Under the Liberals, our heroes get zero. This pay freeze is a slap in the face and a kick in the guts to every essential worker who has worked overtime during this pandemic to keep us all safe.

When the virus hit, public sector workers had to work harder than ever before - often they faced a greater risk of coronavirus by going into work at hospitals or cleaning public spaces and buildings around our state. They did to make us all safe and keep society functioning. Without them, Australia wouldn’t be getting through this crisis better than nearly all other countries. But now the NSW Government, under Premier Gladys Berejiklian, wants to cut their pay. Why? Because they're seen as an easy target - they don't have the wealth or power of big business, CEOs and banks that should be forced to pay their fair share of tax. What's worse, the Premier has already awarded pay rises to Government CEOs and Heads of Departments - one Government CEO even got a $65,500 pay rise! But it gets worse for all us. When the lockdowns and social distancing began, people stopped spending money in their communities and shops. This turned into an economic crisis - people were queuing outside Centrelink for support. The Government employs 1 in 10 people in NSW and could increase the pay of its workers who spend in our communities and shops - with the lockdowns slowly easing, now is the perfect time! If they cut workers pay this will prolong the economic downturn for all of us. Add your name to say this is wrong!

The motive is clear; university managements around the country want to shift the burden of a loss of revenue onto staff and students. They want to cut costs and shore up their profits, and to do that they will cut courses, sack staff, undermine their wages and conditions and charge students the same for a lower quality of education. Schmidt has offered to take a pay cut himself, but this is token given he will still be paid hundreds of thousands per annum. Management making token sacrifices while making workers and students pay is no justification for cuts! We, the undersigned, are opposed to any measures that push the costs for this crisis onto staff and students. We believe that staff and students should be the people who determine what their learning and work environments look like, not university management. The government should be made to pay for the impacts of this crisis on universities, not staff and students.

This is a fundamental workplace right and shows a clear lack of care for staff to ignore and erode workers rights during this time of crisis whilst hundred of Deakin staff are made redundant.

The National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) has applied to vary the EE&C Award 2010. Some of these proposals are quite simply an attempt to reduce the wages of electrical workers under the guise of the COVID-19 pandemic. They include – - Abolishing penalty rates on Saturdays. - Abolishing penalty rates on Sundays - Expanding ordinary hours of work from the current 6am-6pm Mon-Fri, to 5am-7pm Mon-Sun - Allowing shut-downs (not just Xmas) at employer’s discretion with no notice. We the undersigned electrical workers in Australia oppose these proposed changes as it will make companies covered by enterprise agreements, with penalty rates included, uncompetitive and force a further wage race to the bottom. It will also be detrimental to electrical apprentices, the majority of whom are paid under the EE&C Award. We urge our employers to contact NECA informing them of their opposition too.

Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial Education Students [LANTITE] and the administration of LANTITE. We can understand your frustration given Education and the COVID-19 pandemic; We believe you can understand and appreciate our frustration in regard to the LANTITE and our inability to graduate. As a result, we implore you for your support in removing the Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial Education Students (LANTITE) administered by ACER as a graduate requirement. These students have successfully completed the units in their degrees, as well as professional practise in the form of placements. Throughout degrees and placements, the importance of literacy and numeracy is highlighted. We implore you to support the removal of LANTITE as a graduation requirement. In doing so, you will be contributing and assisting Australia’s economic return through this pandemic.

School cleaners don’t have enough time to do their job because of cuts to cleaning hours by the NSW Government. Cleaners want to ensure your kids are safe but simply don’t have enough time to do the job they want to do. The NSW Government implemented "enhanced cleaning" in March. This extra cleaning has now been extended until the end of Term 3, contingent on "health advice". It could be pulled at any time and is essential to keeping schools safe and clean, regardless of COVID-19. Cleaners believe that enhanced cleaning is what's needed to keep the school community safe all the time. Enhanced cleaning is the bare minimum, not an extra. The NSW Government needs to maintain current cleaning levels permanently.

Maroondah Council stood down workers without consultation with the ASU and in some cases, no consultation with the employees affected. Those impacted have provided a list of meaningful work tasks that could be performed, but disappointingly, these have been rejected by Maroondah Council management, prolonging the time these employees remain unsupported. The vast majority of Local Authorities have supported their staff by redeploying them into tasks similar to those presented to Maroondah Council. We urge Maroondah council not to abandon those who provide support, education and entertainment to the community any further.

The NLA’s strength in Asia-related resources has always been a magnet, world-wide, drawing academics and researchers to Australia. It put Australia on the map internationally as a major centre for Asian Studies. The significance of this for Australia, the region and the world is self-evident. In more recent years of budget cuts, most university libraries throughout Australia have ceased collecting in Asian languages with the rationale that the NLA would provide central resources that we all could access. If this ceases to be the case, Asian Studies and the important, hard-won centrality of Australia’s role as a bridge between East and West will be permanently and irretrievably damaged. For that reason, we would urge you to reconsider the proposed new policy, collection strategy and the closure of the Asian Reading Room, long a mecca for international scholars and a place where Asian Australians have felt at home in the NLA since the Colombo Plan and for decades afterward.

Keeping our local communities safe from mental health issues, economic hardship and ensure your elected council members works for our community.

There is unprecedented international funding for public health programs. In countries where asbestos is still used, health infrastructure such as hospitals or clinics built to respond to the Covid 19 crisis may contain asbestos building materials. Economic stimulus around the world is injecting money into infrastructure and construction and in countries that still use asbestos this will result in a boost to the asbestos industry and a toxic health legacy for decades to come. Unless we act to win safe, sustainable and just health and economic stimulus spending then corporations and industry lobbies will take advantage of this moment to advance their own interests. The scale of funding is huge. The World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and other multilateral development banks have announced tens of billions of dollars in grants and additional ‘concessional’ credit to the world’s poorest countries. To match the unprecedented responses by international organisations and governments across the world, we can take a bold step by committing that no recovery or health stimulus funds will be used to purchase asbestos building products. Join this campaign and make sure that the asbestos industry doesn’t profit from this health crisis.

I am the artist known as Toni Childs. I am an Emmy Winner and three-time Grammy-nominated recording artist who lives in Australia. This is a shout out to all the performing artists and musicians affected by this lockdown. And... this is a shout out to all those who want to lend their voice in support of performing artists receiving financial support during this challenging time. I was inspired to create this petition after watching the video below of Tony Burke asking Josh Frydenberg why a young part-time worker who works only one day week is entitled to JobKeeper, and performing artists are not. Ihttps://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=274953026862438 This is an opportunity to let the Australian Treasury know you need their support at this challenging time. Please sign and share this petition, and let's see if we can make some beautiful noise and get rent paid and food on the table. As an Artist, I know it can be difficult to speak up for ourselves when we are in need. I know it is for me, and it has been something that I've had to get over. We tend to be givers and it can be difficult to ask for support. If there was ever a time, this is the time. I love what we do! I love what you do and I love that what we do touches people in ways that it is impossible to put a value on. Sign and share, Peace, Love and Deep Gratitude, toni childs