welfare recipients are at historic lows. Unemployment payment recipients as a % of the working-age is relatively low - would be lower were it not for measures shifting people from other payments onto JobSeeker www.aph.gov.au/About_Parlia...

Stacked area chart showing JobSeeker/Newstart recipients by duration on payment from January 2012 to June 2025

While there has been an increase in the number of long-term recipients, there has only been a small increase in the total number of recipients. The Incoming Gov Brief does not state a concern with the level of expenditure on JobSeeker data.gov.au/data/dataset...

Screenshot of chart included in the article in The Australian showing the number of people on JobSeeker for more than 10 years - total number and as % of JobSeeker recipients

Strange article in the Oz claiming DSS incoming gov brief included an 'extraordinary bureaucratic plea to bring welfare under control'. Article focuses on the increase in long-term JobSeeker recipients but suggests this is linked to concerns over spending www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/polit...

We know the Sydney Harbour Bridge march against the killing in Gaza was huge – but just how big was it? NSW police initially estimated the crowd at 90,000 but organisers say the figure was closer to 300,000 – and an independent expert agrees

A crowd safety expert has now calculated an estimate of between 225,000 and 300,000 people at the Sydney Harbour Bridge march. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

We know the Sydney Harbour Bridge march against the killing in Gaza was huge – but just how big was it? NSW police initially estimated the crowd at 90,000 but organisers say the figure was closer to 300,000 – and an independent expert agrees

Genuinely refreshing to see some journalism calling out the lowballing of attendance numbers that cops pull at every demonstration www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

The killing code: strange symbols in a WA settler’s diaries lay bare frontier atrocities

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Siraj GOAT Siraj GOAT Siraj GOAT Siraj GOAT Siraj GOAT Siraj GOAT Siraj GOAT Siraj GOAT Siraj GOAT Siraj GOAT Siraj GOAT Siraj GOAT Siraj GOAT Siraj GOAT Siraj GOAT Siraj GOAT Siraj GOAT Siraj GOAT Siraj GOAT Siraj GOAT Siraj GOAT Siraj GOAT Siraj GOAT Siraj GOAT Siraj GOAT Siraj GOAT Siraj GOAT Si

You're one tough customer to please

The findings will continue to evolve until morale improves

Good morning. It's a welfare debt breakfast 👇

www.3cr.org.au/streaming

Good morning. It's a welfare debt breakfast 👇

www.3cr.org.au/streaming

NEW: Incredible scenes in Sydney, Australia today as tens of thousands march for Gaza, demanding an end to the genocide.

#MarchForHumanity

(🎥 Ema Franklin)

I get 20mins if I'm lucky 🫡

Tomorrow 👇

Absolutely massive turnout from people of Sydney marching over Sydney Harbour Bridge calling for an immediate ceasefire and end to the genocide in Gaza. March so big NSW Police have now turned us around back over the bridge.. #freepalestine

Hired a political editor yet?

"The BBC World Service has compiled material on over 160 cases where children have been shot in Gaza, and found that in 95 cases the child was shot in the head or the chest. In most of these cases the victim was under 12 years old"

Morrison's rhetoric with less than Morrison's increase

But most ppl don’t realise that if they don’t change their income guesstimate very close to the actual amount if getting the speculative fortnightly payment, then they *will* get a debt

When you register your baby’s existence with Services Australia, stuff is a whirlwind because you’re a new parent. And then your tax gets reconciled that first year and you get FTB. It’s not til you pick up extra work and you get an FTB debt at EOFY that ppl realise they walked into a costly trap

But that then means I don’t get the money through the year, which leaves me cash poor all the time

The only way I can avoid FTB debt is to only receive it as a lump sum at EOFY when my tax is completed for the year. It then ceases to be speculative and the amount paid is based on my actual income

And if they’re not on a jobseeker payment, why would they think they’d need to call Centrelink after picking up extra work hours when the toddler starts day care? FTB is incredibly seamless until it ends up as a debt

They can’t plan for if their fluctuating income will create an FTB debt tho. The debt isn’t raised til EOFY, while many ppl are paid FTB fortnightly and don’t realise they need to inform Centrelink immediately if their income changes…

I'll be on @3crmelbourne.bsky.social's news breakfast show Monday at ~7:15am to discuss:

• The Federal Court's decision in Chaplin v. DSS
• What is to be done with the hundreds of thousands of 'apportionment' debts
• How the Albanese Government could have avoided this
• Why they've chosen pain