Is it normal a government department is acting as moral police?

25 Comments

For over 9 years I've supplemented my Disability Pension by working on adult sex lines, averaging around $250-$300 a fortnight. It's meant I've survived financially and haven't ended up homeless - it's impossible to live in private rental on government benefits.

Recently the Australian Consumer & Competition Commission forced Telstra to unilaterally close down all the 190 time charged phone lines and now the only calls I'm receiving are from blokes who use their credit cards, and that's a tiny minority of callers.

I don't care that Telstra is now losing millions of dollars but I do not believe a government department has the right to poke its nose into how people spend their money. The call rates are (sorry, were!) clearly advertised before calls begin: why is it anyone else's business if men call these lines?

A fair proportion of callers are lonely, isolated, widowed, elderly and disabled blokes who just want to talk about sex for a short time and then have general conversation. I have counselling training and I do a lot of phone counselling, including (believe it or not!) for marital/relationship issues.

I'm now living on A$372 a fortnight, which is all that's left of my pension after my rent is paid and there are now a lot of frustrated, lonely, bewildered men out there who can't call lines they've been using for years.

What do other people think about this moral policing of people's private lives? I know what I think and it's unprintable!

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Comments ( 25 )
  • LloydAsher
    4 years ago

    This is why the USA is fundamentally better than all other systems. In america something like that would be allowed because its only concerning adults in the mix it's A OK. All the parameters for the agreement have been made known to both parties. Then again it might be a state issue. So probably wont go down well in Alabama but if the company was in an another state the company wouldnt have to comply. Ah what a great system we have for determining what's right.

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    • Ellenna
      4 years ago

      Actually I've found out from someone who knows that there are no timed phone calls of this type in the usa and sex lines all require credit cards. She knows because she's planning expanding her Australian sex line business into the usa.

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  • donteatstuffoffthesidewalk
    4 years ago

    so whats to stop yall from settin up a paypal account or somethin for your services insteada havin the phone company as payment middleman?

    id imagine the phone company took a cut and if so theyre nothin but a buncha dial-a-pimps

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    • Ellenna
      4 years ago

      That's exactly what I'm planning to do right now, but I'm broke and it involves buying a second mobile phone, hiring an EFTPOS machine from my bank and most expensive thing of all, advertising.

      I've thought of it before but it was the advertising costs which deterred me, now I'm thinking I have no choice.

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  • CozmoWank
    4 years ago

    Do you live in Yoorana?

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    • Ellenna
      4 years ago

      Never heard of it

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      • CozmoWank
        4 years ago

        You need to watch Glitch on Netflix.

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        • Ellenna
          4 years ago

          I watched some of the series on TV: very well acted but the plot became more and more ridiculously convoluted as the series went on and I gave up.

          I'd be fascinated to know what that has to do with my post????

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          • CozmoWank
            4 years ago

            Well you live in Australia so I just thought I'd ask if you live in Yoorana.

            You are correct that the plot got ridiculous. I quit watching it too.

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            • Ellenna
              4 years ago

              It started off well but got too complicated and over the top for me. Were you watching it in the usa?

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  • ToTheMoon
    4 years ago

    "I'm now living on A$372 a fortnight"

    $100 fn food
    $72 fn electricity
    $10 fn water
    $60 fn petrol
    $30 fn internet
    $50 fn unicentual items / entertainment
    $50 fn savings / or car maintenance

    I'm guessing your rent is around $300 a week. Put your name down at DHS for government housing. you will save 100's of dollars a week on rent.

    I could live of what you get easy without supplementing the dsp, I know this because I lived on the dole for a few years and it is a lot less.

    But to answer you, NO, I do not agree with the higher poking their nose in. This world is becoming more and more less free, I feel us normal citizens are owned, rather then live creatures with choice.

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    • Ellenna
      4 years ago

      Gee, thanks so much for working out a budget for little old me, how kind you are .... and patronising: I've been managing my own money since I started work at the age of 15 in 1961. I'm also a trained Financial Counsellor. OK sarcasm over (did you get it or not?) your figures are ridiculous. The approximately accurate one is the food for me and my dog and that doesn't include the free stuff I get from community foodbanks.

      I don't recall hearing about unicentual items before .... oh you mean INESSENTIAL, ok. That's one of the more ridiculous items. How about home contents insurance, medication, clothing, gifts to family, public transport travel?

      $72 a fortnight on electricity???? I pay around $100 a month, nearly nothing for water, certainly not $30 a week on petrol (about half that) and as for putting $50 into savings every fortnight, I wish. $30 fn internet is supposed to cover phone and internet, right? I'm on the cheapest Telstra plan, which is about $80 a month for landline, all calls within Australia & rental and my mobile is prepaid $20 a month.

      You know nothing about the public housing situation do you? At last count there were 38,000 people on the waiting list in Victoria and the fastest growing group of the homeless comprise older single women.

      lots of us used to be able to live on the dole decades ago, people starve now and/or become homeless on Newstart.

      What do you live on now per fortnight? Maybe we can swap incomes for a month and you can see how you manage, smartarse.

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      • ToTheMoon
        4 years ago

        No worries. At least you are not starving or living under a bridge.

        Home contents insurance, you are a bit entitled, I mean as you no longer talk dirty on the phone, you would expect the tax payer to hand out more, cover your costs. Anything else you want for free?

        I mean you are an old lady, no super? no savings? no pension from working? Surely you would have had jobs unless you have been on a pension all your life?

        The way society looks at it is that you are supposed to set yourself up when you are young.

        I was talking about essential items, not wants!

        Touchy, touchy. I wasn't having a go, that list is basically what I lived of when I was on the dole (except for the car stuff as I didn't have one)

        I'm a smart ass hey, So you declared all this working money?

        My income is a lot less then you think!

        I have home line and unlimited internet for $60 a month (fiber optics)

        Not bagging anyone out but I see to many whingers. I mean I pulled weeds for $40 an hour whilst being very very long term sick.

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        • Ellenna
          4 years ago

          PS: I am old, but no lady. The small amount of super I accumulated is long gone years ago. Who gets a pension from working? Not in Australia anyway.

          It's none of your business why I have no savings, suffice it to say that in this country single women over 60 are the fastest growing group of homeless people, because so many of us lose out after marriage breakups and/or worked in jobs with no super or before super was compulsory.

          If you think I'm a whinger, just fuck off, I'm blocking you now because I don't have the energy for this crap.

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        • Ellenna
          4 years ago

          What's entitled about insuring my home contents when I live in a high bushfire area? Ditto insuring my car for third party property damage, fire & theft. I regard those two outgoings as essentials for my peace of mind.

          I don't regard my pension as "free", I paid taxes from the age of 15 and you're right I'm not starving or living under a bridge (yet) but could well be in the near future.

          And yes, I do declare every cent of my earnings to CentreLink and if I earn over a certain amount they take half of it off my below the poverty line pension: who else gets taxed 50c in the dollar?

          By the way, I haven't stopped talking dirty on the phone, I can still take calls from blokes using credit cards, it's just that most of my regular callers used to call on the now vanished 1900 lines.

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  • Clunk42
    4 years ago

    I'm personally fine with the government being moral police. If I ran a government, that's something I'd do with it.

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    • LloydAsher
      4 years ago

      Ugh that is so shitty of a way to live life. The goverment should only do two things: keep the people safe (law enforcement and military) and keep private businesses from becoming unregulated monopolies. Taking a moral stance on anything besides what's in the natural laws are completely reprehensible.

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      • d0esnormalmatter
        4 years ago

        Agree

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    • Ellenna
      4 years ago

      Are you a member of ISIS? Or one of the xian equivalents? Go away silly person I don't want to engage with morons like you.

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      • Clunk42
        4 years ago

        Then why did you?

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  • Mammal-lover
    4 years ago

    Uh how how else do you pay for a sex line if not with a credit or debit card

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    • Ellenna
      4 years ago

      Well until recently in Australia you could call expensive 1900 lines, that's what has been taken down. If you're in the usa, I understand all sex lines are to ordinary numbers and paid for with a credit card because the usa doesn't allow 1900 lines. In fact, one woman I know who runs some lines is planning to try & expand into the usa for that very reason.

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    • ToTheMoon
      4 years ago

      Not that I would ever know but it can be payed from your phone bill, just like ringing a mobile or overseas. Thats before like the op said government forced 190 closure.

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      • Ellenna
        4 years ago

        Exactly, that's what I'm talking about

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