The economic disadvantage women face through child bearing and rearing is so engrained in our society that we accept it as the status quo. However Australia has one of the lowest number of paid maternity leave weeks ( and it is also conditional) . Instead of labelling this payment as “welfare” or “government handouts” let’s start a paradigm shift and look at it for what it really is; A redistribution of wealth for human capital, in support of women (and men) in a time of their lives when they need it most. It seems a strange but accepted throw back to the 1960’s that if you choose to raise your own children you become the economic responsibility of your significant other ( statistically speaking in a heterosexual relationship this is the man / husband). This lack of financial independence is not only distressing and oppressive, it affects all areas of life including negatively impacting maternal mental health, increasing stress on the relationship ( during an already stressful time ) and ultimately can affect the health and well being of the entire family unit. Lack of financial independence is also contributing factor to women experiencing domestic violence & their inability to escape their circumstances. If we were able to provide women with a level of financial support during the first year of their child’s life, we would not only be supporting the woman and child but be investing in a healthier, fairer more just society. For what mothers add to society in terms of a loving, nurturing and peaceful upbringing has far more value and unseen ripple effect then any economic system could ever be able to accurately measure or quantify.

Since Australia voted in 1962 to occupy West New Guinea with United Nations forces, in violation of our Commonwealth & international legal obligations hundreds of thousands of our Papuan neighbours have purportedly been wrongfully killed by the UN appointed administrators while untold $billions have been looted from their homelands. I believe the looting since 1962 of the United Nations occupied territory has created and is contributing to a reckless shift of wealth and authority from the Pacific to South East Asia which has introduced numerous biological problems and social handicaps to the Pacific which should be mitigated without further delay.

The arbitrary indefinite detention of asylum seekers on Manus and Nauru is unfair and un-Australian. We are sick and tired of this policy and want these people brought to Australia to be assimilated within our society like any other migrant. We are all migrants or descendants of migrants; let's give these people a FAIR GO.

The unethical political elites in the UN, USA, NATO, the EU and Australia are imposing an illegal, anti-constitutional, unsustainable and dangerous Prespa Agreement on the Republic of Macedonia. It seeks to force Macedonia to change its name, language, identity and culture in order to possibly become a third class member of the undemocratic and dysfunctional NATO and the EU. This has created a new political crisis which can destroy the Republic of Macedonia and make it subservient to the Hellenic Republic which does not even recognise the Macedonian people, identity or their culture. The Prespa Agreement was rejected by over 61% of eligible voters in Macedonia on 30 Sept. 2018 and is legally null and void. Over 137 countries have recognized the Republic of Macedonia under its Constitutional name. Despite this, the arrogant denialists at the UN, USA, NATO and the EU are using a puppet government in Macedonia to deliver their nasty agreement. We, the Macedonians, are the traditional indigenous owners of the land and civilisation known from Biblical times as Macedonia. We categorically reject foreign interference in Macedonia’s democracy. We do not consent to the signing and implementation of the so called Prespa Agreement through bullying, blackmail and bribes in the Macedonian Parliament and against the democratic wishes of the Macedonians. We do no accept the Prespa Agreement to take away our name, identity, language and culture. We will not accept their blackmail and their offer for us to commit cultural genocide. We will protect and defend the Republic of Macedonia and our connection to it. We call upon all good citizens in the world including Australia, USA, Canada, Europe and the Indo-Pacific to help protect the sovereign Macedonian state, people and culture from cultural genocide in the making.

Deaths and maiming through forced and coerced Mental Health treatments must be counted, and the horror of these legislated abuses fully exposed to the Australian people: 1. If someone dies of a cardiac arrest after years of being forced on a neuroleptic, then the death must be marked up as a cardiac arrest potentially caused by the neuroleptic forced. And so forth, for every death – including suicide potentially induced by forced – coerced psychiatric drugs. 2. We want the maiming of our bodies to be counted. So for every person that attempts suicide due to the horrible effects of neuroleptics or other psychiatric drugs and procedures and injures themselves, everyone who gets a cardio condition, an allergy, diabetes… all the things listed on the drug’s website, that these psychiatric drugs that are forced on people are known to cause. 3. We want a count of how many people were put on forced orders in a year. 4. We want a count of how many people were utilised as data in human research as ‘emergency research’ without their knowledge, and through coercive means, due to the Mental Health legislation in Victoria. 5. We want to know how many people were threatened with forced psychiatry, if they did not undergo another kind of medical procedure, or treatment. 6. We want to know how many people were broken under torture of isolation, arbitrary detention, high dose drugs, mechanical holds, and other procedures, into obedience with the treating psychiatrist, and how many were verbally told, that they need to agree to treatment, and agree to the psychiatric label given if they are to be let free from arbitrary detention or mechanical ties, or have the dose of the drug lowered. 7. We want to know how many people have been suffering an emergency medical condition, that was ignored, and turned into a Mental Health issue. How many of those people have been maimed or killed due to not being listened to, and denied the access to assistance they need, and having their condition worsened by toxic psychiatric drugs, and damaging procedures, as well as the dehumanisation of forced psychiatry. 8. We want to know how many people were trying to speak out against the effects of electrical pollution, that were subjected to forced psychiatry. 9. We want to know how many people were attempting to speak out against chemicals in their environment or food, that were subjected to forced psychiatry. 10. We want to know how many people were attempting to speak out against organised crime, when they were subjected to forced psychiatry. 11. We want to know how many people were attempting to speak out against violence that they experienced, or were currently experiencing, and attempting to do so got them subjected to forced psychiatry. 12. How many compulsory patients were physically assaulted in a psychiatric ward, and how often. 13. How many people subjected to mental health treatments were subjected to lewd comments, racism, sexism, or had their spiritual, cultural, or individual beliefs vilified by staff members. 14. How many people subjected to forced psychiatry would consider themselves to be socially disenfranchised, financially disenfranchised, an oppressed people, and considered their diagnosis by psychiatrists to be discriminatory.

A historical Frontier War site of Aboriginal resistance is set to be completely destroyed to make way for an open cut coal mine. Ravensworth Estate in the Upper Hunter a site of Aboriginal resistance and the massacre of Aboriginal people is in the way of an open cut coal mine expansion, so mining company Glencore propose to simply destroy it. The landscape surrounding Ravensworth is a recognised place of cultural significance for Aboriginal people. Mining companies have a long and sordid history of ignoring Aboriginal cultural and land rights, to allow them to destroy a Frontier Wars is unthinkable. Help us preserve this historical site and be part of the growing movement to recognise the reality of colonisation and commemorate resistance by Aboriginal people.

This would aid those who are on the Very High Needs waitlist for public housing, and may also need ongoing medical treatment at the nearby public Gold Coast University Hospital; also within short reach of two tram stations.

What is presently happening in universities, not just at Flinders University but elsewhere, will have – and is having – serious social impacts. Put simply: • Troubled by decades of inequitable Federal funding cuts, universities, like Flinders, are transforming into businesses; • This changes the way we think about public education: from a vehicle for public good (i.e. to be invested in jointly by the state and commonwealth for collective good, and accessible to the broader community), to a commodity (paid for by individuals for private benefit); • These same governments are increasing support for the banks, the wealthy, the military and big corporations, while university managers are diverting much of the funds they do have, to upper management salaries and marketing campaigns while starving administrative support and teaching in many parts of the university; • Together, this impacts education and teaching. For example, within this ‘business’ formulation, academic subjects are considered valuable to the extent that they hold exchange value on the market. The hard sciences, for instance, are typically more valued by university managers for their amenability to industry partnerships and patents; • Subjects less amenable to outside funding; i.e., the humanities, social sciences, education, social work, arts, racial and ethnic or other minority studies, are increasingly devalued and are most at risk because they question power; • The latter fields are those where social inequalities have historically been most vigorously addressed (i.e. poverty, racism, gender inequalities). These are areas where students learn to think critically and care deeply about social equity. They are also areas where women academics are most highly concentrated, and these areas are current targets of the greatest and most casualised workforce; • Within this formulation, learning areas with highest market value (the ones that make the most money) are thus increasingly tied to outside corporate interests and funding, which in other parts of the world where this model has been applied, have given rise to ethical issues concerning ethics of research; • Rather than develop critical, social-democratic thinkers with social and political consciousness, with the shift from ‘public education’ to ‘private investment’, universities are destined to develop future generations of workers who are technically trained, yet self-interested, and our societies will be impoverished as a consequence. Universities have never been perfect institutions, but those like Flinders have had a proud record of making social equity a core part of their rationale. Current moves in higher education are deepening existing social inequalities, they are creating a precarious workforce that hurts minority groups the most, and they are positioning students-as-consumers who, if trends overseas are to be observed, will soon be subject to steeper tuition costs, making education an impossibility for many future students. Save our public universities, save our societies.

“We as human beings deserve a decent life, but this is being denied to us by governments that deny us justice. We shouldn't have to sell our identity and our land to have opportunities that non-Aboriginal people have.” - Noongar Traditional Owner Uncle Rex Bellotti Snr Noongar land and waters are our lifeblood and form the basis of our culture and identity as a People. To us, land, water and Noongar people are one. Our connection to our ancestors and culture is powerful, it is thousands of generations old and intrinsically interwoven into our land and waters. In 2015, the West Australian government struck a deal with some Noongar people to extinguish Noongar Native Title rights forever, in return for over a billion dollars. The land subject to the South West Native Title Settlement extends over the entire south east corner of WA, over 200,000km2. The South-West Native Title Settlement has been coined by some as the biggest native title deal in Australian history, but we say that it is the biggest native title steal in Australian history. Successful registration of these Indigenous Land Use Agreements (ILUAs) will mean that half of Western Australia’s Aboriginal population will no longer have native title rights and Noongar native title will be extinguished forever. This extinguishment by the West Australian Government would leave our mineral-rich Country vulnerable to mining and fracking. It removes our right to negotiate on any future development. It is our responsibility to protect this connection and to ensure that it is never broken. Surrendering our native title rights will diminish our responsibilities as Traditional Custodians and consequently erode our connection to our ancestors, culture and Country. Noongar Not For Sale is a campaign for land justice, led by respected Noongar Elders and supported by a groundswell of strong and passionate grassroots mob. We are following in the footsteps of our ancestors and fighting to protect and preserve Noongar land, waters and culture for our children, grandchildren and the many generations of Noongars to come. For the past decade, Noongar people have been pushing the boundaries of native title law despite the State and Federal Governments constantly shifting the goalposts. Last year, we won our case in the full bench of the Federal Court in a major win for land justice. The court recognised that not all Native Title Claimants agreed with the settlement, the ILUA’s were invalid and the West Australian Government could not extinguish our Native Title. In response to this win, mining companies and special interest groups lobbied the Federal Government hard and in the end, the Native Title Act was amended retrospectively. Our justice was taken away but we are unshaken. On Monday 19th November we have again launched legal action against the West Australian Government and the South-West Land and Sea Council. We will continue our fight to de-register the 6 ILUAs that form the South-West Native Title Settlement. In the spirit of our early Noongar resistance fighters we assert that we will not surrender our birthrights. We are not for sale.

The little town of Surat on the Balonne River in QLD with a population of about 500 people (if they've got visitors) is about to be surrounded by gasfields. Armour Energy wants to frack. We have til 4.30pm on 5 November 2018 to tell them Don't Frack Surat. The gas industry is trying to expand to every state in Australia. They are huge multinational companies whose overriding objective is profit. There is ample evidence put together by people who don't receive a cent for doing it, including doctors and scientists, that fracking and CSG is harmful to humans and the environment.

The KPI for a claim for any type of Pension is 6 weeks. Because of lack of staff and a huge back-log this has now blown out to as much as 12 weeks and sometimes longer. This is even before you know if your claim will be accepted or not. Some people have the resources to cover this long wait, but many don't, which is why they are claiming in the first place. It is better for a person to be cared for in their own home, by a loved one rather than be a burden in either the hospital or aged care system. Adding financial stress to a Carers burden can definitely lead to a depressed mental outlook. Please sign the petition now asking the Federal Minister to Increase Staff in Centrelink so they can address all wait time issues.

There are children and families in detention on Nauru by order of the Australian government. Some have been in captivity for years, and some children were even born on the island. Detention is a fancy word for prison. Except there was no court, no trial, no judge, no jury. It is not a Liberal or Labor issue. Both parties have been responsible for this. The world’s humanitarian organisations have condemned Australia’s action and yet it continues. These people have escaped from all kinds of appalling situations. Don’t be misled by claims that freeing these people will lead to more boat arrivals. That is a separate issue which our border controllers need to manage without making political pawns of the people seriously suffering on Nauru. Children are being psychologically and physically harmed.