This Australia Day, my Dad won an award! Even more - he was accepted as a member of the Order of Australia, which as far as I can make out is like Australia's chillaxed version of the British knighthood.
"Sir Frederick and Lady Wentworth! It would be but a new creation, however, and I never think much of your new creations."
- Mary Musgrove, ( Read more... )

Last Tuesday was World Food Day, and the third day of Anti-Poverty Week in Australia. It was also the day that Anglicare Australia launched their annual State of the Family report, which this year was focused on the food insecurity research that our team has been working on for over a year. It was finally published! So exciting!


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This week I conducted food interviews at Summer Hill - lovely, local Summer Hill. EVen though only half my appointments turned up I had a pretty good time. Everyone I talked to was interesting and genuine. I loved most of all hearing about the local initiatives happening so close to where I live. There is apparently a caravan set up by the ( Read more... )

I don’t feel comfortable using the antiquated phrase “the deserving poor” in my day to day work but it’s an interesting concept to toss around when reflecting on how welfare services work. If you spend time meditating on the phrase it doesn't take long before you find yourself diving headlong into the power plays at work in welfare services. Who ( Read more... )

Here is a neat infographic about those crazy asylum seekers who come to Australia by boat and threaten to steal all our jobs and stuff.

The infographic was created by Robert Corr and was published over here at Crikey.com.au.

( Graphic this way! )

A couple of weeks ago, I won a prize on my friend Jeremy's blog. I correctly identified that the new immigration minister, Chris Bowen, quoted Martin Luther in his maiden speech to parliament. To reward my awesome knowledge of quotable reformation quotes, Jez sent me a prize in the mail.

( Prize )

It's election day tomorrow ( Read more... )

Sometimes, at work, I hear things that make my ears burn ( Read more... )

So the conference ended up being pretty fantastic. However there were a handful of things that I didn't agree with. Here they are, paraphrased.

1. "The best way to conserve the environment is for everyone to have smaller families."
- Nola Stewart, Sustainable Population AustraliaNola Stewart wasn't actually invited to speak at the conference, ( Read more... )

Right now I am inbetween two days of conference - the Inaugural Australian Population 2050 Conference. Or something like that ( Read more... )