An attack on the rights of Korean truck drivers is an attack on the rights of truck drivers here in Australia and across the world. Australia and other countries have signed so-called free trade deals with South Korea which mean the low standards and oppression Koreans face today could be ours tomorrow. We must show the President that workers from all over the world are ready and willing to stand behind our colleagues in Korea and support safe and fair workplaces.

Australia is essentially giving away its offshore oil and gas to multinational corporations for free. Stunning media reports have revealed that the primary tax on oil and gas (the "PRRT") is projected to fail to collect any meaningful income despite Australia becoming the world's largest gas exporter [1]. Lost tax income means lost opportunities to properly fund schools, hospitals and childcare centres; boost Newstart back above the poverty line; and build critical infrastructure for the 21st Century. The Tax Justice Network, in partnership with over 20 civil society organisations including ACOSS, the ACTU and leading environment groups, is calling on the Australian Parliament to hold an Inquiry into the failure of the PRRT to collect meaningful income, and to ensure that the Australian people benefit fairly from the exploitation of our own natural resources. References: [1] http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/turnbull-government-called-on-to-explain-where-australias-offshore-gas-wealth-is-going-20161009-gryaoi.html

Workers have been beaten and attacked by police during peaceful demonstrations, leaving one man dead. Over 20 union activists have been jailed, with raids on transport unions and the teachers' union deregistered. Yet workers and their unions remain steadfast in their fight for justice and are currently holding strikes.

The article in Fairfax was shocking. Kmart and Target should know better than to source their products from factories where workers are exploited. Many workers in these factories are paid less in a week than Australians earn an hour. These big companies make massive profits and need to know that Australians won't accept these dodgy practices. It's these sort of dodgy practices that meant over 1,000 workers died when a clothing factory called Rana Plaza collapsed in Bangladesh. For more information check out the article in Fairfax: http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/target-and-kmart-sell-2-school-uniforms-but-at-what-cost-20160112-gm4n1y.html

Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Island Countries are currently negotiating a regional free trade agreement: PACER Plus. The PACER+ is another in a line of secret trade agreements that push a trade liberalisation agenda and promote the rights of corporations over people. Australian Unions have come together against CHAFTA and the TPP to call for trade deals that are balanced, support jobs, protect the rights of working people and promote a healthy environment. The PACER+ agreement will disproportionately affect Pacific Island nations. It will: - Give unprecedented rights to corporations Pacific governments will face restrictions on their regulation of foreign businesses. They will not be able to regulate to keep prices low, or ensure that services are available to everyone in the community. - Undermine access to essential services PACER+ will require Pacific countries to 'list' service sectors (including health, education, and water), allowing Australian and NZ companies to compete to provide these services in the Pacific. This will undermine access to services (especially for vulnerable people, like the unemployed or the rural poor) - Lead to a loss in public services like health and education PACER+ is calling on Pacific nations to drop tariffs on imported goods. This will result in a significant loss of government revenue - up to 19% in Tonga, 18% in Vanuatu, and 12% in Samoa. This loss in revenue is more than their total health or education budgets. - Lead to business closures and job losses Remoteness, small economies of scale and lack of human resources make it difficult for Pacific businesses to engage in global markets. Opening Pacific markets up to Australian and New Zealand corporations may wipe out Pacific businesses due difficulties in competing with their cheaper prices. - Undermine indigenous rights to land Land is central to indigenous people's spiritual and economic life. The removal of restrictions on ownership of land by foreign companies and investors will impact on Pacific communities' ability to determine their own economic future. (Source: Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA)

This week, the Victorian State Government passed a bill through Parliament that made it illegal to try and change or suppress a person's gender identity or sexual orientation. Gay conversion therapy is a harmful practice that can have dire consequences. The therapy can involve forcing people to undergo electric shocks and drink substances to induce vomiting when shown homoerotic images. There are also role-playing exercises where men are forced to do stereotypically 'blokey' things like chatting about football and tinkering with cars, while women are told to wear feminine clothes and apply a full face of makeup. This practice is cruel and bigoted. It is dangerous and unsafe. It is, at it’s very simplest, a violation of human rights and equal opportunity. The practice sends a message to the LGBTIQ+ community that gay isn’t “right” and that therapy will “fix” them. The handful of sitting Members of the Western Metropolitan region in the Legislative Council who voted against this bill should not be considered as dignitaries to Cities like Brimbank, Maribyrnong, Hobsons Bay, Melton, Hume, Wyndham and Moonee Valley; the council areas that make up our Community. As per their adopted policies, defined in the Annual Plans of every one of these councils, creating a safe and inclusive, diverse and proud community is vital to ensuring that everyone can live their own life, as they choose. If these Councils aspire demonstrate strong leadership, promote healthy and inclusive communities, develop strategies to enhance the inclusion and engagement of the LGBTIQA+ community every possible way, and creating welcoming environments, then removing those who promote bigotry and hate from your invitations and ceremonies should be top of their list. I call on each of these Councils to cease spending rate-payers money on hosting these members and to publicly declare that they will not pander to these bigots any longer.

This should be recognised and compensated for since it is unjust treatment of international students who are paying a high price for something they are not receiving, and who in addition are not eligible for Job keeper payments or Centrelink (but are still expected to pay full tuition fees which is causing extreme financial distress). The University is offering Emergency Support grants for students who have lost their income. However these are not guaranteed and are addressing another issue. They are not a recognition of the change in quality of the teaching and learning experience; a change which should be reflected in the pricing of impacted semesters. For approximate pricing per year for international students see: https://study.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0033/84399/2020-tuition-fee-tables-for-international-students.pdf

As all you know, Covid 19 is having a devastating affect on small businesses, workers and non - salaried student employees. We are international students and although we have proven family financial support, the whole world is in crisis and in need of help. A lot of schools already have adopted the reduction of fees up to 50%. We are having all our jobs cancelled and this help would be a great opportunity to allow us to continue staying and studying in Australia. Also, we recognise the importance of us for the Australia economy, mainly for the schools that offer courses to international students in general. We are seeing big part of us going back home and leaving the courses and all the investment behind. We really want to finish our course and make this investment worth it and gain this knowledge as we planned.

Because TISM

There is no evidence this trade deal will benefit workers in Australia or Indonesia - it simply gives more power to corporations. This deal has been negotiated in secret with no public consultation, and no assessment of the economic, health, environmental or human rights impacts. We demand the Morrison government immediately stop the process of ratifying this agreement, and commence a thorough assessment of the impacts of this agreement, consult with the public, and renegotiate the agreement accordingly.

On September 24 2018, amidst the heat of the 46th year of commemorating the Filipino peoples’ struggle against Martial Law under former dictator Ferdinand Marcos, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) released a statement that the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New Peoples Army (NPA) were planning to oust the current Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Shortly after, on October 2, 2018, General Antonio Parlade Jr., assistant deputy chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines accused Universities of being bases for mass recruitments for the CPP and NPA. Parlade Jr released a list of accused educational/academic institutions in the Philippines including premiere Philippine universities such as the University of the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle University, and Philippine Polytechnic University. The evidence cited for this claim was that campuses host anti-Martial Law film screenings among other artistic and cultural activities. These events have triggered widespread concern among many Filipino artists and acadmics who denounce the malicious efforts by the AFP to “red-tag” educational institutions as part of their counter-insurgency operations. Tagging academics and artists as Communists has historically been a precedent in the Philippines for military and government crackdowns against a wide range of critics. During the Marcos dictatorship, the University of the Philippines served as a space for free expression, speech, and assembly amidst country-wide state censorship, and this space became vital to resisting, opposing, and eventually putting an end to Martial Law. During the Martial Law period artists and academics were prominent among the 70,000 imprisoned and 34,000 tortured between 1972 and 1981 (Amnesty International).