I wholeheartedly agree with most of what you’ve said but this bit doesn’t sit right with me.
Feels like you’re leaning into the stereotype typically seen from the political right that welfare recipients are all “lazy dole bludgers” who aren’t seriously looking for work.
Having been in the employment services sector I know from first hand experience that the overwhelming majority of jobseekers want nothing more than steady, stable work and work very hard to try and achieve that in what is a very challenging market.
I would actually doubt that most of these fools protesting are actually welfare recipients- they are just bigots who are unhappy that Australia has evolved from the days of the “White Australia Policy” into the fantastic multicultural nation that it is today.
A bit hard when some of these politicians are of that exact breed (cough One Nation, Palmer’s experiments).
As a first generation immigrant myself, I walked into a country at a time when people were either really nice or really nasty (with casual racism being perceived as normal). I’ve felt like I’ve had to ‘fit in’ so that I could really be a part of this great country, and in many cases lose my own identity and what I really believed in in many cases. It wasn’t until the mid 2010s where I felt that I truly belonged without having to assimilate into the anglo-celtic culture. A time when people believed that a fair go meant being able to live in Australia with my own culture comfortably without people looking at you like if you were a monkey from another planet.
This sort of protest, in many ways, seems to me that people want to go back to those days, the days which I hate and despise looking back now. It’s very personal to me which is why I felt I had to speak out.
It is deeply concerning to me that the racism and xenophobia that was on display today has become more accepted in our society in recent years (it’s been very noticeable since the pandemic).
There are definitely significant issues with housing, employment and infrastructure at the moment in this country, but this is largely as a result of suboptimal policy making at the government level over the last few decades.
To try and blame these issues primarily on immigrants and immigration as these protesters have today is as lazy as it is inaccurate. I would actually go as far as to call them un-Australian- the values they express do not reflect modern day Australia or the majority of Australians- rather they seem to be seeking to import the toxic far-right ideology that has taken root in the United States.
due to various delays its taken a while for make a wish to come though.
we are booked on a Disney cruise out of sydney in January - we are flying down the day before and will do some sightseeing in sydney prior to baording the boat.
Ive brought a box of unclaimed mail and packages online from an australian seller. it should come tomorrow or monday. be interested to see if it is any good and worth what i paid. if it is ok i’ll give the details here but i’m honestly expecting to not make my money back
the place where i got mine from has a small amount (apparently 50 boxes of around 15 items inside) go on sale daily. they normally sell out in under a minute.
Did anyone ever get confused between Telstra Stadium in Sydney and Telstra Dome in Melbourne in the early noughties?
From what I can recall, Telstra took over the naming rights to both Stadium Australia (Sydney) and Docklands Stadium (Melbourne) at the same time, leading to those two names I mentioned.
Later on, in 2007 ANZ took over the naming rights of the Olympic Stadium, while Etihad took the commercial rights for the Melbourne ground some 12-18 months later and it was renamed “Etihad Stadium” (nowadays it’s called Marvel Stadium).
Imagine if ANZ also took over the naming rights for Docklands at the same time they did with the Olympic Stadium in Sydney…
happy it all worked out..gonna be a long wait for your daughter 
