I am a bartender at a La La Bar Group venue on Chapel Street and they are stealing about $16,000 (plus super) from me each year I work on weekends and into the early hours of the morning but all I’ve ever got was a flat rate, no penalty rates. All given to me in an envelope stuffed with cash. La La are a big player. They’ve got about 100 staff. They own seven bars on Chapel Street and across Melbourne, including Blue Bar, Electric Ladyland, Holy Grail, Wonderland, Lucky Liquor and La La Land.   $16,000 is a huge amount of money. Long term employees I work with would have had this amount money stolen from them, year in, year out. I don’t understand how a company of this size keeps getting away with stealing so much money from its workers.   What’s clear is that the current rules are a joke. And what has the watchdog done to enforce those rules? Nothing that I can see, where I work, or any of the venues in Chapel Street, where people are working for as little $10 per hour. I feel like we’ve been left to fend for ourselves by this government. It’s wrong. Hospo workers deserve a government that will come down on wage thieves like a ton of bricks.

The Australian Building and Construction Commission has started Federal court proceedings against the AWU, an AWU Workplace Organiser and 55 rank and file members. The ABCC is alleging that more the 55 individual workers from Liberty OneSteel took unlawful industrial action last year by attending an ACTU Change the Rules rally. The affected members work in a steel manufacturing plant in Noble Park, Victoria’s manufacturing heartland. That the ABCC can go after steelworkers who are neither building nor construction workers just goes to show that the ABCC is a politically motivated agency not about improving the construction industry. We need safer workplaces, not fines. No-one should die at work but construction workers are being killed on the job and the ABCC spends its time on politically motivated fines for workers they say attended a rally. The ABCC is a hopelessly politicised, biased and compromised agency that is acting outside its jurisdiction and abusing its power. It must be abolished in the interests of democracy. These are unjust laws, these laws don’t protect Australian workers, and they don’t protect construction workers. The ABCC has to go. Authorised by Ben Davis, State Secretary, 685 Spencer Street West Melbourne VIC 3003.

I'm a single mum of two young kids and have seen how poor government policy impacts single parent families and those doing it tough. We can't let these issues go unaddressed when the future of so many Australian children is at stake. I've known Duncan since the 2016 post-Q&A fallout and have worked with him on the No Homeless Ban campaign and other anti-poverty projects. We are a wealthy country - no child should be homeless or hungry. The politicians won't listen - their heads are in the sand. Time to stir the pot - and get Duncan back on Q&A.

We are family members, older Australians, and workers in aged care and we are campaigning so that every Australian can have a dignified life in retirement. We believe that quality care is directly linked to quality jobs. Care workers should have enough time to do their jobs, get a fair wage and be trained to deliver quality care. Aged care should be funded so care workers have enough time to provide quality care and there is transparency and accountability about how public funding is spent.

International students and all migrant workers are being ripped off far too often by dodgy employers. This is just a taste of what bosses should expect if they steal from international students and all other migrant workers including refugees, asylum seekers, working holidaymakers and temporary visa holders. It's stories like this that prove why we need to change the rules to stop endemic wage theft and stop dodgy bosses from ripping off all workers.

Problem: There is huge pressure to deliver community infrastructure. Government needs adequate internal capacity but also needs industry to have the skills and staff to deliver the government’s projects. The engineering skills development process is broken. While government has lost capacity, the private sector often lives hand to mouth relying on winning projects and then headhunting to deliver on those projects. This model is not sustainable or desirable and inevitably leads to cost blowouts and delays. Solution: Government procurement is a major driver of economic activity. Procurement can also be used to drive better workforce development outcomes, by encouraging construction companies and consulting engineer firms to develop the next generation of engineers

Young people will inherit a dying planet because of government inaction on climate change. At the same time, investment in tertiary education is lower than it is in Trump's America, leaving students with increasing fees and debt. Young people also face an increasingly insecure and casualised workforce when we graduate. And our generation is the first to be worse off than our parents, with the cost of living and housing prices becoming untenable. Students on income support live way below the poverty line, and workplace exploitation of young people is rife. Scott Morrison's Liberal government has no vision for the future of young people. That's why we're telling Scott Morrison we'll be voting him and the Liberals out on May 18. NUS will be throwing parties in Sydney and Melbourne, and demonstrations in other cities across the country to call on young people to use their voice, and show ScoMo our power and young people and students come the election. Join us here: bit.ly/scomoparty

This is not good enough. We work hard and deserve to be safe, have a living wage and to be afforded decent working conditions. We are a large community and seeing this is scary, it could happen to any of us and there should be real support. If workers are injured we have to pay any medical costs, and will not receive any pay while we are unable to work. For workers here on a visa, it is unlikely travel insurance will cover an injury sustained while working. There's no compensation if you get hurt and you can be out of work for months if you have a crash. In a survey by the Transport Workers Union, 46.5% of riders said they or someone they know has been hurt while working as a food delivery rider. Riders have no physically safe workplace. We shouldn’t have to struggle for no sick pay, no workers comp, and barely enough money to live on. It's not fair, and UberEats needs to take responsibility. Sign the petition if you agree!

We, members of the Independent Education Union, call on the Tasmanian Government to respect workers in public education and across the public sector in Tasmania. Proposals tabled by the Will Hodgman government so far do not adequately address the workload, pay and resourcing issues in Tasmanian public schools. Tasmanian teachers are the lowest paid in Australia, while Support Staff earn on average $25,000 a year and in some cases rely on Centrelink payments to make ends meet. Due to excessive workloads, almost half of teachers say they can’t meet the individual learning needs of students. Educator burnout is high and the best and brightest are being lost from the profession. We support members of the AEU and other public sector unions who in the face of their government’s failure to deliver a decent offer have been left with no option but to take stop work action on 2 and 3 April. Premier Hodgman, it’s time to show some respect for public sector workers, the backbone of Tasmania.

World renowned American, Palestinian writer, poet and organiser Remi Kanazi has had his visa revoked. He was planning a speaking and performance tour of Australia. The organisers of his tour claim that the denial of his visa is an attack on free speech and the right of Palestinians to enter this country. Kanazi has been denied a visa after a campaign by the Anti-Defamation Commission to the minister for immigration. Marxism Conference organiser Vashti Kenway says that “The denial of Kanazi’s visa is a clear violation of the right of free speech in this country. This is the second time Palestinian speakers at our Marxism conference have had a visa denied them and the third to have major issues.” In 2016 Palestinian American journalist Ali Abunimah had to battle to get a visa into Australia and in 2017 Bassem Tamimi from the Palestinian Occupied Territories, father of political prisoner Ahed Tamimi, was denied entry. Prominent Palestinian spokesperson Nasser Mashni from Australians for Palestine says: “This decision is an act of selective, politically motivated censorship. It is clear the government is deliberately silencing and preventing human rights defenders and Palestinian voices for justice, from being heard in Australia.” The Anti-Defamation Commission claim Kanazi is anti-semitic for his support for Palestinian resistance and have garnered support for their campaign from a number of MPs. “The conflation of support for Palestinian resistance with anti-semitism is a common trope. Similar accusations have been levelled at British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and American senator Ilhan Omar in recent months. This is slander and operates to silence Palestinian voices. Standing up for the human right of Palestinians to resist their occupation and the war waged against them is entirely justified.” Kenway claims. Kanazi is a globally renowned and respected commentator on Palestinian issues. His political commentary has been featured by news outlets throughout the world including the New York Times, Salon, Al Jazeera English, and BBC Radio. He has appeared in the Palestine Festival of Literature. This is the first time that he has ever been denied a visa anywhere in the world.

The last thing you expect to happen if you board a flight from Australia - as a law abiding citizen - is to run the real risk of falling victim to a shocking law that could potentially see you jailed, or even executed.  But that is the reality for LGBTIQ Australians now Brunei has enacted laws that could see gay people stoned to death.  The reason? Once you are in a Brunei registered aircraft the laws of Australia won't help you - you are subject to their laws, and this law could see gay people killed.  This petition is calling for the Federal Government to immediately cancel Royal Brunei Airlines right to land in Australia. Why should a country that executes gays be allowed to operate here and their national carrier place our citizens at risk? No other group in the community would be expected to put up with this. We are asking for the Minister of Transport to show some courage and make a stand against this sort of hate and show the world this is not the Australian way.

Public transport has been chronically underfunded for decades, suffering cuts to staffing and a lack of investment to keep pace with population. Staffed stations have always played an important role in our community to ensure children can get to school safely, provide security at night, to simplify ticketing and customer enquiries, minimise vandalism and ensure our public transport network is accessible for all users. It is important that we raise our voice now to ensure commuters are treated with dignity and our network receives the support it deserves now and for the future!