The people of Australia had a very good time over the weekend. We resoundingly voted out a conservative government that had spent a decade doing…well, nothing really, except putting their boots to the throats of the poor, the young, and anyone who thinks that a rapidly-warming planet might be a bad thing.
I wonāt bore you with the details of thisāyou can read more here if youāre interestedābut the end result is that Scott Morrison, a man who is alleged to have once shit his pants in a McDonalds, is no longer the Prime Minister of Australia. While Iām sure thereāll be no shortage of fossil fuel companies, predatory investment funds, and fascist-aligned media companies offering him a job in the years to come, in the meantime heās off to Centrelink.
Centrelink is the government agency that is, in theory, supposed to provide welfare assistance to the unemployed. However, it has been repeatedly gutted along ideological lines to the point where itās now, at an operational level, openly hostile to the unemployed, forcing out-of-work Australians to jump through all kinds of demeaning hoops just so they can (try to) pay their rent for a month or two between jobs.
Which is most of the background youāll need to enjoy Scotty Goes To Centrelink, a āsurreal horror adventure starring Australiaās 30th Prime Minister.ā Released over the weekend by Canberra-based developer Colestia, players must āHelp a newly unemployed Scott Morrison navigate the hellish welfare system that he helped build,ā as you take control of Scotty in third-person and have to move about a gloomy cityscape, delivering job applications in return for your welfare money.
The game is free-to-play in your browser, but you can also support Colestia for their work here.
