UQ has a very strong relationship with US weapons manufacturer Boeing. Students are protesting this relationship, as well as showing general support for Palestinians, by staging a camp-in on campus.
Some photos I took of the camp as I walked past them this morning.
Dealing with a government welfare system for the first time in a while.
Last time there were still people you’d talk to who’d smooth over the process.
Now it’s all online and automated.
And holy fucking hellscape Batman.
They’ve just shipped the whole bureaucracy along with their own software bugs.
And as the welfare seeker you have to navigate all of the details and jargon (and bugs/broken links) without any assurance that anything is ok, hoping the money comes.
Otherwise, yea this doesn't sound surprising. From my recent limited experience it seems like a system held together with duck tape.
Which is funny, because if the fear from govt is to prevent people from becoming professional "dole-bludgers", making the system so hard to use that it requires special skills and experience is the wrong thing to do.
I'm sure there are all sorts of silly loop holes and bugs that plenty of people have learnt to exploit.
Honestly never heard it called “welfare” in Australia before. That’s a new one.
Centrelink was always rubbish,even before robodebt, and the phone-in service was trained to be unhelpful. I recommend actually making the effort to go in physically, it makes a massive difference, or it used to. They still have offices in every township here in NSW at least.
I am sorry you are going through this, I hope the situation improves.