@mamamia-user-482898552
Can we stop saying that the government will be giving us RATs for "free"? They are not free, we as taxpayers would be paying for them, which I personally think is a far better use of funds than say spending money to not buy submarines.
@kb1
@mamamia-user-482898552 Or in the case of Nadia, following her scandal she's been deleted from Racing Victoria and the Melbourne Cup Carnival
This makes me sad. No closer to knowing when I'll be able to see my family in Canada again.
@mrsp both my husband and I are frequently asked when we are having another, and told that it's time to start thinking about some company for our son. He's two.
@gypsy from your comments on this opinion piece, I'm not sure that you actually read it. Perhaps you only read the title and have drawn your own conclusions.
The writer states that her parents had spent 4 months of every year in Australia since the birth of her first child 4 years ago, helping out as her husband travels for work and his family don't live in their area.
As such she would be doing it alone, raising her children, at least part of the time.
On top of that, she has stated she is grateful for Australia, and the safety her children have here. She agrees with the border controls. She has even defended them.
She is trying to shine a light on the struggle of many expats and their families on the ongoing border restrictions and the unfairness of who receives an exemption visa and who doesn't. She isn't looking to open the whole country up to the world, she is looking for the gov't to revise their definition of family.
Her parents (and many other families) are willing to pay for flights, covid tests, quarantine, vaccinations and whatever else the government deems necessary to be allowed to physically see and help each other.
As she states above, she has applied for and been denied exemptions, as have many others, and yet we have Actors (Aussie Citizens or not) and all their entourage, and Athletes and all their entourage come and go from the country.
She may have chosen to live 12,000 miles away from her family, what she didn't choose was to be told that she cannot leave and her family cannot come.
If her sharing her feelings and grief publicly (with many people who can empathise and others who share those same feelings) upsets you so greatly, perhaps you should take your own advice, get on with it, stop crying into your coffee and scroll on past.
Or perhaps you could have a bit of empathy, hug the grandchild you are so enjoying, and take a second to understand the heartache of another grandparent that is being told that cannot do the same.
@cat it's so true! They're doing the bare minimum to try to look like they care and are listening.
Let's be honest, the changes to childcare are only a minimal win.
They don't take effect until next year and only benefit people with multiple children. Besides that, they don't actually encourage anybody who might be nearing the threshold income to work any more hours (if they wanted to) as they won't want to trigger any reduction to their rebate.
Personally, I'm wondering if I should work less so that I can actually benefit from this child care reform.
@guest2