Community based, mental health support programs like the Personal Helpers and Mentors Service (PHaMs) are crucial in supporting people dealing with mental health issues to live a good life. With federal funding for the program being cut by 50% on June 30, thousands of South Australians currently benefiting from the program will be left without support and the jobs of approximately 150 highly trained workers have been put at risk. Join Australian Services Union members and key organisations in the mental health sector in calling on South Australian Premier Steven Marshall to step up and fill the funding gap before June 30 to save this crucial mental health program.

Whether you're a nurse working at the Ballarat Base Hospital, a teacher at Dana Street Primary School, a waiter in Sturt Street, or an office worker in Mair Street you are now facing the prospect of having to pay $80 per week to go to work thanks to the Ballarat City Council. After years of talk and no action, Amy Johnson and Samantha McIntosh moved and seconded a resolution to instigate new paid parking in residential streets. Parking affects everyone and we all deserve a chance to have our voices heard by our local Councillors. A window of 72 hours from announcement to Council vote is not long enough period of time for the people of Ballarat to have their say. What is Council trying to hide? Why are they avoiding scrutiny? Sign this petition to call on the Ballarat City Council to stop a vote on this exorbitant parking cash grab until there has been proper community consultation and you have been able to make your views heard.

Why would a company lock out its workforce for trying to maintain their working conditions? Well, that's what’s happened last week on Friday, 25 May at 12.01am when IXOM locked out its workers in response to their protected industrial action. IXOM is a Major Hazard Chemical Facility based in Botany Sydney. We are alarmed at IXOM’s actions and concerned as to how IXOM is manning the Major Hazard Facility since it has locked out its whole workforce. This is especially worrying as IXOM is surrounded by residential housing, schools and hospitals, which could be devastated by any major event at the facility. A community protest will be taking place outside Ixom's facility at 118-120 Denison St, Hillsdale NSW 2036 from 11am-5pm on Tuesday 29 May 2018. Activists will be stationed along the public walkway. Sign to support these workers and our community's safety.

We will not tolerate inaction. In 2018, nearly 50 workers have been killed on the job already. We cannot stand idly by and let this happen under our watch. Our government should be as shocked by these figures as we are. In 2015, two Irish backpackers working a construction job in Perth were crushed to death when a concrete slab fell on them. Less than a year later, a young female backpacker fell 13 storeys to her death. Her boss allowed her to work at a height without providing a harness, using an upturned bucket as a ladder. MUA members will never forget Andrew Kelly, crushed to death in front of his fellow workers after being directed to handle containers in adverse weather. We have met with affected families. Their devastation and sense of injustice is heartbreaking. Every workplace death is avoidable. If more had been done by the employers, these workers would still be alive and their families would still be together. If there were significant consequences for big corporations that kill workers, then our workplaces would be safer. Employers are getting away with workplace deaths occurring under their watch. This is sickening. Not one more wreath should have to be laid, not one more memorial attended. We want action and justice now. The good news is that there are ways to make our industries safer. Harsh penalties will improve workplace safety, worker health and wellbeing, and productivity. They will force cowboy employers to think twice about allowing unsafe work practices to continue. Strong laws will mean negligent employers can be charged with industrial manslaughter when a worker dies on their watch. It’s time for WA Labor to step up. We call on the McGowan Labor Government to introduce industrial manslaughter legislation in line with other states or territories in Australia, which imposes $10 million in fines and jail time of up to 20 years. Labor is the party of workers. It is the party to provide and defend dignity at work. WA Labor is letting down our workers, our families and our communities. Every death at work that goes unprosecuted in the harshest possible terms, is a failure of the party. Kill a worker, go to jail! Christy Cain MUA WA Branch Secretary & National President and Mick Buchan CFMEU WA Branch Secretary If you or someone you know has been affected by a workplace injury or death and feel distressed by the content on this page, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14.

It's not enough for CEOs and people like the Reserve Bank Governor to say that wage rises are important for our economy - they need to put their money where their mouths are. Workers at Note Printing Australia work hard, and are extremely skilled. As well as printing Australia's complex, anti-forgery bank notes they also print the notes of up to 100 other countries. They also print our passports! All workers are asking for is: - A fair pay increase (currently they are offered less than inflation) - An update to their classifications, - domestic violence leave , and - to offer pathways to permanency for long-term casuals. Support the workers: tell the Reserve Bank to PAY UP!

As parents of pre-school kids at the Melbourne City Childcare Centre on A'Beckett Street, we are upset and angry about the hastily announced proposal from Melbourne City Council to shut the centre in four weeks. We have been given an unreasonably short consultation period of two weeks and are feeling rushed and stressed by the sudden announcement. We want the decision reversed because it is going to be bad for our kids, bad for our families and bad for the early childhood educators and carers who work at the centre. Our kids need to stay with their friends and educators and carers they trust. The educators and carers need their jobs. Our families need accessible care near our work for our kids. Melbourne City Childcare Centre provides a safe, fun and professional service to our pre-school kids. This centre offers a unique 'family' like environment. Our MCCC community is irreplaceable and the value cannot be seen in budgets and bottom lines. Our response to this proposal is a reflection of the respect and support that we have for one another. As parents, we worry about moving our kids from their established friendships and relationships at the centre. We also worry about the confusion and stress caused by finding and settling in to new childcares. As working families it is important that we have access to childcare near our workplaces, we know that finding other good quality centres for our kids in such a short timeframe will be incredibly difficult and stressful. We ask that you sign this petition to call on Melbourne City Council to keep our childcare centre open. - Parents of Melbourne City Childcare Centre, A'Beckett Street

Australia continues to forcibly deport asylum seekers back to places such as Sri Lanka, Iraq, and Afghanistan where they face imprisonment, torture and death. Article 33 of the UN Refugee Convention, to which Australia is a signatory, states “No Contracting State shall expel or return ('refouler’) a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his [sic] life or freedom would be threatened on account of his [sic] race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.” Thousands of asylum seekers in Australia are at risk of deportation particularly because the Coalition government changed asylum assessment processes and abolished the Refugee Review Tribunal. An investigation by the Edmund Rice Centre in 2011 found that of 179 refugees who were forcibly returned to Afghanistan 20 had been confirmed killed and dozens more had disappeared. An update of the report in July 2017 concludes “it would be impossible for Australian, European and other governments to guarantee the safety of Afghan returnees in this period of instability”. Deportation itself is a brutal process often involving physical or chemical restraint. It breaches Australia’s obligations under international law. People deported by Australia have been bound and gagged. Deportations sometimes occur in the middle of the night with little to no warning for the person being deported. In 2010 Jimmy Mubenga, was suffocated to death while being restrained on a British Airways flight during deportation by the UK government. Deportation invariably puts passenger safety at risk because asylum seekers will often rightfully resist the process. Abdlmoneim Khogali, a Sudanese asylum seeker handcuffed to a passenger seat ripped the seat from its floor mountings in an attempt to avoid deportation from Australia. He was then beaten by guards in front of passengers. Several attempts were made to inject him with tranquilliser, the needle missed and bent into the seat. He was eventually injected with that same bent and contaminated needle, and bears scars from it. Deportation is self-evidently harmful for asylum seekers and can also be traumatic for airline staff and passengers. Airlines are not legally required to carry out forced deportations. In Germany pilots refused to carry out deportations 222 times between January and September 2017. Lufthansa spokesman Michael Lamberty told the Westdeutsche Allegeimeine Zeitung newspaper that pilots were able to make such decisions if they thought that flight safety could be affected. Deportations are happening here in Australia quite frequently. Just weeks ago a Tamil family from Biloela in Queensland were ripped from their beds in the middle of the night. Priya, Nades and their two young girls now face imminent deportation from MITA detention centre in Melbourne. We know that Tamils face torture and even death upon their return to Sri Lanka. This petition has been endorsed by: - Dr Gillian Triggs - Julian Burnside - People Just Like Us - The Edmund Rice Centre

The National Quality Framework is essential to the ECEC sector as it guides educators to extend and enrich children's learning from birth to five years and the transition to school. The NQF supports professional practice, especially in building and nurturing relationships, curriculum decision making and teaching and learning. The NQF allows the expression of personality and uniqueness as it caters to each individual child whilst acknowledging that educators are professionals, taking them away from the ‘babysitter’ persona. The paperwork allows us to show our parents the professional role we have in educating their child and displays a portion of the knowledge that is being imparted and also learnt by each child each day. By defunding the national partnership this Government is putting at risk our internationally recognised National Quality Framework. The Abbott Government already attempted to wind back our professional standards in 2014. Together, educators fought against it and won! The Turnbull/Morrison Government is now trying the same tactic to undermine our sector. Sign our petition to protect the NQF!

For a lot of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, the commemoration of the arrival of the first fleet promotes the highest degree of negativity. The arrival of the first fleet marks the beginning of the oppression of our mob - the continued disadvantage and structural violence perpetrated towards First Nations people began on this day. I am an Aboriginal man whose mob is from the NT, and I am cut up inside whenever I see anything to do with Captain Cook or the First Fleet, because these things represent the suffering that my family have historically faced and continue to face. We do not think this is an appropriate use of tax payers funds, working people earned these funds, including our Mob, and this is a shocking misuse of government money. We want this funding redacted from the government, and you should too! Sign our petition and share with the hashtag #cookisacrook! Like our Facebook page to support our campaign: www.facebook.com/cookisacrook

We are all for accessibility at existing stops, even if that means getting rid of a few car parks. BUT DONT TAKE OUR STOP! The current plans to make the 96 tram accessible is all well and good but why do they have to remove stop 26. They say they are merging the stops but really they are just abolishing the stop at Victoria street completely. You can read more here: https://getinvolved.transport.vic.gov.au/route-96-upgrade If the stop at Victoria street is taken away that could mean 10s of hours extra every year some of us take to get to and from our home!

Safe schools save lives. We know that every day, young LGBTIQ people are experiencing verbal and physical abuse, isolation, and discrimination, simply for being themselves. We need to protect the programs that support students in creating respectful learning environments for them and their peers, regardless of gender or sexual orientation.

Inclusive Playgrounds are important for all to enjoy. Bellingen prides itself on being an inclusive community and it's the right thing to do to extend this to the children in our Shire and beyond. We support playgrounds for all. Increasingly playgrounds across the state and country are being updated to include accessible elements. We believe that Bellingen Shire Council, our State and Federal Governments should support extending this initiative to Urunga.