I’ve seen too many colleagues leave because of the low pay and limited career progression. It’s not fair on the children who deserve high quality kindergarten education with experienced educators who can afford to build long term careers. Premier Andrews has committed to providing kindergarten to every Victorian three year old by 2022. To do this our kindergartens will need thousands of extra educators and keep the ones we’ve got. But the promise to every three-year-old will not be kept if we can’t attract new colleagues because of low pay. If you value the work of educators, we need you to please give us your support.

The Tasmanian University Union is a core part of student life at UTAS. The TUU runs student initiatives, events, provides leadership opportunities, advocates for students on campus and is an employer to many staff who work tirelessly for students. In 2019, UTAS slashed funding of the TUU to $430,000, down from $900,000 in 2018. This is a whopping 52% funding cut. This massive cut to TUU funding comes just 12 months out from the funding agreement end between UTAS and the TUU. It is clear that UTAS is using this cut as a steppingstone to cease funding the TUU and thus close down the student union. The TUU is negotiating a particularly difficult time as it undergoes a transformative program, experience revenue loss from the closure of the Co-Op Bookstore, and suffers the cuts imposed on it by the university. TUU staff redundancies were being considered as part of the transformation program, but with these cuts, the redundancies go from being potential to inevitable. To protect students, to protect workers, and to ensure that the TUU can keep serving students and providing student community culture on campus we, as students of the University of Tasmania, are calling upon the Vice-Chancellor Rufus Black and UTAS to reinstate full funding of the TUU to 2018 levels and to commit to funding the student union past 2021.

On 1st February, The Hon. Scott Morrison’s newly announced Travel Ban had prevented over 90,000 Chinese International students currently in China from returning to Australia to commence or resume their studies. Education providers have offered to defer studies but many educational institutions are encouraging students to study online in China. We are concerned that universities and educational institutions are seeking to protect their finances at the expense of students who are not being made aware of the consequences of online study. Online study may significantly affect international students' rights to future graduate visas or permanent visa as they may not be eligible to meet a criterion of “2 years full time study in Australia”. We are partners at Global Education and Immigration Centre. Immigration lawyer Mr. Rhys Strang and Registered Migration Agent Mrs. Grace Shen have represented international students for their immigration matters for more than 20 years. We are seeking to raise awareness of the issues with a view to convincing the Australian government to change the regulation so that there is no impact on affected overseas students by way of legislative instrument to protect any student who opts to study online as a result of circumstances beyond their control preventing them from returning to Australia. We need your support so that the exceptions are made to the Migration Regulations so as not to discriminate against students who are willing to study in Australia but are prevented from doing so. It is important that this issue be brought to the attention of lawmakers as soon as possible so that student’s rights are not subordinated to the profits of education providers.

The detrimental effects of PAYG have been felt at other campuses, such as Curtin. 83% of Curtin students surveyed in 2019 believed that PAYG pricing was not student friendly. A movement to this system will disproportionately affect students from low-SES backgrounds, non-metro areas, and those with high attendance requirements. We call on UWA to reconsider their decision and demand accessible and equitable parking options for all.

Extracurricular activities aren’t just a fun way to teach kids skills and help them burn off energy – they help kids feel included, build resilience and develop talent. They get kids active while increasing social and developmental skills. They are another place to fit in and thrive, if school or home are tough. Yet for children in low income families, participation in sports or music is out of reach.

On Monday, the Gold Coast Young LNP posted a video that has been widely condemned as racist and offensive. The Empower team was shocked and horrified by the statements made in the video, and did not hesitate to condemn them unconditionally. No such condemnation, or comment, has been heard from Barclay's electoral group - Real for UQU. The attitudes promoted by this video and by Barclay are the kind of attitudes that keep racism against people of colour well and truly alive in Australia, and should be met with outrage, not silence. Unfortunately, Barcaly's behaviour in this video mirrors what many students reported witnessing from multiple Real campaigners during the 2019 UQU election: casual racism and discrimination. Empower stood up to this behaviour then, and we will stand up to it now. These beliefs have no place at our university, or in our student union. Barclay Mcgain must resign.

Educators’ work is guided by the National Quality Standards for early childhood education. These standards are founded on research and international best practice. These seven standards cannot be reduced to a 4-star rating system. High-quality early education cannot be reduced to a 4-star rating system. This rating is being promoted as a process that educators have been consulted on, even though no evidence of this has been provided. It’s imperative that educators have their say - so please sign and share this petition to show the NSW Government that quality early education is worth more than 4-stars!

The Suburban Rail Loop is a great idea and will provide an orbital loop around Melbourne, with new stations connections between major railway lines from the Frankston line to the Werribee line via Melbourne Airport. Suburban Rail Loop will connect Melbourne’s middle suburbs to priority growth precincts, and link all Victorians to major health, education centres at Deakin, Monash and Bundoora, and outer employment centres. But it will take 50 years, or more, to build. Putting SMARTbus services on the route will bring all the benefits of the Suburban Rail Loop to Melbourne residents right now. In addition, a SMARTbus loop will create a single route that will reduce current overcrowding and address the need for bus upgrades now. For more information see https://rodbarton.com.au/issues-page/smartbuses-on-the-suburban-rail-loop-route/

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.

On Friday September 20, school students around the world, alongside adults, will be participating in a Global Climate Strike – they will be marching to face the ongoing climate crisis, and to show the world’s political leaders that we will not idly stand by while they fail to act. We demand immediate action to avert otherwise inevitable catastrophe. In Australia, we are at a crossroads: the Government is fully aware of the need for serious solutions, but instead it would rather open up new projects to mine the earth of even more fossil fuels: Australia’s coal industry has already made us the world’s third-biggest emissions exporter. Internationally, the effects of climate change are already being felt in very real ways: this summer, Greenland’s ice sheet melted at rates scientists weren’t anticipating for another half-century, losing enough water in just five days this year to cover the ACT in over 9 metres of water. Our role as the University community is to educate and support the next generation who will continue to make this world a better, more equitable, fair, and just place than they found it. If our political leaders do not act now, this will not be possible – and as we already know: ‘There are no jobs on a dead planet.’ There’s also less water, more famine, more poverty, more extreme weather events, millions of displaced and suffering refugees, and likely, much more conflict. We have a responsibility to stand tall alongside the next generation in support of this important cause that will shape the world for hundreds of years to come, and to advocate for a rapid and just transition to renewables and a decarbonised economy. The Global Climate Strike is taking place three days before the UN Emergency Climate Summit, and is a strike in solidarity for those being impacted by the climate crisis now, and those who will be impacted in the future if we do not act: everyone from workers, first nations people, and young people, to those in parts of the world already suffering. High-profile businesses like Patagonia, Lush Cosmetics, and Ben & Jerry’s have already pledged that their workers will be joining the organised strikes in solidarity.

Given our current trajectory towards devastating climate change, and the complacency of our national government, it is now crucial that public institutions like La Trobe University take the lead on this social justice and human rights crisis. We owe it to Indigenous people, who are already suffering from destruction and theft of country, lack of clean water and extreme weather. We owe it to all people, habitats and living creatures currently suffering from the impacts of climate change. We owe it to future generations. There is no more important social impact our university can make. The demands of the Climate Strike are urgent climate action, including: a transition to 100% renewable energy, no new coal or gas projects, and massive public investment in a just transition to a decarbonised economy; Indigenous people, fossil fuel workers, developing nations and all communities on the front line of the climate crisis must be prioritised in this transition. By declaring a stoppage of all activities on 20 September, La Trobe will be an international symbol for how we must act in response to our climate crisis.

Given our current trajectory towards devastating climate change, and the complacency of our national government, it is now crucial that public institutions like RMIT take the lead on this social justice and human rights crisis. We owe it to Indigenous people, who are already suffering from destruction and theft of country, lack of clean water and extreme weather. We owe it to all people, habitats and living creatures currently suffering from the impacts of climate change. We owe it to future generations. There is no more important social impact our university can make. The demands of the Climate Strike are urgent climate action, including: a transition to 100% renewable energy, no new coal or gas projects, and massive public investment in a just transition to a decarbonised economy; Indigenous people, fossil fuel workers, developing nations and all communities on the front line of the climate crisis must be prioritised in this transition. By declaring a stoppage of all activities on 20 September, RMIT will be an international symbol for how we must act in response to our climate crisis.