• Stand with Tess
    The proposed redundancy of Tess comes at a time when she is more needed than ever. Recent changes, budget cuts and instability at Nura Gili Centre at the Kensington campus as well as the shockingly low employment of Indigenous (and, further CALD) staff at UNSW marks this as a part of a larger, ongoing issue at an institutional level that needs to be remedied rather than exacerbated. Diverse staff are crucial to not only the education of students but further, to their well-being. Tess remains one of the few staff members that Indigenous, CALD and other marginalised students feel they can turn to and rely on. As well as her role as a mentor, Tess is also professionally and pedagogically a boon to the institution. Her course Aboriginal Art Now has influenced countless students and has led many to pursue further and higher research - academically, curatorially and artistically - in a more considered and critically rigorous way. In addition, Aboriginal Art Now remains one of the few Indigenous art courses available at UNSW Art & Design. She has also been instrumentally involved in a vast number of exhibitions in the Indigenous arts community in the last 30 years. The volumes of academic, artistic and curatorial output of Tess evidences her prolific reach and influence in the arts sector. As Associate Professor David Garneau suggested, her contribution to the arts sector deserves an honorary doctorate. Her removal would constitute a massive loss to the UNSW community, and the wider ripple on effects of this would be unimaginable.
    1,733 of 2,000 Signatures
    Created by Stand With Tess
  • No Australian Money in Asbestos!
    Australia knows the toxic legacy of asbestos all too well. Sixteen years after the ban came into force in Australia, 4,000 people die of asbestos-related diseases every year. Around the world an estimated 250,000 people die from asbestos-related diseases each year. Still today, 125 million people are exposed to asbestos in their workplace each year. What is the loophole? The Asian Development Bank’s ‘Safeguard Policy’ prohibits investments that include raw asbestos. However, this does not apply to the purchase and use of asbestos cement sheeting where the asbestos content is less than 20%, which includes almost all asbestos sheeting. This means that victims of natural disasters can be sheltered under roof sheeting contaminated by asbestos. It means that communities trying to grow their wealth and improve their welfare can be given an asbestos time-bomb in the form of asbestos sheeting. The Asia Development Bank’s current policy enables the asbestos industry in Asia to survive, despite the disastrous health impacts of asbestos. Alternatives are widely available for all asbestos-containing products, and the ADB policy must be updated to reflect this. The ADB must close the loophole! Let’s take a stand to stop asbestos everywhere! Find out more at apheda.org.au/asbestos
    1,026 of 2,000 Signatures
    Created by Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA
  • Qantas - Stop the Rocky Ripoff
    The high cost of flying to and from Rockhampton hurts everyone in our community. While fares can be found for under $200 for those able to book well in advance, the small number of services between Rocky and Brisbane mean there aren't enough fairly-priced seats to go around, which pushes many people onto more expensive travel classes. This is a major problem for many in our community - from locals that need to travel south for family emergencies to businesses that need to fly to Brisbane or interstate for work. It also makes it harder to attract businesses and people to our region, which hurts our local economy. While Rocky is also serviced by Virgin, which could also do more to reduce fares, Qantas is in the strong position to act, given its $1.59 billion profit. Qantas has also already moved to lower fares out of remote airports like Moranbah so we only ask they extend their focus to Rockhampton.
    3,453 of 4,000 Signatures
    Created by Barry O'Rourke Picture
  • Support Striking Fenner Dunlop Workers!
    50 Fenner Dunlop workers have been on strike for seven days. Workers are fighting for a base wage that is a LIVING wage, so they don’t have to rely on sporadic overtime to survive. Their employer expects them to give up roster flexibility and other hard fought for conditions, just to get a decent pay rise. No one should have to work 60 hours a week just to make a living wage.
    556 of 600 Signatures
    Created by National Union of Workers
  • Keep the 35 hour working week for Local Government employees
    Not only do they want to increase employees hours by three hours per week, but they also do not want to pay for the extra three hours of work. It is important that all indoor Local Government employees are aware of this proposed change and sign this petition.
    227 of 300 Signatures
    Created by United Services Union - USU
  • Stop the Attacks on Brisbane City Bus Drivers
    At least once a week a bus driver in Brisbane is assaulted by a member of the public. With injuries ranging from mental health trauma to broken bones that require hospitalisation, bus drivers are being left with lasting injuries for simply doing their job. RTBU members and concerned community members believe this is an unacceptable situation which doesn't just harm bus drivers but also places the travelling public at massive risk. The Lord Mayor and his council have been hiding from this issue and engaging in disgraceful victim-blaming. Enough is enough, it's time now that bus drivers and the community stand up for our right to safe public transport in our city. We can no longer stand by while the Lord Mayor and his council allow these assaults to continue. We won't stand for this any longer, will you?
    1,514 of 2,000 Signatures
    Created by Australian Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) Picture
  • #SoLowTolarno: Obey the Court, Pay Your Workers Now!
    Tolarno Eating House has stolen tens of thousands in wages and other entitlements from Hospo Voice members. They need to pay up now. Tolarno has tried to wear these workers down, making them wait months and months, ignoring court orders. But these workers’ determination to win justice has only grown stronger, and they have the full support of Hospo Voice members and supporters everywhere. We will stand with them to ensure they are repaid every single cent. Bosses that defy court orders to repay stolen wages deserve to be behind bars.
    2,843 of 3,000 Signatures
    Created by Parmal Singh Thakur, Hospo Voice member
  • Support the global September 20 Climate Strike
    Climate change is recognised as one of the greatest threats facing us now and into the future. By taking time off school and work together around the world, we're showing our politicians that people everywhere want climate justice and solid commitments from governments to rapidly curb emissions and stop the expansion of fossil fuel projects. We’re striking in solidarity with everyone who’s already being impacted by the climate crisis and everyone who will be impacted if we don’t act now: workers, students, First Nations people, young people, and more. In Australia, the climate strike movement is gaining ever-increasing support from educational institutions and a host of other organisations who recognise the severity of the climate crisis we’re in and the need to act with appropriate urgency, in accordance with the best scientific advice available. Universities, in publicly supporting the right of students and staff to attend the September 20 climate strike, are indeed taking a position that is consistent with the values of academic rigour and scientific integrity held in such high regard by our institutions. The school strikers state on their website: “In Australia, education is viewed as immensely important, and a key way to make a difference in the world. But simply going to school isn’t doing anything about climate change. And it doesn’t seem that our politicians are doing anything, or at least not enough, about climate change either. So, as our contribution to the changes we want to see, we are striking from school.” They, as do we the undersigned students and staff, recognise the need for a rapid transition away from polluting industries, such as coal, oil and gas, and for much stronger political commitments to curbing our emissions and our fossil fuel exports. We call on the University of Adelaide to support students and staff, by providing assurance that we will not be penalised for our attendance at the September 20 Climate Strike.
    189 of 200 Signatures
    Created by Environment Collective of Students University of Adelaide
  • VITS Pay Up
    Translators and Interpreters Australia won funding for higher rates on Vic government interpreting jobs in July last year. VITS is the Victorian government owned interpreting agency, but they refuse to pay the higher rates on all Vic government funded work. They have paid back the wages they stole from individuals on a handful of occasions and then went back to underpaying them! Without interpreters our diverse community wouldn’t be able to access services like health, education and courts. They deserve better than dodgy treatment from VITS Language Loop.
    672 of 800 Signatures
    Created by Sean Kelly
  • Fund the completion of Workers' Memorial Park
    Every worker deserves to come home from work, safe and well. But too many Tasmanian workers get injured on the job or worse – they never make it home. The Workers' Memorial Park was opened in 2011 following the work of a small but dedicated committee including unions, local government, the safety regulator and family members who had lost a loved one at work. There is no other dedicated place of remembrance for workers killed on the job in Tasmania. But the park was never fully completed to its original design. At Unions Tasmania, workplace safety is our #1 priority. The Park is an opportunity to show respect to families left behind and offers an opportunity to educate the community on the need to take safety at work seriously. The Government needs to step up and finally fund the completion of the Park.
    1,047 of 2,000 Signatures
    Created by Jessica Munday Picture
  • Allow ACT University Staff & Students to Attend Global Climate Strike
    On Friday September 20, school students around the world, alongside adults, will be participating in a Global Climate Strike – they will be marching to face the ongoing climate crisis, and to show the world’s political leaders that we will not idly stand by while they fail to act. We demand immediate action to avert otherwise inevitable catastrophe. In Australia, we are at a crossroads: the Government is fully aware of the need for serious solutions, but instead it would rather open up new projects to mine the earth of even more fossil fuels: Australia’s coal industry has already made us the world’s third-biggest emissions exporter. Internationally, the effects of climate change are already being felt in very real ways: this summer, Greenland’s ice sheet melted at rates scientists weren’t anticipating for another half-century, losing enough water in just five days this year to cover the ACT in over 9 metres of water. Our role as the University community is to educate and support the next generation who will continue to make this world a better, more equitable, fair, and just place than they found it. If our political leaders do not act now, this will not be possible – and as we already know: ‘There are no jobs on a dead planet.’ There’s also less water, more famine, more poverty, more extreme weather events, millions of displaced and suffering refugees, and likely, much more conflict. We have a responsibility to stand tall alongside the next generation in support of this important cause that will shape the world for hundreds of years to come, and to advocate for a rapid and just transition to renewables and a decarbonised economy. The Global Climate Strike is taking place three days before the UN Emergency Climate Summit, and is a strike in solidarity for those being impacted by the climate crisis now, and those who will be impacted in the future if we do not act: everyone from workers, first nations people, and young people, to those in parts of the world already suffering. High-profile businesses like Patagonia, Lush Cosmetics, and Ben & Jerry’s have already pledged that their workers will be joining the organised strikes in solidarity.
    277 of 300 Signatures
    Created by Jeremy S
  • Save Medevac for Refugees
    The petition of the undersigned shows: • that approximately 800 refugees and asylum seekers remain on Manus Island and Nauru after nearly six years; • that there is no possibility that all of these people will be able to go to the United States; • that the medical condition of many of them has deteriorated alarmingly; • that necessary medical treatment is often not available in either Papua New Guinea or Nauru and can most appropriately be provided in Australia.
    419 of 500 Signatures
    Created by Refugee Action Campaign Canberra