Nearly a year ago a 64cm blood clot almost killed my healthy 20 year-old daughter, Elanor, after she was prescribed an old and dangerous drug, Diane-35. Diane-35 is also marketed under the names Brenda-35, Carolyn-35, Chelsea-35, Estelle-35, Ginette-35, Juliet-35, Katie-35, Laila-35 and Dermapil. Since talking publicly of our experience I’ve been deluged with horror stories of life threatening or fatal blood clots by families from across Australia. I’ve researched the issues and met with health regulatory authorities and professional bodies. This drug has never been approved for use in the USA and was actually banned in Europe in 2013 after too many women died from blood clots, and only reintroduced with tough restrictions. Yet it’s routinely prescribed to unknown thousands of Australian women without proper warnings, education or consideration of safer, modern alternatives.

Centrelink services have already been run into the ground as the Turnbull Government has slashed more than 5,000 permanent jobs from the Department of Human Services. The number of unanswered call has climbed rapidly as the Government has continued cutting, with more than 42 million calls going unanswered just last financial year alone. This deal hatched by the Turnbull Government is an absolute disaster for Centrelink and the thousands of vulnerable Australians who rely on the agency. Serco is a tax-avoiding multinational parasite, plain and simple, that profits from downgrading public services and underpaying the people who provide them. Everything they touch sees services suffer. Centrelink clients need real help, such as that they are given by our members who have permanent jobs in the department and therefore the proper training and experience to actually resolve peoples’ problems. A private call centre that’s designed merely to make the department’s call waiting times look better isn’t going to genuinely help anyone. Serco’s arrival is also yet another attack by the Turnbull Government on hard-working DHS staff. They’ve been under an unrelenting attack through a four-year wage freeze and wholesale cuts, so this is adding insult to injury. It’s telling that the Defence Department is currently taking the reverse approach, bringing work back in-house because it offers higher quality work at a lower cost.

The community relies on pharmacists, yet too often the respect, recognition and reward for this important work flow away from those who actually do it. We are committed to advocating on behalf of employee pharmacists so that they are heard by government and industry. The Fair Pay for Pharmacist case is an initiative by Professional Pharmacists Australia, the association and union for non-owner community pharmacists.

We are the nurses and carers who work in Bupa’s Victorian nursing homes. Bupa is a multi-national company, making multi-million dollar profits, with 26 nursing homes across Victoria. Bupa aged care nurses have made the difficult decision to take protected industrial action because we feel stretched and undervalued. Australian nursing homes are given funding for staff and wages. Yet, we find ourselves fighting for both. We’re asking Bupa for better staffing levels and skill mix (that’s the number of nurses and carers allocated to a number of residents each full shift) so we can improve resident care. We love caring for people who can no longer live at home. Many residents have multiple conditions, diseases and comorbidities and have very high complex nursing needs. Some need palliative care. Most require help with personal care needs. It’s intense, intimate and rewarding work. But it’s very hard to do our jobs well without enough staff. We’re also paid thousands of dollars less each year than our colleagues doing the same work. We’re asking for a wage increase that reflects the rising cost of living and that matches Bupa’s competitor nursing home groups such as Arcare, BlueCross, Royal Freemasons and AGSAG. Please sign our petition and tell Bupa to value, recognise and reward the people who care for elderly Victorians. Authorised Paul Gilbert, Acting Secretary, Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (Victorian Branch), October 2017.

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.

The people of the Hinkler region ( Hervey Bay-Bundaberg) are feeling threatened , scared and worried for their financial futures and inclusion in our communities. Our population of people on legal eligible centrelink payments across the board, from youth allowance, newstart, dsp, carers etc should not be feeling like they are being excluded from our society and fear losing their sense of self. The insults that we cannot manage our funds, that we are all drunks, druggies and pedos are unjust and not true. People cannot be held responsible for gov't failures to create sufficient jobs and training for people who are isolated and are limited in their prospects. People with addictions need the funding put back into the services that have been removed and treated under the health system, not pushed onto a fantasy card that is being touted as the cure all for all of social ills, at the same time the mantra being pushed that only people on centrelink suffer those ills! Common sense is to provide help to those who need it, and not allow the privatisation of our Social Security sector to a private corp, ready to make big $$ off of the backs of our battlers. The added costs to the tax payer per person per year could be better spent in inclusive public service funding, not a punitive, segregating punishing, dehumanising boot being put down on people who have committed no crime. Australian citizens deserve to feel safe from their own gov't The current gov't is attempting to split our citizens into segments who are judged by their circumstance as to what level their citizenship counts for them. People on Centrelink payments are not "lessor" people just because they receive their rightful payments. Workers who cannot access enough hours are not lessor citizens, and current workers should not be placed in situations where they accept lessor protections at work, in order to stay employed in fear of , if they lose their jobs they will be on the card ! This card threatens our small business, markets and public events . Tourism cannot support these regions alone and the "cash flow" that circulates through our regions economies keeps people going, it keeps our centrelink recipients from becoming destitute, as they have access to secondhand items, cars, and are able to pay their cash rents. We have a large amount of older workers doing their mutual obligations, free labour hours to receive their payments, our younger out of work workers are also doing their work for the dole, part time work and studies, The cashless welfare debit card will completely destroy people on so many levels and we don't have the mental health services to cope with the loss of self and autonomy. This is not how any gov't should be treating any of it's citizens. The card does not care what colour your skin is, your religion, or your circumstance, it is about profits for private business. Indue Terms and Conditions show no mention of any persons health, mental health or general well being, it only has terms and conditions that remove peoples' right to privacy, contract and consent laws, it is about control. If the gov't was serious about helping people overall, they would lift the amounts of centrelink payments to make sure people can keep up with the modern costs of living and provide the health services that all of our community should have access too. The moral of the people is important to how a country works, removing the worth of so many and then the media and the gov't backing of the media "welfare bashing" is causing a great deal of distress across the country as whole. We in the Hinkler region want JOBS not CARD ! Training and PAID work for able bodied people, for older out of work workers and DSP need to be treated with respect too, Dignity NOT Poverty. The card will segregate people and cause more than just financial difficulties for recipients . Stop the Card!

We ask you to stand alongside our communities hardest workers by signing this petition demanding that Southern Cross Care Tasmania (SCCT) provide fair pay and conditions for their nursing and care staff! Aged care workers are faced with a number of tough working conditions on a daily basis; demanding overtime, inadequate staffing levels, and highly challenging emotional and physical conditions. Nurses and care staff look after some of the most vulnerable people in our community and are not being recognised for it! The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) Tasmanian Branch are working alongside SCCT members in the hope of achieving a satisfactory agreement that values the work that staff do. On Wednesday 9 August ANMF members working at SCCT sites across Tasmania commenced industrial action against their employer. This action was not undertaken lightly, however, it was the only option left for them to pursue a fair and reasonable offer from their employer. “The current offer by SCCT is simply not good enough! It is completely unfair that Aged Care Staff with Certificate III qualifications are being paid seven cents an hour less than equivalent workers employed as hairdressers under the Hair and Beauty Industry Award 2010. Meanwhile SCCT’s Annual Report for 2015-2016 reveals that the organisation is in a strong financial position and their cash position has improved considerably from the prior year, by $24 million,” said ANMF Branch Secretary Neroli Ellis. We need your help to make Southern Cross Care stand up and listen. Listen to their staff, their residents, and the community. Aged Care staff deserve better! ANMF will continue to fight for fair pay and conditions. Learn more about the campaign here: anmftas.org.au/scc

It tastes ridiculous.

According to the Australian Human Rights Commission report released on the 1st of August, over half of all students at UTas were sexually harassed in 2016, and 6.5% were sexually assaulted Of these students the vast majority did not seek help from the university, and 0% made a formal report about the incident. While the Vice-Chancellor Peter Rathjen has since come out to say sexual violence is “never OK,” we are yet to see the university take action on any specific incident, or commit implementing a system that offers any real support to students. What students need is not more slogans, or hollow campaigns, but fast and immediate action from the university that tells that they believe us, that it’s not our fault, and that we will have justice. Sign the petition and join the UTas Women’s Collective, and Tasmanian Young Labor members, as we call on the State Government and the University of Tasmania to to commit to implementing: A standard sexual assault reporting model which recognises the rule of law Clear penalties for perpetrators of sexual assault and violence And A full-time trauma informed counsellor that specialises in harassment and sexual violence.

Your radiographers, sonographers, medical physicists and radiologists are the imaging professionals who provide the services that allow for quick and accurate diagnosis that leads to timely and effective treatment. They tell us that privatising medical imaging services in the new RAH will put profits before patients, lead to patients having to make expensive trips to other services, put staff and patients safety at risk, deskill our health professionals and lower the quality of services provided to the community. South Australians have paid over $2 billion for a new state of the art hospital and they should have free access to medical imaging no matter how frail they are and how complex their conditions. It is time for Minister Jack Snelling to stand up for South Australians and protect public imaging.

SA Pathology is the backbone of public health in South Australia. Pathology is involved in 70% of medical treatment decisions, and 60% of Australians will require pathology services at least once a year. Despite this, the South Australian Government wants to cut hundreds of jobs from your public pathology service. When jobs are cut in pathology, people don’t just lose their jobs, diagnosis is delayed and South Australians will stay sicker for longer. Our medical scientists study and diagnose diseases such as meningococcal and leukemia, and work directly with our doctors to better treat patients and find a cure. Pathology services are core to the delivery of an efficient functioning health service yet the South Australian Government plans to seriously compromise this by cutting hundreds of jobs. Simply put, cutting 278 jobs from SA Pathology is dangerous, short sighted and will only result in costly delays in diagnosis. We know that the sooner a patient can be diagnosed, the quicker they can begin the right treatment plan and recover. It is time for the Minister Jack Snelling to value medical science and protect public pathology.

Health care is a universal right and should be about patient care. A private operator will have to generate profit. That can only be achieved by underpaying or reducing staff and scrimping on services. Ultimately it’s the patients that suffer. If it's the choice between treating a private patient or one on Medicare we all know who misses out. We want to ensure our hospitals remain in public hands for the benefit of everyone. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFTflWk8h5Q