*update* National Cabinet is due to meet on August 27 and apparently discuss this issue however we will keep this petition up until our demands are met. Your voice matters. Please share this petition widely. Scott Morrison has said we must ”learn to live” with COVID-19 once we reach an 80% vaccination threshold of adults. This leaves 36% of the population unvaccinated, including most young people under 16 years old. The health toll on young people could be a disaster. Learning to live with the virus poses an unacceptable health risk until all ages under 16 are vaccinated. The National Plan and vaccine thresholds must be updated and include young people. We are concerned about young people returning to school unvaccinated for the following reasons; 1. Compared to previous variants, the delta variant is more virulent in young people. The Western Australian AMA former President Andrew Miller in WA Today states "The other real worry is that about 40 per cent of kids still have symptoms at four months, and 7 per cent have disabling physical or mental issues at six months, which can lead into long COVID syndrome." 2. Compared to previous variants, the delta variant has a 10-15 times higher transmissibility in young people. To date, young people are disproportionately affected. In Victoria, 45% of infections are in children and teenagers. In New South Wales, the figure is 30%. (22/8/21) Note these disproportionate infection rates are occurring in the context of remote learning in Victoria and NSW. Concerningly in the regional area of Shepparton, where school remained open for some of the current statewide lockdown, every school has become an exposure site and is now closed with multiple children, young people and their families now infected. The infection rates could rise further if students return onsite before being vaccinated. Unlike most workplaces, once students return to classrooms, social distancing will be practically impossible. Furthermore, adequate air ventilation, filtration and monitoring infrastructure, at this stage, does not exist. 3. The Doherty report was written before the recent evidence that indicates that the transmissibility of the Delta variant is much higher in young people. The Doherty model's rationale for excluding young people in their vaccine quotas rests on the assumption that "[e]xpanding the vaccine program to the 12-15 year age group has minimal impact on transmission and clinical outcomes for any achieved level of vaccine uptake". This is outdated.  More recent epidemiological modelling indicates that the necessity for heavier social distancing measures will be reduced if 5-15 year olds are included in the vaccination strategy (McBryde et al. 2021). Both the NSW and Victorian Chief Health Officers have recognised that young people are now a vector for broader community transmission. 4. As school staff we are acutely aware of the mental health challenges that students face under lockdown. However, returning students to onsite learning as a predominantly unvaccinated group and into an unsafe environment is not a solution.

My life would be very different if I could hop on a bus or a train or a tram whenever I wanted. Right now going anywhere takes a lot of planning and is not affordable for me, because Public Transport is inaccessible. For over forty years people with disabilities have been campaigning for the same access to transport as everyone else, to have the same access to jobs, work and community, but for many of us lockdown life is normal life. Previous governments have not kept their promises. The Disability Discrimination Act (1992) requires that all infrastructure is fully compliant with the Standards for Accessible Public Transport 2002 (DSAPT) by 31 December 2022. That’s 500 days away. And we are woefully behind. Only 15% of Melbourne’s Tram Network is accessible, and buses, trains and taxis across regional Victoria fail daily to meet the needs of residents with disabilities. THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT THE ANDREWS GOVERNMENT CAN DEAL WITH THE SOLUTION ONCE AND FOR ALL We want to see a commitment from the state government to deliver universal access in the next term of government. This would contribute to our economic recovery and deliver a more comfortable, efficient Public Transport system for all Victorians. It would also help Victoria meet its commitment to halve emissions by 2030. And it’s not just the disability community that will benefit from universal access. Parents with prams, older Victorians and people wishing to avoid increasing traffic congestion will all reap the rewards of these upgrades. TAKE ACTION: SEND AN EMAIL TO MINISTER CARROLL HERE Support our community of disability activists by reaching out to the Minister for Public Transport, Ben Carroll, and call on him and the Victorian government to take action for universally accessible Public Transport. Jess and the DRC Campaigns Team

Victorian and South Australian arts workers are stranded in NSW with their work cancelled or finished and no way to get home. Their applications to return home have been ignored or rejected without reason. They are now facing many more months of separation from their loved ones, with no job, income, or guaranteed accommodation. Sign the petition to bring them home. Jasmine Vaughns I am in the cast of Come From Away and travelled to Sydney for this work on the 25th of May. Shortly after opening the season I was stood down on the 25th of June due to the latest COVID outbreak. I applied for an exemption to return to my home/Victoria three and a half weeks ago. I was denied last night and am now going through the taxing process of re-applying all over again. My reason for doing so is that my mental health has suffered greatly being isolated here in Sydney. Suffering from anxiety and panic disorder I need to return to my home to be in the care of my partner and family. I get COVID tested weekly, have had my first dose of the vaccine and provided all documentation and evidence I could to support my application, yet still was denied. My only reason for being here was for work, and now that it can no longer continue currently, I simply wish to go home. Zelia Kitoko I travelled from Naarm to Gadigal land in January 2021 to commence a contract with Hamilton Australia. I was stood down as of June 26 2021 due to covid restrictions. My mother in Melbourne has been unwell and I am her only child and carer. I have not been able to return to her after many attempts and 6 weeks of waiting with minimal communication or clarity. It's been very invalidating and incredibly stressful to be stuck here without any consideration. Deirdre Khoo I'm a new performer in the industry. I moved to Sydney from Melbourne in early May for a temporary contract with the Darlinghurst Theatre Company for the tour of ONCE. My contract in Sydney was meant to go to early August, and a tour to regional NSW and Melbourne was going to happen after. A few weeks after the NSW stay-at-home orders, the company was stood down after seeing no possibility of the production going ahead. By this time the Victorian borders had shut for anyone ins NSW. I have not only lost my capacity to generate income, but also lose the ability to get back home to Victoria, where I am a resident. My accommodation in Sydney ended as per originally arranged, and I have moved into a colleague's nan place, who have very graciously opened their arms to me in this time of need. I am still covering partial rent and entirety of bills in Melbourne, while also providing a small amount to make up for my costs at my current accommodation. While this financial struggle does not come to me as large an issue in this time as compared to many, I have been experiencing anxiety and my mental health has been exponentially deteriorating from the lockdown. This is because I am unable to return to my place of residence and be in my own space, even after declaring that I will strictly follow the Victorian health orders to self-isolate and avoid contact with the Victorian community for their wellbeing. Andrew Coshan I am an Actor who travelled to Sydney on the 30th of May to begin rehearsals for Merrily We Roll Along at the Hayes Theatre. We were four days away from opening night when the lockdown which began on June 25th meant we had to postpone. At this point it was only meant to be for a week, so we planned to move opening night seven days later. But as the lockdowns got extended it became obvious that we could not plan when lockdown would end, and we were officially stood down on July 27th. Because we were now out of contract, we could try get back to our home state, but by this point the Victorian border was closed. I have now spent over eight weeks in this lockdown. I have stayed in NSW over three weeks longer than I ever planned to. I have tried, and am still trying to get back to Victoria, but have so far only been denied entry to the state that I call home. I have never lived in Sydney before. I don’t have family in Sydney. And I now feel like a burden on the associates that I’m staying with, but I have nowhere I can go. Kathleen Moore I take work in traveling theatre shows because they provide very good salaries and when in work, I am able to help pay for the hefty mortgage and bills my husband and I are responsible for.  Performers’ contracts are generally very short, and do not provide consistent pay throughout a year. Therefore, I need to be able to make my proper salary when I am employed, in order to help save money for the time when I am not under contract and the show closes.  The Victorian Government not only has a duty of care for its Residents who are currently within Victorian borders, it also has a duty of care for those working Victorians stranded away from their loved ones and homes. Bring Victorian workers HOME!

A Single Agreement wipes a clear baseline from the current Professional Staff Agreement, effectively forcing a fight to simply include existing conditions which have been stripped through simplification. Act NOW to show your support for continuing to use separate agreements at UTS. If a Single Agreement is made in this round of bargaining the prospect of returning to Separate Agreements in the future are slim. Your signature matters, as does the signature of colleagues you refer to this page. Petitions delivered directly to university managements have worked before to protect staff conditions.

I’m a proud union member/supporter of the public sector. Public servants dedicate their work to providing quality services and support to our communities. When you won the election in 2017, you asked public servants to support urgent budget repair, and accept a wage increase of $1,000 per year. Now, we are asking you to support them. We are asking you to support the WA public sector that keeps this state running.

The latest IPCC report is grave. The conservative targets set by the Paris Climate Agreement were set to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. We are now currently on track to reach that level of warming in 2040. At that point, almost 1 billion people will face life-threatening heat waves at least once every 5 years. That's in addition to more floods, more droughts, worse heat, and rising sea levels. 1.5 degrees however is now a best case scenario. The report estimates that if we reach a 'high emissions future scenario' - which is consistent with what we're currently on track for - global warming above pre-industrial levels would rise to 5.7 degrees Celsius by 2100. That level of warming would be catastrophic. We need urgent action to address the climate crisis right now. The IPCC report argues that without "immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions", curbing emissions to even 2 degrees Celsius will be "beyond reach". Nowhere in the world is the level of immediate and large scale reductions required to meet these targets seen. Especially not in Australia. Australia ranks sixth highest in the world for greenhouse gas emissions per capita. When you consider greenhouse gasses emitted by Australian exported coal that figure expands significantly. Despite Australian emissions disproportionately escalating the climate crisis our government has displayed a commitment to expanding the fossil fuel industry. The government’s “Gas-Led Recovery” will see gas-fired power plants built to meet Australia’s growing energy requirements. The burning of gas will emit more greenhouse gasses, in particular methane which is even more dangerous than co2.

The COVID 19 pandemic is continuously evolving and threatening our daily lives and shrinking the economic activities. Many medical experts warn that the virus variation will be continued to reproduce new variants. Therefore the COVID 19 pandemic is not today's issue but a long-term issue that we all society and government must work together. Therefore the government must invest in training qualified medical professionals and hiring a sufficient number of medical professionals and nurses. In Korea, one nurse takes care of 12-20 patients. If we reduce the ratio to one nurse for 5 patients, much better services will be provided. 80% of COVID 19 pandemic patients treated at the public hospitals where medical doctors and nurses with heavy PPE clothes and gloves etc have been suffering long hours of work and high levels of stress without rest over the months. If these frontline people will be collapsed due to the lack of a workforce, the pandemic fiasco will be explosively increased to destroy society. There is no time to delay.

Many people are surprised to discover that public transport workers, who have worked throughout this lockdown in an essential and public-facing role, are not eligible for the Pfizer vaccine. We come into contact with many members of the public throughout our day, eat and perform standby duties in packed lunchrooms with fellow workers. There is a lot of potential for the virus to spread throughout our workplace and be carried across sydney by our trains. The risk of serious transmission on the railways not only puts rail workers in danger, it threatens to shut down essential rail services which transport other essential workers across the city. We are concerned that no serious measures have been put in place to address these dangers in our work, and that vaccinating our essential workforce should not be the individual responsibility of workers, but the collective responsibility of the government and management.

Hospitality is one of the most insecure industries in the country. The vast majority of us don’t have access to paid sick leave and are among the lowest paid workers. We can’t afford to take time off work to get vaccinated. Everyone should be safe at work, but without vaccinations we aren’t safe. And without vaccination leave we can’t protect ourselves and others. Without vaccinations we will catch the virus from our customers and pass it onto our workmates, our families and to other patrons. The Morrison government must immediately introduce a minimum of two days of paid vaccination leave for hospitality workers who want to get vaccinated. If any worker has a reaction to the vaccine and needs more time off they should be able to get it.

The reputation and high profits of Citi Bank operating in Asia Pacific Region, is an outcome of full cooperation between management and workers. When Citi Bank management decides to withdraw the business, rights of workers and consumers in the region must be respected and fairly compensated. This fight shuld be done with international solidarity among workers so we call on your participation in the petition. If we do not take any action now, we will be abandoned in the street without any hope for jobs and many families will fall into the poverty.

Sri Lanka has been providing universal health and education for its citizens and empowered the talent and held hand of many deserving students supporting their upward social mobility. The proposed act is setup private universities to offer courses on commercial basis without proper regulatory oversight of the UGC. This initiative will bring down the standard of tertiary education to unacceptable levels, and country will not benefit from its talented citizens

Only if everyone is vaccinated, we are safe. Vaccinations are the only way to end this pandemic. We are launching COVID-19 vaccination campaigns in Sabah so people irrespective of their location, income and ethnicity can get access to the vaccine. Make Sabah safe again! There are still too many people in Sabah who have yet to even get their immunisation appointment. Sabah only have about 13% (or 358, 592) vaccinated people as of July 17. To achieve the 40% target of vaccinated people from those eligible, the Federal Government must deliver another 1.48 million doses before the middle of August. Sabah cannot restart their economy without a scheduled and quick vaccination rate. We are now appealing to the Chief Minister of Sabah Yang Amat Berhormat Hajiji Noor to intervene.