Blacktown City Council Media Alert - Politics of Poverty Porn

MEDIA ALERT

Media Call:
Mayor Bali on Centrelink Story
1200 today, outside Blacktown Council Chambers
62 Flushcombe Road, Blacktown.
Parking available on forecourt.

13 June, 2017

“The politics of poverty porn have once again enveloped Blacktown,” the Mayor of Blacktown City, Councillor Stephen Bali said.

“The heartless vilification of Blacktown’s disadvantaged residents does nothing to resolve the core issue of non-compliance for job seeking requirements.

“I totally support moves to crack down on welfare fraud and cheating, but what’s achieved by demonising an entire city of 358,000 people by highlighting the bad behaviour of 333?

“Even when the Blacktown postcode’s population of 43,374 is taken into account, that is still only 0.7 per cent of the population - which is similar to all the other suburbs listed in the table.

“I am angry because an important issue such as ensuring people get a suitable job has been overshadowed by the vilification of the hard working people of Blacktown.

“Holding up the dispossessed and incapable to public ridicule does not solve the problem of people not turning up to interviews.

“We support moves by the federal government to improve their processes and would have greatly preferred they came to see us to find a local solution to a local problem,” Mayor Bali said.

“I invite Minister Tudge to Blacktown City to speak to community leaders and job seekers to discuss the best ways in addressing the problems.

Blacktown City Council Media Release - Cheap Stat Politics

MEDIA RELEASE

13 June, 2017

The Mayor of Blacktown City, Councillor Stephen Bali has accused the Federal Government of using raw data to play cheap stat diversionary politics.

Councillor Bali says a proper analysis of the suburbs where it’s claimed inordinate numbers of Centrelink clients are not reporting for interviews shows the rate is about the same for each suburb.

“Blacktown is one of the largest cities in Australia – so when the raw data is chased of course there are going to be more people for anything in any category, whether its road accidents, heart attacks, or children crossing the road.

“But, when the rate is more properly expressed as a percentage of the population rather than by raw data, it reveals something perhaps Centrelink wants to hide.

“There is only about a one percent difference between the highest and lowest across the 15 suburbs reported by Minister Tudge,” he said.

“This shows to me that, rather than Blacktown having a problem, Centrelink has a systemic client service problem across the nation that it is unable to solve.

“If there was a problem with individual areas, you would expect larger spikes – but the fact all 15 are all within one percentage point belies this.

“I would have thought that by now, particularly after the flak his department copped over the “Robo debt” program that Minister Tudge would have learnt some messaging and client service lessons.  Apparently not.

“Rather than playing cheap shot diversionary politics and blaming the people, this shows Centrelink should be working to improve its customer service.

“The Minister should be coming to us with the solution, rather than the problem.  Let’s start with a return to previous levels of funding for youth employment programs.”

% Rank	Suburb and Centrelink Raw Data Ranking	Centrelink Stat	Suburb Population	Percentage
1	1.       Caboolture QLD	387	21929	1.76%
2	15.   Morwell VIC	217	14005	1.55%
3	5.    Deception Bay QLD	276	19672	1.40%
4	3.      Mildura VIC	329	30647	1.07%
5	11.   Woodridge QLD	241	24919	0.97%
6	13.   Liverpool NSW	218	24095	0.90%
7	4.       Frankston VIC	280	35009	0.80%
8	2.       Blacktown NSW	333	43378	0.77%
9	14.   Southport QLD	217	28315	0.77%
10	8.       Dubbo NSW	245	32327	0.76%
11	9.       Auburn NSW	244	32327	0.75%
12	10.   Dandenong VIC	244	33122	0.74%
13	6.       Werribee VIC	276	37737	0.73%
14	7.       St Albans VIC	255	35091	0.73%
15	12.   Orange NSW	225	35990	0.63%

Be Careful And Check Any Bills From Centrelink -The Guardian

We have come to a day of age, where technology is supposed to be so precise and accurate that the ordinary person like myself and  yourself can be fooled and life changes.

So, it appears CentreLink is now sending bills for over-payments  paid to their customers  from 4- 5 years ago and trying to collect on them. Anywhere up to at least $24,000. To the innocent person, they might accept and staring a small amount for years on end. The discrepancies have been known to occur  from income details supplied to the Australian Tax Office compared to details supplied to the  Centrelink Office. One of the reasons is that her same Employer was recorde in 2 different ways to the different Agencies. It poicks up she she is work for two jobs when she is working for one job at one company, thus requesting for benefits paid to us, to be repaid.

The Opposition in Federal Government is requesting the Australian Government to call off sending these bills. I personally suggest that the 2 agencies should interact with  all customers information  between these agencies and all details would be  either match or cross-reference and then double checked. Then there is no reason for overdue debt letters being sent out. Undue financial stress, is not required to people that have honestly recorded the  their employment details and received any correct additional benefits.

 I ask that the Federal member of Chifley,  Mr Ed Husic, take a stand on this issue, when Parliament is next called into session. I also suggest that if anyone from our Mount Druitt and surrounding community, receives letters like this or knows someone who has,  please contact Centrelink to check their records with the Australian Tax Office. If any issues contact  your local  Australian Federal Member of Parliament.

Click here for The Guardian Story

All Day Parking May Be An Issue For Shopping - Westfield Mount Druitt

We have spoken about commuters parking at Westfield in Mount Druitt and they go to work - using it as a commuter car park Click here for previous post .

Also, most recently at my report of the Blacktown City Council Public Transport Forum Number 41 Click here for this post.
This report also tells how possibly  Mount Druitt Centre Link Staff may be using the Mount Druitt commuter car park, consisting of 220 car spaces and they may not be using public transport to park their car. So if 30-40 people work at this premises then that is 30-40 less commuter car spaces for the community to use.

it appears that Westfield Mount Druitt are advertising for car park  not to be used as an all day car park. This is a good incentive as some drivers may enter the Westfield Free Car park and abuse it by using it as a commuter car park. By doing this, they are destroying the customers that actually need to and want to park whilst the "All day parkers" block  required parking. A great incentive to utilise this properly for the Westfield management and it's shopping community.

Becareful Of MyGov Joining Up!

I have strong advice from an accountant that with the internet being used nationally and as it personally to open up accounts online, the secret of the internet is now be revealed.

What the government is trying to do is cut costs. Just think about it!

So the issue is that if you are opening an account with MyGov 
 




you do not receive any postal mail to yourself or even to your tax agents that is if you link the account to the following Australian Government Departments: Australian Tax Office, Centrelink and Medicare.

This has been due to the cost of printing, the Australian Government incurs in sending out mail to all Australian constituents, in relations to matters raised. On the positive side, once you have joined MyGov to all other departments you can check all your accounts online and so can your professional tax agent/accountant!