Currently, UNSW subcontracts it's security staff from MSS Security, a corporation involved in the illegal detention of refugees by the Australian Government. UNSW is also listed as a partner of Wilson Security (another culprit) and has accepted a grant to help the defence force to develop the Jindalee Operational Radar Network (JORN), a multi billion dollar satellite network that has been boasted as being able to track small boats carrying asylum seekers (an international human right). UNSW prides itself in being a progressive and humanitarian institution but uses students fees to invest in these torturous industries and staff and students won't take it any more, support the divestment by signing the petition!

The call from students organising the strike states: “Last year’s UN intergovernmental panel on climate change’s special report on global warming was clear about the unprecedented dangers of going beyond 1.5C of global heating. Emissions must drop rapidly – so that by the time we are in our mid- and late-20s we are living in a completely transformed world. But to change everything, we need everyone.” Already the NTEU, the GSA and UMSU who represent staff and students at the University of Melbourne, have endorsed this call to action. We will work together to ensure the widest possible stoppage of work and study so that staff and students can attend demonstrations on this historic day. The University of Melbourne has an opportunity to be a global leader on climate action – an opportunity that staff and students want the University to take. Climate change and climate action is a top concern within our university community for students and staff. As students and workers in the higher education sector, we have a particular responsibility and opportunity to campaign on climate action. Universities will play a leading role in the research and development and retraining that will be needed for the transition. Our fight against casualisation and the marketisation and commodification of education is inseparable from supporting our fellow workers and unionists in energy, transportation, and agricultural industries to decarbonise the economy and create dignified clean energy jobs. Transforming our destructive relationship with the environment requires a system change at all social, economic and political levels. To that end we stand with Indigenous people in struggles to protect their lands and waters from impending expansion of fossil fuel projects. We stand with workers in fossil fuel industries and their communities facing insecure work and an uncertain future. We stand against the vested corporate and political interests placing profits above the future of the planet. Students and staff call for the University of Melbourne to be bold on climate action and agree to stop work and class for all members of the university community to join the global climate strike on September 20th. There is no education on a dead planet.

After a term of trimesters, it is clearer than ever that this change is detrimental to UNSW staff and students. Students cannot learn effectively under such tight time constraints, and our teachers are struggling with the increased workload. UNSW management should be more concerned with the wellbeing of its students and its workers than the size of their profits. We the undersigned call on UNSW Management to CANCEL TRIMESTERS.

Problem: There is huge pressure to deliver community infrastructure. Government needs adequate internal capacity but also needs industry to have the skills and staff to deliver the government’s projects. The engineering skills development process is broken. While government has lost capacity, the private sector often lives hand to mouth relying on winning projects and then headhunting to deliver on those projects. This model is not sustainable or desirable and inevitably leads to cost blowouts and delays. Solution: Government procurement is a major driver of economic activity. Procurement can also be used to drive better workforce development outcomes, by encouraging construction companies and consulting engineer firms to develop the next generation of engineers

Young people will inherit a dying planet because of government inaction on climate change. At the same time, investment in tertiary education is lower than it is in Trump's America, leaving students with increasing fees and debt. Young people also face an increasingly insecure and casualised workforce when we graduate. And our generation is the first to be worse off than our parents, with the cost of living and housing prices becoming untenable. Students on income support live way below the poverty line, and workplace exploitation of young people is rife. Scott Morrison's Liberal government has no vision for the future of young people. That's why we're telling Scott Morrison we'll be voting him and the Liberals out on May 18. NUS will be throwing parties in Sydney and Melbourne, and demonstrations in other cities across the country to call on young people to use their voice, and show ScoMo our power and young people and students come the election. Join us here: bit.ly/scomoparty

We, members of the Independent Education Union, call on the Tasmanian Government to respect workers in public education and across the public sector in Tasmania. Proposals tabled by the Will Hodgman government so far do not adequately address the workload, pay and resourcing issues in Tasmanian public schools. Tasmanian teachers are the lowest paid in Australia, while Support Staff earn on average $25,000 a year and in some cases rely on Centrelink payments to make ends meet. Due to excessive workloads, almost half of teachers say they can’t meet the individual learning needs of students. Educator burnout is high and the best and brightest are being lost from the profession. We support members of the AEU and other public sector unions who in the face of their government’s failure to deliver a decent offer have been left with no option but to take stop work action on 2 and 3 April. Premier Hodgman, it’s time to show some respect for public sector workers, the backbone of Tasmania.

If employers continue to be bound by the current arrangements, they will soon be unable to continue delivering key services. We’ll see large-scale job-losses, loss of expertise, disruption of services to clients and a high potential for reduction in the quality of services. Without this support, Victoria’s disability sector will likely fail to retain the skilled and committed workers required under the NDIS, potentially resulting in widespread market failure across Victoria. We need to see an investment of $46 million over 3 years, to deliver the quality NDIS that people with disabilities so rightly demanded. This represents just 7 cents in every dollar that the Victorian government will contribute to the NDIS in a single year – but the impact will be huge.

The current system creates inequities within the workforce, and can lead to serious hardship on families experiencing psychological and financial stress. The careers of women and primary carers can also be negatively impacted. "I returned to work at the ANU ten days after giving birth to my son. My family needed the income, but it wasn’t just this – I also needed to secure my next contract. It was important for me that my supervisors were happy with my performance and recommended me for my next contract. This was a very difficult time. I had psychological health problems. I felt guilty about leaving my son, and would try to see him to breastfeed on my lunchbreaks" (Professional staff member at ANU). By adopting employer-paid parental leave for all staff, ANU will keep pace with other universities in the sector who already provide paid parental leave on either a full or pro-rata basis for their staff. It will also help to: • Reduce financial stress on the families of staff who are experiencing loss of their weekly income to care for their children. • Reduce risks to maternal and child health from returning to work early, and support international guidelines on breastfeeding. • Contribute to ANU’s gender equality goals that aims to ensure all staff, regardless of their identity or sexual orientation, can contribute to their child’s wellbeing. Read the open letter to Vice-Chancellor Brian Schmidt from the NTEU Women's Action Network at nteu.org.au/anu/wan.

The City of Fremantle has recently made the decision to introduce paid parking on Marine Terrace and change time restrictions at South Beach, Mews Rd and the east side of Marine Terrace. Media releases from the Council and public posts detailed the purpose of this change is to discourage commuter and student parking, to clear up space for beach goers and increase the reliability of parking for those parties. It is our belief these changes will highly reduce the reliability and affordability of parking not only for visitors of Fremantle and commuters, but also to the university students of Fremantle, who bring life to the West End. Not only will these changes affect the welfare and livelihood of the students, it will affect their ability to attend lectures and stay all day in the city; eating at local cafes and engaging with local businesses due to time, accessibility and financial pressures. Through the surveys and testimonies of students, and the statements produced by the City of Fremantle, it has been demonstrated to the NDSA that the parking along Marine Terrace is relied upon by many of our students, whom have now seen the introduction of a daily fee with no promise of more reliable and accessible parking solutions. We also believe the introduction of this paid parking will lead to more commuters and students parking in free zones such as South Beach and local streets, only increasing the pressure in these areas for beach-goers and locals.

UQ management's current negotiations with the Ramsay Foundation - a conservative organisation that proposes to fund programs and majors in “Western Civilisation” threaten academic freedom at UQ, UQ's national and international reputation and the university's commitment to equity and diversity. The published statements of Ramsay Centre board members make clear that it is an explicitly political-ideological enterprise dedicated to promoting a particular, uncontested view of “Western Civilisation” expressly counterposed to current practices and approaches at UQ. Why is this important? NTEU members, staff and students at UQ are determined that the proposed centre will not go ahead. The project would allow Ramsay representatives to have decision making power on the hiring for staff teaching into the program. This is an attempt to pay cash for a University curriculum that serves conservative political ends. UQ must reject Ramsay and demonstrate that we are NOT FOR SALE. Call on the Vice Chancellor, Chancellor and the Senate to reject the proposed Ramsay Centre! Sign the petition below:

Campus counselling services usually cap the number of sessions offered to individual students each year. As mental health support off-campus isn’t accessible to many students, this locks them out of mental healthcare either entirely or for extended periods. Counselling sessions at universities must be uncapped. Campus counselling services rarely hire enough staff to meet student demand, forcing students to wait weeks or even months to book sessions with no mental healthcare while they wait. Universities must adequately staff counselling services to keep wait times for sessions below two weeks. Some campus counselling services prevent students from booking sessions at all through walk-in only policies. In other services bookings can be made but only in person, not online or over the phone. But for many students with mental ill health or various disabilities, such policies prevent them from accessing sessions at all. Students must be able to book sessions in advance and through accessible methods. At some campus counselling services students have no choice of counsellor, they're stopped from changing counsellors as needed or forced to change counsellors against their wishes, neither of which is conducive to effective mental healthcare. Students must be allowed to choose counsellors according to their needs. Many campus counselling services don’t provide specialist services relevant to students’ needs, such as counsellors trained to support students with experiences of sexual assault, trauma, and psychological conditions other than depression and anxiety. Universities must provide counsellors with training relevant to the mental health issues students are affected by. Universities largely fail to promote campus counselling services to all students. Many promote services inconsistently during peak times like orientation and exams but not all year, and promotion often targets first years but not other students. Universities must do more to promote services and regularly integrate promotion into communications with students.

Whilst the ANU has made great strides to tackle the complicated issue of providing accommodation for a growing student population, there are still many pressing and urgent issues for postgraduate students that must be addressed. There are still postgraduate students being exploited by predatory landlords, skipping meals to pay for the bare necessities, and sleeping rough in the library and their offices to ensure that they have a safe place to sleep at night. In recognising that the ANU is providing additional accommodation for students in the upcoming years, it is not merely enough to have this accommodation available, it also needs to be accessible, affordable and adequate. Additionally, to meet the first-year guarantee, second- and third-year students will need to seek accommodation off-campus in a city that was just named the most expensive rent market in Australia.