Lecture attendance is crucial for university teaching. While 16 university management executives are making more than a combined $10 million and students are paying more than $50,000 for degrees, 4000 staff members are having to work 2-3 casual teaching jobs to make ends meet. This petition responds to the cessation of payment for lecture attendance in the School of Culture and Communication, but advocates for all staff and students in the Faculty of Arts. For the University of Melbourne to have a vibrant intellectual community, that community needs a place to meet and belong. The lecture theatre is one of the few fixed locations on campus where tutors carry out their work alongside lecturers and coordinators. Content isn’t merely disseminated downward from the lectern. The lecture theatre is a space where practitioners share knowledge before, during, and after the lecture itself. It is an important space for lecturers to receive feedback and contribute to ongoing discussions, and for senior tutors to mentor junior tutors. The integrity of the tutorial space is in question when lecture attendance is neither expected of tutors, nor paid. In order to appropriately model and support student engagement with course content, tutors need to attend lectures. Tutors provide the majority of face-to-face contact students have throughout their degrees. Students need assurance that the Faculty values best practice pedagogy, and that their tutors have a meaningful relationship to the campus they work on and the content they teach. We, the undersigned, petition the Faculty of Arts to recognise that staff working conditions are student learning conditions, that lecture attendance is vital pedagogical work, and that tutors must be paid for this work separately from and in addition to tutorial preparation.

"My name is Rohit Karki and I started working at Rockpool Bar & Grill in Melbourne in 2012 and I was treated like an animal. Like a slave." "Each week I did two 20-hour shifts, back to back. I’d start at 4am and work until midnight or later, without a break. Then at 4am, I’d start all over again and do another 20 hours." "There was no time to go home between shifts, so I slept on a pastry bench in the kitchen for a couple of hours." "They tampered with our timesheets, so staff had no record of all the hours we worked. I was paid about $12 per hour, while people paid hundreds of dollars a head to eat the meals I prepared." "I felt trapped. I went into a depression. It was the darkest period in my life. But eventually I complained about this wage theft and how Rockpool treated me. Then I was bullied out of my job." "In all, I have had hundreds of thousands of dollars stolen from me by the Rockpool Dining Group, and I want it back." "Rockpool Dining Group has 80 venues across Australia, it turns over $400 million a year and has 2500 staff. " "I want to be them punished for how they treated me and countless other hospo workers." https://vimeo.com/368429181

The proposed redundancy of Tess comes at a time when she is more needed than ever. Recent changes, budget cuts and instability at Nura Gili Centre at the Kensington campus as well as the shockingly low employment of Indigenous (and, further CALD) staff at UNSW marks this as a part of a larger, ongoing issue at an institutional level that needs to be remedied rather than exacerbated. Diverse staff are crucial to not only the education of students but further, to their well-being. Tess remains one of the few staff members that Indigenous, CALD and other marginalised students feel they can turn to and rely on. As well as her role as a mentor, Tess is also professionally and pedagogically a boon to the institution. Her course Aboriginal Art Now has influenced countless students and has led many to pursue further and higher research - academically, curatorially and artistically - in a more considered and critically rigorous way. In addition, Aboriginal Art Now remains one of the few Indigenous art courses available at UNSW Art & Design. She has also been instrumentally involved in a vast number of exhibitions in the Indigenous arts community in the last 30 years. The volumes of academic, artistic and curatorial output of Tess evidences her prolific reach and influence in the arts sector. As Associate Professor David Garneau suggested, her contribution to the arts sector deserves an honorary doctorate. Her removal would constitute a massive loss to the UNSW community, and the wider ripple on effects of this would be unimaginable.

Australia knows the toxic legacy of asbestos all too well. Sixteen years after the ban came into force in Australia, 4,000 people die of asbestos-related diseases every year. Around the world an estimated 250,000 people die from asbestos-related diseases each year. Still today, 125 million people are exposed to asbestos in their workplace each year. What is the loophole? The Asian Development Bank’s ‘Safeguard Policy’ prohibits investments that include raw asbestos. However, this does not apply to the purchase and use of asbestos cement sheeting where the asbestos content is less than 20%, which includes almost all asbestos sheeting. This means that victims of natural disasters can be sheltered under roof sheeting contaminated by asbestos. It means that communities trying to grow their wealth and improve their welfare can be given an asbestos time-bomb in the form of asbestos sheeting. The Asia Development Bank’s current policy enables the asbestos industry in Asia to survive, despite the disastrous health impacts of asbestos. Alternatives are widely available for all asbestos-containing products, and the ADB policy must be updated to reflect this. The ADB must close the loophole! Let’s take a stand to stop asbestos everywhere! Find out more at apheda.org.au/asbestos

The high cost of flying to and from Rockhampton hurts everyone in our community. While fares can be found for under $200 for those able to book well in advance, the small number of services between Rocky and Brisbane mean there aren't enough fairly-priced seats to go around, which pushes many people onto more expensive travel classes. This is a major problem for many in our community - from locals that need to travel south for family emergencies to businesses that need to fly to Brisbane or interstate for work. It also makes it harder to attract businesses and people to our region, which hurts our local economy. While Rocky is also serviced by Virgin, which could also do more to reduce fares, Qantas is in the strong position to act, given its $1.59 billion profit. Qantas has also already moved to lower fares out of remote airports like Moranbah so we only ask they extend their focus to Rockhampton.

50 Fenner Dunlop workers have been on strike for seven days. Workers are fighting for a base wage that is a LIVING wage, so they don’t have to rely on sporadic overtime to survive. Their employer expects them to give up roster flexibility and other hard fought for conditions, just to get a decent pay rise. No one should have to work 60 hours a week just to make a living wage.

Tolarno Eating House has stolen tens of thousands in wages and other entitlements from Hospo Voice members. They need to pay up now. Tolarno has tried to wear these workers down, making them wait months and months, ignoring court orders. But these workers’ determination to win justice has only grown stronger, and they have the full support of Hospo Voice members and supporters everywhere. We will stand with them to ensure they are repaid every single cent. Bosses that defy court orders to repay stolen wages deserve to be behind bars.

The data shows payments were suspended 2.7m times in 12 months, but only 654,000 demerits 'points were handed out. This adds up to roughly 2 million unfair penalties being dished out to unemployed workers every year by privately owned agencies. A 75% error is a national disgrace. This unfair compliance regime has had a catastrophic impact on the lives of unemployed workers. As reported by the New Daily, this punitive policy is driving people into poverty, homelessness, mental health issues and even suicide. Kristian Clancy, 32, was cut off his Newstart payment for not attending a employment service provider appointment despite informing his agency he had a shift that day. Melissa Fisher, 37, was cut off her Newstart due to her employment service provider mistakenly reporting she did not attend an appointment. Zeya Raymond* (name changed) was incorrectly cut of by her employment service provider which led to her contemplating suicide. These are only a few of the hundreds of thousands of unemployed workers being unfairly cut off by their privately owned employment service provider. By stripping unemployed workers of their right to appeal unfair penalties and denying them a right to a reasonable excuse, the Coalition is creating a segregated society. Unemployed Australians – people who have ended up unemployed due to no fault of their own – are being branded as second-class citizens. If an unemployed worker faces an abusive employment service provider, there is nothing they can do. They have nowhere to turn. We know the employment services system is broken. In 2018-19, job agencies imposed 2.3 million penalties on unemployed workers - a seven times increase since 2010. Why is the Coalition giving job agencies more powers to punish unemployed workers? Join the AUWU's struggle for dignity. Sign the petition. New Daily Article: https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2019/08/07/newstart-unfair-suspensions/ Guardian article: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/aug/08/more-than-120000-people-whose-welfare-was-suspended-were-not-at-fault-data-shows?fbclid=IwAR2-lmi6UIcFmjD4X9CAFGQYAgekL_JuwbMGWEo_neWMp0DgFgg6U7Annsw Guardian article number 2: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/oct/16/automated-messages-welfare-australia-system?CMP=share_btn_tw

The majority of Australians do their grocery shopping at Coles or Woolworths. Yet the farm workers who feed us, who pick and pack the fruit and vegetables we all eat, are enduring wage theft and exploitation on Australian farms. Two thirds of surveyed workers reported earning below minimum wage, sometimes as low as $4.80 per hour. Cash contractors act as controlling mediators between farms and workers, often resulting in stolen wages, no superannuation, sexual harassment, bullying and harassment. Coles and Woolworths must not continue to profit from this exploitation. Add your voice to stand with farm workers today!

Our hours, daily and weekly earnings are lower than they've ever been before, even though we've been doing the same job the whole time. Riders used to be paid $18.50 an hour and now we're not paid an hourly rate at all. Deliveries can be as low as $6 or less, despite Deliveroo promising they wouldn't go below $8 per delivery. There's no transparency and no ability to say no to changes in our wages. We just notice it going down through the app. We work in the cold conditions during winter. We work really hard for peanuts. Seeing our wages go down and down is gut-wrenching. We can't depend on these wages. We are demanding Deliveroo raise our rates of pay and lock them in. Deliveroo workers need security and a living wage. Michael, PK, Radhesh and the Roo Riders

Gambling destroys lives, online gambling has become an absolute epidemic in this country, how can you let addicted players continue to play and lose everything they own, without any questions as to were the money came from, people betting beyond there mean or earning capacity, the banks wouldn't let you borrow 10million dollars if you can't afford it, but you could go online and lose 10mill and nobody would say a word or try and stop you, if online gambling was regulated the same way a home loan is limits could be put on all clients and keep them within there means. It's the greedy govt that allows it to continue, and now there trying to sell it to our kids through funny TV ads while sport is playing, it's like advertising drugs on the television total madness..

George Calombaris is held up as an industry leader, yet he is not the leader the hospitality industry wants or needs. Aside from stealing millions of dollars from hospo workers, he’s been charged with assault. He’s been given enough chances, now it’s time for him to go. Wage theft is rife throughout the hospitality industry. Celebrity chefs like George Calombaris have gotten rich by stealing from their hard-working employees. This issue has stayed in focus for one reason and one reason alone. Because of the relentless agitation and campaigning by Hospo Voice members about wage theft by George and countless other hospitality employers. The hospitality industry is changing, workers will no longer put up with excuses, we want real action on wage theft. How can we expect the industry to improve if we continue to honour celebrity wage thieves. Ten network; it’s George’s turn to face elimination.