2022 National NAIDOC Week theme is: Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up! encouraging all of us to champion institutional, structural, collaborative, and cooperative reforms, while celebrating those who have already driven and led change in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities over generations. Read more about this year's theme here.

Voting for Pro Bono Australia’s 2022 Impact 25 awards is underway! The awards recognise changemakers in the social sector who are making a positive impact. Currently 150 changemakers have been shortlisted. The 25 nominees with the most votes will be crowned the 2022 Impact 25 Award winners. Click here to learn more and cast your vote.

HESTA is thrilled to announce the finalists of the 2022 HESTA Impact Awards, which recognise health and community services professionals who are going above and beyond to have a positive impact on society, the economy and the planet. There are some fantastic stories and achievements across the aged care, community services, allied health, disability, nursing, medical research and general health sectors.

The Federal budget must step up investments in health and social wellbeing if Australia’s health system is to come out of the COVID pandemic in strong shape, the Consumers Health Forum says. In its submission on the 2022 Federal Budget, CHF has proposed a range of measures that reflect the lessons learned from the pandemic, including more investment in income support and public housing, as crucial to promoting a healthier Australia. Read more here.

COTA Australia is conducting a research project to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the mental well-being of people aged 75 and over. As part of this research, COTA are conducting a survey of people aged 75 and over and would like your help. Participate online by following this link here until February 7, 2022. 

Carers Australia and the National Carer Network are calling on all political parties to commit to addressing the needs of Australia's 2.65 million carers ahead of the Federal Election in 2022 as outlined in a Federal Election Platform and 2022-23 Budget submission. Click here to learn more.

The wealth of Australia’s 47 billionaires has doubled to $255 billion at a rate of $2376 per second or more than $205 million a day during the first two years of a pandemic that has seen the incomes of 99% of humanity fall and more than 160 million people forced into poverty. That equates to more wealth in the hands of 47 people than the poorest 30% of Australians (7.7 million people).

A briefing published by Oxfam, Inequality Kills, has warned of the deadly nature of the world’s growing extreme economic inequality, ahead of the World Economic Forum’s Davos Agenda meetings. The report found inequality is contributing to the death of at least 21,000 people each day, or one person every four seconds. This conservative finding is based on deaths globally from lack of access to healthcare, gender-based violence, hunger, and climate breakdown.

Due to a lack of national leadership Australia has today missed a critical international anti-torture convention deadline according to Australia’s only national First Nations-led justice coalition Change the Record.

The Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT) requires every state and territory to have designated a ‘National Preventive Mechanism’ to carry out inspections and oversight of police and prison cells (as well as other places of detention) to protect against torture, mistreatment, abuse and systemic failings by 20 January 2022.

The Commonwealth Government has failed to establish an Intergovernmental Agreement between all the states and territories to ensure this occurs despite committing to OPCAT in its most recent Closing the Gap Implementation Plan. As a result, only three states have fulfilled (or are on track to fulfill) their obligations under OPCAT - and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples continue to die preventable deaths in custody.

Australia’s peak disability representative organisations have written to National Cabinet to detail the unacceptable risks to the lives and health of people with disability caused by the response of Australia’s federal, state and territory governments to the Omicron and Delta variants of COVID-19.

In the statement to National Cabinet, the eight organisations say the disability sector is particularly concerned about National Cabinet's decision to permit disability support workers to isolate for much shorter periods than required of Australia's general population if those workers are close contacts of people who have been COVID-positive.

“This change means that it is now inevitable that people with an active case of COVID will be around people with disability and can pass it on. We find this unacceptable,” the statement says.

The Settlement Council of Australia (SCOA) welcomes the Australian Government’s evacuation of over 4,000 individuals from Afghanistan in August 2021. The rapid implementation of the 449 visa and related processes is commendable, and through implementing this process quicky, many lives were saved. SCOA also welcomes the Government’s decision to ensure all evacuees, irrespective of visa status or whether they were a citizen, were eligible for support through the Humanitarian Settlement Program.

SCOA have developed several recommendations for how support to Afghan evacuees can be improved moving forward, and for planning for future intakes, we should not lose sight of the humanitarian impact of this evacuation process.

• How can we use the legal system as a tool to address health inequity? Sir Michael Marmot joins the conversation about legal need as a social determinant of health at this upcoming Health Justice Conversations event - 16 February 2022 - Click here for more information and to register

• Everyone should be able to access quality education, regardless of their postcode or bank balance. But this isn’t the case. People living in remote and rural areas, First Nations communities and children from migrant backgrounds often lack equitable access to education. It's been made worse by the pandemic – highlighted by the widening digital divide. This webinar hosted by the Human Rights Law Centre and UTS Centre for Social Justice & Inclusion will aim to answer the question: How can we ensure everyone has a great education? Hear from speakers who are on the frontline of the issues, with the expertise to offer solutions - 22 February 2022 - Click here for more information and to register

• Due to the uncertainties arising from the COVID-19 outbreaks around the country, and in the interest of health and safety, the 2022 FECCA Conference has been rescheduled to June - 16-17 June 2022 - Click here for more information
  

• Climate change is supercharging our atmosphere and leading to more frequent and severe extreme weather events, such as bushfires, heatwaves, flooding and cyclones. People in Australia are paying the price in costs to their health, lost lives and livelihoods. The Climate Council has produced a communication guide to help accurately explain the link between extreme weather events and climate change. Click here for more information and to download the guide.

• GetUp has launched TalkBlack - a new online platform sharing First Nations stories from a First Nations perspective. Featuring opinion pieces, educational videos and social media content, TalkBlack is a one-stop resource for people looking to join the fight for equality, justice and true representation for First Nations people. Click here to learn more.

Jason Agostino, medical adviser to the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO), said First Nations people had been more likely to be infected, and more likely to develop a severe illness, throughout the pandemic.

"If we look at infections in NSW and the ACT, almost one in 10 people who were infected through Delta were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people," he told 7.30.

Sam Connor from People With Disability Australia, said more needed to be done to make RATs easily accessible.

"Half of us are already living in poverty — it's not feasible to expect people with disability to either give up their care through NDIS or to have to fork out of their pocket for multiple RATs, just so we can stay alive. This really needs to be addressed urgently," she said.

“The rapid increase of COVID-19 cases in prisons across the country is our worst fear realised, and the situation in the NT is extremely worrying," NATSILS chair Priscilla Atkins said.

"Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are most at risk during an outbreak — and disproportionately likely to be in prison — and the combined impact could be catastrophic.

"They must be released to save lives.” 

Kids are heading back to school.

Imagine instead of dropping your child off for their first day of high school, they were being sent for their first day in prison.
That’s the reality for 10, 11, 12 and 13 year-olds in remand or gaol (or justice centre) incarceration right now. pic.twitter.com/OnEXxwrl80

— Djirra (@DjirraVIC) January 31, 2022