The Suburban Rail Loop is a great idea and will provide an orbital loop around Melbourne, with new stations connections between major railway lines from the Frankston line to the Werribee line via Melbourne Airport. Suburban Rail Loop will connect Melbourne’s middle suburbs to priority growth precincts, and link all Victorians to major health, education centres at Deakin, Monash and Bundoora, and outer employment centres. But it will take 50 years, or more, to build. Putting SMARTbus services on the route will bring all the benefits of the Suburban Rail Loop to Melbourne residents right now. In addition, a SMARTbus loop will create a single route that will reduce current overcrowding and address the need for bus upgrades now. For more information see https://rodbarton.com.au/issues-page/smartbuses-on-the-suburban-rail-loop-route/

For further information please speak to your delegate or USU Blacktown City Council Organiser Sandie Morthen on 0419 761 326.

On average 190 Australians working in the construction industry die by suicide each year, that's one death by suicide in this industry sector every second day. Males in the construction industry are twice as likely to commit suicide than males in any other industry and are six times more likely to die of suicide than a workplace accident. This is totally unacceptable, and worse still, the industry organisation doing something about it has been defunded and hampered in its efforts to change the situation. We call on our elected representatives in the South Australian parliament to vote to stand by our MATES and properly fund MATES in Construction SA.

Barwon Voices is a Geelong based group of activists who campaign for industrial justice. We care about workers’ wellbeing and our right to have unions represent us. The Ensuring Integrity Bill is an attack on all of us. It will seriously weaken the capacity of unions to protect our working conditions, win fair pay rises and maintain workplace health and safety. It is undemocratic because it undermines the right of union members to elect our representatives. If the bill had been law when unions were campaigning against James Hardie and seeking justice for workers with asbestosis, the outcome could well have been deregistration of those unions and James Hardie getting off scot-free. If the bill is enacted, it will severely curtail the ability of Hospo Voice to publicly expose venues guilty of wage theft, which is rampant in the hospitality industry. Workers deserve access to effective union representation.

"My name is Rohit Karki and I started working at Rockpool Bar & Grill in Melbourne in 2012 and I was treated like an animal. Like a slave." "Each week I did two 20-hour shifts, back to back. I’d start at 4am and work until midnight or later, without a break. Then at 4am, I’d start all over again and do another 20 hours." "There was no time to go home between shifts, so I slept on a pastry bench in the kitchen for a couple of hours." "They tampered with our timesheets, so staff had no record of all the hours we worked. I was paid about $12 per hour, while people paid hundreds of dollars a head to eat the meals I prepared." "I felt trapped. I went into a depression. It was the darkest period in my life. But eventually I complained about this wage theft and how Rockpool treated me. Then I was bullied out of my job." "In all, I have had hundreds of thousands of dollars stolen from me by the Rockpool Dining Group, and I want it back." "Rockpool Dining Group has 80 venues across Australia, it turns over $400 million a year and has 2500 staff. " "I want to be them punished for how they treated me and countless other hospo workers." https://vimeo.com/368429181

The Tenants Union is the only independent, community run, specialist service for tenants in the ACT. The Tenants Union was established 38 years ago by grassroots community members in Canberra for this sole purpose. It has been funded since 1994 by the ACT Government to do its vital work supporting Canberra renters. In that time it has supported more than 50,000 people and their families. It should not be defunded. It’s ongoing funding should be increased so it can continue to provide quality services to the Canberra community and ensure its staff are paid properly.

Workers' livelihoods shouldn't be on the chopping block when there's a change in contract. Yet the University of Tasmania (UTAS) has done exactly that, just to save a few bucks.  In April UTAS awarded its cleaning contract to GJK Facility Services.   Under the new contract, cleaners were forced onto probation, despite many of them having worked there for years. Now GJK is forcing UTAS cleaners to take all of their paid annual leave over Christmas, and then an additional fortnight of unpaid leave.  Earning around $24,000 part-time, two weeks without pay is a lot for UTAS cleaners.  This is hardly building a "fairer, more prosperous, inclusive state that's expanding opportunities for everyone", which was one of the reasons Vice-Chancellor, Professor Rufus Black, said he wanted to focus on.   Tell VC Rufus Black to stop GJK from forcing UTAS Cleaners to take leave.

This is an unacceptable financial burden to impose on hospital workers – many of whom are already low paid and in insecure work. Hospital workers are part of a 24-hour, seven-day workforce that cannot rely on public transport.  A cleaner who works 25 hours per week in a major metropolitan hospital currently pays $561.34 per year in parking. Now they will be expected to pay an additional $725 per year whilst only taking home $663.25 per week in wages. These costs are untenable for the workers providing essential services in our hospitals. The general public can also expect to pay 20% more to attend a metropolitan hospital. Visiting a loved one in hospital is stressful enough, without needlessly adding financial barriers. Those that need to attend hospital regularly for treatment will also now have to bear increased costs when they are trying to recover.   Charging hospital workers, the sick or injured and their families to attend a hospital in the name of Government revenue-raising is a disgrace.

The proposed redundancy of Tess comes at a time when she is more needed than ever. Recent changes, budget cuts and instability at Nura Gili Centre at the Kensington campus as well as the shockingly low employment of Indigenous (and, further CALD) staff at UNSW marks this as a part of a larger, ongoing issue at an institutional level that needs to be remedied rather than exacerbated. Diverse staff are crucial to not only the education of students but further, to their well-being. Tess remains one of the few staff members that Indigenous, CALD and other marginalised students feel they can turn to and rely on. As well as her role as a mentor, Tess is also professionally and pedagogically a boon to the institution. Her course Aboriginal Art Now has influenced countless students and has led many to pursue further and higher research - academically, curatorially and artistically - in a more considered and critically rigorous way. In addition, Aboriginal Art Now remains one of the few Indigenous art courses available at UNSW Art & Design. She has also been instrumentally involved in a vast number of exhibitions in the Indigenous arts community in the last 30 years. The volumes of academic, artistic and curatorial output of Tess evidences her prolific reach and influence in the arts sector. As Associate Professor David Garneau suggested, her contribution to the arts sector deserves an honorary doctorate. Her removal would constitute a massive loss to the UNSW community, and the wider ripple on effects of this would be unimaginable.

Australia knows the toxic legacy of asbestos all too well. Sixteen years after the ban came into force in Australia, 4,000 people die of asbestos-related diseases every year. Around the world an estimated 250,000 people die from asbestos-related diseases each year. Still today, 125 million people are exposed to asbestos in their workplace each year. What is the loophole? The Asian Development Bank’s ‘Safeguard Policy’ prohibits investments that include raw asbestos. However, this does not apply to the purchase and use of asbestos cement sheeting where the asbestos content is less than 20%, which includes almost all asbestos sheeting. This means that victims of natural disasters can be sheltered under roof sheeting contaminated by asbestos. It means that communities trying to grow their wealth and improve their welfare can be given an asbestos time-bomb in the form of asbestos sheeting. The Asia Development Bank’s current policy enables the asbestos industry in Asia to survive, despite the disastrous health impacts of asbestos. Alternatives are widely available for all asbestos-containing products, and the ADB policy must be updated to reflect this. The ADB must close the loophole! Let’s take a stand to stop asbestos everywhere! Find out more at apheda.org.au/asbestos

The high cost of flying to and from Rockhampton hurts everyone in our community. While fares can be found for under $200 for those able to book well in advance, the small number of services between Rocky and Brisbane mean there aren't enough fairly-priced seats to go around, which pushes many people onto more expensive travel classes. This is a major problem for many in our community - from locals that need to travel south for family emergencies to businesses that need to fly to Brisbane or interstate for work. It also makes it harder to attract businesses and people to our region, which hurts our local economy. While Rocky is also serviced by Virgin, which could also do more to reduce fares, Qantas is in the strong position to act, given its $1.59 billion profit. Qantas has also already moved to lower fares out of remote airports like Moranbah so we only ask they extend their focus to Rockhampton.

50 Fenner Dunlop workers have been on strike for seven days. Workers are fighting for a base wage that is a LIVING wage, so they don’t have to rely on sporadic overtime to survive. Their employer expects them to give up roster flexibility and other hard fought for conditions, just to get a decent pay rise. No one should have to work 60 hours a week just to make a living wage.