Assyrian-American Engineer Returns to Homeland to Support His People — Speaks at Assyria Day
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ABC News
2 hours ago
- ABC News
Foster mum Roylene Robinson now helps those in need in cost-of-living crisis
For Roylene Robinson, raising hundreds of children has been challenging but "very rewarding". For almost half a century, she has been a foster mum. "Mother's Day is a very, very big day," the 76-year-old said. "It's either the phone ringing or you've got emails or you've got messages or you've got people calling in … I find it very, very rewarding on Mother's Day." Ms Robinson has fostered 280 children over the past 47 years in her humble Rockhampton home in central Queensland. She also has four children of her own. The single carer said love and encouragement were two of the most important things a parent figure could offer a foster child. Ms Robinson dedicates her life not just to children, but to everyone in need. The doors to her charity store, Moo and Coo, open at 10 each morning and within a few minutes, it's always a hive of activity. "Everything's cheaper, much cheaper and it's like the original op shops," she said. "This is what op shops were years ago where people could come in find what they need and have a cup of tea. Ms Robinson is the heart and soul of the not-for-profit organisation that provides essentials like food, clothing and furniture to people in need. "This is a quiet morning. Saturdays [and] Wednesdays are much, much bigger," she said. With the nation in the grips of a cost-of-living crisis, Ms Robinson says many residents, particularly those on lower incomes, are struggling to afford basic needs like food, fuel, rent and electricity. While the state and federal governments are taking steps to address the issue, the situation remains challenging for many. "We do care packages, food packages, clothing, kitchen packs, baby packs for the hospital, so we do everything that we can, right now blankets and everything to keep the needy warm and fed," Ms Robinson said. "We quite often heat up the meals for the people off the street and give them a knife and fork." Laurel Mason is a social worker who regularly brings her clients — mainly those sleeping rough on the streets — to Ms Robinson's store. Ms Mason admitted she had even experienced challenges in meeting increased cost-of-living expenses in recent times. "I know even for myself, I've used Roylene's shop at one point when I wasn't working, so it was a great help to me at that time," she said. According to a survey of 3,600 people who had accessed assistance from The Salvation Army, 90 per cent reported it was difficult to afford essential living costs, such as housing, groceries, medical care and utilities over the past 12 months. The 2025 Red Shield report also found 70 per cent of respondents said cost of living was their biggest challenge in the past year while 87 per cent of households with children were living below the poverty line. Ms Robinson said she had noticed a huge increase in demand for essential items such as clothing. "The cost of living is happening to everybody," she said. "People are finding rents high, food prices have gone up, your petrol has gone up."
News.com.au
3 hours ago
- News.com.au
The demise of cash brings a stark new reality for Australians
Cash is king, so the saying goes. These days it's more like Prince Harry – exiled and mostly forgotten about except for the odd bit of novelty entertainment. I was recently packing for a week away at the Warrnambool races and shoved my hand in a suit pocket before putting it in the bag – only to find a wad of $50 notes that I'd clean forgotten. As best I could deduce, I must have won it on the punt previously and never retrieved it from the jacket. So I proceeded to hand it all back to the bookies, never to be seen again – which, in one way or another, is what has happened to most people's cash. Not necessarily on the punt. But it's nowhere to be seen. Even as a young man, there was a time when I only punted with cash. I'd do the form on Friday evening and Saturday morning I'd go down to the pub or TAB to put my bets on for the day. There were always a few coins on hand to have a quick bet if I popped into the pub for a quiet pint in the afternoon. I was on first-name terms with the lady who ran the TAB near the newsroom in Adelaide. The kitty was in my bedside drawer and I could see exactly how much cash was coming in and out. Then Covid came along and the sneeze police said you couldn't go to the pub or you'd be put in the city watch house so I was forced to punt online instead – and I've been doing it ever since. It's a bit sad, really, because I enjoyed the ritual of going to the TAB to have a chat and put a bet on but new habits formed and they stuck. Now, on a Friday afternoon, I sometimes take myself to the pub with some cash for the novelty of having a bet the old fashioned way. All of this is to say that you don't realise just how quickly habits form – and how fast that has driven cash into obscurity. You may say you don't care because it's easier to use your credit or debit card. And that's fine so long as you still have the freedom to use cash – but just you wait till that doesn't exist anymore. This masthead's Ella McIlveen recently wrote of how supermarkets are slowly squeezing out cash by reducing the number of self-service terminals that will take it. Many of the Coles and Woolworths outlets she visited had just two terminals accepting cash. One – a Coles shop – had none at all. The only way you could use cash was to go to a manned checkout. Except none of them were manned. This is not for the convenience of the consumer. It is a deliberate ploy by corporate Australia and the federal government to reduce the use of cash so they can eventually scrap it altogether. It's a bit like banks keep justifying the closure of ATMs and branches by saying that fewer people are using cash without acknowledging that one of the main reasons fewer people are using cash is because they've taken away all the places from which you can get it. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy that ultimately leads to the abolition of the one form of money over which you have complete control – which is exactly what they want. The most valuable resource on the planet today is not dug out of the ground, it's dug out of your life. Data is worth more than gold or any diamond and digital transactions paint a picture of who you are and what you do. Your bank probably knows you better than you know yourself. And once you get rid of cash, the government can introduce a central bank digital currency (CBDC). CBDCs would be issued by the federal government of Reserve Bank but because it exists digitally and not physically, it can potentially give the issuer control at all times. The controller of a CBDC could, theoretically, add or deduct money from your account at any time for any reason. It could give the controller – the government – the power to dictate how that money can or cannot be spent. And it could give the government complete oversight of how and where you spend your money, thus creating a surveillance state on a mass scale. You may figure that's unlikely to be a problem – but imagine that power in the wrong hands. Governments don't always act in your best interest.
ABC News
3 hours ago
- ABC News
Social clubs helping young Canberrans form friendships in the transient city
When masters student Kinneret Pezarkar moved to Canberra from a city more than 40 times its size, she faced an overwhelming problem she never expected. The 24-year-old, in the prime of her life, remembers sitting on a couch in her room on weekends wondering what everyone else was doing with their time. She said finding friends was a daunting challenge in the first few months. "It can feel a little bit embarrassing at the start, like, 'Oh, do you want to hang out with me?' "Sometimes there would be days where I didn't have anything planned for the weekend." And moving to a place where many other young adults have also moved too did not guarantee making friends would be easy. Despite being surrounded by other students who had left their support networks behind, Ms Pezarkar believes making friends is challenging in Canberra. In Australia, almost one in three people experience moderate levels of loneliness, according to a 2023 report by Ending Loneliness Together. ACT residents report the highest rate, equating to 40 per cent of residents. Ms Pezarkar noticed people came and went from Canberra. "I usually go in expecting to be the best of friends with everybody, and I think it's a high expectation to set," Ms Pezarkar said. "It can feel kind of temporary, so either you give too much or you give too [little]. "They might leave, so why do I waste so much time?" But after several months calculating time zone differences to keep phoning friends in Mumbai, and being gently encouraged to overcome anxiety barriers, Ms Pezarkar decided to step out and try again, to meet new people. "You realise that you need to break out of whatever shell you're in — these labels of introvert, extravert," she said. She asked people in her class if they wanted to start a book club — and they did. She now has a group of friends who have all also moved to Canberra from Asian countries. Ms Pezarkar is not alone in her experience of loneliness. What has been labelled the "loneliness epidemic" has led many craving friendship to form new social groups around the country. The Canberra Girls Club was started in 2025 by women who were craving a way to find new friends. The group, which hosts free exercise sessions and group walks, quickly grew in popularity on social media. Ishu Kamboj, who joined the group in June, acknowledges friendships take time. In the five years she's lived in the capital, she is yet to find a circle of close friends — something she attributes towards the city's transient population of workers who leave after several years. "I've seen this trend of people moving away from Canberra, they move out of Canberra very quickly," Ms Kamboj said. "I made friends and they moved away. "I was like, 'What do I do?' I'm just with my loneliness sitting in my house, what do I do?" The girls' group grew from 20 people to an average of 80 attendees within its first three meet-ups — many in the same boat as Ms Kamboj. Canberra-based counsellor Jon Nielsen said many of his clients regularly experienced loneliness, even if they didn't realise it. "They don't always describe it as loneliness, sometimes it will just be a sense that something is not quite right, I'm not feeling good, I'm at a loose end," Mr Nielsen said. "It can lead people into depression … and it can be quite debilitating." Mr Nielsen said the usual pathways of making friends sometimes do not work when people move to a different city. Mr Nielsen said people may move with a partner and find themselves without an outlet for socialisation outside of their relationship. Though many people experience moderate loneliness, some experience what experts call "persistent loneliness" — where their social connection needs are not met for an extended period of time. In young people, the experience is prevalent in two in five people — above the national average of one in four, according to Ending Loneliness Together. The chair of Ending Loneliness Together, Michelle Lim, said there was a negative stigma around the topic of loneliness that prevented people reaching out for help. "The way we live and the way we function in a society and in this culture means we are not actually verbalising a need to get help or support early on," she said. She considers loneliness a key public health issue. "We need to more generally ask for help in a way that is respectful and meaningful," Dr Lim said. "We really need to start putting loneliness on the agenda."
