We work at Select Harvests, Australia’s largest nut processing company. We make products you’ve probably bought at the supermarket like Lucky’s nuts and Sunsol Muesli. Our co-workers, who are employed through a labour hire company, face an anxious and uncertain future. 
 In April this year, Select Harvests announced that they would be changing labour hire providers. Usually when companies change providers of casual labour, they get those workers who currently operate the plant to sign up with the new labour hire provider, to ensure continuity of employment and production. This year, Select Harvests told workers that they would have to reapply for their jobs, which they have done for years. Many employees have been told they were unsuccessful in applying for their own job. They are devastated. This decision means that many workers we have worked alongside for years might not be back on Monday, all because of a decision by the company to change labour hire providers. 
 We are fighting for our members at Select Harvests who have been affected by this decision. All workers deserve respect and consultation on matters that affect their lives and their families. 
 The clock is ticking for these workers at Select Harvests, with the possibility of joining a Centrelink queue as a result of a corporate administrative decision. It is not fair for our hard-working co-workers to be treated like this.

This is important because every uni should have an affordable, student run where we can eat lunch or chill with our friends. We need to Save the Eagle Bar from becoming a fancy, expensive corporate function room and turn it into a fun place to drink and eat with friends.

Over 70% of Australians are against fee deregulation, due to concerns it will shackle students with a lifetime of debt and stop marginalised Australians from accessing quality education. Despite this, the Government has still not listened and want to try bring in Fee Deregulation through the back door. The Flagship course program will allow Universities to charge fully deregulated fees for 20% of the courses they offer. This will see some students priced out of their degree of choice and see some degrees having significantly more funding than others. The only thing that should determine what you are studying is your marks, not your bank balance. The flagship course program is in conjunction with a $2 Billion cut in Federal funding, which takes Australia further back than it already is when it comes to higher education funding. In the OECD, Australia is ranked 33rd out of the 34 countries in higher education funding, and we spend 0.7% of our GDP on higher education, as opposed to the OECD average of 1.1%. Simon Birmingham is only pulling Australia further out of step with the world. Tell the Government to scrap their plans for Flagship courses and sign this petition! Max Murphy NUS National Education Officer 0413041083 [email protected]

Workers on farms across Australia are currently forced to work long hours, often 14 or 16 hours and even up to 22 hours a day. Many are paid cash payments; as low as $4 and commonly $12 or $14 an hour, while the minimum wage is $21.61. These workers pick and pack the fresh fruit and vegetables that we buy at the supermarket. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NjOjNAShnQ Many producers use dodgy labour hire contractors to try and cut costs. These labour hire contractors routinely steal workers wages, provide them with substandard accommodation for exorbitant fees, and seek sexual and monetary favours for visas or preferential treatment. Workers who speak up are ignored, silenced or have their employment terminated. All this is happening while the Big Supermarkets engage in 'price wars' during the ad breaks we watch on TV. As a duopoly, Coles and Woolworths have incredible buying power. Competition among producers to supply the supermarkets is immense. Coles and Woolworths exploit their market position to demand that producers supply products at lower and lower cost. Coles and Woolworths claim their Ethical Sourcing Code of Conduct ensures that fresh food products are ethically produced. The reality facing workers on these farms proves that this is not true. When producers are confronted with the choice between complying with codes or losing a supply contract with a Big Supermarket, they choose to cut corners. Even after extreme exploitation and slave-like conditions were exposed on Four Corners in May 2015, workers are still fighting for justice on many farms around Australia. Without workers being able to actively participate in their union and speak up about conditions on farms, codes of conduct will never work. Workers who produce our fresh food are putting out a call to clean up the supply chain, a call for a Fair Food Agreement to immediately outline standard conditions and rights that workers can collectively enact.

The Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea has ruled that detaining people in Australia's abusive Manus Island camp is illegal. What does it mean? That according to PNG's own constitution the Australian government has been imprisoning people illegally for over three years in abusive conditions – and they must be freed. This is the latest blow to Australia's abusive detention regime, and together we can make it the one that topples it over, letting us build compassion and dignity in its place. The governments of Papua New Guinea and Australia are going to be deciding right now how to deal with this ruling. Legally, they might have a few options – but morally, there's only one. The camp must be closed, and everyone we illegally imprisoned brought here. And the same is true for the detention camp on Nauru. #LetThemStay showed that more people than ever supported allowing people seeking asylum already in Australia to move into our communities. Now, we must prove definitively that our shared compassion extends to those on Manus Island and Nauru. While the government is scrambling for a response to this ruling, we need to say loud and clear that the people we have imprisoned on Manus Island and Nauru should be brought here to safety, and the camps closed forever. Will you sign the petition to #BringThemHere?

200 workers die in Australia every year in avoidable accidents. Each of these deaths destroys or disrupts the lives of dozens of people, sometimes for years. Each workers' absence sends waves of grief and loss through entire communities, and leaves holes that will never be filled. The same companies responsible for these workers deaths take short cuts on safety time and again, because there is no meaningful law to deter their dangerous behaviour.

We, the undersigned teachers stand in solidarity with the family camp asylum seekers and refugees on Nauru who have been holding daily protests against their ongoing detention and offshore processing since the 20th of March. There is no prospect of safety for refugees on Nauru. The mental health crises, sexual abuse, assaults in the community, discrimination and violence at school and permanent insecurity is intolerable and unnecessary for child and adult refugees. Now it is clear that the detention of refugees on Manus Island is illegal. Amnesty International described Australia's detention camp there as “tantamount to torture”, after visiting the centre in November 2013. All asylum seekers and refugees on Manus can and must be immediately brought to Australia. The discrimination of the offshore camps is stark; while some asylum seekers have spent 1000 days in detention on Nauru without a refugee determination, others who shared the same boat journey to Australia have been living in the community in Australia for nearly three years. The cost of running the offshore prisons alone could pay for half of the $4.5 billion the Turnbull government won’t spend on the last two years of Gonski. As teachers we uphold the rights of all children to live in a safe environment, to have access to educational opportunities and not be subject to discrimination. As teachers, we embrace the opportunity to work with refugee students and colleagues, and we know that when given a proper welcome, refugees enrich school communities. We address justice and human rights in our classrooms, and we teach our students to stand up to bullying, abuse and lies.

Investigations into worker welfare (see - http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-20/australian-fashion-report3a-how-do-your-favourite-retailers-ra/7342040) recently ranked Australian brands on the conditions in the factories where their products are made. Gorman products are made by Factory X, who ranked as the worst for workplace conditions. Safety, pay, hours worked, breaks and protection from danger are well below expected standards at Factory X. Their workers work long hours for low pay in terrible and dangerous conditions. We cannot be complicit in this abuse of workers rights.

I’ve been a loyal worker in Kmart’s Truganina Distribution Centre for over two and a half years. Even though I was engaged through a labour-hire company as a casual, the work was regular and reliable. I get on well with my co-workers and manager, and have never had any problems or disciplinary issues at work. I am in my 50s, with a family and the regular work at Kmart has meant a lot to me because it can be hard for older workers to find employment. I thought that after years of hard work and good service this was a steady job and I organised with Kmart to take my first holiday in years, even though I knew this was unpaid because I’m a casual. After my well-earned break, which was approved by my employer, I did not hear from Kmart about shifts. When I called them, I was shocked to be told there was no more work and that I would need to return my security pass. When I tried to find out why, I was told that there was no more work, even though since that time Kmart has engaged a number of new casual labour-hire employees in roles I could easily be performing. I want to go back to work at Kmart. 200 of my co-workers have already signed a petition on site to ask Kmart to bring me back to work, but the company has refused to listen to them. Because of my status as an agency casual, I am left in a legal limbo – despite my service I have no legal claim to reinstatement, even though I have been sacked for taking a holiday, which would be illegal if it happened to a permanent worker. This has left me feeling stressed, has been hard on my family and I just want to go back to work at Kmart.

• Starting formal school at a younger age goes against what contemporary research shows is best for children’s holistic learning and development. • The changes could potentially have a devastating effect on the viability of many child care services, especially in regional areas where some centres may be forced to close. Starting formal schooling at such a young age is developmentally inappropriate and can be damaging to children’s long-term health, wellbeing, learning dispositions and educational attainment. Cambridge University expert in the cognitive development of young children, Dr David Whitebread, says, ''the overwhelming evidence suggests that five is just too young to start formal learning…The empirical evidence is that children who have a longer period of play-based early childhood education, finish up with a whole range of clear advantages in the long term. Academically they do better and they experience more emotional wellbeing.'' If this change in the Education Act really is about increasing Tasmania’s education outcomes, do not send our children to school before they are ready.

Telstra claims that whilst it still supports marriage equality it will not 'publicly participate in the debate further.' However this comes at the request of groups actively opposed to Marriage Equality. Telstra's decision to yield to the Catholic Church's demand shows a lack of respect and care for the well-being of LGBTI workers and customers who may feel ostracised by this decision.

Deakin University has decided to withdraw from its campus in Warrnambool for reasons that are not primarily about the viability of the campus. The campus is vital to the future of Warrnambool and its region. It provides rural and regional families with an opportunity to complete a university degree, and for local students to get the benefits of a higher education. With the local community, staff, students, unions and local and State governments all committed to ensuring a university campus remains in Warrnambool, what is needed now is for Minister Birmingham and the Federal Government to make a commitment to ensuring the campus remains open. PLEASE SIGN AND SHARE OUR PETITION TO #SaveWarrnamboolCampus