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.

Given our current trajectory towards devastating climate change, and the complacency of our national government, it is now crucial that public institutions like Monash 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, Monash will be an international symbol for how we must act in response to our climate crisis.

Workers employed at Gumnut in Lithgow are gravely concerned about their workplace entitlements as ECEC Management has not been paying superannuation for up to a year for some workers. Workers at Gumnut are asking for their basic employment entitlements to be met. Will you sign?

Currently, UNSW subcontracts it's security staff from MSS Security, a corporation involved in the illegal detention of refugees by the Australian Government. UNSW is also listed as a partner of Wilson Security (another culprit) and has accepted a grant to help the defence force to develop the Jindalee Operational Radar Network (JORN), a multi billion dollar satellite network that has been boasted as being able to track small boats carrying asylum seekers (an international human right). UNSW prides itself in being a progressive and humanitarian institution but uses students fees to invest in these torturous industries and staff and students won't take it any more, support the divestment by signing the petition!

The call from students organising the strike states: “Last year’s UN intergovernmental panel on climate change’s special report on global warming was clear about the unprecedented dangers of going beyond 1.5C of global heating. Emissions must drop rapidly – so that by the time we are in our mid- and late-20s we are living in a completely transformed world. But to change everything, we need everyone.” Already the NTEU, the GSA and UMSU who represent staff and students at the University of Melbourne, have endorsed this call to action. We will work together to ensure the widest possible stoppage of work and study so that staff and students can attend demonstrations on this historic day. The University of Melbourne has an opportunity to be a global leader on climate action – an opportunity that staff and students want the University to take. Climate change and climate action is a top concern within our university community for students and staff. As students and workers in the higher education sector, we have a particular responsibility and opportunity to campaign on climate action. Universities will play a leading role in the research and development and retraining that will be needed for the transition. Our fight against casualisation and the marketisation and commodification of education is inseparable from supporting our fellow workers and unionists in energy, transportation, and agricultural industries to decarbonise the economy and create dignified clean energy jobs. Transforming our destructive relationship with the environment requires a system change at all social, economic and political levels. To that end we stand with Indigenous people in struggles to protect their lands and waters from impending expansion of fossil fuel projects. We stand with workers in fossil fuel industries and their communities facing insecure work and an uncertain future. We stand against the vested corporate and political interests placing profits above the future of the planet. Students and staff call for the University of Melbourne to be bold on climate action and agree to stop work and class for all members of the university community to join the global climate strike on September 20th. There is no education on a dead planet.

After a term of trimesters, it is clearer than ever that this change is detrimental to UNSW staff and students. Students cannot learn effectively under such tight time constraints, and our teachers are struggling with the increased workload. UNSW management should be more concerned with the wellbeing of its students and its workers than the size of their profits. We the undersigned call on UNSW Management to CANCEL TRIMESTERS.