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Autistics must oppose Pauline Hanson’s One Nation

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  By Helen Said, Autistic advocate, Melbourne Victoria, Australia In Victoria, we face the very real prospect of a One Nation – Liberal Coalition coming to power at this November’s state election. This will be a disaster for Autistics, First Nations people, immigrants, women, LGBTIQ people and the environment. One Nation is a notoriously discriminatory, anti-Autistic party, funded by billionaires, that wants to build nuclear power stations and abolish our climate change goals. Our State Labor Government has been in power for twelve years and it is un unusual for governments to remain in power for much longer. At the state election this November, we are bracing for a three-way contest between centre-left Labor, centre-right Liberals and the ascendant far right party, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation. (The Greens, which campaigned against cuts to the National Disability Insurance Scheme, do not attract a large percentage of votes.) Because we have preferential voting, and because ri...
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Powdered Turmeric still on sale despite Lead Chromate fears

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  by Helen Said, Melbourne Australia. Many falsely labelled and potentially toxic products remain on supermarket shelves, d espite an ABC Four Corners investigation, of 27th July 2026, exposing food labelling fraud. [1] A quick glance at both Coles and Woolworths websites show that, six weeks after forensic scientists from Source Certain detected lead chromate and iron oxide in three samples of Hoyts Turmeric, the product is still on sale and the price has gone up to $6.20, a 13 percent price rise in the past fortnight. Late last month, I ordered a jar of Hoyts ground turmeric, for $5.50, online from Woolworths. I add turmeric to drinks, and occasionally to my cooking, for its reputed health benefits, and I was unaware that some brands were potentially adulterated. It was only after seeing an item on social media yesterday, and searching for the news report online, that I discovered that three out of four samples of this product had tested positive for iron oxide and lead chromate...
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Political party life should include all Australians

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  By Helen Said, rank and file Labor Party member, We should all feel equally included in our country’s democracy, regardless of ethnic background, religion, disability or medical condition. Disappointingly, many of Australia’s political get togethers are non-inclusive and this is hurting our democracy. Many important Australian political meetings are held in licensed venues which are inaccessible to some Australians on the basis of culture and religion. For example, some Labor Party branches hold their monthly meetings in pubs, which are inaccessible to traditional Muslims. Even without religious restrictions, people with different cultural dress or racial appearance can feel out of place in some pub environments. Accessing some private meeting rooms within pubs can involve approaching the bar where alcohol is served to ask where the meeting room is; walking past men who are drinking and staring; or sometimes, climbing stairs to get to the meeting, which can be difficult or imposs...
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Should Australians use their superannuation to buy a house?

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by Helen Said, Melbourne Australia. Pauline Hanson's far right One Nation policies will destroy Australia's compulsory superannuation system. This is a threat to the retirement incomes and economic security of Australian workers. Hanson's latest attack on super savings is to say that workers should sell out their retirement security by using their employer funded retirement nest eggs to buy a house. If Senator Hanson was that worried about housing, why did she vote against the Housing Australia Future Fund Bill in 2023? In fact, Pauline Hanson has consistently voted against federal legislative packages and funding initiatives aimed at increasing housing affordability and public housing, including the federal social and affordable housing funds and the Help to Buy legislation. She prefers to blame migration for the housing shortage, rather than to use her position as a Queensland Senator to vote for real improvements. She has also opposed other cost of living measures whic...
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Smart Glasses - balancing disability and privacy needs

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  By Helen Said, Autistic advocate, Melbourne Australia A GetUp! petition, demanding Kmart stops selling affordable smart glasses, is gaining thousands of new signatures every day. Sponsored by Gina Martin, who successfully campaigned to outlaw upskirting in England and Wales, the petition cites legitimate concerns about smart glasses being used to covertly film women in change rooms or children at the school gate and the unauthorised uploading of such films to the internet. While motivated by very real dangers to women and children, the campaign to limit or stall the sale of smart glasses has overlooked their vital role in providing everyday assistance to blind and vision impaired people. The glasses can assist with reading, identifying objects and navigating spaces, amongst other uses. Smart glasses specifically designed for vision impaired people can cost thousands of dollars, and might not always be funded by the NDIS. Vision Australia sells the lower cost mainstream Ray Ban sm...
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Growing up under the White Australia Policy

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  By Helen Said, Melbourne, Australia With the White Australia Policy back in the media spotlight, I have decided to share my personal story as a person from a Greek-Egyptian ethnic background. My parents and older sister were born in Egypt and were part of a Greek speaking ethnic minority. They left Egypt as refugees from the Second Arab-Israeli War. As Greek-Maltese British Subjects living in Egypt, they had been placed under house arrest, following the tri-partite British, French and Israeli invasion, and ordered out of the country, under threat of imprisonment. My family arrived in icy London in the winter of 1956, carrying two suitcases of light Egyptian clothes and five worthless Egyptian pounds. My parents have always been grateful for the kindness relatives and strangers showed them when they were broke and homeless, and this motivated them to later become refugee advocates in Australia. But back in 1950s London, when my parents were refugees, there were some who were...
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One Nation's "English-only services" - ignorant and mean-spirited

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  by Helen Said, Melbourne Australia My grandmother (Yaya) moved to Australia when I was a teenager. Upon arriving at Tullamarine Airport, Yaya proudly announced to me and my sister that she read three English newspapers every day.  Yaya was born in Libya and learned to speak seven languages. She was the granddaughter of the local Greek Orthodox Priest. She grew up as a Greek speaker in Constantinople (Istanbul) and attended the local American Ladies College, where she learned English. She married a Greek-Maltese British Subject. My grandfather (Papou) found work with the occupying British Army shortly after the First World War, and accepted a transfer to Egypt upon marrying Yaya. Yaya and Papou raised their family in Egypt where my grandfather continued to serve the British NAAFI (Navy, Army and Air Force Institute) for the next 45 years.  In widowhood, living in Australia, Yaya developed dementia and lost her ability to speak all of her languages except her native Greek...
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