*update* National Cabinet is due to meet on August 27 and apparently discuss this issue however we will keep this petition up until our demands are met. Your voice matters. Please share this petition widely. Scott Morrison has said we must ”learn to live” with COVID-19 once we reach an 80% vaccination threshold of adults. This leaves 36% of the population unvaccinated, including most young people under 16 years old. The health toll on young people could be a disaster. Learning to live with the virus poses an unacceptable health risk until all ages under 16 are vaccinated. The National Plan and vaccine thresholds must be updated and include young people. We are concerned about young people returning to school unvaccinated for the following reasons; 1. Compared to previous variants, the delta variant is more virulent in young people. The Western Australian AMA former President Andrew Miller in WA Today states "The other real worry is that about 40 per cent of kids still have symptoms at four months, and 7 per cent have disabling physical or mental issues at six months, which can lead into long COVID syndrome." 2. Compared to previous variants, the delta variant has a 10-15 times higher transmissibility in young people. To date, young people are disproportionately affected. In Victoria, 45% of infections are in children and teenagers. In New South Wales, the figure is 30%. (22/8/21) Note these disproportionate infection rates are occurring in the context of remote learning in Victoria and NSW. Concerningly in the regional area of Shepparton, where school remained open for some of the current statewide lockdown, every school has become an exposure site and is now closed with multiple children, young people and their families now infected. The infection rates could rise further if students return onsite before being vaccinated. Unlike most workplaces, once students return to classrooms, social distancing will be practically impossible. Furthermore, adequate air ventilation, filtration and monitoring infrastructure, at this stage, does not exist. 3. The Doherty report was written before the recent evidence that indicates that the transmissibility of the Delta variant is much higher in young people. The Doherty model's rationale for excluding young people in their vaccine quotas rests on the assumption that "[e]xpanding the vaccine program to the 12-15 year age group has minimal impact on transmission and clinical outcomes for any achieved level of vaccine uptake". This is outdated.  More recent epidemiological modelling indicates that the necessity for heavier social distancing measures will be reduced if 5-15 year olds are included in the vaccination strategy (McBryde et al. 2021). Both the NSW and Victorian Chief Health Officers have recognised that young people are now a vector for broader community transmission. 4. As school staff we are acutely aware of the mental health challenges that students face under lockdown. However, returning students to onsite learning as a predominantly unvaccinated group and into an unsafe environment is not a solution.

Victorian and South Australian arts workers are stranded in NSW with their work cancelled or finished and no way to get home. Their applications to return home have been ignored or rejected without reason. They are now facing many more months of separation from their loved ones, with no job, income, or guaranteed accommodation. Sign the petition to bring them home. Jasmine Vaughns I am in the cast of Come From Away and travelled to Sydney for this work on the 25th of May. Shortly after opening the season I was stood down on the 25th of June due to the latest COVID outbreak. I applied for an exemption to return to my home/Victoria three and a half weeks ago. I was denied last night and am now going through the taxing process of re-applying all over again. My reason for doing so is that my mental health has suffered greatly being isolated here in Sydney. Suffering from anxiety and panic disorder I need to return to my home to be in the care of my partner and family. I get COVID tested weekly, have had my first dose of the vaccine and provided all documentation and evidence I could to support my application, yet still was denied. My only reason for being here was for work, and now that it can no longer continue currently, I simply wish to go home. Zelia Kitoko I travelled from Naarm to Gadigal land in January 2021 to commence a contract with Hamilton Australia. I was stood down as of June 26 2021 due to covid restrictions. My mother in Melbourne has been unwell and I am her only child and carer. I have not been able to return to her after many attempts and 6 weeks of waiting with minimal communication or clarity. It's been very invalidating and incredibly stressful to be stuck here without any consideration. Deirdre Khoo I'm a new performer in the industry. I moved to Sydney from Melbourne in early May for a temporary contract with the Darlinghurst Theatre Company for the tour of ONCE. My contract in Sydney was meant to go to early August, and a tour to regional NSW and Melbourne was going to happen after. A few weeks after the NSW stay-at-home orders, the company was stood down after seeing no possibility of the production going ahead. By this time the Victorian borders had shut for anyone ins NSW. I have not only lost my capacity to generate income, but also lose the ability to get back home to Victoria, where I am a resident. My accommodation in Sydney ended as per originally arranged, and I have moved into a colleague's nan place, who have very graciously opened their arms to me in this time of need. I am still covering partial rent and entirety of bills in Melbourne, while also providing a small amount to make up for my costs at my current accommodation. While this financial struggle does not come to me as large an issue in this time as compared to many, I have been experiencing anxiety and my mental health has been exponentially deteriorating from the lockdown. This is because I am unable to return to my place of residence and be in my own space, even after declaring that I will strictly follow the Victorian health orders to self-isolate and avoid contact with the Victorian community for their wellbeing. Andrew Coshan I am an Actor who travelled to Sydney on the 30th of May to begin rehearsals for Merrily We Roll Along at the Hayes Theatre. We were four days away from opening night when the lockdown which began on June 25th meant we had to postpone. At this point it was only meant to be for a week, so we planned to move opening night seven days later. But as the lockdowns got extended it became obvious that we could not plan when lockdown would end, and we were officially stood down on July 27th. Because we were now out of contract, we could try get back to our home state, but by this point the Victorian border was closed. I have now spent over eight weeks in this lockdown. I have stayed in NSW over three weeks longer than I ever planned to. I have tried, and am still trying to get back to Victoria, but have so far only been denied entry to the state that I call home. I have never lived in Sydney before. I don’t have family in Sydney. And I now feel like a burden on the associates that I’m staying with, but I have nowhere I can go. Kathleen Moore I take work in traveling theatre shows because they provide very good salaries and when in work, I am able to help pay for the hefty mortgage and bills my husband and I are responsible for.  Performers’ contracts are generally very short, and do not provide consistent pay throughout a year. Therefore, I need to be able to make my proper salary when I am employed, in order to help save money for the time when I am not under contract and the show closes.  The Victorian Government not only has a duty of care for its Residents who are currently within Victorian borders, it also has a duty of care for those working Victorians stranded away from their loved ones and homes. Bring Victorian workers HOME!

A Single Agreement wipes a clear baseline from the current Professional Staff Agreement, effectively forcing a fight to simply include existing conditions which have been stripped through simplification. Act NOW to show your support for continuing to use separate agreements at UTS. If a Single Agreement is made in this round of bargaining the prospect of returning to Separate Agreements in the future are slim. Your signature matters, as does the signature of colleagues you refer to this page. Petitions delivered directly to university managements have worked before to protect staff conditions.

I’m a proud union member/supporter of the public sector. Public servants dedicate their work to providing quality services and support to our communities. When you won the election in 2017, you asked public servants to support urgent budget repair, and accept a wage increase of $1,000 per year. Now, we are asking you to support them. We are asking you to support the WA public sector that keeps this state running.

Many people are surprised to discover that public transport workers, who have worked throughout this lockdown in an essential and public-facing role, are not eligible for the Pfizer vaccine. We come into contact with many members of the public throughout our day, eat and perform standby duties in packed lunchrooms with fellow workers. There is a lot of potential for the virus to spread throughout our workplace and be carried across sydney by our trains. The risk of serious transmission on the railways not only puts rail workers in danger, it threatens to shut down essential rail services which transport other essential workers across the city. We are concerned that no serious measures have been put in place to address these dangers in our work, and that vaccinating our essential workforce should not be the individual responsibility of workers, but the collective responsibility of the government and management.

Hospitality is one of the most insecure industries in the country. The vast majority of us don’t have access to paid sick leave and are among the lowest paid workers. We can’t afford to take time off work to get vaccinated. Everyone should be safe at work, but without vaccinations we aren’t safe. And without vaccination leave we can’t protect ourselves and others. Without vaccinations we will catch the virus from our customers and pass it onto our workmates, our families and to other patrons. The Morrison government must immediately introduce a minimum of two days of paid vaccination leave for hospitality workers who want to get vaccinated. If any worker has a reaction to the vaccine and needs more time off they should be able to get it.

Every day, ES staff work to keep our schools running, support our students to learn, and our teachers to teach. Their work is diverse, complex, and vital, but it is undervalued. The salaries of Education Support workers in public schools do not match their contribution. Too many ES are considering leaving the profession and will continue to do so unless the Premier and Education Minister act now. It’s about time our ES staff were paid properly for the important work they do.

In what is likely the first wave in a plan to offshore many hundreds more jobs, the Bank told 119 staff in their processing teams that they can expect to have their jobs sent over to India by April next year. While many of their competitors look to bring jobs back to Australia, the Commonwealth Bank has decided that the opportunity to exploit overseas workers is just too good to pass up. CBA staff have spent years hearing from the Commonwealth Bank about doing what they should do rather than what they can do, and here they are, locked down, working from home, trying to home school and having their jobs sent to India. It’s an absolute disgrace. When it suits CBA, they put out ads patting themselves on the back publicly for having Australian call centers. They’re doing this because they think they can get away with it. Help us stop them.

Coca Cola is one of the biggest and most profitable brands in the WORLD. They can afford a fair pay rise for hard working manufacturing workers like us! We have worked loyally for the company for years, we deserve a fair pay rise.

Urgent vaccination of education staff is essential for their protection as well as the protection of students and their communities. It will also reduce the need in future to move to remote learning, which is so disruptive for students and parents. Most importantly, it is a key public safety measure to slow the spread of future outbreaks. Childcare, kinder and pre-school workers are, in many cases, continuing to work in very high-contact workplaces even when schools and TAFEs move to remote learning. The slow pace of the vaccine rollout, the lack of supply of vaccines and the failure to heed the call to prioritise education workers is putting staff, students and the broader community at risk.

Our Health & Well Being Allowance is one of the many entitlements included in our union-negotiated Enterprise Bargaining Agreement. We negotiated and won this entitlement as union members to help pay for the things that protect and improve our mental and physical health. But now Cbus has suddenly decided to make unilateral changes to what should and should not be claimed under this allowance. This allowance is not a gift - it's an entitlement. Everyone at Cbus should be able to use their allowance for its intended purpose, whether they improve their health by going to the gym, walk in the park or play sport in their community. CBUS have said that these changes were made in order to prevent improper claims under the allowance – but these changes go much further than that, and were made without consulting your union representatives. Entitlements like this, and respectful engagement with our union is what makes CBUS such a great place to work, we urge CBUS to engage constructively with us over the policy that governs proper use of OUR entitlements.

In the midst of the COVID crisis and its effects on universities’ finances and the pressures on many universities to cut jobs we can only hope that a broad public interest lens is applied to universities future rather than a simple cost reduction lens.