Why this is important to us  We, the undersigned, strongly endorse the Council’s resolution in 2021 and its pursuit of reconciliation since then. It means a great deal to us that the  Council has listened to the First Nations people when they say that 26th January is a day of mourning that raises memories of stolen children, the hiding of First Nations heritage, and similar trauma within immediate family circles.   What needs to happen  We expect the current Councillors to uphold the Council’s first steps towards paying due respect to the Wadawurrung and Eastern Maar people. These first steps need to be consolidated and expanded upon. In the future, we hope all Shire citizens can continue to learn more about the deep and rich heritage of an ancient culture that has survived and begun to thrive again, enriching the whole community.

No student should have to risk their health while paying rent. Overheated rooms lead to illness, sleep deprivation, and mental health struggles, especially for regional, remote, and international students who already face extra challenges. The World Health Organization (WHO) warns that extreme heat is a growing health crisis, worsened by climate change. Heat exposure can cause exhaustion, dehydration, and even death. It disrupts sleep, reduces focus, and harms wellbeing and academic performance. WHO stresses that safe indoor temperatures are essential. As temperatures rise, inaction is not an option. Students are paying too much to live in unsafe conditions. Real change happens when we push together. By joining this campaign, you’re demanding Curtin and UniLodge step up, stop ignoring student welfare, and provide real solutions. We won’t accept inaction. Speak up. Stand with students. Demand better living conditions—now!

To recap, when the Department of Child Protection released a tender that would lock in below award wages our Union took action and has been working to resolve the issues. After weeks of direct advocacy, your action over the last 24 hours has helped lock in a win and today we have spoken with the Minister Hildyard's office to confirm the Department would update the tender that has now been published to the sector. We thank the Minister and the Department for listening to you, the frontline workers. Now, our work continues to: • Push for a state wide fair jobs code for community services to ensure all Government tenders reflect fair wages and secure jobs • Win a fair Award Award classification structure to properly reflect your skills and experience As we've experienced overnight, when community sector workers take action we can change Government policy and win good outcomes for our members. Share this win with your workmates and ask them to join you in our Union so we can keep improving working conditions across the youth and community services sector: www.asusant.com/sant.com

Young workers still face the same expenses as other workers in rent, groceries, education costs and more. But in our unfair system, an 18-year-old with years of experience could be paid less than their 21-year-old newly hired colleague just because of their age. Sign the petition today if you agree everyone should be paid fairly regardless of their age!

Survivors of rape and sexual assault participate in the criminal justice system of their own free will. The system would collapse in regards to sexual crimes, without their voluntary involvement. Many do so at great personal cost.  When they take the stand, they do it to keep us, the community safe. Now it’s our turn to take a stand for them and demand a criminal justice system that does not further injure those who enter it.

Employee pharmacists are Australia’s lowest-paid health professionals and are leaving the industry in droves. Professional Pharmacists Australia (PPA), the union for employee pharmacists and technicians, has submitted a comprehensive case to the Fair Work Commission calling for a long-overdue minimum Award wage increase for pharmacists of $188.30 per week and a 14% increase for Interns, Pharmacists In Charge and Pharmacy Managers. But the Australian Private Hospitals Industrial Association (APHA) is calling on the Fair Work Commission to block all proposed pay increases. Pharmacists deserve better and are calling on APHA to acknowledge the vital role of pharmacists by amending their submission to the Fair Work Commission to support a fair pay increase.  Sign this petition to demand that APHA stop blocking a pay increase to the minimum award rate. Let’s show APHA that their stance isn’t just unsustainable – it’s deeply unpopular.  Pharmacists deserve better, and with your signature, pharmacists can put pressure on APHA to change their position.  Together, we can demand change. Support Australia’s pharmacists today: 1. Sign the petition to show your support for fair wages for pharmacists. 2. Share this petition with everyone you know – pharmacists, healthcare professionals, and community members who rely on and value pharmacists’ expertise.

Access to abortion is at risk in Queensland.   If the LNP get into power this October, Queensland women’s rights will be taken back to the dark ages.   It has come out this week that the Katter Party is seeking a “clean repeal” of the 2018 abortion decriminalisation bill as soon as possible – and multiple LNP members have recently reaffirmed their support to wind back abortion laws in Queensland.   The Katter Party have committed to introducing a private members bill to repeal the decriminalisation of abortion as soon as possible. That leaves the door wide open for the LNP to vote to make abortion a crime under a conscience vote.  Day after day, David Crisafulli refuses to answer questions about whether or not he would allow a conscience vote. Last time the LNP had a conscience vote on abortion, 36 out of 39 voted for abortion to be a crime. Since then, they have continued to vote against access to abortion for regional & rural Queensland women and have hand-picked extreme anti-abortion candidates, like Amanda Stoker, to run in this election.

At 1:30 am on 27 June 2024, an ambulance rolled in Myrtleford trapping paramedic Jim Avard. Patient Transport Ambo, Andrew Bishop responded to the scene and cut Jim free, helped him exit the ambulance safely and into the care of other paramedics.  As an active union delegate and safety rep, Andrew later took a picture of the rolled ambulance and sent it to the union and his employer National Patient Transport. That picture went viral and highlighted the risk of fatigue faced by paramedics and ambulance workers across Victoria.  Within a few hours of the story going public, National Patient Transport stood Andrew down from duty. He has since had his employment terminated from National Patient Transport.  Andrew has worked as a fire fighter, a first aider and in the safety industry for over 40 years. He did his best to use his skills and experience to rescue a workmate and get him to care safely. He also helped expose the serious risks faced by ambulance workers across Victoria. Sacking an ambo for trying to do the right thing is unfair, harsh, and unreasonable and this decision should be reversed.   Have a heart NPT. Give Andrew his job back.

We cannot fix the housing crisis unless we pull all levers available. We need to Greens to work together and introduce the Share Equity Scheme (Help to Buy) - where the government co-owns the property with the first home owner to help them with a smaller deposit and have lower each mortgage repayment.

Queensland women, especially women living regionally, are at risk of losing their legal right to access abortion services as well as cuts to critical funding to provide the healthcare required across all regional hospital and health services. We know their voting record: • The LNP and conservatives voted against decriminalisation of abortion in 2018. • The LNP went to the 2020 state election pledging a review of the laws which gave Queensland women abortion rights. • In 2022, they refused to rule out future attempts to unpick them in the midst of the Roe v Wade publicity across the world. • And in 2024, they voted against the introduction of the MS2-Step abortion pill. Now David Crisafulli is hedging his bets saying it wouldn’t be on the first term agenda if he’s elected as Premier but will not rule out supporting a private member’s bill. Queensland women deserve respect and better healthcare rights than this.   We call on David Crisafulli, the Liberal National Party and all other conservative political parties to commit to protecting our hard-fought rights to access reproductive healthcare and abortions. So that wherever someone finds themselves in Queensland, they can access safe, funded and legal termination of pregnancy services. Authorised by J. King, Queensland Council of Unions, 16 Peel St South Brisbane.

Interpreters are vital to ensuring access to justice, healthcare, and essential services.  Interpreters facilitate communication between people with limited English proficiency, Deaf and hard of hearing and the public sector professionals they interact with in important, or even critical, life situations. Court Services Victoria and Language Service Providers (LSPs) are cutting interpreters' pay and reducing their hours, adding stress to an already demanding job.    Under the RNS, interpreters are considered officers of the court. Currently, the conditions faced by interpreters are well below any standard applicable to an officer of a court.   Recent changes undermine long-standing fee structures, leaving interpreters with a further degradation of their pay and conditions – pay and conditions that are not commensurate with the role, responsibilities and expectations quite rightly, of the professionals and community members who rely on them.   The Victorian Government initiated reforms to language services in 2018 which have yet to be completed. This has left the sector exposed to downward price pressure from Government agencies leading to aggressive competition among LSPs at the expense of the workforce. This has a direct impact on outcomes in justice, law enforcement, healthcare and all service provision generally.   The Victorian Government’s failure to address procurement reform has led to further erosion of interpreters’ pay and conditions in the form of: • Reduced minimum engagements; • Covert changes to fee calculation, resulting in lower rates of pay; • No increases to recommended rates in 6+ years; • Reduced pay for working remotely despite its increased complexity. For the justice sector and the community, this means: • The language services sector is becoming unsustainable because: • Experienced interpreters are leaving the sector. • Graduates are not entering the profession due to the poor conditions. • Failures can occur in the administration of justice due to: • Communities being disadvantaged by an absence of procedural fairness in the justice system. • A system that discriminates. • Government and their agencies will be in breach of their own multicultural, access and equity and inclusion policies. • All community services will be jeopardised similarly to the legal sector. • The greater financial consequence of system failures will be borne by the taxpayer. Judicial Council on Diversity and Inclusion Recommended National Standards (RNS) The RNS were produced by a specialist committee appointed by the former JCCD (now the Judicial Council on Diversity and Inclusion - JCDI) comprising Interpreting and Legal Experts, with its first edition published in 2017 and the second in 2022. The RNS are endorsed by the Council of Chief Justices of Australia. Their purpose was to develop frameworks, best practice advice, and resources to support procedural fairness and equality of treatment for all court users throughout Australia. The Implementation of the RNS is not only vital to promoting and ensuring compliance with the rules of procedural fairness. The RNS are concurrently intended to ensure that the interpreting profession throughout Australia develops to the benefit of the administration of justice generally. The RNS are not universally adopted in Victorian Courts. This is troubling, given the diversity of Victoria’s community, we would expect that Victoria should be leading the way. Regrettably, this is not the case. Join Us in Demanding Fairness for Interpreters and the Communities that they serve. All interpreters, translators, legal professionals, healthcare workers, and professionals who rely on interpreters at work, please sign this petition! Let’s show the Victorian Government that we stand together for justice, fair treatment, and the right to fair pay and conditions.   Get involved: Contact [email protected] for more information or to find out how to further support the campaign. Petition To The Legislative Council of Victoria: We, the undersigned residents of Victoria draw to the attention of the Legislative Council, the ongoing degradation of conditions and standards in Victorian Courts. We note the reduced terms of engagement for court interpreters by Court Services Victoria and the stalled procurement reform for this sector by the Victorian Government and the failure to universally adopt the Recommended National Standards for Working with Interpreters in Courts and Tribunals in Victorian Courts.   We, the undersigned residents of Victoria, therefore, request that the Legislative Council of Victoria call on the Victorian Government to:   1. Restore the previous engagement terms for interpreters in Victorian Courts, with half-day or full-day rates. 2. Adopt, fund, and implement the JCDI Recommended National Standards for Working with Interpreters in Courts and Tribunals, in full, within Victorian Courts and Tribunals. 3. Resume consultations towards procurement reforms for the language services sector to mandate higher standards in professionalism and quality. 

The spread of gambling and the social harm from it is a serious concern for our country.