Tom Studans
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maximumwelfare.bsky.social
Tom Studans
@maximumwelfare.bsky.social
2.5K followers 420 following 2.1K posts
Welfare advocate. Covered the Robodebt Royal Commission. None for me thanks
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maximumwelfare.bsky.social
January 14, 2026 at 1:58 AM
maximumwelfare.bsky.social
The PC version for some reason had the '97/98 rosters so we got these guys instead of Di Venuto, Harvey and Bichel
January 4, 2026 at 1:29 PM
maximumwelfare.bsky.social
dgVoodoo is the single greatest technological achievement in human history
January 4, 2026 at 1:09 PM
maximumwelfare.bsky.social
January 4, 2026 at 12:04 PM
maximumwelfare.bsky.social
I will never forget
December 28, 2025 at 10:07 AM
maximumwelfare.bsky.social
Get stickbugged lol
Stick bug stickbugging on your ass
December 25, 2025 at 1:36 AM
maximumwelfare.bsky.social
December 23, 2025 at 8:07 AM
maximumwelfare.bsky.social
Eating this
Very long banana
December 23, 2025 at 4:01 AM
maximumwelfare.bsky.social
This has been annoying me all week
Northernlion, a bald streamer with a beard Nathan Lyon, Australia's record wicket-taking off-spin bowler in cricket, also bald with a beard
December 22, 2025 at 11:11 AM
maximumwelfare.bsky.social
If @chrisminnsmp.bsky.social proposes to legislate against speech and protest on the basis of his beliefs and views, and we are also to take what legal advice he has as an article of faith—we must all state clearly that he is a committed, long-term, active supporter of the state of Israel.
The premier says antisemitism "begins with slogans" but escalates dramatically. "I believe that in many cases, when you see violent imagery and hateful slogans and hateful slogans and chants on the steps of the Opera House, or in our parks, or in our community, it is unleashing forces that the organisers of the protests can't control. "Whatever the reasons for those protests, and genuine grievances or concerns about what's happening overseas, my responsibility is in Sydney today and unfortunately we have to do everything we can to ensure that we have a summer of calm and we can bring the community together. "I don't think that can happen if we have mass, major protests through the heart of the city, which, in my view, would rip apart and tear whatever scar tissue has been healed in just seven days."
December 21, 2025 at 1:24 AM
maximumwelfare.bsky.social
Travis Head bowling right now:
December 20, 2025 at 4:53 AM
maximumwelfare.bsky.social
#YeahWellHeIsOutCaughtBehindNowAndHeScored40CricketRuns
December 18, 2025 at 4:06 AM
maximumwelfare.bsky.social
One of the critiques being made is that the current Prime Minister is a poor speaker who seems to muddle his words about antisemitism and extremism:
Speaking to 2GB radio about the Bondi attack, Morrison says a “great failing” has occurred in the past few years, with antisemitism allowed to “sink its deep hooks into our society”: "In many times, I don’t think the public have been very conscious of it." Morrison described Sunday’s terrorist attack as a “desecration of our country”: "It is going to change us and mark us, and in many ways, I hope it’s going to wake us up to the evil that’s been lurking and growing in our midst. And that’s a key point in our midst, and that’s what ultimately needs to be encountered."
December 18, 2025 at 12:24 AM
maximumwelfare.bsky.social
Yeah look,
Screenshot from 'Too Many Guns', a site showing the number of guns in your postcode. In 2024 my postcode had: 469 registered firearms owners 1582 registered firearms 94 guns the most owned by one person 3.37 average registered firearms per owner
December 16, 2025 at 11:56 PM
maximumwelfare.bsky.social
15mins from the inner west here,
December 16, 2025 at 11:49 PM
maximumwelfare.bsky.social
#BREAKING 🚨 DEWR Secretary Natalie James has been appointed Head of Innovation at NEOM:

ministers.dewr.gov.au/rishworth/se...
The Hon Amanda Rishworth MP Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Media Release Date: 16 December 2025 Secretary of the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations The Secretary of the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, Ms Natalie James, will conclude her term as Secretary on 18 January 2026. I would like to thank Ms James for her service as Secretary of the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations. I would like to particularly acknowledge her leadership of the Department in delivering the Government’s first-term workplace relations and skills and training reforms. Ms James will take leave from Wednesday, 17 December 2025. Ms Tania Rishniw will act as Secretary of the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations until a replacement for Ms James is appointed. I wish Ms James all the best with her future endeavours.
December 16, 2025 at 4:13 AM
maximumwelfare.bsky.social
Okay good now everybody be nice and encourage him so he feels safe:
Josh Butler @JoshButler 2:14 PM · Dec 15, 2025 Albanese calls for new Australian gun laws at national cabinet meeting today after Bondi terror attack suggests "limits on the number of guns that can be used or licensed by individuals" and "review of licences... Licences should not be in perpetuity"
December 15, 2025 at 3:29 AM
maximumwelfare.bsky.social
I pushed for this question to be asked in Estimates in February, and DEWR are still telling the Ombudsman the same thing in December.

Neither DEWR nor Labor have a plan to address the current crisis, nor one to move beyond it—the cost of this inaction is in the billions, growing daily since 2022.
Tom Studans @maximumwelfare 1:49 PM · Feb 28, 2025 Draft talking points from the Minister's office FOI'd by @jeremypoxon made repeated reference to putative 'future reforms'—DEWR were asked directly in Estimates what options for legislative or policy change they had prepared for the Minister. They said they hadn't prepared any. Tom Studans @maximumwelfare 1:55 PM · Feb 28, 2025 What they tried to say is to suggest the Minister may be considering some options for reform that are not related to either legislation or policy. Now, this of course isn't true either, but if it were it's difficult to see how that meets any recognised definition of 'reform'.
December 13, 2025 at 3:46 AM
maximumwelfare.bsky.social
No-one in DEWR has done any work to prepare options for reform of the Targeted Compliance Framework.

They haven't been asked to do so by the Albanese Government since they were briefed on issues on taking office in 2022.

This is going to get you all into a lot of legal trouble.
Still, after much prodding, the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations misunderstands what the ombudsman is asking of it. In response to recommendation six, to “review the automatic process to suspend a jobseeker’s income support in the Penalty Zone”, DEWR secretary Natalie James said the department would consider options for giving recipients five business days to “resolve” the matter but said any change would have to be a government decision. Anderson wrote to James on December 8 to explicitly record that this was not nearly enough. “While I appreciate that any proposal to change legislation will be a matter for government, this recommendation goes to DEWR’s review of the automatic process within the TCF system, including considering whether any policy authority, or legislative change, is required to implement it,” he wrote. “My staff will monitor DEWR’s progress on these matters in reviewing whether it has implemented this recommendation.” When asked by The Saturday Paper whether government agencies still appear not to understand the policy they are supposed to oversee, Anderson said, “That is probably a fair thing to say. “It’s slightly concerning to be given conflicting pieces of advice by them,” he said this week. “You would hope that they had a very clear pathway to getting better at this and fixing any errors and being able to have better data to make better decisions. “So, yeah, it is concerning that they are still having to correct themselves. It is up to them to give advice to government. The recommendation is that both agencies review the automatic process. They’re not off the hook. If the government says it’s not going to legislate, there might be things that can be done short of legislation.”
December 13, 2025 at 3:46 AM
maximumwelfare.bsky.social
Superintendent Chalmers: May I see it?
December 13, 2025 at 2:36 AM
maximumwelfare.bsky.social
TGIF to uncs of all genders we salute you
December 12, 2025 at 7:28 AM
maximumwelfare.bsky.social
Terry Carney AO beginning his lecture touching on Robodebt, the Targeted Compliance Framework, the apportionment debt scandal, the NDIS budget assessment automation, think that should just about cover it in a tight hour or so.
December 11, 2025 at 7:29 AM
maximumwelfare.bsky.social
I am at the inaugural Terry Carney Lecture at the USyd Law School with MC @christopherrudge.bsky.social, and phoning in from France will be @squigglyrick.bsky.social as you can see in this quality image.
December 11, 2025 at 7:14 AM
maximumwelfare.bsky.social
Unreal lmao. Literally using the ban as cover.
Govt abandons plan for external AI Advisory Body Justin Hendry Editor, Innovation Aus 10 December 2025 Australia will not get a permanent advisory body on artificial intelligence as promised, with the federal government abandoning the plan despite growing calls for stronger AI oversight. The Department of Industry, Science and Resources confirmed in recent answers to questions on notice from Senate Estimates that the AI Advisory Body, proposed and funded in last year's federal Budget, will not go ahead.
December 11, 2025 at 1:47 AM
maximumwelfare.bsky.social
Peter Lewis off the long run, exploiting an angle that's been pissing me off for some time:
Of greater concern is that while the government is recognising our desire to keep social media away from our children, it is hanging out the mistletoe for more powerful and untested AI products: deepfake apps, intimate companions, industrial-scale fraudsters, oceans of slop and the banal cruelty that robs young people of the magic of the blank page. The so-called National AI Plan released last week could have been a moment to learn from the failed social media experiment and harness this wild stallion but, sadly, the government has squibbed it to join the global race to tap some still-to-be-defined “opportunity”. The decision to dispense with legislated mandatory AI guardrails and defer responsibility to (another) well-intentioned but ill-defined and under-funded regulator is a triumph for these tech behemoths whose local vassals have captured government with their fairytales of abundance.
December 10, 2025 at 3:56 AM