If Knox Council abandons kindergarten programs, it would mean that the families of 3- and 4-year-old children in the Knox area would no longer be able access Knox Council-delivered free kindergarten programs. Currently the Council delivers high-quality play-based early childhood education. We know that children benefit from local kindergarten services that reflect the context and makeup of the local community. Families rightly expect their local council to provide kindergarten programs as part of the services they deliver. Why should the children of Knox miss out? Sign and share the petition with others so they can tell Knox Council that all local children deserve high-quality kindergarten education provided by their local council.

Period poverty is the struggle people with a period face in affording menstrual products and describes the larger economic vulnerability faced due to the increasing financial burden of period supplies. Across the world, 1 in 5 people with a period experience period poverty. Period poverty affects student’s ability to attend university and can cause people to use improvised menstrual hygiene materials that can lead to infection. This causes increased risk of infection, decreased productivity and participation, reduces education outcomes, and affects the mental health of those experiencing period poverty. We want to end period poverty at JCU and remove the barriers to education that period poverty imposes on our students. Currently we do not have up to date statistics regarding abortion in Queensland, however, it is known that between 1/4 to 1/3 of Australian women will have an abortion in their lifetime. Abortion services in Townsville have only recently been made accessible to the public after previous closure. Medical terminations of pregnancy are available via GPs or a private provider up to 9 weeks gestation and after that, Townsville University Hospital offers a surgical termination service from 9-14 weeks gestation. Women further along in their pregnancy will need to travel to Brisbane to access a surgical abortion service. Abortion still carries a lot of stigma and can cause a range of emotions for those who have had to make that decision as well as a financial and time burden. We want JCU to show support to those who access abortion and provide them with appropriate leave processes and counselling services to ensure students feel supported and can have equitable access to education following an abortion. Sexual assault and harassment effects students across Australia, including students at JCU. In a national student safety survey of JCU students it was found that 22.2% of students have been sexually harassed since starting university and 9.5% have been sexually assaulted since starting university. The numbers disproportionately effect people of minority groups, including queer students, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and those with a disability. We are aiming to eradicate sexual assault and harassment on campus to make JCU a safer place for everyone.

Financial stress means many aspiring teachers struggle to manage their living expenses while undertaking unpaid teaching placements. Some ask family and friends for financial assistance, and others take on personal loans. The impact of unpaid placements is particularly severe for those with families or caring responsibilities, regional and rural students, and students from marginalised communities. Too many pre-service teachers are unable complete their studies, making Victoria's teacher shortage even worse. Without enough teachers in our schools and kindergartens, students are denied access to the full range of learning and support programs they need.

If these services are outsourced, the Sutherland Shire community will lose out. These quality early education places will be lost, and families will suffer dramatic increases to fees and their cost of living. The hard-working early childhood educators will also lose their secure Council jobs and conditions. These Council-run services also set the standard against greedy for-profit childcare centres, what will happen without them? The General Manager and Councillors have refused to come clean and let Shire residents know what they are doing. What is Council secretly planning? The USU says these council services must not be lost to the community. As signatories we say: DON'T SELL OFF OUR PUBLIC CHILDCARE CENTRES!

On 1 June 2023, thousands of young workers’ HECS, HELP and VET student debts will increase by up to $4,000 as we face the biggest hike in decades. This is unfair. Young workers have the highest rates of student debt and the lowest incomes. We need as much money as possible to counter the cost-of-living crisis, buy a home or start a family. We don't have a deep pool of wealth or investment properties to draw on and we’re already losing a huge chunk of our income in student loan repayments. With the budget around the corner, now is the time to put pressure on Treasurer Jim Chalmers to make things fairer for young workers. Long-term, if we want young workers to be able to pay off student debts fairly, we need to index them to wage growth, not inflation. This is a conversation we should be having. But right now, Treasurer Jim Chalmers can stop the squeeze by freezing student debt repayments until the cost of living crisis is over.

“I have a neurodiverse child with multiple diagnoses. He’s been on a waiting list since before Kindy. We’ve only just been able to start seeing a specialist – but not in Tasmania. We’re seeing a private specialist interstate, via Zoom. We desperately need more Allied Health Professionals to support kids who are doing it tough.” – Thirza, Parent, Secretary (CPSU Tasmania) Allied Health professionals in schools are essential to give kids with learning and developmental disabilities the best start in life. Getting access to quality care early in life gives kids the best chance to adjust, succeed and flourish. An estimated 1 in 20 Australian children struggles with an anxiety disorder¹; 15-20% of Australians has a language-based learning disability². Early years are our first and best chance to give kids dignity and support to succeed. Tasmania also has the third highest rate of children and young people in Out-of-Home Care. Only a fraction of those we miss will ever seek help later in life. They go on struggling, in silence. Getting access to a Social Worker, Speechie or Psychologist early on can make all the difference in the world. “1 in 8 Australian primary school students has a communication disorder of some kind. We have 31 speech pathologists to service every public primary school and support school in the state. That makes our ratio 116 to 1, at best. We’re not talking about a little bit of understaffing - we’re talking about chronic, long-term vacancies.” - Sarah, Advanced Skills Speech & Language Pathologist, Tasmania Please sign our petition to call on Premier Rockliff to ensure Allied Health Professionals in schools, child safety and youth justice aren’t left behind. ¹ https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/children-youth/australias-children/contents/health/children-with-mental-illness ² https://dyslexiaassociation.org.au/frequently-asked-questions-2/

The University has claimed that this will help reduce SR workloads but no SRs were consulted on the decision. No students were consulted on the decision! Students won't get locked out less frequently if they are charged more, they will just be more financially strained each time there is a lockout. Students will be incentivised by this change to take risky steps like 'carding' doors, or sleeping in common rooms or others' rooms. The University has not provided any evidence they have investigated these risks to student safety. Many disabled students have also raised concerns that the charge will disproportionally impact them. Forgetfulness is a symptom of many disabilities. ANU already has one of the lowest proportions of low-SES students in the country. Combined with the skyrocketing cost of living on campus, this change makes ANU accomodation increasingly hostile to low-SES students.

Online options were ‘too hard’ before 2020, and then they came within a week, and then they were taken away as quickly as they were given. Many members of our community depend on these options being available such as those who are immuno-compromised and cannot risk exposure to disease, especially when universities do not have open windows, air purifiers or a mask or vaccine mandate in the classroom. Universal Design (‘UD’) — specifically, Universal Design for Learning (‘UDL’) — is a research-backed pedagogy and curriculum framework which enables equitable access to education for all students, including students with disabilities and other students from diverse, minoritised backgrounds. For disabled students, implementing UDL would ostensibly ensure that they can ‘engage with the curriculum without having to seek adjustments’ (see ‘Recommendations for equitable student support during disruptions to the higher education sector: Lessons from COVID-19,’ Mercer-Mapstone et al 2022,). Hybrid, flexible education — also known as ‘hyflex’ education, as noted in Recommendation 2.1 of the ALSA-AMSA-NUS research report — entails offering educational delivery options for both in-person attendance and Work From Home (‘WFH’). Moreover, hyflex education can facilitate educational participation for not only disabled people but also women escaping domestic family violence (‘DFV’) or sexual assault, First Nations students in regional & rural Australia, international students, and other demographics for whom in-person attendance may not be the most safe & accessible. People from diverse backgrounds have value. Contrary to what many believe, disabled people can (and do) contribute to society and to building a better world. Imagine all the setbacks if Dr Steven Hawking couldn’t come to class because he couldn’t get his wheelchair in the door! Additionally, the tertiary education regulator, Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (‘TEQSA’), has announced that they will now enforce the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 (Cth) (‘ESOS’). Under ESOS in s 8.19, TEQSA is mandating that no more than a third of the education delivered to overseas students can be online or by distance. This decision from TEQSA means that if international students want to access regional, globally ranked education, they must return to Australia whilst there are COVID-19 outbreaks overseas, a rental shortage of affordable, student housing and a cost-of-living crisis. This forces numerous international students into a tricky conflict between their future and their present happiness. TEQSA doesn’t take individual complaints so the regulator cannot protect international students. That is why the government must step up. Likewise, online learning can be better for university staff. University staff with disabilities also face many of the struggles that disabled students do. Likewise, staff with caring roles for children or other dependents benefit from increased access to them by providing education online. Some universities do not have child-care options after 5pm, meaning that staff cannot afford to work a 9-5 with children because they have to rush to collect them. The higher education system relies on these staff and their incredible work to upskill the next generation.

The public services we all rely on - schools, hospitals, health care services, courts, child protection, fire and rescue, community services and more - have now faced staffing shortages and under-resourcing for many years, leaving Tasmanians missing out. Record vacancies, and an inability to attract and retain workers threatens to deepen the crisis in our public sector. The workers that carried us through COVID and support us when we need it most are also suffering from the skyrocketing cost of living that is hurting all workers. At the same time, many of Tasmania's public sector workers including firefighters and child safety staff are some of the lowest paid in the country. But they're being insulted by a Premier who fails to recognise that with a fair pay rise. Stand with us to demand a fair go for Tasmania.

Students should support Curtin staff fighting for better pay and conditions because: 1. Workers deserve a decent wage that goes up with inflation, at the very least.✊ 2. Because they are also fighting to improve the education quality they can provide for us too!🎓 Our staff are overworked, understaffed and increasingly facing unstable employment with casualisation on the rise. We know that staff teaching conditions impact student learning conditions. But we also think it's completely unfair for the staff who make our university run to be struggling with a cost of living crisis while university executives are making $300,000+ per year and the university is in surplus.

Murdoch staff have been hit hard during the COVID-19 crisis: enduring staffing cuts, taking on more work, keeping the lights on for students and the broader community while management are seemingly making decisions that don't improve staff conditions or well-being. A university is a place of ideas. Murdoch's 'tagline' is "A place for free thinking" but sadly free thinking comes at a cost and it is a cost borne disproportionately by staff. With an already lean Bargaining Agreement and no real cost of living relief in sight, it's time to support Murdoch staff in their entrenched right to bargain for a more robust Bargaining Agreement. You need to send a message to management – this isn’t good enough, we can’t afford to keep going backwards, we are struggling with the lack of support, and we demand that they begin bargaining NOW. Click the link to sign the petition - send the message to management that we're ready to bargain NOW!

Our universities are failing when it comes to building inclusive and supporting learning environments for transgender, gender diverse and non-binary students. A recent survey of queer students in Australia conducted by the NUS Queer/LGBTQIA+ Department and RUSU Queer Department identified that every single respondent regularly experienced some form of deadnaming at university. The results from the survey revealed that: 83% of students said there was a persistent deadnaming issue at their university 93% were deadnamed on student facing platforms 20% were deadnamed by staff 43% were deadnamed on university accounts 13% were deadnamed on their student ID With the constant misgendering and deadnaming that occurs on student facing platforms and within classrooms, it is time for this issue to be addressed. We are calling on universities to end deadnaming and change their ways to ensure that the wellbeing of transgender, gender diverse and non-binary students is a priority. Universities have a duty of care towards their students, a responsibility to provide a safe learning environment that minimises opportunities for psychosocial harm. They need to acknowledge that until action is taken to end deadnaming in Australian universities, trans, non-binary and gender diverse students will continue to be at severe risk of bullying, harassment, physical violence and psychosocial harm. It is time for universities to protect vulnerable students and allow them to bring their whole selves to their studies.