The Commonwealth Bank is withdrawing their services from Logan Central Plaza, a move that will impact hundreds of local pensioners, not-for-profit groups, families and local business. Distressed residents from the local community are coming to me asking for help to reverse this mean-spirited decision. The planned closure is outrageous and lacking in community spirit. I regularly hold mobile offices at Logan Central Plaza and the queues to get into the bank can span the frontage of several shop tenancies. The people who frequent the bank then go on to spend money in the local shopping centre which in turn supports local jobs. Moving the bank away from the centre will move the spending capacity of local residents. This quiet closure of the local bank has come at a time when business is just starting to get on their feet post-covid, when pensioners are starting to feel confident about heading out to the shops for social outings and when families are receiving an income again. I have written to the Finance Sector Union and the Commonwealth Bank asking for a reversal of the decision. It is important to note that the staff from Commbank know locals, know their circumstances and know their challenges. A lot of clients are aged, come from CALD backgrounds and have trust in the staff that have been servicing their financial needs in a prompt and professional manner for years. I urge residents and community members to sign the petition and let Commbank know we need our local bank branches to be active in our community. Invest in us like we do in you.

Yarra City Council have walked away from a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build social housing at the Collingwood Town Hall. Last month, Yarra City Council voted against a proposal to revitalise vacant council owned land at the Collingwood Town Hall with social and affordable housing. This had been years in the making yet at the last minute the Council walked away from delivering - despite the Victorian Government committing to funding the project through the $5.3 billion Big Housing Build program. The rejected proposal would have included a minimum of 100 new social and affordable housing units and over 1,000 square metres of new community space. Instead, the council have proposed to build a 'community hub' which would cost about $21 million and was unlikely to attract a funding partner or grant. Giving up funding certainty in the face of a housing crisis for a half-baked idea like this doesn't make sense. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take advantage of state government funding – like many Victorian councils are doing right now – and build homes for people who desperately need them in the inner-city where rent is increasingly unaffordable for most. The City of Yarra need to prioritise housing and start living up to their word to make Yarra inclusive for all, not just those who can afford to live here. How can I help? • Sign this petition to let Yarra City Council know that the community want social housing to be built at Collingwood Town Hall. • Get involved in the community consultation for the council’s ‘alternative proposal’ and make it clear that the community want social housing to be prioritised. • Write to your Councillors to let them know how you feel about their decision and let’s get Council to support the original proposal.

The cuts come at a time when UOW is moving many classes online in what looks to be a permanent arrangement. Meanwhile, students are being made to pay the same fees for lower quality, online degrees which often resemble tuning in to a Youtube channel. Fees for many degrees are also increasing, with Arts fees doubling.

Our electricity generation system is undergoing rapid change as coal-fired power is replaced by renewable energy. We need this to happen fast to avoid catastrophic climate change, and so that Australia is not left behind in the shift to a new clean economy. Workers in the fossil fuel industry have contributed enormously to Australia’s wealth over generations. It is vital that they are not cast aside as we build a sustainable economy. Currently, decisions about power station closures and the replacement generation are largely made by big private companies driven by profit in a “free market” that gives no consideration to the interests of workers or the local community more broadly. To ensure the energy transformation is fair to workers and their communities, we need a National Energy Transition Authority that plans and coordinates all-of-government actions to make sure no worker and no community is left behind.

In the first two weeks of March 2021 alone, energy retailers cut off the electricity to 1,000 Victorians who have fallen on hard times. Energy is an essential service; you can't find a new job with a flat phone battery. We were promised privatisation would deliver lower cost energy - it hasn't. Instead, we have had cost blow outs, crumbling infrastructure, poor just transition planning for workers, and companies holding government to ransom to prop up their failing assets. Not to mention companies dragging their feet on a transition to clean energy sources. With Victoria at an energy crossroads, now is the time to fix the mistake of privatisation by investing in publicly-owned renewables. Queensland has established CleanCo - their own publicly-owned renewable energy retailer, and we think Victoria deserves the same. Further, the cold snap that caused the collapse of the entire energy system in Texas USA has shown us the problems of a fully market-driven, privatised electricity system. This must never happen here - we need a properly planned energy transformation in Victoria with public ownership a key plank of that plan.

I am a TasTAFE teacher who works closely with local industry to deliver the training and education they need in a workforce. For years I've pushed TasTAFE management to deliver the courses demanded by students and employers and I've sat down with government to discuss how TasTAFE can provide flexible training options. Deliberate underfunding from governments has already resulted in TAFE courses being cut and smaller regional communities and businesses losing quality training options. TasTAFE teachers and support staff understand the needs of their industries and students. We know how important we are to Tasmania's economic recovery. Instead of working together to ensure Tasmanians have the training and skills for our COVID-19 recovery, the Tasmanian Liberal Government has declared war on TAFE teachers and support staff with an ideological privatisation plan that will only delay economic recovery. Let's rebuild with TAFE together and stop the Liberal Party's disastrous privatisation plan.

Council-run home care enables those in need to live independently at home for as long possible. Being able to retain a sense of independence is so important for mental and emotional health. Our ageing relatives, friends and neighbours deserve to retain the quality care they get from our highly trained Council workers

We are essential workers taking indefinite industrial action, without pay, because we are fighting for respect! We make the sauces and spices that make sure your nuggets aren't dry and that the food at McDonalds, Hungry Jacks, KFC & Nandos is delicious! We even continued to work throughout the pandemic to provide people in Australia the food they crave. But after working through the pandemic, and suffering through 5 years with no wage increase, our employer, McCormick, is only offering us a 0% pay rise AND cuts to our penalties, meal breaks and more. McCormick’s is an extremely profitable company and can afford to meet our reasonable demands, but instead they send even more of their profits overseas to the USA. Let McCormick know that unless they make this right and come to us with a fair resolution, their brand will be tarnished forever!

Rape culture in parliament threatens our involvement in the political process. Parliament, in its current state, lacks representation of oppressed gender groups. First Nations women, trans and gender diverse people are particularly underrepresented in our legal system. The endemic sexual abuse that is perpetrated in parliament threatens the paltry representation that oppressed gender groups have ascertained thusfar and makes it difficult for those marginalised groups to speak up against gendered violence and support victim surviours for fear of receiving their own workplace bullying, relocation or loss of livelihood. For too long we have worked within the system and compromised with the state on our bodily autonomy, our rights and our safety. We say enough. It’s time to End the Silence on Sexual Violence.

The Centrelink Age of Independence for Youth Allowance sits at 22. Young Australians can drink, smoke and drive at the age of 18 but are not considered independent. Even students moving out of home to attend university can be denied access to income support based on a parent or partner's income. For students in the higher education sector, the global pandemic has meant that students are more vulnerable and poorer than ever before. Students are the victims of the casualised workforce, penalty rate cuts and the shutdown of industries predominantly worked in by young people due to COVID-19. With funding provided by Universities drying up and the Federal Government income support being reconsidered, anyone can see the impending impact on young people. . The health crisis isn’t over and the economic crisis certainly isn’t over. We should be ensuring that Australia’s future is well protected by investing in young people to be able to live and study and not sending them through the cracks of our welfare system to potential lifetimes of poverty. We need to fund our future. A liveable wage is essential so students are not skipping meals, going without medication, sleeping rough or couch surfing. Recognising that young people are independents from the age of 18 and the current age of independence makes life incredibly difficult in unstable households and for queer youth. The Government must act to ensure that means testing is genuine and that we keep students out of poverty. Grace Franco National Union of Students (NUS) Welfare Officer Bailey Riley NUS President

Rail companies already have an extensive amount of data available (data Logger/Event recorders, Driver Advice Systems, radio voice recordings, and forward-facing camera) for investigation, compliance and assessments. Adding surveillance inside the cabin of locomotives will not prevent an incident from happening. Better training, support and a “no blame” culture will. We believe that the extended use of in-cab recording devices will have little if any impact on the efficacy of rail safety investigations and will have a significant detrimental effect on the mental health of Traincrew.

Employers in every industry commit wage theft. Whether it’s stolen super, unpaid hours, penalty rates or overtime, if you show up, they should pay up. Wage theft has become a business model – where the fines for stealing are less than the wages stolen! Without change to the law, employers will keep thieving over and over. Currently, workers only have protection in Queensland and Victoria. All Australian workers should be protected from thieving bosses.