This week, the Victorian State Government passed a bill through Parliament that made it illegal to try and change or suppress a person's gender identity or sexual orientation. Gay conversion therapy is a harmful practice that can have dire consequences. The therapy can involve forcing people to undergo electric shocks and drink substances to induce vomiting when shown homoerotic images. There are also role-playing exercises where men are forced to do stereotypically 'blokey' things like chatting about football and tinkering with cars, while women are told to wear feminine clothes and apply a full face of makeup. This practice is cruel and bigoted. It is dangerous and unsafe. It is, at it’s very simplest, a violation of human rights and equal opportunity. The practice sends a message to the LGBTIQ+ community that gay isn’t “right” and that therapy will “fix” them. The handful of sitting Members of the Western Metropolitan region in the Legislative Council who voted against this bill should not be considered as dignitaries to Cities like Brimbank, Maribyrnong, Hobsons Bay, Melton, Hume, Wyndham and Moonee Valley; the council areas that make up our Community. As per their adopted policies, defined in the Annual Plans of every one of these councils, creating a safe and inclusive, diverse and proud community is vital to ensuring that everyone can live their own life, as they choose. If these Councils aspire demonstrate strong leadership, promote healthy and inclusive communities, develop strategies to enhance the inclusion and engagement of the LGBTIQA+ community every possible way, and creating welcoming environments, then removing those who promote bigotry and hate from your invitations and ceremonies should be top of their list. I call on each of these Councils to cease spending rate-payers money on hosting these members and to publicly declare that they will not pander to these bigots any longer.

Why is it that a mans marital status is unimportant. They only have Mr, while we have Mrs and Ms. Abolishing Mrs will take women one step closer to achieving the equality they deserve.

Water immersion is proven to reduce epidural rates by up to 70%. Epidurals can lead to longer labours, much longer second stages (more expiratory effort), increased risk of instrumental birth and therefore increased risk of PPH and longer hospital stays. If you want to reduce the pressure on our health system, keep birth normal and low risk and encourage non-medical pain relief. If your PPE gets wet, change it. Birth is a splash hazard already. Bodily fluids expelled into a bath, are kept away from HCWs and furthermore diluted. Listen to midwives, the ones who are providing the care!

However, as much as these achievements are to be commended, students are still falling through the cracks. They are frequently let down by a system and an institutional culture that have been slow to change. Student leaders in this space have faced issues of communication from the university around keystone events, and past audiences with key groups have left student leaders feeling disempowered around how genuinely senior management view student input and activism in this area. It has also been disappointing to see the Student Code of Conduct, a tool advocated for by student leaders and activists as a means to increase student safety from sexual harrassment and sexual violence, being used by the university earlier this year as leverage to discourage student campaigners and activists. Furthermore, the lack of progress in bringing the current Staff Code Of Conduct in line with the new Student Code has led to inconsistencies in how the university responds to sexual violence and in the outcomes of these responses. It is equally important that the Nous Review’s recommendations continue to be implemented, especially at new halls that were not reviewed. For example, it is crucial that Residential Cultural Change Plans (Recommendation 12) are implemented at every hall. The ANU must remain resolutely committed to not only responding to current student expectations, but being a driving force of change on our campus.Throughout 2020, Residential Hall student leaders have been committed to reaching out and collaborating with the RRU, and many would like to see a greater effort made to respond to the concerns and suggestions provided by those who live in residences. Feedback should not only be received positively, but indeed actively sought out. There should be developing relationships between the RRU and every residence, and indeed with student organisations across campus who seek to achieve similar ends. We hope that the lessons learnt during the last two years for a number of halls that were either established or involved in building changes are considered when new residences, such as SA8, are established. It is critical for support for all survivors that staff structures are able to provide pastoral care, and as we did a year ago in the Do Better ANU protests, we continue to call upon the ANU to install Deputy Head-equivalent positions in every residential hall. We are further disappointed by the failure of the university to address domestic violence with COVID-19. In their annual survey, PARSA found that 2% of students (20) indicated that they have been at risk of family and/or domestic violence due to the movement restrictions as part of the COVID-19, and a further 7% (60) said that they may have been at risk. While the Respectful Relationships Unit has done some work on the issue, we were disappointed at the lack of tailored resource creation for the ANU community and the lack of any distribution of those resources and outreach around domestic violence to students and staff. Failure to do so has resulted in student leaders and associations bearing the burden of support during COVID-19, despite already having limited resources to do so. Lastly, we believe that many recent and past cases have demonstrated a continued lack of accountability in disclosure and reporting processes that have let students down. There must be clearer processes, more accountability mechanisms, and a structure that prioritises the care and support of survivors. Transparency not only improves systems through understanding what can be improved upon; transparency makes disclosing and reporting so much easier for all survivors. Understanding what processes there are, and how they work, are critical to the progress that the students of ANU deserve. To survivors, we believe you, we support you, always and forever. We support and stand with those who throughout the years sought to hold institutions and perpetrators accountable for their actions. Recommendations: 1. An increase in resourcing and logistical support to groups who provide support and drive cultural change on campus. Successful student engagement requires effective communication and effective advertising. 2. A commitment to reforming the Staff Code of Conduct to bring it in line with Student Code. 3. A commitment to not weaponise the Code of Conduct against student protest and freedom of speech. 4. A commitment to not only accepting, but also actively seeking out, student feedback and cooperation with student leaders across campus. 5. Recognition of the importance of multiple pastoral care staff positions at every hall on campus, and the implementation of Deputy Head-equivalent positions at every hall. 6. A commitment to more transparent and accountable reporting and disclosing procedures. 7. Survivor-led models of care towards students

Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial Education Students [LANTITE] and the administration of LANTITE. We can understand your frustration given Education and the COVID-19 pandemic; We believe you can understand and appreciate our frustration in regard to the LANTITE and our inability to graduate. As a result, we implore you for your support in removing the Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial Education Students (LANTITE) administered by ACER as a graduate requirement. These students have successfully completed the units in their degrees, as well as professional practise in the form of placements. Throughout degrees and placements, the importance of literacy and numeracy is highlighted. We implore you to support the removal of LANTITE as a graduation requirement. In doing so, you will be contributing and assisting Australia’s economic return through this pandemic.

Because TISM

Some Staff may be required to furnish a full marriage certificate that happened many years ago and has a divorce certificate to prove that indeed their birth name is the exact name that it has been since they started.