The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) says Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities are at increased risk as Australia opens up, due to dangerously lagging COVID-19 vaccination rates. As the holiday season approaches and people start moving around the country and mingling more, vaccine coverage among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities continues to lag behind non-Indigenous populations. Click here to read more.

After five years of building the Migrant Worker Justice Initiative, UNSW are delighted to share that this collaborative project is being expanded into a new non-profit organisation, the Migrant Justice Institute. The Institute will undertake strategic research and legal action to achieve fair treatment, enforcement of rights and access to justice for migrant workers in Australia and globally. Click here to learn more.

Professionals providing vital care and support to those living with disability and disadvantage were proud to work in their sector but are likely to leave unless there are more opportunities to progress and develop new skills, according to new HESTA research. The State of the Sector 2021: Community and Disability Workforce Insights report found around one in six community services professionals surveyed were planning to leave the sector in the next two years. Almost a third of young professionals aged between 18 and 39 said they were planning to exit in the short term. Click here to learn more.

A new report from Economic Justice Australia looking at Centrelink debts and domestic violence, shows that survivors of domestic violence, usually women, are unfairly held solely responsible for social security debts in situations where the debt was the direct result of their partner’s or ex-partner’s threats, physical violence or coercion. Click here to learn more.

Australia has tried and proven electoral laws. FECCA is calling on the Government to abandon the Voter ID bill which will create additional barriers for multicultural and vulnerable communities voting at federal elections. The unintended consequences of the proposed changes will be to affect access, fairness, equity and participation in the democratic process. "The Government must consult multicultural communities on the proposed Voter ID bill to fully understand the barriers and disincentives that this will impose on our communities," said FECCA Chairperson, Mary Patetsos. Read more here.

The National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) is deeply concerned by the proposed Voter ID changes in the 'Electoral Legislation Amendment (Voter Integrity) Bill 2021'. NACCHO is urging all parliamentarians to oppose this unnecessary measure. We do not want to see vulnerable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people disenfranchised. Read more here.

Change the Record, the only national First Nations-led justice coalition has condemned the decision of the Meeting of Attorneys General (MAG) as empty, inadequate and failing to improve the lives of children and young people. 

The Attorney General decided on Friday 12 November to “support developing a proposal to increase the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12 including with regard to any carve outs, timing and discussion of implementation supports.” 

“This is a nothing announcement that does nothing to improve the lives of children, and nothing to close the gap. The medical evidence is clear: governments should raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14 years old as a bare minimum," says Change the Record Co-Chair Cheryl Axleby.

“Last year almost 500 children under the age of 14 languished behind bars, disproportionately Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. This proposed reform would do nothing to help those children - it just kicks the can further down the road. 

“The United Nations, and over thirty other countries, have called on Australia to raise the age to at least 14 years old. This ‘nothing announcement’ for a proposal to not even raise the age to the bare minimum is devastating for kids who are being harmed by the criminal legal system, and their families. 

If Covid has taught governments anything, it’s that you can’t pick and choose what medical advice you follow. The doctor’s orders are clear: raise the age to at least 14 years old.” 

Olympian Ian Thorpe has teamed up with LGBTIQ+ organisation, Equality Australia, to launch a campaign urging the Australian Parliament to oppose a Religious Discrimination Bill that fails to protect everyone in the Australian community equally.

“The Morrison government’s Religious Discrimination Bill is back on the agenda. It’s a piece of legislation that threatens to take us backwards as a society, winding back hard-fought protections for women, LGBTIQ+ people, people with disability and, ironically, people of faith”, said Ian Thorpe.

“According to reports last week, the government has scaled back some aspects of the bill, but what remains would override existing protections for some of the community’s most vulnerable and compromise access to healthcare without judgement and inclusive workplaces.

“The Australian parliament must come together to ensure our laws protect all of us, equally, no matter who we are, what we believe, or whom we love.”

After almost two years of the COVID crisis, The Smith Family says digital inequity remains an overwhelming challenge for the students and families it supports – as do concerns around the impact of lost learning and a lack of motivation for many schoolchildren.

The findings are revealed in a new Smith Family Pulse Survey, a national survey of The Smith Family’s frontline workers. The Family Partnership Coordinators, Program Coordinators and Team Leaders who work directly with children, young people, parents and carers were asked questions about what they are seeing and hearing through their connection with students and families in communities experiencing disadvantage across the country.

This survey is the first survey of this type to be carried out by The Smith Family and it will be repeated regularly throughout each year to allow us to track families’ changing circumstances and to build up a picture over time of what they’re facing.

With UN climate talks over and Australia’s climate plans relying on the rapid growth of large scale clean energy projects, the First Nations Clean Energy Network will ensure the transition occurs in partnership with First Nations communities, sharing its jobs and economic benefits, protecting sacred sites and respecting native title.

The Network will support First Nations communities and business enterprises to manage clean energy projects, from small community projects to large-scale, export focussed initiatives.

Launch partners include the National Native Title Council, Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation, ACTU, ETU and MUA, Smart Energy Council, Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research at ANU, Clean Energy Council, Renewable Energy Alliance, Impact Investment Partners, Community Power Agency, Lowitja Institute, Climate Council, and many others.

• The Australian Productivity Commission’s program of work on better outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is an example of a broader commitment to engaging with different knowledges when it comes to policy design, implementation and change. In this impact2021 webinar, hear from panellists on approaches and strategies to improve outcomes for Indigenous peoples - 25 November 2021 - Click here for more information and to register

• There are just weeks left until FWD+Organise 2021, and the full program has just been announced. Group discounts are available, as well as scholarships for communities with lived experience (including First Nations people, people with disability, people of colour and people with lived experience seeking asylum) - Starting 29 November 2021 - Click here for more information

• Online training is now available by the Australian Centre for students with disability, their families and advocates. The training will be practical and interactive, and it will focus on: your rights; how to build a good relationship with your school or education provider; communication tips how to deal with issues if they arise - 9 December 2021 - Click here to register

• To better empower individuals to make a difference to those around them, Pro Bono News has launched How Can I Help? Hosted by Pro Bono News editor Wendy Williams, the six-part series features conversations with people with lived experience and experts in the field on what we can do to help in situations that we all might encounter at some point in our lives – whether that’s when you see someone sleeping rough, if you think a friend or colleague is in an abusive relationship, or if a family member is suffering from depression. Check out the trailer and episode one here.

Mission Australia's homelessness program manager for the Bega Valley, Donna Davis, said the crisis has now gone beyond breaking point and fears the worst was still to come.

"Come December it's a scary, scary place to look at where we could potentially be in a lot of trouble," Ms Davis said.

As she fills up baskets at the local Foodbank, volunteer Chandelle Wilson identifies with the attitudes of those coming in for help.
 
"There is a whole background of [being] downtrodden," she said.

Anti Poverty Week executive director Toni Wren said wealth inequality in Australia was already severe before the pandemic hit but “totally avoidable” lockdowns had caused harm for years to come.

“Even before this pandemic struck, there were more than three million Australians who were locked in poverty ... and I think that number will continue to rise,” Ms Wren told the National Press Club on Wednesday.

Homelessness is soaring across Australia.

Unless the Federal Government takes action now, it will only get worse. #BuildSocialHousing #EverybodysHomehttps://t.co/x9IAOHeVsZ
https://t.co/ixcFGDAUUG

— Everybody's Home (@_EverybodysHome) November 14, 2021