The shortfall in income support payments relative to the actual cost of living in Australia today is now so great that maintaining most of the basic necessities of life – even over the short term – is completely unachievable. I have relied heavily on financial and other assistance from family and friends over the past 12 months just to get by.
Australia no longer has universal education or healthcare. This is the reality that we are experiencing right now.
We home school for educational reasons; however, I actually no longer have the option of sending my son to a public school because we simply can’t afford to. The various associated costs are an absolute barrier to an education in a government run mainstream school.
Our access to healthcare is limited. It is based primarily on what we can afford, rather than according to our needs. I suffer from a chronic illness that severely impacts my ability to work. Without family financial support, I would be unable to pay for specialists’ fees to gather the medical evidence necessary for a Disability Support Pension application.
The housing crisis has forced me out of the city I have called home for the past 35 years – away from essential services and everything and everyone that I know.
The past few months I have also borne witness to many of my friends and acquaintances losing their housing in the tidal wave of mass homelessness that is sweeping across the country.
Things are worse now than they’ve ever been during my lifetime, but our cries for help are falling mostly on deaf ears. Government responses to this catastrophic humanitarian crisis have been grossly inadequate. We are not the forgotten – even worse: we are the wilfully neglected, the disregarded.