Mel From Melbourne - Music & Words

  Modern ‘Blackbirding’? by Malachi Doyle. “PALM scheme The Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme is a temporary migration program which allows eligible Australian businesses to hire workers from nine Pacific islands and Timor-Leste when there are not enough local workers available. Through the PALM scheme, Pacific and Timor-Leste workers take up a range of short term (up to 9 months) and long-term job opportunities (one to four years) in low and semi-skilled positions, enabling them to develop skills and send income home to support their families and communities. PALM scheme workers are required to depart Australia to encourage them to reconnect with their families and communities.   This is for three months following the conclusion of a short-term placement and six months following the conclusion of a long-term placement.   … Participating Countries: Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanu...

  What D irection?   You are writing without direction today. You are tired. You are worried. You are casually employed and therefore during lockdown, you are suddenly unemployed. Despite the competence of your work, despite your integrity of character, despite the effort you put in each and every day. Things are so desperate you do something you thought you would never do: you’ve sought to apply for Job Seeker allowance, as Job Keeper is no longer available. You are fortunate you guess in that you have access to the internet. Many do not. You go to MyGov to connect with Centrelink. But, perhaps due to high traffic, the website does not work. You do not know the reason. There is a silence surrounding it. Tomorrow you will try again. And the following day. And the following day. Time for which you and your family will not receive any income.   A man in a suit, with a smirk on his face comes on the news. He’s rhetorically cute and speaking without direction. Evident...

  Selfie   The fact of the Morrison’s profound negligence regarding the COVID vaccine roll out is so obvious that even the Labor Party has finally noticed it. I really don’t want to write about this it is so ugly. And the obvious question is why when lockdowns allow, aren’t people protesting? Our feet, our brains, our wills seem to be in quicksand and everyone looks anaesthetized. Ok we’re worried but is it that simple? It is truly terrible and even the slow witted must have noticed that a lot of people are being left behind and yes it does appear sincerely to be a tragedy. The banks, despite the recent farcical Royal Commission have redoubled their prey drive and the government is actively destroying lives by encouraging vulnerable and desperate people to give up their superannuation. I really want to talk about something different I really do. The bottle shops are doing well. But for how much longer? Before people can’t even afford cask wine. I don’t do politics well. I ...