NUS

New Campaign Campaigns

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  Build A Better Budget

  The figures produced in the 2018-19 budget reveal that Australia invests less than 0.5% of its overall GDP into higher education. The OECD 'Education at a Glance' report ranks Australia’s public investment in tertiary education in the bottom four of the world’s developed countries - 30th out of 34 nations. Newstart has not seen an increase in real terms for 24 years. Anglicare’s Rental Affordability Snapshot showed that a single students could only afford 3 homes in Australia under their Newstart payments. Accessibility was harder for those on youth allowance with only 2 homes in the country that were affordable. Malcolm Turnbull cut weekend and public holiday penalty rates in July last year, with further cuts coming on 1 July 2018. This has taken up to $100 a week out of the pockets of young people. Not only does this cut mean that students are not being paid fairly for working unsociable hours but it once again will create unnecessary financial struggle for students trying to pay rent, bills or simply put food on the table. The current structure of the SSAF allocation, where student organisations must negotiate with the university to receive their funding allocations, provides economic instability for these organisations which has a major effect on their ability to provide student services. With legislated minimum SSAF already adopted in the Labor Party’s National Platform this year, it’s time for the federal government to commit to a legislated minimum SSAF allocation for all democratically elected student organisations that does not fall lower than the legislated minimums of states such as Western Australia.

  149 of 200 Signatures

  Created by National Union of Students (Australia)
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  Bury the Bill - Stop Government Changes to Student Debt

  The National Union of Students and the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations represent over 1.4 million students and are deeply concerned about this proposed legislation. This legislation would see the repayment threshold for student debt lowered to $45,000. This unfairly targets lower income earners and therefore disproportionately impacts women and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and graduates. This proposed bill would also create a lifetime student debt cap of $104k as we move into a future workforce where graduates will be expected to retrain or further specialise multiple times throughout their working life. We need to be preparing our generation for a lifetime of learning. The proposed legislation is shortsighted, and will fail to address escalating student debt. Help us #BuryTheBill and contact a member of the crossbench.

  1,356 of 2,000 Signatures

  Created by Mark Pacey
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  Women unite! Fight back against the Liberals!

  Women at university are worse off under a Liberal government. Health The Liberal Government has scrapped bulk-billing incentives for pathology services and diagnostic imaging. This means that women may have to pay up-front $30 for a Pap smear, blood or urine test, and from January 2017 as much as $173 for x-ray or ultrasound imaging. Women regularly rely upon these tests for the prevention or early detection of pregnancy, obstetric complications, cancers, STIs and UTIs The Liberal Government freeze on indexation of the rebate for GP consultations under the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) until 2020 has already seen hundreds of practitioners around the country cease to offer bulk billing as they are forced to transfer increased costs onto patients. Most women students can not afford these increased costs of healthcare, and are forced to forgo necessary doctors visits, diagnostic testing and treatment. This poses critical risks for women’s health. Without early diagnosis and treatment, risk of poorer prognosis is high and the burden of disease, personal and financial costs on patients are increased. Education- cuts to funding The 2016-2017 budget revealed that Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberals want to decrease funding to tertiary institutions by 20% as well as lower the tax repayment threshold by 10%. It was also strongly indicated that the Liberals will bring back fee deregulation. Universities are unlikely to put their hands in their own pockets to make up for funding cuts, choosing rather to cut vital student support services than risk jeopardising ‘important’ business projects Cuts to higher education will mean that women who are already disproportionately affected but a lack of funding will take longer to pay off their HECS debt and face a greater pay gap in the workforce. Cuts to services Severe lack of funding available for women’s services on university campuses. When the federal government make cuts to the higher education sector, often basic services relied on by women are the first to go. Universities across Australia do not prioritise the welfare of students, this consequently has a greater effect on women due to structural barriers which make it difficult women to go to university and study. As revealed in the results of the 2016 ‘Talk about it’ survey women students are likely to face harassment and sexual violence on university campuses. Due to a number of factors, including inadequate help services, women are strongly deterred from seeking help from university. Women should be able to balance university life as well as home life, and should not be forced to choose between the two. Services focused on assisting students who are also mothers have been neglected for too long. Many universities are lacking parent rooms, for mothers to comfortably breastfeed. Underfunded services have a detrimental effect on those who use them most, women are already limited by a culture of misogyny on campus and an initial lack of policies and services to protect them. Due to the lack of services and policies, many universities do not adequately address incidents of harassment on campus, making university an unsafe place for women. Universities receive funding from the student services and amenities fee annually, a small portion of which is usually allocated to the student union on campus. The rest of the SSAF is allocated to funding university projects, a funding increase to women's services could be done through this avenue. When the Liberal government make cuts to higher education universities will make cuts to student services. The Solution In order to address the stark difficulties of women accessing higher education the NUS women's department is running an O week and semester one campaign which will encourage women to support, promote and attend the National Day of Action on March 22nd. This NUS women’s department campaign will aim to put pressure on universities to start addressing the specific concerns of women, through more funding to services that women access. The campaign will produce a petition and towards the end of the semester the NUS Women’s Department will be submitting a government submission. The campaign will Lobby federal parliamentary representatives for accessible health care and education for women in the lead up to the federal budget. Lobby universities to provide more funding for student services, especially services that women frequently use, e.g childcare services and parenting rooms. Encourage and promote the March 22nd National Day of Action Focus on supporting women in higher education in the face of an aggressive conservative federal government. Highlight the challenges that women face in higher education specifically around education and health. Produce a petition pushing universities to commit more funding to student services Produce a government submission detailing the need to adequately fund the higher education sector, and how funding cuts hurt women the most, particularly women from marginalised backgrounds. Get Involved Promote and sign the NUS Womens petition! Sign up to the email list to receive updates on the campaign! Attend and promote the March 22nd National Day of Action. Sign a letter on behalf of your student organisation, pushing federal MPs to commit to not supporting cuts to higher education and health. Sign a letter on behalf of your student organisation, pushing universities to provide more funding for student services, especially services that women frequently use, e.g childcare services and parenting rooms. Like the NUS Women’s Department page for updates Change your cover photo, like and share posts about the campaign.

  303 of 400 Signatures

  Created by Abby Stapleton
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  Stronger with NUS at UWA

  Since 1987, the National union of students has been the peak advocacy body for students in post high school education in Australia. NUS represents over 1 million students nation-wide and have had signicant wins over the past 30 years including defeating 100K degrees in 2014, expanding rent assistance and lowering the age of independence, pressuring universities to combat sexual assault culture through our 2015 Talk About It survey data, working with Headspace to produce data around student mental health and recommendations for prevention. The National Union of Students National Office Bearing team have worked closely with the UWA student guild over 3 decades along with our NUS West State branch. In 2001, NUS employed a WA-based Project Officer to work solely on the repeal of state based VSU legislation. The WA Government agreed to a compromise model (50% minimum funding guarantee for the Guilds) that is still in place today and is the reason WA universities have had such successful thriving campus cultures. In 2011, the NUS President was appointed by Education Minister to the Rural Tertiary Hardship Taskforce to develop the guidelines for the distribution of $20 million of emergency grants to the most disadvantaged young regional and rural students. In 2012, NUS successfully engaged in joint lobbying with Universities Australia to get the government to extend the National Rental Affordability Scheme to university students (subsidised rentals, building new student accommodation). Education is one of the world's greatest social equalisers and our primary goal is to ensure a high quality and accessible university education system. But over the past decade, successive governments have used education as a piggy bank by attempting to increase uni fees by thousands of dollars and cutting valuable funding. This has meant class sizes continue to grow dramatically, while more and more staff are casualised meaning less capacity to support students. This year, we've ensured students' voices are heard by the government through lobbying Senators on student issues and running large scale national protests against fee increases. We're calling for youth allowance and Newstart to better meet living costs by increasing payments to well above the Henderson poverty line. NUS is fighting for a National response framework combatting sexual assault and gendered violence on university campuses. We've got a big agenda for students this year and you can check out some of our campaigns on our website at nus.asn.au NUS has been the leading voice against funding cuts and free increases over the past decade and we will continue to stand for a better deal for students and young people. Our success is through working as a united front of students right across Australia. We are always stronger together. We are stronger with NUS. Make the pledge to stand with over 1 million students.

  71 of 100 Signatures

  Created by Sophie Johnston
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  Stop the War on Students

  https://youtu.be/RdeFLgDFCts The Liberals have already made it clear who the first victims of the 2017 budget will be. It’s young people who will have money taken out of their pockets. It's students who will face higher fees and more debt, studying in underfunded institutions. It's universities put under even more financial pressure and asked to offer more. These changes will mean an 8% fee hike, earlier HECS repayments for students and funding cuts for universities. And all of it to pay for billions of dollars of hand-outs to multinationals. Similar cuts and policies were defeated time and time again under Tony Abbott. Students ran a massive campaign and we are ready to do it again. Find out more about our campaign here: https://www.facebook.com/makeeducationfreeagain/ For more information regarding the changes: http://thenewdaily.com.au/money/your-budget/2017/05/01/budget-2017-university-degrees/

  7,779 of 8,000 Signatures

  Created by Sophie Johnston and Anneke Demanuele
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  #FixCentrelinkNow - It's Time

  Fixing the mess that is Centrelink will improve the lives of some of the most vulnerable in our society, giving them the best leg-up to start and in many cases, rebuild, their lives. It’s time to: SCRAP THE CENTRELINK AUTOMATED SYSTEM The automated system is flawed. The system is a debt recovery scheme that cross-references employment data through the ATO and Centrelink, which has created large room for error and is falsely attributing debt to vulnerable Australians. Although Labor has called for a national audit of the system, we believe enough is enough and it needs to be scrapped. The recovery of legitimate debt is important and should be done by paid staff at the Department of Human Services, not a machine! Links to relevant articles: http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/students-accused-of-welfare-fraud-say-centrelink-is-wrong/8127550 http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/centrelink-faces-sustained-criticism-over-its-new-automated-debt-recovery-system-20170102-gtkpq8.html STOP THE CENTRELINK PAY DELAYS In 2016 it was reported that up to 90,000 new applicants were left waiting months for income support, resulting in many being unable to afford necessities like rent and food. Centrelink is designed to be a safety-net, and leaving thousands with support at the start of the year needs to end. According to data collected by our Student Wellbeing Survey, run in 2016, 32% of students on Centrelink have experienced delayed payments, forcing them to borrow money from family, friends and in some cases, take out loans to make ends meet. Last year, when the delays were reported in the media, it was also reported that this had gone on for several years due to a lack of staff at the Department of Human Services, enough is enough! Links to relevant articles: http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/students-waiting-four-months-centrelink-payments-delayed/7346960 http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/centrelink-backlog-to-be-solved-in-two-weeks/7360760 LOWER THE CENTRELINK AGE OF INDEPENDENCE TO 18 The Centrelink Age of Independence for Youth Allowance sits at 22, making income support inaccessible to the majority of university students, particularly those starting their degrees who may have moved out of home to attend university. According to data collected by the 2016 Student Wellbeing Survey, 62% of respondents were unable to receive financial assistance from Centrelink due to the Age of Independence being set at 22. Regardless of living out of home, many students are still assessed on the basis of their parent’s income because they are under the age of 22. Young people who decide to attend university do so in the hope of educating themselves for future careers, they are the future of this country and deserve to be financially supported regardless of their age! DITCH CASHLESS WELFARE CARDS Cash welfare cards are not a new policy from the Federal Government, they have been used for years to police the spending of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples on income support. The scheme is already in use, acting as a form of compulsory income management that is policing the expenditure of those in receipt of Centrelink, blocking them from spending their payments at particular stores. If introduced for students, cashless welfare cards will not effectively stop addiction to alcohol, drugs and gambling, but will instead police the behaviours of vulnerable people! Links to relevant articles: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/malcolm-turnbull-alan-tudge-flag-national-rollout-of-cashless-welfare-card-met-by-protests-at-cashless-debit-card-trial-20161030-gsdytb.html https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/jan/09/ration-days-again-cashless-welfare-card-ignites-shame STOP CALL CHARGES AND IMPROVE CALL WAITING TIMES Due to funding cuts to the Department of Human Services, call-waiting times are longer than ever, which only exacerbates call charges as calls to Centrelink are charged at timed rates. According to data collected by the Student Wellbeing Survey, run in 2016, 57% of students in receipt of Centrelink have been left waiting on the phone for excessively long periods of time. Students trying to do the right thing by reporting changes in their circumstances or seeking assistance are being priced out of chasing up Centrelink and are left to the whims of an automated system! Links to relevant articles: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/centrelink-call-waiting-racks-up-costs-for-poor/news-story/e0a01674c64da6dc605c58d45a139005 AND ALLOW MORE DISCRETION IN CENTRELINK POLICIES For many students on income support, the policies Centrelink is governed by often make their lives much more difficult if something goes wrong. If there is a personal or medical situation and a student needs to shift from full-time to part-time study, their payments can be lowered and in many cases cut entirely. This lack of flexibility can exacerbate an already difficult situation, putting further unnecessary pressure on individuals. We must not criminalise unemployment or mental health and the lack of flexibility with Centrelink does just that! - If you believe it’s time to #FixCentrelinkNow, sign our petition to demand the Australian Government reform the system that is putting already vulnerable Australians into more unstable times and condemn Social Services Minister Christian Porter for attacking our lowest income earners whilst the Federal Government allows corporate giants go tax free! Contact: NUS National Welfare Officer, Jill Molloy Email: welfare@nus.asn.au Phone: 0423 507 010

  1,201 of 2,000 Signatures

  Created by National Union of Students (Australia)
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  Keep our Elected Representatives

  Flinders University Council is the highest decision making body in the university. There is legislation before the South Australian Parliament that will cut the size of Council and the number of elected staff and students. The current composition of the Council includes 4 elected staff and 3 elected students in a total of 21 members. Eleven members are external to the University. Cutting any of the elected positions will compromise the access of external Council members to the varied experiences and opinions of staff and students, and reduce the ability of staff and students to participate in decision-making.

  198 of 200 Signatures

  Created by Jordon Oreilly
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  SAY NO TO FLAGSHIP COURSES! Tell Turnbull to put an end to university fee deregulation

  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 education@nus.asn.au

  42 of 100 Signatures

  Created by Max Murphy
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  Tell Universities in Australia to Stop Helping Companies Profit from Offshore Detention

  Universities around Australia are funding detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru by doing business with the same companies that provide the security at these centres. We want to keep our Universities ethical. Tell them to stop contracting and contributing to companies like Serco, Wilson's Security and Broadspectrum who profit from Offshore Detention. This campaign, run by the National Union of Students, aims to highlight the plight of Asylum Seekers and to show that students and the community don't want their Universities associated with companies involved in Offshore Detention. Sign the petition and share to let people know that you want your University Ethical!

  224 of 300 Signatures

  Created by Max Murphy
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  SUPPORT STUDENT SAFETY, STOP THE WAR ON WOMEN

  In 2015, the NUS Women’s Department ran the 'Talk About It’ survey, which found that over 72% of women at university experience some form of sexual harassment, assault or violence while studying, over 14% saying that they had experienced rape or attempted rape, and over 15% saying that they been physically hurt by another individual. In the survey, students were also asked whether they reported the incident, and the majority said that they didn’t because they did not know about it, or because they didn’t think it was worth it; and perhaps even more alarmingly, three quarters of those that did report the incident to their university or to the police, said that little or nothing was done about it. “I was ignored, told I was simply drunk and it wasn't worth investigating” (University of NSW, 20 year old) In order to address these alarming rates of violence against women at university, the National Union of Students (NUS) has been working with a number of stakeholders including the team that has rolled out screenings of the well known documentary, The Hunting Ground across Australian university campuses, as well as The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), who have worked with Universities Australia (UA) to roll out a national survey which aims to gain an understanding of the prevalence of sexual assault at universities and develop recommendations to strengthen university responses. However, while all 39 Australian universities have committed to rolling out the survey, and working to make university campuses safer; they have not committed to making concrete changes to support students who are survivors of sexual violence, or to prevent incidents from occurring. In order to improve women’s safety at university, we are calling on all universities to implement the following, and use the survey results to improve support services for survivors. -adequate lighting, 24/7 security, and safe spaces for women -stand alone zero tolerance policies on sexual harassment, assault and violence, with clear repercussions for perpetrators -accessible and clear reporting processes, with effective remedies for survivors -sexual assault counsellors on every campus -mandatory consent training for all staff and students Sign the Petition. Demand Action!

  124 of 200 Signatures

  Created by NUS Women