Campus counselling services usually cap the number of sessions offered to individual students each year. As mental health support off-campus isn’t accessible to many students, this locks them out of mental healthcare either entirely or for extended periods. Counselling sessions at universities must be uncapped. Campus counselling services rarely hire enough staff to meet student demand, forcing students to wait weeks or even months to book sessions with no mental healthcare while they wait. Universities must adequately staff counselling services to keep wait times for sessions below two weeks. Some campus counselling services prevent students from booking sessions at all through walk-in only policies. In other services bookings can be made but only in person, not online or over the phone. But for many students with mental ill health or various disabilities, such policies prevent them from accessing sessions at all. Students must be able to book sessions in advance and through accessible methods. At some campus counselling services students have no choice of counsellor, they're stopped from changing counsellors as needed or forced to change counsellors against their wishes, neither of which is conducive to effective mental healthcare. Students must be allowed to choose counsellors according to their needs. Many campus counselling services don’t provide specialist services relevant to students’ needs, such as counsellors trained to support students with experiences of sexual assault, trauma, and psychological conditions other than depression and anxiety. Universities must provide counsellors with training relevant to the mental health issues students are affected by. Universities largely fail to promote campus counselling services to all students. Many promote services inconsistently during peak times like orientation and exams but not all year, and promotion often targets first years but not other students. Universities must do more to promote services and regularly integrate promotion into communications with students.

Whilst the ANU has made great strides to tackle the complicated issue of providing accommodation for a growing student population, there are still many pressing and urgent issues for postgraduate students that must be addressed. There are still postgraduate students being exploited by predatory landlords, skipping meals to pay for the bare necessities, and sleeping rough in the library and their offices to ensure that they have a safe place to sleep at night. In recognising that the ANU is providing additional accommodation for students in the upcoming years, it is not merely enough to have this accommodation available, it also needs to be accessible, affordable and adequate. Additionally, to meet the first-year guarantee, second- and third-year students will need to seek accommodation off-campus in a city that was just named the most expensive rent market in Australia.

Scott Morrison has the power to immediately end the suffering of refugee children, their families and others seeking asylum who are stuck in limbo on Nauru. They are being further traumatised every day that he refuses to not act in their interests. As a nation we cannot stand by and allow innocent children on Nauru continue to live in misery which prevents them from accessing a future all children deserve. The Prime Minister must stop putting his own political interests ahead of the welfare of those asylum seekers who rely on us to give them hope and safety. As educators we owe it to these children to put our full support behind them and tell the federal Liberal government to act with humanity and compassion, not hatred and division. By signing the letter to the Prime Minister you can stand with educators around Australia demanding that Scott Morrison acts.

Professional and academic staff are integral to the quality of our education. Research higher degree and undergraduate students will both be negatively impacted by this proposed restructure, as already pressured staff are put more under the pump with increased workload and reduced support. FUSA Student Council would also wish to acknowledge the huge financial and emotional burden on staff and their loved ones that comes with job insecurity.

Vulnerable young people, the unemployed and retrenched workers looking to retrain deserve the quality education that Victorian TAFEs provide. Together we can send a strong message to the major political parties ahead of the November state election to make sure they commit to allocating at least 70 percent of vocational education funding to public TAFEs.

More teachers means more literacy and numeracy support, help for those students with learning difficulties and providing extension work for children and young people who need it. It also means teachers would have more time to plan and prepare to support the learning of every student. Together we can send a strong message to the major political parties ahead of the November state election to make sure they commit to funding 1600 additional teachers every year to give every Victorian child the quality education they deserve.

Security officers at the University of Tasmania (UTAS) are facing potential job losses because of a contract change from Spotless to Wilson. There is no guarantee that current security staff will keep their jobs; they have to reapply for their positions. Some security officers have worked at UTAS for over 13 years and are now faced with having no job, and if they are hired by Wilson there is no guarantee that they will have permanent employment or the same amount of hours. Other security officers are long-term casuals, with some working at UTAS for over 9 years without job security. These guards now face the prospect of no job, no entitlements and no redundancy. Wilson has already advertised the positions at UTAS without meeting with the current security officers first. Security officers had some simple questions to ask WIlson, but Wilson has chosen to ignore them so now they are calling on the Vice-Chancellor of UTAS to direct Wilson to answer them and to give them a job they can count on.

Malcolm Turnbull’s government won’t listen. He’s refused to meet with us, and he refuses to fund equal pay for educators. That’s why we’re telling politicians everywhere: we're making equal pay an election issue. Bill Shorten is potentially our next Prime Minister. We have a clear message for him: support early educators, and educators will support you. Please sign now to tell Bill Shorten to meet with me and other educators - together we're strong!

Community members of Coburg and surrounds, value the amazing oasis for our community that has been built up within Peppertree place. The organisation is largely volunteer run and the programs have become an important part of people's lives. With many volunteers building both a support network and new skills that have lead to them finding new employment opportunities after extended periods on un employment. Some of the program at risk if Peppertree place is closed include. o A volunteer run nursery and café, which have a built a significant community of people around them. o The gardens which are used by the neighboring schools, childcare centers, health practitioners and local playgroups, o The surrounding gardens have provided a wonderful peaceful sanctuary for local residents especially those in high-density housing neighboring the Peppertree place. o The Annual fiesta has been a triumph of volunteers and brought together many local organisations and built a community around the program run on site. So please sign our petition to save Peppertree Place!

Students deserve a high quality education. By reducing the number of teaching weeks the University is reducing quality face-to-face teaching time with our tutors and academics, and in addition reducing the time we have to complete assignments, study for exams and have a well rounded student experience. Being a student is already tough - cutting our semesters by a week will result in unnecessary stress and anxiety throughout the already intense semester. We're calling on the University to reverse the 2016-2017 decision to reduce the number of active teaching weeks, and bring back our 13 week semesters.

Since 2011 Tasmanian governments have capped the wages of Tasmanians working in the public sector, like rangers, health professionals, teachers and nurses, at 2% per annum. Premier Will Hodgman plans to continue this 2% cap until at least 2023. For many of these Tasmanians this means a struggle to make ends meet while the cost of living rises. When Will Hodgman decides to underpay his employees, everyone suffers. We cannot recruit and retain the people who provide the quality services that Tasmanians deserve. The cap holds down wages for all Tasmanians – private businesses look to government as a barometer for setting wages and conditions. Tasmanian public sector workers deliver opportunities, education, care and protection, improving all of our lives. But these workers need jobs they can count on to deliver these services. Bargaining is how we’ve built the jobs, wages and living standards we rely on. This doesn't happen when outcomes are decided before negotiations begin.

The Ramsay Centre is a private body with $3 billion to establish a “Western Civilisation” arts degree at major universities, funded by a bequest from private health magnate and top Liberal Party donor Paul Ramsay. The Ramsay Centre aims to give academic respectability to racist ideas under the guise of celebrating “Western Civilisation” and its supposed supremacy. Board members of the Ramsay Centre include hard right former Liberal Prime Ministers, John Howard and Tony Abbott. Speaking to the course content of the proposed Ramsay Centre, Abbott affirmed the Centre’s conservative and Eurocentric vision, emphasising “it’s not just about Western Civilisation but in favour of it”. Structural discrimination will be introduced to the humanities with enormous resources, including $25,000 scholarships and small tutorial sizes, given to students who study “Western Civilisation” but not to students that study areas they deem inferior; those Abbott decries as “pervaded by Asian, Indigenous and sustainability perspectives”. University staff have expressed well founded concerns regarding academic independence. Ramsay Centre CEO Simon Haines has said they will review all course content, not hire teachers who have criticised Western civilisation and will withdraw funding if they think the course isn’t sufficiently pro-West. Universities should be a place to challenge dominant ideas, institutions and systems - not a place where billionaires can buy influence over curriculum, staffing and pedagogy in order to pedal racism disguised as appreciation for “Western Culture”. The University is selling control over its curriculum to the highest bidder and turning a blind eye to academic freedom and integrity to do so. We are strongly opposed to the University entering into any arrangement with the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation.