The Origin Story
This campaign began with one woman in the room she’s almost entirely confined to. That’s me, Catherine, and I’m going to start writing this in first person because otherwise this is weird.
It was the day after the 2022 federal Australian election and I was feeling awful. Along with many other disabled people, the relief I was feeling at the change of government was so intense it was debilitating. At last, a government who isn’t uncomfortably comfortable with people like me dying!
Was I convinced that everything would be rosy now? NOPE. I’ve been alive and paying basic attention to politics for too long to believe any party is a guarantee that problems will be fixed.
But I did believe that the new government could be bullied into doing the right thing.
So, which issue did I want to focus on? I definitely don’t have the capacity to do more than one, so I had to choose something important.
And that feeling of debilitating relief was very familiar. I’d been knocked on my arse by it a few years earlier when I was finally approved for the Disability Support Pension. “Oh my God, I’m going to be okay,” I had said.
I want all people on income support to be okay. And that means raising the rate to the Henderson Poverty Line.
So I started with hand-writing a letter, once a week, alternating between my MP and the Minister for Social Services, Amanda Rishworth.
I started building relationships online with other groups and people who were working on the same issue. I joined the Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union and volunteered as much as I could, while not leaving the house.
And eventually I decided: there are so many groups who all agree that income support is not adequate, and what to do about it. Wouldn’t it be more powerful if we came together?
AUWU agreed and Nobody Deserves Poverty was born.
It’s not about AUWU and it’s definitely not about me. It’s about one extremely vital issue and its extremely simple solution.
Here are some of those who have signed on
National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA)
Public Health Association Australia (PHAA)