Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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The Chaser @chaser.com.au · 2h

It's the topic everyone in Canberra is talking about and now thanks to ChaserBet, you can win big on this bizarre story!

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Captain Quoll @kudelka.bsky.social · 2h

Don’t tell anyone who isn’t Antifa

CrankyGrandma55 @crankygrandma55.bsky.social · 2h

The password for tomorrow's Antifa meeting is Nobel

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Royce Kurmelovs @roycerk2.bsky.social · 5h

It really does say something when an article about reactions to a coal power plant continuing to operate says nothing about climate change, the existential threat it poses and the need to phase out oil, gas and coal.

ABC News Bot (unofficial) @abcnewsbot.bsky.social · 6h

Communities across Queensland have welcomed plans to keep coal and gas burning across the state, though some warn a lack of future planning could undermine short-term benefits.

Plan to extend life of coal-fired power stations sends 'mixed messages'

Communities across Queensland have welcomed plans to keep coal and gas burning across the state, though some warn a lack of future planning could undermine short-term benefits.

www.abc.net.au

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Bin Chicken @binchicken9000.bsky.social · 2h

2 serves of vegetables per day. Recommendations start at around 5.

💜 phonakins 🍉 @phonakins.com · 5h

Since it's #AntiPovertyWeek next week, I'm getting emails about fund- and "awareness"-raisers
Such as this Pantry Box Challenge where you attempt to live off the contents off this common charity food parcel for the week...

Carb city here we come!

Shopping List
For the purpose of this challenge you can purchase the items yourself or for a $50 donation (cost of providing these items) you can nominate to get the whole experience and collect from our Community Food Centre located at 370 Pinjarra Road, Greenfields WA.

Pantry - Shelf Stable Items

Pasta 500g

Rice 1kg

1 Can Tomato Paste 170g

1 Can Lentils 420g

2 Min Noodles | Beef or Chicken 85g (5 packet)

Quick Oats 750g

Chicken Noodle Packet Soup 50g

Soup Mix 500g

Long Life Milk 1L

1 Can of Tuna 185g

1 Can Butter Beans or Four Bean Mix 420g

1 Can Baked Beans or Spaghetti 420g

Vegetable Oil 750g ***

Sugar 1kg ***

Tea (100 pack) ***

Coffee 200g ***

*** Please note these item quantities are normally given out monthly not weekly

Fruit & Vegetals

Carrots x 4

Onions x 2

Potatos x 6

Tomatos x 3

Apples x 2

Mandarin or Oranges x 2

Bananas x 3

Bakery

Bread x 2 loafs

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💜 phonakins 🍉 @phonakins.com · 4h

I think they're worried the bear will put them out of their job in the poverty machine

(it's the "end child poverty" campaign bear)

three women and a teddy bear at a board table

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Rachel Withers @rachelwithers.bsky.social · 22h

Imagine kicking the former national rugby captain out of your sports club instead of the gambling lobby.

To paraphrase Groucho Marx, who'd want to belong to a club that would accept Responsible Wagering Australia as one of its sponsors?

Bill Browne @browne90.bsky.social · 23h

Making his point for him -- just asking about the power of the gambling lobby gets Senator David Pocock booted from sports club the Prime Minister heads. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Former Wallabies star David Pocock booted from parliamentary sports club

Exclusive: Senator accused of bringing social club into disrepute after raising concerns about its association with betting lobby

www.theguardian.com

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Nobody Deserves Poverty @nobodyinpoverty.bsky.social · 1d

The impact of a livable welfare safety net on this World Mental Health Day

#WorldMentalHealthDay #RaiseTheRate #AbolishMOs

phonakins.com/2025/10/10/t... via @phonakins.com

The impact of a livable welfare safety net on this World Mental Health Day

I’ve written plenty before about how different aspects of Australia’s public health care and social welfare systems have helped or hindered my mental health. Getting DSP was a huge fact…

phonakins.com

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Jeremy Poxon @jeremypoxon.bsky.social · 23h

Next Tuesday, I'll be speaking at this online event about the Targeted Compliance Framework scandal, & how mutual obligations worsens and commodifies poverty. I'll throw some jokes in as well, dw

Come along if you like - it's free
www.eventbrite.com.au/e/unfinished...

Unfinished Business: 50 Years After Henderson

An initiative of the Australian Social Policy Association and the Australian Journal of Social Issues, as part of Anti-Poverty Week.

www.eventbrite.com.au

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Tom Studans @maximumwelfare.bsky.social · 1d

We're meant to have these things called the Australian Federal Police and also the National Anti-Corruption Commission who are both certainly authorised to act in the scenario where a government department is recovering >$3.5m a year in fraud without even really actively looking.

Antipoverty Centre @antipovertycentre.org · 1d

Lmao the employment department has recovered 10.6 MILLION from providers due to fraud tip-offs over 3 years, and not shut down a single provider.

Reminder: They spend 4 BILLION A YEAR on this system, which is about 25% of how much they spend on JobSeeker payments each year.

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Antipoverty Centre @antipovertycentre.org · 1d

The DEWR secretary says it has "no impact at all" when a person has a payment suspension notice if they reverse it in 5 days ... ignoring the extraordinary stress, time wasting and hoop jumping needed to reverse a suspension.

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Antipoverty Centre @antipovertycentre.org · 1d

If the government doesn't believe payment suspensions harm people they have their fucking heads up their asses.

But we know they know payment suspensions cause harm. They know.

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kristin (she/her) @kristin8x.antipovertycentre.org · 1d

Things that have been missed in the conversation about unlawful administration of compulsory activities (so-called mutual obligations) include...

People do be wondering, what would Labor do if they were in charge during robodebt? And the answer is, you're looking at it.

Antipoverty Centre @antipovertycentre.org · 1d

Allman-Payne quotes a DEWR director referred to as MR15 in the Deloitte report who says: "The TCF is a process that wasn’t designed with fairness in mind… If the function of the TCF is to penalise people, then it’s fulfilling its role, but that’s not the intention of a fair system."

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Nobody Deserves Poverty @nobodyinpoverty.bsky.social · 2d

Hundreds of thousands of welfare recipients lose access to payments every year, and Labor have said they can’t even say if it’s lawful. - @pennyallmanpayne.com

To quote @amyremeikis.bsky.social - SIIIGGGGHHHHHH

live.australiainstitute.org.au/2025/10/aust...

39 minutes ago 11.48 AEDT

SIIIGGGGHHHHHH
Thee has been a lot of reporting on the Deloitte report which was found to have used AI and most of the reporting has focused on that, rather than what the report was actually about.

Which was the Targeted Compliance Framework. You probably know that as mutual obligations. The report was about the issues with the automated system being used to cancel people’s welfare payments. You may remember from episodes such as ROBODEBT and EVERY SINGLE PERSON WHO HAS CONTACT WITH THIS SYSTEM TELLING YOU, that this is illegal and this has the potential to cause some pretty major problems for the government. And right now, it is causing major problems for people who are being made to fulfil demands from an illegal and immoral system just to have their below-poverty-line payments reinstated/continue.

That’s a pretty major problem, Australia. And not a new one. The only people benefiting from Australia’s mutual obligation program are the owners of job provider agencies who are paid billions of dollars to set menial and often degrading ‘duties’ for jobseekers to meet so they can maybe continue to pay their rent that week.

So not only is the consulting firm which was paid to do a report into the issues with an automated system which is causing immense harm to jobseekers and returned a report riddled with errors because it used automation to complete that report still getting paid, the government is yet to address the substance of the report.

Greens senator Penny Allman-Payne said

Hundreds of thousands of welfare recipients lose access to payments every year, and Labor have said they can’t even say if it’s lawful.”

These payments can be the difference between food on the table or going hungry. If Labor can’t defend the system they should end the TCF and stop suspending payments immediately.”

Under questioning in senate estimates from Greens senators, Murray Watt has agreed that Deloitte should apologise.

Great.

Let’s see whether the government apologises for keeping mutual obligations and welfare suspensions in place at the later session of estimates which will deal with social services.

Bluesky

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Anchovy Georgiev @pommesdeguerre.bsky.social · 1d

Thinking about how Liberal rebels like Hastie and Price are out pushing racism while Labor’s ones like Payman and Husic are opposing genocide, asking why we’re giving our gas away, and fighting for people on welfare.

Antipoverty Centre @antipovertycentre.org · 1d

Payman: Why are you maintaining a system that "The Labor *party* platform notes can be punitive, cause stress and anxiety, and can be a barrier to employment?"

Senator Jess Walsh responds by explaining that the Labor *government* believes the best form of welfare is a job 👍

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Melissa @artistaffame.bsky.social · 1d

I’m really tired of being stressed out tbh. and it’s always money and the lack of that causes it. Constant bills feels like I’m never gonna get ahead but I’m not gonna stop fighting for better

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Sham Jaff @shamjaff.bsky.social · 2d

It’s a "crisis" when immigrants "take jobs away", but "innovation" when machines do. Funny.

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News Eye @newseye.bsky.social · 1d

NEW: Palestinians moving back towards Gaza City are being fired upon.

Israeli forces say the ceasefire does not exist until the government votes for it.

At least 8 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since dawn.

(🎥 Al Jazeera)

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Chele @chelecajeleca.bsky.social · 1d

“Work” in this sense, I think, is ‘meaningful engagement with community’. Which is pretty much the opposite of what “work” means to capitalists.

Mx Maddison Stoff @thedescenters.bsky.social · 1d

when I say that? I'm not exclusively talking about waged work, or supporting yourself through "earning your own money". I'm talking about work in a more holistic sense. Work for yourself, working on your art, working on improving your community. You empower people to seek out that by...

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Penny Allman-Payne @pennyallmanpayne.com · 1d

DEWR sought an assurance report on the Targeted Compliance Framework. They got it. It told them clearly that the TCF could NOT be assured. And yet the government continues to administer this unlawful system so it can suspend income support payments for bullshit reasons.

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Jeremy Poxon @jeremypoxon.bsky.social · 1d

thank the lord we finally have some coverage of what's actually going on www.innovationaus.com/deloittes-ai...

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Nobody Deserves Poverty @nobodyinpoverty.bsky.social · 1d

SUSPEND MUTUTAL OBLIGATIONS NOW

The Employment department still accepts the substance of Deloitte’s AI-error riddled report on Australia’s welfare compliance system, which could not assure it was operating effectively and was a punitive global outlier.

www.innovationaus.com/deloittes-ai...

Deloitte’s AI errors overshadow govt's own automated mess

The Employment department still accepts the substance of Deloitte’s AI-error riddled report on Australia’s welfare compliance system, which could not assure it was operating effectively and was a puni...

www.innovationaus.com

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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 1d

Lol the Nobels can't even acknowledge women's contribution to discovery. But sure let's acknowledge The Machines.

Headline from an article in Nature this week that states "Prizes must recognize machine contributions to discovery. The future of science will be written by humans and machines together. Awards should reflect that reality."

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Bin Chicken @binchicken9000.bsky.social · 1d

Recent data, around 42%.

bsky.app/profile/mkla...

Michael Klapdor @mklapdor.bsky.social · 21d

There are just over 370,000 JobSeeker Payment recipients with a partial capacity to work of <30 hours a week - around 42% of recipients.
Sources: data.gov.au/data/dataset... and data.gov.au/data/dataset...

Line chart showing JobSeeker Payment recipients with a partial capacity to work from January 2012 to August 2025 - chart has 2 vertical axes. Purple line on the left-hand side axis shows total number of JobSeeker Payment recipients with a partial capacity to work. Dotted-blue line on the right hand side axis shows this number as % of the total number of JobSeeker Payment recipients.

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Chris 🎃 DevPods.gg gamedev community @chrisdeleon.bsky.social · 2d

Portland protestor frog costume: What are you trying to tell me? That I can dodge pepper balls?

Morpheus from Matrix movie: No, Frog. I'm trying to tell you that when you're ready, you won't have to.

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Bin Chicken @binchicken9000.bsky.social · 1d

"It’s not a fluke that Australia is the 9th richest country in the OECD, but has the 5th worst rate of poverty among women aged 66 or older (and 7th worst among men)"

Melissa Sweet @melissasweetdr.bsky.social · 2d

“If Australia raised as much tax as Canada – a nation that also has a big mining sector and a population spread over a large landmass – we would have an extra $133bn a year to spend on government services.

That might help lift some people out of poverty.”

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

If we want a better, more equal society, we need more tax. But more tax only works if big business pays their fair share | Grogonomics

Trust in both the tax and political system will falter if people feel they are being punished for not paying tax while large companies legally get away with paying nothing

www.theguardian.com

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