Your concerns are valid. I don’t think it’s a wild position to expect action from The Voice as a measure of success, and not virtue signalling. Race politics in this country is ugly. If the Yes camp wins, they will celebrate in a way that the No camp will label virtue signalling. And if the No camp wins, they will decry victory over political correctness. Respectful debate is unlikely irrespective of the outcome.

All that said — The Voice will be independent of the Government of the day. If the Government fails to act, The Voice will speak directly to the Government, the media and the community, announcing failure. I believe this will create a powerful political incentive to listen and act on the recommendations of The Voice in a unique way that our system currently does not have.

All political parties have issues with racism to various degrees — Liberals, Greens, Labor, all of 'em. The Voice will hold them accountable for their respective failures. Given that politicians loath transparency, it’s a fundamentally good idea to have an indigenous body to hold politicians to direct account.

A recent example of how this may play out is in Queensland, where Labor is potentially liable for tens of millions of dollars, for inhumane child detention in so-called ‘watch’ houses. The Guardian has an excellent article on this issue. If Australia had an advisory body like The Voice, the sheer amount of attention that would be given on this issue would unquestionably force Labor to prioritise rectifying this issue. Currently, this issue is being played out in the courts, which is an important component of justice, but I’d argue that an expedited solution would occur if The Voice existed.

Pardon the long post. If you want any recommendations for balanced and fair podcasts, articles or resources, please let me know. Happy to help. And all the best otherwise x

hot baths & saunas are a staple! and that’s a good reminder, i do need to lose a few pounds.

thanks for sharing x

I have intermittent sciatica & back pain — may I ask what other strategies or medications helped you relieve your symptoms? I exercise and take NSAIDs infrequently. Also tried medical marijuana, which was admittedly fun and def eased anxiety around pain flare-ups but didn’t reduce the physical pain noticeably. And yeh trying to avoid opiates for obvious reasons.

the most annoying is long applications odd when there’s pre-screenings and multiple rounds of interviews, like goddamn spare us all the pain of writing and reading this b/s and ask these things face to face

and that’s dope! getting out of retail, that is, must be an exciting step forward.

are you having much luck finding these types of office customer service roles? asking bc my sector is cooked rn, not enough jobs and too many applicants

honestly that’s so awesome of her, i always wanted to know what it was like on the inside and its so great that you can get that perspective bc workplaces get real funny when it comes to this kinda thing

in a job awhile back there were multiple claims against one staff member and the gov paid several people out due their behaviour. yet hr had the audacity to emphasise on numerous occasions that nobody was guilty, the workplace environment was safe, yadda yadda

but anyway stoked you got some perspective on your situation and again i hope it mellows out for ya

fair deal friend, and its real good to hear you’ve got some clarity, shout out to ya mate in HR hey what a legend

Isn’t it cooked? My lord. Especially writing responses to selection criteria. I’m looking at entry level academic/research, learning design & peripherally related jobs — so yeah lol each application has ~10 criteria to respond to. Brutal.

How about yourself, what kinda of work are you looking for?

probably an obvious comment to make but if you are feeling it, take some notes on the situation at hand, being as factual as you can given the circumstances. contemporaenous notes are powerful documents to possess during conflicts and when things go to shit.

I am right there with you. I’ve been looking for about 6 weeks now — landed a few good interviews, but there were better candidates each time. The worst part? The interviews have all been for incredible positions that I landed with rough as guts application written by chatGPT — yet the handwritten, bespoke, thoughtful (and by all other metrics) clearly superior applications have all been flat out rejected.

no idea what to make of this but uhh yeah i hate moment of this cooked as process