select skin: 
Add page to: 
Add page to: Add page to: For the first time in over 10 years, I'm unemployed. The place I work has undergone changes and there is very little of my kind of work coming in so it's time to move on. My skills are reasonably transferrable and I'm very capable so I'm sure I'll find something but in the meantime I have to register as unemployed.
Unlike when I made the move to Adelaide and I was told by the people at the CES that I was stupid to move and I'd never find a job (gee thanks), I've found the people that I've dealt with at Centrelink in person and by phone (two ocassions) to be pleasant and professional.
I do take exception to the wording or bias of a particular question and that is, Do you share your living environment with a member of the opposite sex who is not related to you (I'm paraphrasing, but that is what the question was asking).
I take exception to this question because it shows ignorance and stupidy on behalf of our Government and creates an inequity amongst the citizens of Australia.
I said No, but asked Out of curiousity, What would happen if I said yes (I know this question is asked as an attempt to cut down on the people that cheat the system by saying they have a 'flatmate' or 'housemate' when in fact they are in a defacto realtionship). The girl on the phone said I'd be asked more questions. Which makes total sense based on the reason the question is answered.
I then asked, 'Just out of curiosity, what if I lived with someone of the same sex who wasn't related to me, would they care? I could still be having a defacto relationship with them.'. She said that it was not something that was investigated or that was asked.
See, it's not that they are checking on my integrity that drives me nuts - I know people abuse the system - what makes me insanely annoyed is that because the Government refuses to admit that people in same sex relationships exist and because of that refusal, Australian Citizens are not treated equitably.
A man or woman who cheats the system by denying a relationship with a person of the opposite sex that really exists is penalised - fined and possibly gains a criminal record while a person in a same sex relationship doesn't have to say anything about their defacto relationship because in the eyes of the government it doesn't exist (even though in reality, it does).
It's just dumb. And unfair.
Gay people do exist, regardless of whether the government puts it's hands over it's ears and says, "la la la" very loudly to block out the fact. They are Australian Citizens. They are sometimes employed and sometimes unemployed. If they were asked about their relationships with their flat/house mates some gay people (like heterosexuals) would tell the truth, some would lie. Those that lie should be penalised in the same way as people in opposite sex relationships.
For goodness sake, even if you don't like the idea of someone being gay (though how what they do in private is any of your business or concern, I'm not quite sure), surely you want them to be forced to pay the same taxes and conform to the same rules that heterosexuals do. It's just insane that sexuality affects whether you have to pay certain taxes or whether you are breaching your unemployment payments or not.
Insane.
Ignoring the fact that gay people exist (not recognising them legally) is not going to make them go away. By recognising them legally, however, it will ensure that people in same sex relationships are subject to the same taxes and rules as heterosexuals, making life fairer.
Religion and state should be separate and I can see no reason for the state (or nation) to not recognise gay relations, unless the laws are being strongly influenced by religious belief.
Labels: Equal Rights
Posted by grudknows : Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Permanent Link
Chade commented...The current political climate and that of the last few decades has been one of: See no Evil, hear no Evil, and speak no Evil unless it's those bloody foreigners. Australia, as much as I wish it was, is not a progressive nation. As far as civil rights and liberties go the citizens had it pretty well but have gradually allowed the government to remove these liberties in the name of defence and freedom.
What is freedom and how do we express it? In this country it is expressed by blind voting based on propaganda.
There was a book released some years ago called: a Culture of Fear by Barry Glasner, which covered this topic very well. Our governments and media create fear to guide their power to its own ends and rarely reflect inwardly on procedure until an event occurs where they can no longer deny it.
Until such a time when this inequality can be coopted by the media into something more than a paragraph or comment in the ‘letters to the editor’ it will not change.
view/add comment (1)
Local, national and world issues that concern or impassion the contributors and promote them to get off their butts and have their say.
Grudknows - Off Ya Butt - the blog is powered by blogger.com
