progressivepodcastaustralia

Cartoon by Alan Moir, from smh.com.au

You can listen to this episode above and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes. You can also listen to this episode on Stitcher, Cyber Ears or download it on Archive.org (45mins, 35MB).

On this episode, Nick is joined by his brother Liam Pendergrast, one of the many victims of Centrelink’s new compliance system. This new computer system used by Australia’s welfare/social security system is issuing 20,000 debt notices a week, which is not only affecting vulnerable people, but many of these notices are incorrect in their claim that people under-reported their income while on Centrelink.

If you’ve received a false debt letter from Centrelink, you’re not alone – visit notmydebt.com.au and share your story. Also check out #NotMyDebt on Twitter for more stories and information on the issue.

In some Trump-related news, we discuss Jason Brownlee’s article ‘Trump gives no reason to believe U.S. nation-building will end on Jan. 20’ (a topic we discussed with Jason on episode 146) and Amnesty’s International’s petition calling for Obama to take his last chance to leave a lasting human rights legacy. Check out Ward Churchill’s spoken word CD ‘In A Pig’s Eye: Reflections on the Police State, Repression and Native America’ for more on Native American activist Leonard Peltier’s case, which is referred to in Amnesty’s petition.

Please support our Crowd Funding campaign! https://chuffed.org/project/50eps2017

Clips:

Thejuicemedia ‘Centrelink Fail – Honest Government Advert’, Freeman Dre & The Kitchen Party ‘It’s Good To Have Faith In The Lord’, Choking Victim ‘Money’ – featuring Michael Parenti, Leonard Cohen ‘The Future’.

You can listen to a short (9 minute) version of this episode, which features a shortened version of Liam’s Centrelink story, here and below. You can subscribe to these short versions of our episodes through Omny.