AUWU Speaks #3: an open letter to Anthony Albanese
AUWU members under lockdown are calling on the leader of the Opposition to join our fight for more income support.
In response to Labor’s decision in the senate on August 5th to vote against extra pandemic support, AUWU members are expressing heartfelt anger, pleading with the Labor party to stand up for us in this time of crisis, and demand the government return the full COVID supplement of $550 per fortnight.
Dear Mr Albanese,
I heard that the party you lead voted down a Senate measure on August 5th to extend disaster payments to welfare recipients. I thought I might write you a note about it.
I’m 26. I live in Queensland, which is currently in lockdown since our luck ran out, and I’m on JobSeeker. I have a couple of disabilities and a cute little shelf of medications. A friend who works for Services Australia says I should be on the DSP, but apparently I probably don’t qualify. A friend who works at the NDIA said I should be on the NDIS, but after independent assessments were announced she cooled off on that pretty quick.
Before the pandemic, I was working 3 casual jobs. I lost the first one in March 2020 along with the rest of the entertainment sector. I lost the second one in June because I was too sick to drive and had no sick leave. I lost the third one this March because I couldn’t afford my rego and I couldn’t do my job without a car. I’d like a job but there aren’t many going. I’m also getting the feeling that having come out as trans during lockdown might be cramping my style. Something about having a feminine name and a baritone voice seems to mean I never “fit the culture” as well as I used to. Wonder why.
I reckon if I could get on top of my health I’d be more employable. Of course, the specialist I’ll need to see starts at $350 and strictly never bulk bills. Also, one of my medications is in short supply. Luckily there are two close substitutes! They’re chemically identical, but one is on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and one isn’t – which one I get is random, so I get to pay $7 or $30 for the same medication and I don’t know which until I show up, which is very sexy and exciting indeed. I know several others in the same boat. By the way, the ALP had a policy to fix this, but you streamlined it out of the platform in March.
A couple of weeks ago, I presented to a hospital emergency department with what could have been either new-onset migraine or a red flag for CVT (blood clot in the brain). One of my meds raises CVT risk but I can’t go off it, so I’d love to know, but CT scans cost money, and after all, it didn’t kill me on the spot, and it might just be migraine … so my GP is dealing with it by dropping another one of my medications, which also raises CVT risk. It was a mood stabiliser, so things are probably going to get a bit wild, but hey, reducing expenses might drop my blood pressure a few points. What do you reckon?
Occasionally I pass the hat around on the internet. It doesn't get me much — enough to eat and refill my scripts. I have to use PayPal, which has a legal-name-only policy. A name change costs $194.20, and I need it less than I need to eat. Every time I make a begging post, I have to reveal my legal name to anyone who reads it. In the year since I came out and adopted a new, better name, I've had to use my old name — and had it spat at me — probably more often than in the ten previous years, when it was actually my name.
I believed in Labor. I'm one of the few people in my birth family who voted Labor and I was proud of it. I tried to join the ALP in 2013 but your people never got back to me. I ended up joining another party years later, but even then I said my politics were “Labor, but like it should be.” Even if I didn't like all the choices Labor made, I thought someone was still tending the light on the hill.
I believed in you, personally. I was cheering for you to win the leadership ballot in 2013. I thought you were the right man in the right place at the right time and I couldn’t believe you lost. Looking back, I can’t believe I was naïve enough to care.
You could do better. You could act like you want to win the next election. You could stop selling out the sick and the disabled. You could stop letting people pointlessly die. You could stop blustering against Scott Morrison and start voting against him. You could pay us enough to survive, to work, to heal. You could be an actual Opposition Leader. You could bloody well throw us a bone.
I’ve been told I might be pleasantly surprised. I’m not convinced it’s worth waiting to find out.
— Isabelle
Media contact: 0404 089 575 / media at auwu.org.au