Since 2011 Tasmanian governments have capped the wages of Tasmanians working in the public sector, like rangers, health professionals, teachers and nurses, at 2% per annum. Premier Will Hodgman plans to continue this 2% cap until at least 2023. For many of these Tasmanians this means a struggle to make ends meet while the cost of living rises. When Will Hodgman decides to underpay his employees, everyone suffers. We cannot recruit and retain the people who provide the quality services that Tasmanians deserve. The cap holds down wages for all Tasmanians – private businesses look to government as a barometer for setting wages and conditions. Tasmanian public sector workers deliver opportunities, education, care and protection, improving all of our lives. But these workers need jobs they can count on to deliver these services. Bargaining is how we’ve built the jobs, wages and living standards we rely on. This doesn't happen when outcomes are decided before negotiations begin.

Asbestos has been banned in Australia since 2003 however every week illegal asbestos imports are stopped at our border. Some new asbestos products are also still making their way into our communities and workplaces in the form of building materials, car parts, children’s crayons and even home decorations. Once they inside Australia, it’s hard to detect them and then hard to get them removed without strong government regulation and enforcement. As long as countries in our region such as China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, India and Cambodia continue to manufacture asbestos products, we will continue to get illegal imports. Asbestos isn’t safe at any level of exposure. That’s why we’re supporting campaigns to ban asbestos throughout our region. In November 2017 the Senate Inquiry into Non-Conforming Building Products delivered an interim report into illegal asbestos imports. The recommendations included: • The Australian Government supporting asbestos bans internationally • Increased prosecutions and penalties for illegal imports • A whole of Government approach to ending illegal asbestos imports • Funding for the Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency • More education and training on illegal asbestos imports • Funding to adequately screen imports • Compulsory recalls for consumer products containing asbestos The Liberal and Nationals members of the Inquiry called the recommendations ‘overreach’. Though a response has been due since May, the Government is yet to respond. We’re calling on the Government to support the recommendations of the inquiry, will you join us?

Malcolm Turnbull has just shown us what he really thinks of aged care workers and the care we give. We provide quality care to older Australians and help ensure they have dignified lives. It’s hard to imagine what a “better job” could be, but our rate of pay doesn’t reflect that. Honestly, Malcolm Turnbull’s attitude towards aged care is nothing new. He has already cut funding for aged care by more than a billion dollars, leaving aged care service providers struggling to provide the care our older Australians deserve. Turnbull has done a massive disservice to aged care workers like myself and the people we care for. The people we care for have done so much for our community and now I feel we’re failing when it’s our turn to care for them. He claims he values aged care but his words and actions don’t line up. Turnbull needs not only to apologise for his comments, but put his money where his mouth is and increase funding to aged care. Let’s make it very clear: Turnbull needs to value aged care workers and the people we care for!

Malcolm Turnbull just proved one thing: how little he values care workers, and the people we care for. For many of our aged and disabled clients, we are their only link to a dignified life. It’s hard work, but it’s absolutely vital – and I’d be hard pressed to find a ‘better’ or more rewarding job. Yet tens of thousands of Australians are waiting for home care packages or for room in aged care facilities, while the people who do the vital work of caring for them struggle to get by – with the rate of pay no where near matching the demands of the job. This is a national disgrace, and I don’t believe Turnbull's views reflect how Australians feel about some of our most hard-working and caring citizens – or our most vulnerable. Turnbull's comments did a disservice to both, and care workers and the people we work with deserve not just an apology, but genuine recognition. Care workers deserve fairness, certainty, and recognition for our work – not derision from our Prime Minister. Add your voice to make it loud and clear: care workers need jobs you can count on!

Community based, mental health support programs like the Personal Helpers and Mentors Service (PHaMs) are crucial in supporting people dealing with mental health issues to live a good life. With federal funding for the program being cut by 50% on June 30, thousands of South Australians currently benefiting from the program will be left without support and the jobs of approximately 150 highly trained workers have been put at risk. Join Australian Services Union members and key organisations in the mental health sector in calling on South Australian Premier Steven Marshall to step up and fill the funding gap before June 30 to save this crucial mental health program.

Aged care residents receive one and a half hours less care than they should, every day. Yet there are no rules to ensure the $2.17 Billion in government subsidies given to for-profit aged care companies is spent directly on their care. Proof of government funding being directly spent on care for residents needs to be mandated as a pre-requisite to receiving a taxpayer funding. It’s time to make aged care operators accountable for how they spend billions of dollars of taxpayer money.

The Victorian government is gutting the community mental health sector. It argues that it can pull this funding out of the sector because the NDIS is a better system for people with mental health needs. But here is what is really happening: • 91% of Victorian with severe mental health needs are not even eligible for the NDIS – leaving a massive 135,000 people without any support services. • Mental health admissions at ED’s have jumped over 19% in the past 4 years, putting an incredible strain on an already over-burdened system. • Victoria spends less per capita on mental health support than any other state or territory – $197 per capita to the rest of Australia’s average of $227. Along with these shocking facts, more than a thousand well-trained and dedicated Community Mental Health workers are being forced out of their jobs. This is devastating to them, their families and the people they support. Community Mental Health workers work in services that support Victorians with a wide range of mental health challenges. Their support helps people to live better lives and contribute to their communities. Community Mental Health is the frontline of mental health services that takes pressure off the hospitals and other acute services, the police and the courts. We’ve been warning of a crisis in mental health support – that crisis is now here. Vulnerable people with complex needs are falling through an ever widening gap. The Andrews government must recognise this looming disaster and act quickly to save Victoria’s recovery-focused community-based mental health support services.

The ANMF have consistently raised these concerns with THS, however with little outcome. As a result, on the 19th March members committed to commencing industrial action. This action will continue until the ANMF receive a commitment for the following outcomes as identified by members in their resolution to highlight the current bed block crisis: • Funding, staffing and opening up all beds on ward 4D at the LGH to its full capacity. • Funding, staffing and opening up all beds on 4K at the LGH to its full capacity. • Funding, staffing and opening up currently closed beds in the Intensive Critical Care Unit to be used as a High Dependency Unit. • An action plan for respiratory isolation. • Funding to staff permanent assistants in nursing (AINs) as sitters on the medical wards, to alleviate nursing staff from undertaking double shifts. • A long term commitment to fund and open additional medical and geriatric beds at the LGH. • Permanent funding for the Emergency Medical Unit within the ED. • Funding to staff after hours allied health positions within the ED. • More telemetry units purchased as often patients are waiting in the ED for a unit to become available on the wards. • Implementation of a Psychiatric Emergency Nurses seven days (and evenings) a week, to de-escalate and support all challenging presentations. That this position is funded from additional resources. ANMF members working at the LGH deserve better and so do the patients, families and wider community affected by the issue.

The Australian Human Rights Commission’s 'Change the Course' report found that in 2015/16 51% of students surveyed reported that they had been sexually harassed at University and 9% of students surveyed reported that they had been sexually assaulted at University. The report also found that Women Students, Queer Students, Trans Students, Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander Students, Students of Colour and Students with Disabilities are more likely to be sexually harassed or assaulted than any other student. But perhaps the most alarming figures to emerge from this report is that 68% of students who had experienced sexual harassment at university and 40% of students who had been sexually assaulted on campus DID NOT report the incident to the university because they didn't think it would be considered serious enough. "I didn't think they would believe me. I thought they would think I made it all up" - (Student, 21) Universities have no reason for inaction. Students will not be silent - It’s time to end sexual violence

1. Fully-Funded National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). The NDIS since its rollout has faced many issues such as over-the-phone planning through NDIS staff with limited training and expertise in the area leading to poor quality plans; no or reduced funding support under the NDIS for transport support, housing and employment assistance, advocacy services, guide dog assistance, and speech therapy among other things; the price setting of disability services at prices that are too low to cover the cost of the services - meaning disability service providers are either having to cover the cost, cancel the service, or make their clients pay up front - as well as struggle under limited resources for staff training and expansion (leading to concerns about privatisation); and there not being enough NDIS staff per NDIS participant which is leading to delays in approved plans. The Government needs to fix NDIS now and give people and students with disabilities the care they need. 2. Fully-Resourced Campus Counselling and Disability Services The NUS Wellbeing Report found that two thirds of young people rated their mental health as only fair or poor, while 35% reported that suicidality impacted on their ability to study. Despite this, campus counselling services are frequently under-funded and under-resourced, with long wait times, poor experiences with campus counselling services and the general stigma of seeking help impacting services. Some universities still do not have access plans for physical or mental health, or they are under-marketed or promoted on campus. Universities need to treat counselling and disability services as important aspects of their duty of care to students and fund them adequately. 3. Accessible campus facilities and academic curriculum Campuses need to become more accessible for students - this includes but is not limited to wheelchair accessibility, as well as sensory sensitive classrooms and spaces, and events. Further, some universities still do not offer special consideration for mental illness, adequate exemptions for missing study, accessible material for those who have to miss physical classes, or academic material that is sensory-sensitive, made for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, or who are blind or visually impaired. Universities need to be fully-funded so they can be accessible for everyone. 4. Funding Mental Healthcare and removing the Medicare cap Mental Healthcare is chronically underfunded in Australia, and the Federal Government only offers 10 sessions per year under its Medicare Mental Healthcare plan. This is not sufficient for people and locks them out of the mental healthcare system if they need more than 10 sessions per year. Nobody should have to choose between their financial wellbeing or their mental health. The Government needs to take mental healthcare more seriously, by adequately funding it and removing the 10 session per-year cap through expanding Medicare assistance.

It’s 2018 and Tasmanians deserve access to safe and legal reproductive health services without needing to shoulder the burden of traveling interstate to do so. The Tasmanian Liberal Government was warned that the last healthcare service in Tasmania offering affordable surgical abortion procedures would be closing. Three services offering the procedure closed during his term. He chose to do nothing. His inaction is an action in itself. He must put aside his personal anti-choice views to do his job and provide public access to the safe and legal healthcare services that Tasmanians need.

One third of all women and people with reproductive abilities in Australia will have an abortion in their lifetime, and over 80 per cent of Australians believe that women should have the right to choose. Access to abortion is vital to our communities, and remains one of the single greatest ways to reduce the economic and social inequality Labor aims to address. If members of parliament truly wish to serve their communities, they should support legal, safe, affordable, accessible abortion services. To get in touch with Labor for Choice e-mail [email protected].