Real News August Week 1 2023
ABORIGINAL PEOPLES
Students will be taught about Indigenous Australians’ experience of European colonisation under a proposed overhaul to the mandatory content included in the year 7 to 10 history syllabus.
Voter disinterest and confusion are threatening to create an uninformed outcome on the Voice referendum, researchers warn.
ABORTION
Girls under the age of 16 will be able to have abortions without having to tell their parents under proposed laws being introduced to Western Australia's State Parliament next week.
ASYLUM SEEKERS
People in Australia who do not have a valid visa are required by law to be detained (which is why Australia has a policy of ‘mandatory detention’).?
CHARITY AND WELFARE
‘Unlawfully apportioning’ income could cause incorrect calculations on welfare payments but practice unrelated to robodebt, report says
CHILD ABUSE
Gaye was sexually abused when she was a young child. Warning signs at the time were ignored or brushed under the carpet and when her fragments of memories of the abuse came together years later, she found she was still being "silenced".
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
Andreea Lachsz: According to the most recent statistics from 2020–21, 640 children and 42,090 adults were detained each day across Australia. Of those, 337 children and 12,599 adults were Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people.
Although previous studies have shown statistical associations between lead exposure and criminal behavior at an entire-population level, scientists at George Washington University sought to understand how such connections present at an individual degree.
DEATH AND DYING
New research shows that Compassionate Communities – an innovative model of 'end-of-life care' – can save the healthcare system $561,256 AUD over six months
DISABILITY
There is an unacceptable level of abuse, neglect and violence in Victoria's disability and mental health facilities.
DIVERSE SEXUALITY
The research also found more same-sex couples had children in 2021 than in 2016.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
New workplace changes mean employees of small businesses will be entitled to 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave.
DRUGS
Drug reform is shaping up as one of the major policy issues for the Minns government. With a drugs summit on the horizon, there are calls for cocaine to be legalised as well.?
A Greens MP has called for a regulated cocaine market, arguing legalisation could stop criminals from making money and help improve outcomes.
Cherie Gilmour: Zero-alcohol beverages are framed as the lesser of two evils, a gateway to sobriety. But what if the gate swings both ways?
Is equality compatible with the nuclear family? Alva Gotby proposes a radical politics of?friendship
Roger Patulny: Love is usually framed as romantic and desirable: an intimate connection that’s its own reward. That justifies, perhaps, the toil and hard work that make up much of our lives. But it also disguises how much love is also work: a labour performed disproportionately by women.
Kate Halfpenny: My husband and I like keeping things fresh in the bedroom. We’re talking new French flax linen every six months, our afternoon “Nude Chat Time” and bringing back the TV after two years of concentrating on intellectual reading. And now, our latest innovation.
FINANCE AND INEQUALITY
Cash-strapped Aussies are turning to gambling as a quick fix as household expenses and the cost of living spiral.
GAMBLING
There has been an increasing cacophony of cries to ban betting ads and overhaul the pokie industry, as criticism for gambling and its long-term consequences on people's lives mount.?
HOUSING AND HOMELESS
Housing organisations call for increased renter protections as homelessness services struggle with surge in demand
Brian Burdekin:?Australia urgently needs a national plan to effectively address child and youth homelessness.
IMMIGRATION AND MULTICULTURALISM
The Greens will push for all people with disabilities to gain an Australian visa and prevent deportation in Federal Parliament.
Leith van Onselen: If you want a prime example of what passes for immigration ‘debate’ in this country, watch the below segment from this week’s ABC Q&A program.
INTERNATIONAL AID
The coup in Niger that toppled the democratically elected president has led to several nations and international agencies suspending aid -- a move that will hit one of the world's poorest countries hard.
MIND
The most common disorders for women were depression, a specific phobia and post-traumatic stress disorder. For men it was depression, a specific phobia and alcohol abuse.?
Parnell Palme McGuinness: On most objective measures, life in Australia has been improving over the past few decades. But subjectively we don’t feel like things are getting better.
NATURE
Bees in a well-preserved Spanish wilderness weigh less than they did decades ago, possibly because rising temperatures are affecting their development and food.
Earth’s precious water made life possible. Now it’s simmering.
PRIVACY
Action by regulator follows ￡12.7m fine by UK for illegally processing data of 1.4m children under 13
RELIGION
Joseph L. Kimmel: Jesus has been portrayed in many different ways, but no one has called Jesus an internet guru — that is, until now
SUSTAINABILITY
There?isn't a whole lot of consistency in Australia around what?single-use plastics are?being phased out and when.?See what's happening in your state.
TRANSPARENCY
The Coalition has accused Anthony Albanese of showing contempt for parliamentary accountability by failing to answer more than 4400 questions on notice following Senate estimates in March.
WORK
New workplace changes mean employees of small businesses will be entitled to 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave.
David Peetz: The surprising thing about the Albanese government’s announced reforms to “casual” employment is not that they’re happening. It’s that employer advocates are getting so excited about them, despite the small number of people they will affect and the small impact they will have.
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