#BREAKING: The branches of AUWU, following the all-AUWU meeting on Wednesday, have tonight voted unanimously to pass a motion of solidarity with Palestine. Statement to follow. 'The AUWU stands in solidarity with Palestinians. As a result of Israel’s policies to deny Palestinian autonomy, decimate infrastructure and services, and block humanitarian aid, 48% of Palestinians are unemployed and over half live in poverty.'

Senate Community Affairs Reference committee beginning today's hearing into #Robodebt. @SenatorSiewert chairing. Representatives of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal up first.

https://twitter.com/NotmydebtS/status/1376361418522566661?s=19

Monique Adofaci of the AAT reading a brief statement on the function and mechanisms of the Tribunal. The AAT are a key check on administrative power in our democracy, and produced several decisions challenging #Robodebt (for which the members were usually laid off by Government)

Our welfare system kills people.

Politicians have designed a poverty machine that punishes us financially, physically + psychologically, whilst using public funds to line the pockets of private organisations.

It is not a mistake, it is a choice. #BTPM Our social safety net is not safe for unemployed workers #NSFUW

We must make payments above the Henderson Poverty Line #HPL

We must #AbolishMutualObligations + get rid of unemployment cops #UCAB

We must #StopTheCDC + #EndCashlessWelfare

We must break the poverty machine #BTPM

The Adelaide #80aDay rally at Parliament is live now! facebook.com/antipovertynet… “Yesterday, the JobSeeker cut was rushed through parliament without debate — almost like they were reminding us how much disrespect & contempt they have for us” — @PasForg #80aDay #BTPM

"When you're living in a remote community ... it can take up to 8 weeks to reverse penalties [applied in the welfare system]" – @Utopiana #BTPM

https://twitter.com/jezheywood/status/1372718824710053891

"During COVID, CDP was suspended, and suddenly people who were exploited found themselves not only not being exploited, but with a reasonable amount of money to survive on for the first time ever." – @Utopiana #BTPM

Our govts have pursued budget surpluses on the backs of poor ppl for decades, wrongly criminalising + harassing us.

And long before #robodebt they knew it wasn’t legal.

ty to @SquigglyRick for the reporting Two court cases showed @JuliaGillard’s gov was unlawfully pursuing criminal prosecutions for welfare overpayments.

Ppl went to jail because of this. And the ALP ruthlessly sought to protect these unlawful convictions.

Full article here: thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/…

There are 400,000 people on unemployment payments – that’s 1 in 4 people – who can’t work full time for health reasons, bc they have caring responsibilities, are experiencing domestic violence or are in similarly difficult circumstances. #80aDay If you want to use the beautiful #80aDay graphics designed by @jezheywood you can download them all here, in both Facebook and Twitter sizes: 1drv.ms/f/s!Ao2X7nRblA…

More gleeful mockery from @SHamiltonian in response to our distress at his @BlueprintInsti1 proposal to spend $9 billion creating two classes of unemployed people instead of lifting us out of poverty. #80aDay

A thread for Steven + anyone who thinks this scheme is a good idea 👇 Income protection insurance already exists. It's available to anyone who's taken on debt, private school fees or made other financial commitments that people living in poverty can't even dream of.

Placing a regressive tax on workers to fund this w public money instead is a sham.

We have not received a response to the letter we sent to @Senator_Patrick requesting a meeting with us, @NATSILS_ and @NTCOSS.

Watch the debate and see how he votes here: aph.gov.au/Watch_Read_Lis…

https://twitter.com/AusUnemployment/status/1336435618721583105

Our members in Ceduna strongly oppose the #CashlessDebitCard + have campaigned against it for yrs. Reporting from @lukehgomes shows the card is causing harm in communities. @Senator_Patrick cannot in good conscience vote for this bill and should not blame Ceduna for his decision.

The #CashlessDebitCard is coming up for debate in the senate.

Follow along live to see whether @Senator_Patrick and @JacquiLambie vote on principle or decide to play politics with people's lives.

aph.gov.au/Watch_Read_Lis… Labor standing firmly against the CDC legislation in the senate, pointing out the Card is racist, & discriminatory. @SenKatyG says there’s no reason the g’ment had to push it through this week — we agree

Another disgusting manipulation of the PM's dodgy data, this time from @7NewsAustralia and @CoughlanMatt

7news.com.au/business/finan… First, for an honest breakdown of the figures, see @danielhurstbne's piece: theguardian.com/australia-news…

So: "27% of employers are having or *expect to have* trouble filling jobs" – that's 139 of 2324, or 6% some of whom only 'expect' to have difficulty; they haven't actually tried.

AUWU is proud to be a founding signatory of the @InstituteGreen #NobodyLeftBehind campaign.

Here's what it's all about:

"These times call for extraordinary measures from governments to introduce a floor below which no one in our society can fall ..." "... to assure all people that they will not be left behind, that they will be cared for and provided with necessities of life"

#NobodyLeftBehind

this morning, we were outside @billshortenmp's office, talking to locals about the need to raise Newstart immediately. Unbelievably enough, Bill's office called the cops on us. Nice solidarity here from "the party of the workers" The police took our names down & moved us on. We were peacefully handing out our campaign materials, demanding a dignified social security system. What kind of Labor leader calls the cops on a union?