A certain conservative Senator decided recently to write to the City of Perth to ask them to cancel Drag Queen Storytime, describing it as "age-inappropriate, gender-based activism". It's important that the City of Perth Commissioners understand that his views are those of a conservative minority not reflective of the people of Perth. The Senator wants to pander to his base by using a fun and harmless LGBTIQA+ event to drive division and bigotry in the community. We can't let him succeed in shutting it down.

One women is killed in Australia per week. This is worse for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. How can we even begin to get this number under control if we can't talk about the root issues? We needs shows like Q&A as a forum for experts to discuss the need for action, and the best solutions. Removing the episode shows a capitulation to men's rights activists and white nationalists who don't want women, non-binary people and people of colour to be safe or have any rights in Australia. The ABC must bring back this important episode of Q&A!

We cannot achieve a just transition to a new low-emissions economy without ensuring good union jobs in new low-emissions industries. More information is available in the report Putting the Justice in ‘Just Transition’: Tackling inequality in the new renewable economy, https://is.gd/rkLOJY

Imagine this, you work in the airport - it’s a good job, the job you used to tell people when they asked. However, the dreams of a good occupation is quickly hit down by the reality of the pay and conditions you have to deal with day in day out. Split shifts, insecure work, wages being driven down, and not enough hours working hours. That’s the reality in the airport! What’s worse is that airport management refuse to talk to (let alone address) workplace concerns - in fact, the management at the airport you primarily work from are now shutting out workers’ working under the airport roof. Yep they refuse to meet with airport workers working at the airport! These workers have asked for a meeting for months but Melbourne Airport continue to refuse. You have witnessed what the introduction of split shifts has meant that some of your co-workers have been forced to sleep at terminals or in and around tarmacs between shifts. You know that deliberate understaffing is causing injuries and poor working conditions which is resulting in a lack of experienced and trained staff members. And that’s just skimming the surface. On top of this, your wages demonstrate the harsh reality of trickle-down economics. The airports where you work in made over $2.2 billion in profits last year alone. This is the reality for airport workers at Melbourne Airport - yep, Victorian workers are facing these conditions right here in our own backyards.

It's important because we want these services to continue to be operated by council. Please sign the petition on the right-hand side of this page. By signing this petition, we are calling on City of Sydney to continue to provide essential services to the community.

The introduction of such a scheme would bring our state into line with other states, ensure the rightful recognition of professional engineers in NSW and above all else, provide community safety. With no registration scheme in place, NSW risks becoming a haven for unqualified engineers who cannot practice in neighbouring states, exposing the public to intolerable safety risks. The Professional Engineers Registration Bill 2019, introduced into Parliament by Yasmin Catley MP on Friday 25 October will ensure the engineers across NSW are adequately qualified, providing the protection our community deserves. Help us put pressure on the government to introduce a mandatory engineer registration scheme in NSW - sign our petition and we'll send an email to the Premier on your behalf.

Lecture attendance is crucial for university teaching. While 16 university management executives are making more than a combined $10 million and students are paying more than $50,000 for degrees, 4000 staff members are having to work 2-3 casual teaching jobs to make ends meet. This petition responds to the cessation of payment for lecture attendance in the School of Culture and Communication, but advocates for all staff and students in the Faculty of Arts. For the University of Melbourne to have a vibrant intellectual community, that community needs a place to meet and belong. The lecture theatre is one of the few fixed locations on campus where tutors carry out their work alongside lecturers and coordinators. Content isn’t merely disseminated downward from the lectern. The lecture theatre is a space where practitioners share knowledge before, during, and after the lecture itself. It is an important space for lecturers to receive feedback and contribute to ongoing discussions, and for senior tutors to mentor junior tutors. The integrity of the tutorial space is in question when lecture attendance is neither expected of tutors, nor paid. In order to appropriately model and support student engagement with course content, tutors need to attend lectures. Tutors provide the majority of face-to-face contact students have throughout their degrees. Students need assurance that the Faculty values best practice pedagogy, and that their tutors have a meaningful relationship to the campus they work on and the content they teach. We, the undersigned, petition the Faculty of Arts to recognise that staff working conditions are student learning conditions, that lecture attendance is vital pedagogical work, and that tutors must be paid for this work separately from and in addition to tutorial preparation.

My name is Jane, and my client Kim is one of thousands of NDIS clients who received the letter telling them their services with Australian Unity will be cut. I’ve been working with Kim for fifteen years, and I’ve never seen her this stressed. She chose to challenge Australian Unity’s decision on the basis that the changes would put her health and safety at risk, but now she’s on the verge of having her care discontinued, with no adequate replacement services in place. All Kim wants is to maintain quality care from her care workers she has had long lasting relationships with. She’s tried everything she can think of, and now she’s scared. As a former health professional, she knows her condition would be far worse, if it wasn’t for the well trained care workers she receives her daily care from.

It's important because we want these services to continue to be operated by council. Please sign the petition on the right-hand side of this page. By sighing this petition, we are calling on Council Management and Councillors to continue to provide the vital Community Services of Family Day Care and OOSH to our ratepayers across the Shire.

The Suburban Rail Loop is a great idea and will provide an orbital loop around Melbourne, with new stations connections between major railway lines from the Frankston line to the Werribee line via Melbourne Airport. Suburban Rail Loop will connect Melbourne’s middle suburbs to priority growth precincts, and link all Victorians to major health, education centres at Deakin, Monash and Bundoora, and outer employment centres. But it will take 50 years, or more, to build. Putting SMARTbus services on the route will bring all the benefits of the Suburban Rail Loop to Melbourne residents right now. In addition, a SMARTbus loop will create a single route that will reduce current overcrowding and address the need for bus upgrades now. For more information see https://rodbarton.com.au/issues-page/smartbuses-on-the-suburban-rail-loop-route/

For further information please speak to your delegate or USU Blacktown City Council Organiser Sandie Morthen on 0419 761 326.

On average 190 Australians working in the construction industry die by suicide each year, that's one death by suicide in this industry sector every second day. Males in the construction industry are twice as likely to commit suicide than males in any other industry and are six times more likely to die of suicide than a workplace accident. This is totally unacceptable, and worse still, the industry organisation doing something about it has been defunded and hampered in its efforts to change the situation. We call on our elected representatives in the South Australian parliament to vote to stand by our MATES and properly fund MATES in Construction SA.