Thursday, 13 May 2021
Community Contributions

Momentum is growing with people from all walks of life calling for a referendum to enshrine an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament in the Constitution. On the back of a successful Voice Co-Design process that resulted in 82 percent of public submissions supporting a constitutionally enshrined Voice to Parliament, we want to keep pushing for action from our leaders. It's now the time to tell the federal MPs why a referendum on a Voice must be in the next term of Parliament. Click here for more information.

A new report by the Climate Council about Australia’s gas industry, outlines the threat it poses to health, and the way out: of kicking the gas habit for a cleaner, healthier, and more prosperous future. Click here to access the report as well as an overview of the key findings.

Recent research has highlighted the immediate attention needed into Aboriginal health services for those incarcerated, in order to prevent deaths in custody. Over 30 years ago, the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC) made over 200 directives recommending that Aboriginal health services be funded to provide leadership and care for those in prison equivalent to what is available to the general community. However, the current coronial inquests into the preventable deaths in custody of Bailey Mackander and Wayne Fella Morrison and the seven deaths of Aboriginal people in custody in recent months highlight an overwhelmingly strained system. Click here to read the report.

The health system in Australia would benefit significantly by paying more attention to the lessons learned from patient experience, the Consumers Health Forum (CHF) says. This is a key message from the latest edition of the Health Voices ejournal, which covers the recent Shifting Gears Australasian summit conference of the Consumers Health Forum.

Thousands of Australians are dying in cold homes and a new campaign launches tomorrow to push for minimum energy efficiency standards for rental properties to prevent further deaths. The new Healthy Homes for Renters campaign brings together fifty community organisations across Australia to call on state and territory governments to implement minimum energy efficiency standards for rental properties. 

Winners of the 2021 HESTA Australian Nursing & Midwifery Awards have been announced - Nurse practitioner Shannon Philp was revealed as the 2021 Nurse of the Year for her leadership and work through the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse, while Bega Garnbirringu Health Service’s Janelle Dillon was awarded Midwife of the Year for creating a safe space for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia to receive pregnancy care. Ramsay Health Care Australia took out the gong for Outstanding Organisation for their work to improve environmental sustainability across its private hospital facilities, including through cutting down greenhouse gas emissions and single-use plastics. Click here for more information.

Community Conversations
ACOSS Member Responses to Federal Budget 2021-21

Please see list of ACOSS Member responses to yesterday's Federal Budget announcement, including:

  • Change the Record
  • NACCHO
  • NATSILS
  • SNAICC - National Voice for our Children
  • Anglicare Australia
  • Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW)
  • Baptist Care Australia
  • Children and Young People with Disability Australia (CYDA)
  • cohealth
  • Council on the Ageing (COTA)
  • Council to Homeless Persons
  • Consumers Health Forum of Australia (CHF)
  • Early Childhood Australia
  • Everybody's Home
  • FECCA
  • Foundation for Young Australians (FYA)
  • Good Things Foundation
  • Mental Health Australia and Alliance partners the Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia (FECCA), and the National Ethnic Disability Alliance (NEDA)
  • Mission Australia
  • National Rural Health Alliance
  • National Shelter
  • People with Disability Australia
  • Refugee Council of Australia
  • Settlement Services International (SSI)
  • Social Ventures Australia
  • UnitingCare Australia
  • Women with Disabilities Australia (WWDA)

Pictured: ACOSS members joined together for a press conference to respond to the Federal Budget from Parliament House yesterday

Aim High, Go Fast: Why Emissions Need to Plummet this Decade
Reconciliation Action Plans: delivering tangible and sustained benefits for a reconciled future

The 1,100 organisations contributing to Reconciliation Australia’s Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) program procured over $2 billion worth of goods and services from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander businesses, and provided a further $50 million worth of pro bono services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals, organisations or communities, a new report shows. The latest RAP Impact Report combines data collected from the compulsory reporting required of RAP organisations, with the results of the Workplace RAP Barometer survey, showing the tangible, positive and sustained effect the RAP program has had on advancing reconciliation in 2019-20. Reconciliation Australia CEO Karen Mundine said the RAP program is making a difference by markedly changing the way people think and feel about reconciliation, colonisation, and the relationship between non-Indigenous and First Nations peoples in Australia.

Click here to learn more and read the latest RAP Impact Report
Anglicare Rental Affordability Snapshot

Anglicare Australia surveyed over 74,000 rental listings to develop its April 2021 Rental Affordability Snapshot. It found that affordability has crashed in the last year, and the market is less affordable than ever.

The Snapshot shows that:

  • 859 rentals (1.2%) were affordable for a person on the minimum wage
  • 386 rentals (0.5%) were affordable for a person on the Age Pension
  • 236 rentals (0.3%) were affordable for a person on the Disability Support Pension
  • 3 rentals (0%) were affordable for a person in a house or share house on JobSeeker
  • 0 rentals (0%) were affordable for a person in a house or share house on Youth Allowance.

Anglicare Australia Executive Director Kasy Chambers said that the rental crisis is getting worse, “Last year, renters were on the frontline of the pandemic. Now they’re being left out of the recovery. There aren’t enough affordable homes in any region. Country areas are becoming just as bad as the cities, with fewer rentals and higher asking prices than a year ago. We keep hearing that the economy is bouncing back. But the recovery is leaving too many people behind.”

Click here to learn more and access The Snapshot
 
Community Sector Events
  • Join the Their Budget Our Lives Forum where unemployed workers Damiya Hayden (Antipoverty Centre) and Kristin O'Connell (AUWU and Antipoverty Centre) will present their budget analysis in a discussion facilitated by Tim Hollo (Green Institute), talking about the real-life implications of the unspoken messages in the government's budget choices - 13 May 2021 - Click here for more information and to register 
  • Watch as this panel discusses the Government's just released 2021 Federal Budget. The webinar will be joined live by Emma Alberici - ex-ABC Chief Economics Correspondent, Anthony Klan - Investigative Journalist from The Klaxon (and ex-Correspondent at The Australian), and Richie Merzian - Director of The Australia Institute's Climate Energy Program - 14 May 2021 - Click here for more information and to register
  • Tackling child and family poverty
    Reflections on the 2021/22 Federal Budget online webinar will discuss what the 2021/22 Federal Budget will mean for Australian children and families living in poverty, featuring Catherine Liddle, CEO, SNAICC - National Voice for our Children, and Terese Edwards, CEO, National Council of Single Mothers and their Children - 20 May 2021 - Click here for more information and to register
  • The National Apology to the Stolen Generations finally happened on 13 February 2008. It signified ‘a new page’ for Australia’s future, and committed to not repeating the injustices and approaches of the past. Yet Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are being removed from their families, community, and culture at increasing rates – higher today than at any other time in Australian history. Action is needed now. To stop that number doubling by the end of this decade. To stop the shameful practices and injustices of Australia’s present. Because ‘sorry’ means you don’t do it again. This event is jointly presented by the Jumbunna Institute of Indigenous Education and Research, the Centre for Social Justice & Inclusion, and UTS Law Faculty - 27 May 2021 - Click here for more information and to register

    Community Sector Resources
    • As a carer, it can be difficult to find time to recharge and reconnect. Carers have many responsibilities, but it’s important to take some time out for yourself to help you sustain your health, wellbeing and caring role. Carer Gateway have developed an online carer skills course to help you find ways to recharge and reconnect regularly. It’ll show you how to create a care team to support you and develop a plan to take a break. This course is part of a series of free online skills courses for carers. Each self-paced course takes approximately 20-40 minutes to complete and offers a range of information, insights and practical tips to help carers develop new understanding and skills important in their caring role. Complete the Recharge and Reconnect course here

    • From the Heart have developed a guide to help maintain the momentum for the imperative Voice to Parliament in the Constitution. Click here to access the resource
    COSS Corner
    The latest news from State and Territory Councils of Social Service

    While we await the official result of the 2021 Tasmanian State Election, TasCOSS would like to use this opportunity to say thank you to everyone working in the industry, from every corner and every nook of our state, who has weighed in over the course the campaign. The commitments secured in the past month from all sides of politics was particularly encouraging. More importantly, however we can now see a path through the fog and towards our collective vision: one where all Tasmanians can live a good life on our island home. TasCOSS will provide more information and analysis following the result on our election homepage.

    New NCOSS learning opportunity - Human Rights-Based Approaches in Community Services: Community sector leaders, advocates and service practitioners are called to be ‘inclusive’, ‘equitable’ and ‘non-discriminatory’ in supporting people. In this 3 x 90-minute online series from NCOSS, you will acquire new insights and tools to nurture and grow human rights-based approaches in service practice, advocacy and leadership. Learning will be facilitated by the pioneering team from NSW TAFE that piloted a course for the Australian Human Rights Commission in 2012. Save the dates for this unique learning opportunity: Wednesday mornings- 21 July, 28 July and 4 August and check NCOSS Training & Events to register.

    SACOSS is looking forward to shining a light on the state of rental housing in SA at our Living Without the Basics conference on 19 May, together with water security in regional areas, minimum energy efficiency standards for housing, and more! We’ll be looking at a range of areas where change can make a real difference. Find out more.

    The annual WACOSS Emerging Issues Forum on Monday 24 May will analyse some of the most pressing issues facing the community sector in WA, in the new context that we work. The Forum is a forward-looking analysis of trends in housing, gender equity, poverty and inequality, with key campaigning and advocacy strategies put forth by sector leaders. Register for the event.

    ACTCOSS welcomes the motion by Shadow Minister Families, Youth and Community Services, Elizabeth Kikkert MLA, to support the extension of out-of-home care for young people to the age of 21. The ACT Government through the 10th Parliamentary & Governing Agreement includes improving the extended care of 18- to 21-year-olds in the out-of-home care system as one of its agreed legislative reforms. Read more here.

    NTCOSS condemns the NT Government’s decision to rush through its dangerous, ineffective, costly youth justice reforms. NTCOSS CEO Deborah Di Natale said incarcerating more children will not reduce crime. “This legislation will reduce access to diversion programs and impose electronic monitoring on young people prior to conviction. It does not break the cycle of crime. It entrenches it" - Read more here.

    While the Federal Budget’s investment in services is welcome and will create jobs for women, it missed the opportunity to act on the housing crisis, says QCOSS. QCOSS CEO Aimee McVeigh said: “Spending in the care economy, in aged care, childcare, mental health and domestic violence services is the right thing to do. This investment will support people who need help and create jobs for women." - Read more here.

    Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has unveiled his second ‘pandemic budget’, with a claim the nation’s economy is “roaring back to life”. But does the 2021 Federal Budget deliver the right type and scale of investment across critical areas of social policy? And will it do enough to alleviate poverty, combat disadvantage and support people to live a life of genuine dignity and wellbeing? VCOSS are collating the public responses of key leaders, organisations and analysts from across the social and community sector, and beyond. Click here for more information.

    Members in the Media
    When the coronavirus supplement was cut, single mum Leanne's darkest days returned

    It's been almost a month since the federal government drastically reduced the coronavirus supplement to $50 a fortnight from its peak of $550. For anyone, that's a lot of money. But for single parents, many of them women, the extra cash offered them a taste of a better life, says Terese Edwards, the chief executive of the National Council of Single Mothers and their Children (NCSC).

    Read here
    Renters edge towards cliff as Australia halts evictions bans and welfare support

    “A lot of renters around Australia are in very bad situations,” says Joel Dignam of the advocacy group Better Renting.

    “People who were on jobseeker or jobkeeper, who are maybe falling into rental debt for the first time since 26 March, they’re not covered,” says Leo Patterson Ross, chief executive of the Tenants Union of NSW.

    Read here
    Aged care ‘needs more than a funding fix’

    Council on the Ageing chief executive Ian Yates said the $18 billion increase was “serious money” but extra cash was not everything.

    Read here
     
    Feature Tweet

    MEDIA RELEASE: Australia’s only First Nations-led justice coalition Change the Record has condemned the #2021Budget as failing to live up to the Government’s talk of ‘closing the gap’. It instead entrenches more of the same https://t.co/pl3Owdn1kA

    — Change the Record (@Change_Record) May 11, 2021
    Click here to see full tweet
     
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