There is nothing normal about the COVID-19 outbreak or the devastating economic impact it will have / is having on the most vulnerable. Some estimate that up to 60% of the population may be affected, and a catastrophic overburdening of the health system seems inevitable. Moreover, countless workers, artists, and students will have to deal with devastating economic conditions on top of these biological worries. With the Reserve Bank of Australia announcing that it is commencing Quantitative Easing (QE), and the treasury preparing another stimulus package, it is essential that the government embrace policies and programs which will actually address the source of the problem and which will secure a basic standard of living / survival for those who have neither the incomes nor savings to sustain themselves. By honouring the demands above, and sparing no expense in their pursuit of a best-practice response, the government has a genuine chance at minimising the economic and biological damage of the COVID-19 outbreak. A failure to institute any of the above demands, however, would amount to gross negligence: anything short of a significant economic response, which supports casual wage earners and the vulnerable, will lead to increased transmission rates or, worse, a serious and perhaps fatal deterioration in people's quality of life as they lack the liquidity and income to secure accommodation and acquire essential goods. Moreover, without social distancing and rapid investment in health provisions the number of cases will start increasing exponential. If implemented these demands will not only "flatten the curve", but raise the system's overall capacity, saving many lives. Honouring these demands (among others) will minimise damage to the largest degree, and is ultimately the only way the government can truly protect its citizens. Anything less is negligence.

Everyone has the right to shelter. Whether people are struggling to find shelter each night or needing support, the government can do simple things to fix thr system. What happens to one of us affects all of us.

We can’t forget about our older community members. They deserve to be cared for and looked after. Some are not fortunate to have family or friends to advocate on their behalf. The aim of home and community care services like Meals on Wheels, assistance with showering, shopping and cleaning is to keep the older members of our community in their own home and out of aged care facilities. Many other councils throughout Victoria have privatise and outsource these services. And those who deliver these services are some of the lowest paid workers predominately female workers. We as a community cannot afford for these services to be privatised.

Because TISM

Hate speech incites terrorism against migrant communities.

On September 24 2018, amidst the heat of the 46th year of commemorating the Filipino peoples’ struggle against Martial Law under former dictator Ferdinand Marcos, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) released a statement that the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New Peoples Army (NPA) were planning to oust the current Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Shortly after, on October 2, 2018, General Antonio Parlade Jr., assistant deputy chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines accused Universities of being bases for mass recruitments for the CPP and NPA. Parlade Jr released a list of accused educational/academic institutions in the Philippines including premiere Philippine universities such as the University of the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle University, and Philippine Polytechnic University. The evidence cited for this claim was that campuses host anti-Martial Law film screenings among other artistic and cultural activities. These events have triggered widespread concern among many Filipino artists and acadmics who denounce the malicious efforts by the AFP to “red-tag” educational institutions as part of their counter-insurgency operations. Tagging academics and artists as Communists has historically been a precedent in the Philippines for military and government crackdowns against a wide range of critics. During the Marcos dictatorship, the University of the Philippines served as a space for free expression, speech, and assembly amidst country-wide state censorship, and this space became vital to resisting, opposing, and eventually putting an end to Martial Law. During the Martial Law period artists and academics were prominent among the 70,000 imprisoned and 34,000 tortured between 1972 and 1981 (Amnesty International).