#HELLOMYNAMEISBJ

Check out this free Interactive Body Tool by @mentalhealthwa's Strong Spirit Strong Mind Youth Project which helps Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students learn how #alcohol affects the body. Access it here: positivechoices.org.au/teachers/stron…

An emergency handbrake must be pulled on all politicians, journalists and think tanks talking about disability benefits until they are able demonstrate any evidence they know anything about the criteria for getting it or the assessment process. The ignorance is unsustainable.

The senseless death of an Aboriginal child. Women murdered in their homes every week. 6 women stabbed at Bondi Junction. 15 murdered at Bondi Beach. 3 murdered in Lake Cargellico including a pregnant woman. Common denominator? Violent men. #insiders

I ran for the Senate because I wanted to help make politics about people again - not multinationals, vested interests or party donors. And that's why our campaign to get a 25% gas tax matters. Public pressure has made politicians pay attention and we have to keep it up because it can help make sure in one of the wealthiest counties on earth (and biggest gas exporters in the world), more Australians actually feel the benefit of our gas exports. Head to ourgas.com.au to make your voice heard. thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/economy/2…

Australia has a significant opportunity in our gas exports. Other countries have used resource revenues to build sovereign wealth funds that deliver long-term public benefit. A fair return on gas exports could help build a fund that invests in Australia’s future. sbs.com.au/news/article/a… Join the campaign: ourgas.com.au

Last night, a few hundred disabled people, carers, allied health professionals and workers met to talk about what we would do in response to the cuts to the NDIS. And I cannot tell you how angry and upset people are, @AlboMP. Not just about the cuts to funding, or to the prospect of block funding. Or 204,000 jobs that are proposed to be cut across Australia. Not even about the prospect of co-locating us with older Australians in segregated aged care settings, which are being actively trialled as we speak. Those people are not just angry - they are furious. Furious at the breach of trust between our government and people with disability, our families and workers. You could hear voices shaking with rage, the idea that we were more expendable, dispensable and disposable than other Australians. You have no *idea*. But you're about to find out. Across Australia, groups of disabled people, our families, our trusted professionals and our workers are organising. Not just a few of us, or a couple of groups - thousands and thousands of Australians. But wait, there's more. Because of that enormous market that grew, and the dawning realisation of how it will affect each and every one of us. And that's not even the majority of Australians, who realise that the NDIS is our safety net, like Medicare, against an accident of birth or genetics, or an actual accident. Here's our contribution - a growing group of people who have put together 12 Days of Action, to put a stop to this seriously bad error of judgement by our government. Because #EveryAustralianCounts and we want politicians to #KeepThePromise and #StopTheCuts. Many hundreds of people over the past week have put together information about what they plan to tell us on Budget night, and the information will blow your mind. Our fact sheets drop tomorrow on the first day of our campaign. Like others, I'm off to film how the changes will impact upon me. You can do the same thing - to tell the government that they must #KeepThePromise of our NDIS. Tag your video and upload it tomorrow with #KeepThePromise, #EveryAustralianCounts, #StopTheCuts, #ReasonableNecessaryOrdinary, #SaveOurNDIS - and let us know if there are any more out there! If you want to support our grassroots campaign, please donate here deiaustralia.com.au/donate or to the Every Australian Counts campaign here everyaustraliancounts.com.au/donate/ dpacaustralia.net/get-involved

Per capita, federal investment in CSIRO is less than 1/2 what it was in the 1980s. Successive governments have starved our national science agency and we're now paying a price. Today the Senate inquiry I set up with the Coalition and the Greens tabled a Report. My additional comments call for what CSIRO actually needs: a permanent, ongoing lift in base funding - an investment in our future. canberratimes.com.au/story/9234897/…

I call on the Australian government to #RaiseTheRate of all support payments to a living wage. This would be the single most effective way to lift the productivity, quality of life, and well-being of the whole country. #CommitToALivingWage

Australia leads the world in mammal extinctions, but the govt could let the Saving Native Species Program fall off a funding cliff on 30 June. This is the program fighting invasive species like the yellow crazy ants, and protecting endangered species like the Koala. You can't do long-term conservation work on short-term funding cycles, and a one-year Band-Aid won't cut it. We re part of nature and if nature goes down, we go down with her. news.com.au/national/polit…

1/2 Singer and Songwriter, Curtis Yates started singing when he was just eight-years-old. Based in Newcastle, he continues to work on his demos and perform live at local open mic events.

The Beautiful Shawl Project will be stationed at Ramahyuck in Morwell from the 4th-6th of May If you’re aged 40+, book your free breast screen today by calling Ramahyuck Morwell at (03) 5136 5100 #BeautifulShawlProject #BreastScreening #VACCHO #AboriginalHealth

Last chance to register for our free webinar tomorrow at 12pm Sydney time! positivechoices.org.au/teachers/webin… Presented by Dr @WattsChrissy90 from @Sydney_Uni's @DaffodilCentre

Yes. Paywalled but you can read Grace Tame below. Then please go subscribe! "In the latest episode of morally vacuous financial gymnastics performed by the Commonwealth, Health Minister Mark Butler spent 90 minutes at the National Press Club on Wednesday justifying more dramatic cuts to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). He used every bogus excuse under the sun except the obvious truth: the corporate ruling class simply doesn’t value disabled people, viewing them as economically useless, disposable grifters, gaming the system for free haircuts. Around 160,000 recipients are set to lose access to the NDIS by 2030, with spending forecast to decrease from $70 billion to $55 billion over the same period. The aim is to reduce the scheme’s current annual growth rate of 10% to about 5%. Eligibility criteria will tighten further, and a significant portion of autistic children under the age of 18 will be rejected altogether. This news comes no less than a week after Defence Minister Richard Marles announced an additional $53 billion to the already swollen defence budget for the next decade, bringing the total 10-year expenditure to $887 billion, with a projected annual growth rate of… wait for it… 8%! Is anyone else’s autistic pattern recognition radar wailing? We’ve got plenty of taxpayer dollars for senseless wars that kill and maim innocent foreign civilians en masse, but can’t front up the money to support vulnerable, marginalised citizens here at home. According to the ABS, in 2022, approximately one in five, or 21.4%, of Australians live with a disability. That’s roughly 5.5 million people, 2 million of whom have a severe or profound disability that necessitates assistance with daily activities and fulfilling basic needs. Currently, only 760,000 individuals participate in the NDIS. The program is growing, as should be expected for an initiative that supposedly caters to a growing cohort. Australia’s ageing population is naturally increasing the prevalence of disability, and greater awareness is leading more people to seek diagnoses, which is a positive development. It’s impossible to address differences that aren’t identified or legitimised. Yet, however legitimate, Butler insists that the NDIS’ growth, unlike the military’s, is unsustainable. “Right now, the NDIS costs too much. It’s growing too fast.” Along with this key message, the federal government would also have us believe that the NDIS is a hotbed of fraud and rorts. The pot is calling the kettle broken, among other discriminatory, ableist labels. If anyone is guilty of nefarious dealings, it is the incumbent government. In 2023, it hired political strategist RedBridge Group to manufacture consent for drastic changes to the NDIS by reframing public perception of the scheme. Redbridge’s assessment was that recipients and their families might be receptive to the idea of a more prohibitive application process and reduced funding if they could be convinced that these austere measures were necessary to prevent fraud and rorting in the program. So desperate was then NDIS minister Bill Shorten to garner support for cost-control legislation that he recruited Pauline Hanson, who allegedly shared his opinion that “things need to be straightened up”. Citing new “independent research” by Talbot Mills, Butler echoed a similar sentiment in his Press Club address: seven in 10 Australians reportedly think the NDIS is “too large” and “struggles with dodgy providers”. (Personally, I would be hard-pressed to find seven Australians in total who actually believe this.) Contrary to these noxious narratives, largely recycled by the right-wing press in recent months — and quite possibly seeded by Butler himself ahead of this latest announcement — the NDIS is a life-changing, lifesaving program. It is more than welfare; it enables many extraordinary individuals to realise their potential, participate in the workforce and give back to the economy. A little goes a long way. Often NDIS assistance is meagre but has an enormous impact. The inverse is true of military spending. And for what? To service our allies who can’t be trusted to back us up if we did come under threat? Can Donald Trump even identify Australia on a map? My father worked as a public high school teacher for nearly 40 years, spending the latter part of his career working exclusively with higher-needs kids. I will never forget the stories he shared — the good and the bad — about the students who received NDIS funding and those who didn’t. In one approved case, “it helped their life, and their family’s life immeasurably”. The ones that didn’t make the cut often faced unspeakable tragedy, neglect and abuse. More than once, Dad went out of his way to pick up children in his care from their homes who had been left to sleep in their clothes on a mattress on the floor. Their families, themselves unsupported, and in some cases torn apart as a result, had given up. Many things can be true at once. There are indeed cases of misused NDIS funds, but these are in the minority and rarely the fault of individual disabled participants — though they are the ones who suffer the consequences. In a bid to pocket more for themselves, it’s typically third parties, such as plan managers and support coordinators, who encourage clients to spend their funding budget well before the end of the plan period. By all means, go after corrupt organisations, just not at the expense of innocent individuals who are already on the back foot. The government certainly has huge coffers for legal teams to fight disabled people who dare defend their basic human right to receive care. Would that it prosecuted the real criminals here. No man-made institution is immune to abuse, but ones that are large, complex and deliberately underfunded are particularly susceptible. Instead of adequately, directly funding the NDIS itself in step with increasing demand, the federal government would rather divert money it supposedly doesn’t have to a frivolous sideshow of reviewers, focus groups and consultants whose sole purpose is to reinforce the fallacy that it doesn’t work. So goes the self-fulfilling prophecy of circular bureaucracy. On ABC’s 7.30, Butler pushed back on Sarah Ferguson’s concern that young children with developmental difficulties are at risk of being dropped from the NDIS, assuring parents that if they’ve signed on before January 1, 2028, they’ll continue to be funded — “subject to all the usual rules”. He couldn’t finish without a caveat. What of the individuals and their families who present with high needs after this period? In keeping with its mission to mimic US policy, the Albanese government has imported the demonisation and dismissal of autism as another means of limiting access. It frequently refers to “mild to moderate autism”, a made-up term with no clinical basis that doesn’t reflect the fluctuating intensity of personal needs that hinge on external factors. Autism encompasses a spectrum of sensory and communication differences that produce varying symptomology between and within individuals. It can’t be prevented or cured, but it can be managed with specialised care. Early interventions in particular drive many positive outcomes. These have been a core feature of the NDIS to date, but are among the initiatives most likely to suffer from the pending reforms. In 2022, autistic individuals accounted for 1.1% of the Australian population, a 41.8% increase in four years. Like disability more broadly, autism isn’t spreading — we are naturally seeing an upswing in diagnoses thanks to improving education and information sharing. Still, the diagnostic process is prohibitively expensive and long-winded, with costs often in the thousands. A diagnosis is required for NDIS funding to be approved, putting the existing program further beyond the reach of those who need it most. Cuts and eligibility restrictions will only make this more challenging. The question remains: who will be the arbiters of what constitutes a qualifying candidate going forward? Different states have different legislation, standards, procedures and budgets. Making the application process harder won’t weed out the cheats; it will ultimately deter and defeat those most in need of help. Complex assessments privilege those who are time and resource-rich. Some families can afford to provide full-time care for their loved ones. Many cannot, especially as cost of living pressures continue to soar. Individuals without a family or community around them face even greater barriers. The NDIS recipients I’ve spoken to are rightly terrified. One needn’t be a super sleuth to figure out what’s going on here. War is profitable for a few. Peace doesn’t sell as easily. Even without tempering military spending, there are plenty of clear, viable solutions to the government’s cash flow problem. For example, a 25% tax on gas export revenue for multinational fossil fuel companies would reap around $17 billion annually. That’s more than enough to cover rising but necessary NDIS costs. As usual, however, it’s the most vulnerable among us who are forced to pay the highest price, both at home and abroad. The Albanese government is apparently more inclined to create disabled people overseas than care for its own. It would do well to curb its one-eyed politics, lest it become permanently disabled itself."

Appalled but not surprised to see govt caving to the gas companies. This just makes me more determined to go harder on our campaign to get a fair return on our gas through a 25% tax on gas export revenue. Head to ourgas.com.au to add your voice. abc.net.au/news/2026-04-2…

I NEEDED a C-section. Baby was in distress. Heart rate dropping. OB: “Let’s try longer.” “You’re strong.” “You don’t want the scar.” “Natural birth is better bonding.” My baby’s heart rate kept dipping. Nurse whispered, “If your husband requests it, we can move faster.” So he did. Suddenly the OR was ready. Because a man saying “cut” is decisive. A woman saying “I’m scared” is emotional.

I've been pushing back on the aged care integrated assessment tool for months—I've even accused it of being Robodebt-like. So I was very glad to see the Commonwealth ombud step in last week to review it. The govt’s plan to use a similar tool in the NDIS was postponed last week too. Feels like we have to fight at every step to protect the vulnerable from this government themandarin.com.au/311866-human-r…

The NDIS must be reformed. Successive governments have allowed rorting and waste, and have ignored experts' advice on how to improve it. But changes to the NDIS must be transparent, fair, guided by evidence, and made in genuine consultation with the people whose lives depend on the scheme.

The PM and other major party politicians are getting their figures from the gas industry rather than the ATO and Treasury 🤯 Whose side are they on? When you try and interrogate these figures from the gas lobby you get “PAGE NOT FOUND”. You cannot make this stuff up! Head to ourgas.com.au to get involved. The only way we win this is if the major parties know they will continue to lose votes at the next election if they don't put Australians first.

Half measures aren't going to stop the normalisation of gambling among children. Kids will still see 3 ads an hour on TV. They’ll still see ads during the halftime of live sport after 8.30 pm. One parent told me recently they saw gambling ads at the movies with their kids before Project Hail Mary - that won't be changing. I urge the Govt to change course and opt for a full, phased in ban, as recommended by the Murphy Review. abc.net.au/news/2026-04-2…