Despite failures of maintenance, reliability and staffing, the government is soon to renew their lucrative contracts for Melbourne’s train and tram operations. Many issues have been brought to the surface over the past months including network failures, derailments, un-maintained tracks, and under-staffing as well as typical canceled, delayed, or altered services. This is while Metro Trains Melbourne continues to make millions of dollars from taxpayers and commuters. These contracts are secret and have left us with a rail network in crisis. Let Minister Allan know that taxpayers and commuters are sick of being shortchanged by a company that values shareholders more than ticket holders! For more information, check out the article in the paper today: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/luba-grigorovitch-oh-the-places-you-wont-go-on-public-transport/news-story/0e8fdd5bc0117e88cf2a40fa58fb2331

The current structure of the trimester system unfairly affects staff and students. Through institutionalizing the drive to hasten the completion of degrees and rake in profit, the University has thus forgone creating an atmosphere that disrespects the concept of obtaining a comprehensive education in an attempt to establish the university as a degree factory. The trimester model completely ignores the necessity of study breaks for students to catch up on content as well utterly disregarding the students who rely on the end of year break to save essential funds that ultimately sustains them for the following academic year. Already carrying the weight of being at university, this financial and social deficit will place a greater burden on the mental and academic health of Griffith University Students. The implications of this model call in to question the practicality of deadlines and workloads placed on academic staff by creating a third teaching period. This new policy strips the ability of staff to have time to part take in scholastic pursuits, including conferences and undertaking research. This policy will lead to an increase of fatigue and burnt out staff which will ultimately affect Griffith's high standings within research and the quality of the education. At all ends, the trimester model is solely for the university and against the students and staff.

The people who work in South Australia's power industry deserve to be treated equally for equal work. But currently South Australian Power Networks (SAPN) management are trying to break the business in two, using the excuse that they need agreements that comply with the building code. These would force the people who work there onto agreements that: - ban mandatory hiring of apprentices - allow cut-price unskilled labour from labour hire companies - undermine safety and reliability for customers - attack the job security of experienced, reliable South Australians The CEPU/ETU recently successfully campaigned for changes to the building code that would exempt SAPN entirely from it because they perform essential services. Yet SAPN managers have refused to take up the exemption. They want to use the code as an excuse to put the screws on working South Australians. We support quality South Australian work, and the people who perform it. Add your voice below, and tell SAPN to stop playing games and apply for the building code exemptions.

Your radiographers, sonographers, medical physicists and radiologists are the imaging professionals who provide the services that allow for quick and accurate diagnosis that leads to timely and effective treatment. They tell us that privatising medical imaging services in the new RAH will put profits before patients, lead to patients having to make expensive trips to other services, put staff and patients safety at risk, deskill our health professionals and lower the quality of services provided to the community. South Australians have paid over $2 billion for a new state of the art hospital and they should have free access to medical imaging no matter how frail they are and how complex their conditions. It is time for Minister Jack Snelling to stand up for South Australians and protect public imaging.

Council-run home care enables those in need to live independently at home for as long possible by providing domestic assistance; personal care; respite care; property maintenance; nursing and allied health and social support. The workforce is stable, well trained and committed to providing quality services. Federal policy changes due to come into effect in 2020 threaten the Victorian home care system. Without local government our home care would be poorer - poorer in quality standards, poorer for lack of skilled and experienced workforce and poorer for the loss of $200 million in funding. It is not too late to make policy changes that will protect our system. FEEDBACK ON THE CURRENT SYSTEM: “I’m not as fit as I used to be and now the council provide a carer to help me out but it is the company we old folk get from the staff that attend. You need just see a friendly face and cheery hello, it makes such a difference, we have no one to talk to most days. So the council staff really work miracles. ” “It has been very difficult for my sister to look after my dad who has dementia in the South Australian HACC system which is decentralized. If anything there has been more cut backs and limited support – unless you have the money to pay. Victoria’s council run services are so much better. People who have home carers are able to stay in their own homes and receive better quality care and the carers have better support networks. Councils are vital in funding and staffing.” “I really think it is so important the Council continue to play a role in home care for our community. I’m concerned that this new model will look like the RESI Youth Care System which failed. Council’s have highly skilled staff to run Home and Community Care.” “The chap Arthur who takes us shopping on Thursday is a very good man, he lifts all the shopping on and off the bus and the young lady Emily is the name, she takes us to a market even sometimes with Arthur. There we stroll around with our friends from the bus and have a cup of tea. Yes these people you have on your staff are really something and this we thank Council for. The bus comes to your door and you see the cheery faces of the helpers, it makes your day.” #PlayFairwithHomeCare

I'm Judith, and I've been a cleaner for a long time. I've never seen anything like this. In the government's new contract, there’s no jobs guarantee – meaning 7,000 cleaners will all be forced to reapply for our jobs, without entitlements like sick leave that we’ve built up over years of service. And there’s no hours guarantee – which we can’t afford, and also means we won’t be able to keep state schools and public buildings clean. We’ve only got until the end of the year to change this, so please add your name to tell the Premier that cleaners need job security - the more of us who speak out together, the louder our voices are!

The 7 am opening better suits early morning swimmers and beach users.

https://youtu.be/RdeFLgDFCts The Liberals have already made it clear who the first victims of the 2017 budget will be. It’s young people who will have money taken out of their pockets. It's students who will face higher fees and more debt, studying in underfunded institutions. It's universities put under even more financial pressure and asked to offer more. These changes will mean an 8% fee hike, earlier HECS repayments for students and funding cuts for universities. And all of it to pay for billions of dollars of hand-outs to multinationals. Similar cuts and policies were defeated time and time again under Tony Abbott. Students ran a massive campaign and we are ready to do it again. Find out more about our campaign here: https://www.facebook.com/makeeducationfreeagain/ For more information regarding the changes: http://thenewdaily.com.au/money/your-budget/2017/05/01/budget-2017-university-degrees/

SA Pathology is the backbone of public health in South Australia. Pathology is involved in 70% of medical treatment decisions, and 60% of Australians will require pathology services at least once a year. Despite this, the South Australian Government wants to cut hundreds of jobs from your public pathology service. When jobs are cut in pathology, people don’t just lose their jobs, diagnosis is delayed and South Australians will stay sicker for longer. Our medical scientists study and diagnose diseases such as meningococcal and leukemia, and work directly with our doctors to better treat patients and find a cure. Pathology services are core to the delivery of an efficient functioning health service yet the South Australian Government plans to seriously compromise this by cutting hundreds of jobs. Simply put, cutting 278 jobs from SA Pathology is dangerous, short sighted and will only result in costly delays in diagnosis. We know that the sooner a patient can be diagnosed, the quicker they can begin the right treatment plan and recover. It is time for the Minister Jack Snelling to value medical science and protect public pathology.

The cost of securing a parking spot at Monash is ridiculous, with permit and ticket prices rising significantly on an annual basis. A FREE carpooling service was introduced as an incentive for students to drive to university together. The reduced number of vehicles would lower Monash's carbon footprint, as well as free up parking spots across campus. Last year the university imposed a fee on the carpooling service, and as such it is being severely underutilised. The infringement system at Monash is also increasingly costly and harsh. The university are charging more for fines, and while first time offenders and ambiguous offences are issued infringement notices straight off the bat, the appeal process is so unduly rigid that it's almost impossible to successfully challenge an alleged offence. The cost of attending university alone is enormous. We do not need the added pressure of paying hundreds of dollars for parking when we're not even guaranteed a spot. Do One Thing Monash, fix the parking mess!

Members of the Transport Workers’ Union are running this petition for all workers across the airport. Those who spend their work day servicing the needs of airlines at Sydney’s busy international and domestic airline terminals are standing together to make sure the unfair Airport Station Access Fee is scrapped. This fee is neither appropriate nor effective to airport motor vehicle congestion, it is deterring people from catching the train to work. Now it seems the traffic congestion around Sydney Airport is worse than ever. There is precedent in place that makes the removal of the fee an easy decision for the NSW Government. When a former government removed the Access Fee from Mascot Station, passenger numbers doubled. No other group of workers in NSW have to pay an additional fee simply to catch the train to work.

There are hundreds, if not thousands of local families that will suffer because of the decision to slash Sunday and public holiday penalty rates. People across the North Coast and Northern Rivers are demanding action. In fact, A survey by ReachTel found that 66.4% of voters in the seats of Page, Dawson and Corangamite think their local MP should support changes to the law to protect penalty rates.