Pro Bono Australia 

A candidate at the podium for every fuck given about queer rights

We're erased from the Census and political consciousness.

Buzzfeed News

Child abuse in Australia is at crisis levels, with the effects on the children and the adults they'll grow up to be horrific and lifelong. But 35% percent of Australians don't view child abuse as a big issue, with parents more likely to say it's not a big deal. Perhaps that's why police patrol public transport to catch fare evaders and strip search children - and meanwhile child protection services are underfunded, understaffed and overworked.

The New Daily

Too often, maternity care in Australia seems to reflect a desire for a healthy baby at all costs, without taking into account the health and wellbeing of the mother.

Eureka Street

We're always hearing about the so called inner city elites but a lot of people in inner city Sydney are doing it tough:

Single parent families in Kensington, Auburn North, Pyrmont-Ultimo, Sydney-Haymarket, The Rocks and Waterloo had the highest rates of poverty in Sydney, likely due to the large amounts of public housing in some of those areas.

The Sydney Morning Herald

Mental health issues can sometimes occur for no apparent reason, when life seems to be going well. But there's a strong correlation between mental health issues and stress, poverty, unemployment and insecurity. The punitive Centrelink and jobactive sysyems are literally making people sick - and the mental health system can't help them. Excellent reporting from Rick Morton.

If Scott Morrison actually cared two tiny mouse droppings about reducing rates of suicide, he'd do something to fix this. He won't though.

The Saturday Paper

Anyone who's had to deal with Centrelink knows their onerous requirements, including supplying details of your relationship status. This is especially true for people receiving the single parent's pension. Centrelink is determined that only the good kind of single parent receives the single parent's pension, and recipients can now be asked not just to prove that they are not in a relationship, but to supply sworn statements from third parties to verify their unattached status. Even given that, Centrelink still reserves for themselves the right to decide a sole parents pension recipient is in a relationship, and cut off their payments. It's a relic from the moral climate when sole mothers' benefits were introduced, and it was felt that whilst we had to keep those blameless mothers and children who'd been abandoned by their husbands from starvation, we certainly couldn't encourage feckless hussies to shack up and have illegitimate children with a succession of men, and so they would restrict the pension to the good kind of single mother, who devoted herself to a life of chaste motherhood in return for genteel poverty instead of outright destitution.

But of course, real life is far more complicated than that, and whilst Centrelink fraud inspectors are driving past the houses of single mothers to check there's no men's underwear brazenly hanging on the washing line, there's all sorts of other issues, not least of which is whether is someone assumed to be financially responsible for children that aren't theirs just because they're in a relationship with the children's mother?

Turns out the United States is ahead of this on this one. Over fifty years ahead, in fact. Before it was replaced in 1996 as part of Bill  Clinton's "Welfare to Work" drive, the main payment supporting American single parents was Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). AFDC was originally introduced in 1935, but came with what was known as the "man in the house" rule, that aid was conditional upon whether there was a man living in the home. This rule was used to police the sexual morality of women, particularly women of colour, by ensuring they weren't shacking up. The rule was struck down by the Supreme Court ruling of King v. Smith in 1968, which held that just because a man was having a sexual relationship with a woman in her home, he could counted as a substitute parent - and was under no legal obligation to support her children. From that point on, it wasn't enough for a woman just to be in a romantic relationship with a man; aid could only be restricted if a man was in a parental relationship with her children.

The question of a parental relationship is one that is completely pushed aside in Centrelink's rules on the single parent relationship. Of course there are many step parents who have loving parent-child relationships with children who aren't biologically theirs; but Centrelink assumes that the moment a person moves in with a parent, they automatically assume all financial responsibility for their children, regardless of whether that person likes or supports or loves the kids at all.

That, or Centrelink just enjoys its right to slut shame single mothers too much to give up now.

This is an issue that needs more public discussion. Heck it could be an issue that could even unite feminists and men's rights advocates. Feminists want an end to policies that shame and impoverish women; men's rights advocates rail against men being made to financially support kids that aren't theirs. Either way, it's a crappy situation and for once, it's an area of welfare reform where Australia really needs to catch up to the US.

We care about violence when it happens to men in public, but give women "safety tips" when they are the victims.

Independent Australia

As someone who has been left at the office more than once to take calls while coworkers went to celebrate the Melbourne Cup after I refused to do the same - let alone the time the celebration was in the office and I was told watching the race was not optional - I'm very glad to hear of companies, pubs and other organisations getting behind a horse (and gambling and public drunkenness) free Melbourne Cup day.

How companies with purpose can use Melbourne Cup day to promote their values

5 ways to celebrate on Cup Day without hurting horses

Listing of "nup to the cup" events

Gaps in support approved, difficulty finding supports with the funding provided, a lack of suitable housing for people with disability all contribute to the shameful fact of 6,000 younger Australians living in aged care facilities - a number that has barely budged in the past decade despite the nationwide rollout of the NDIS.

Nursing homes, geared towards people at the end stage of life, are no place to provide the support, lifestyle and hope of younger people with functional impairments.

The Conversation