Real News December Week 1 2020
ABORIGINAL PEOPLES
More Australians want an Indigenous voice protected in constitution, survey suggests
Report also finds an increase in racial prejudice and an increase in the number of people who believe ‘Australia is a racist country’
A new study by the University of South Australia has found less than 10 per cent of mining companies in Australia have publicly stated their position on engagement with Aboriginal communities, including in relation to key issues such as land rights and preservation of culturally significant sites.
Black Lives Matter movement has raised awareness & understanding of racism in Australia
Reconciliation Australia says the international Black Lives Matter movement has led to heightened awareness and understanding of racism at home this year, following the release of its 2020 Barometer report.
Aboriginal health report returns mixed results for children, young people in far-west NSW
A new report looking at a number of health, educational, and social indicators shows improvements in some areas but a decline in others.
Rise in educational qualifications
New analysis, bringing together almost 20 years of information from various Australian Bureau of Statistics collections, reveals significant increases in educational qualifications among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage 2020
The 2020 Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage (OID) report shows mixed outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Support for constitutionally-enshrined First Nations Voice to Parliament
Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (ANU): The Uluru Statement from the Heart, produced by the National Constitutional Convention in May 2017, contained a major proposal for reform: the alteration of the constitution to establish a First Nations Voice to Parliament. When the Turnbull government formally responded to this proposition in October 2017, it dismissed the idea, arguing that a constitutional alteration referendum would have no realistic prospect of being carried.
ASYLUM SEEKERS
Government has partial win in High Court asylum seeker health case
Lawyers for four children trying to sue the Federal Government over poor medical services while they were in offshore detention are claiming a win in the High Court on Wednesday, despite the court ruling in favour of the Government's appeal.
Inspections of Australia’s immigration detention facilities 2019: report
Australian Human Rights Commission: The Australian Human Rights Commission has conducted inspections of immigration detention facilities in Australia since the mid-1990s. This has included periodic monitoring of detention facilities across the country and inspections carried out during three national inquiries into immigration detention.
CHARITY AND WELFARE
New finding: boosting JobSeeker wouldn’t keep Australians away from paid work
Jeff Borland: Incentives, the Freakonomics author Steven Levitt once quipped, are the “cornerstone of modern lifeâ€. To this I would add: only if the incentive is big enough.
Top economists want JobSeeker boosted by $100+ per week and tied to wages
Peter Martin: Once about as high as the pension, the JobSeeker (Newstart) unemployment payment has fallen shockingly low compared to living standards.
CHILD ABUSE
10,700 more child abuse notifications in 2019/20 [$]
There was a 37 per cent increase in the number of valid child abuse notifications in 2019/20, the SA Child Protection Department’s 2019/20 annual report reveals.
I've never been more fearful for our children
Julie Inman Grant: The latest directive in Europe’s historically fierce protection of privacy and personal data could be utterly devastating for children.
Let's change the way we think about giving to charity
Andrew Leigh: How can you make a difference? Consider making giving a structured part of your life, rather than just donating to the next charity that happens to ask you for money.
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
Sick of getting scam calls? This is what the Government is doing about them
The Government has been focussed on tackling three major scams this year. So what are they, what's being done about them and how can you protect yourself?
Prisoner numbers fall 5% - the first decrease since 2011
The number of adult prisoners in Australian prisons has fallen for the first time since 2011, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Jude McCulloch and Michael Maguire: Few stories have rocked Victoria as much as the so-called “lawyer X†scandal, which revealed that high-profile criminal barrister Nicola Gobbo had been used by police as an informant.
DEATH AND DYING
Absence of malice in assisted dying [$]
Has Victoria’s voluntary assisted dying regime led to middle-aged children nudging frail parents towards a quicker death to speed up an inheritance? Not even close — and indeed quite the opposite — according to Betty King, chairwoman of the state’s Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board.
The study showed 73 per cent of young Australians who died by suicide experienced mental health difficulties before their death.
DISABILITY
The disability royal commission finds there was an absence of consultation between the Federal Government and people with disability, leaving those vulnerable "deprived of essential supports" during the pandemic.
Why we must tackle the hidden reality for Australians living with disability
Penny Evans: One in five Australians live with a disability. For many, these conditions are largely invisible. This includes the one in five young Australians with mental health conditions, over 3 million people living with chronic pain, approximately 3.6 million people with hearing loss and many other conditions.
The world was not built for autistic people, but there are simple ways you can help people like me
You never know what someone might be struggling with, write Sheree Somers. These are her tips for what you can do to help autistic people find the world a little easier.
Being acknowledged is the first step to being included
Ben Gauntlett: Much like other significant achievements in social change, such as marriage equality, people with disability need allies to join in.
DIVERSE SEXUALITY
South Australia becomes final state to abolish 'gay panic' murder defence
The defence can no longer be used to downgrade a charge of murder to one of manslaughter if a defendant claims they were provoked to violence by a homosexual advance.
'Fun, spontaneous and full of love': what three years of same-sex marriages looks like in Australia
In the three years since same-sex marriage was legalised, more than 14,000 couples have taken the plunge. But for some, the struggle for full recognition continues
Sexuality, safeguarding and the language of God
David Baker: When do discussions about sexuality and gender veer into territory which is unacceptable?
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
'The worst year': domestic violence soars in Australia during Covid-19
Case numbers increase dramatically and frontline workers say support services are struggling to help those in need
‘Unbearable’: Another tragic day of women killed by violence in Australia
On Monday, this year’s known death toll of women killed by violence increased by three to a total of 48. It marked the first time that Counting Dead Women Australia – a project run by feminist collective Destroy The Joint – recorded three separate deaths on a single day.
Why we can't keep letting the risks of domestic violence go unnoticed
Yvette Cehtel: Why we can't keep letting the risks of domestic violence go unnoticed
On average, one woman is killed in Australia every week by a current or former intimate partner. You might already know that. It is an often repeated, stubbornly immovable number, cited by almost everyone working for change in the domestic and family violence sector.
DRUGS
Will Tregoning: Reports the NSW government was considering removing penalties for personal drug use were met with the usual backlash
FAMILY
‘We just want to be supported like other kids’: How Australia is failing foster care teens
Unhappy birthday: Young people in out-of-home care face being cut-off from support once they turn 18.
FINANCE AND INEQUALITY
Australia’s economy collapses further as tax evasion whacks revenue
Alan Austin: The latest economic updates confirm Australia’s economy is declining at an ever-increasing rate under current policies.
GAMBLING
Criminals target poker machines in NSW amid pandemic
Money laundering by criminals in NSW drove a $305 million increase in poker machine profits in just five months.
HOUSING AND HOMELESS
Hobart Least Affordable Capital for Renters
Shelter Tas, Tasmania’s peak body for housing and homelessness is deeply concerned that the gap between income and rents has widened in the state over the last three years. The Rental Affordability Index (RAI) is produced by SGS Economics & Planning, National Shelter, Community Sector Banking and the Brotherhood of St Laurence, and its latest report has confirmed worsening outcomes for renters.
Eliminating most homelessness is achievable. It starts with prevention and ‘housing first’
Angela Spinney: The stereotype of a homeless person – those living in tents or sleeping in parks or doorways – is just the visible tip of the much larger crisis of homelessness in Australia.
Dino Varrasso: The Victorian Labor government of Daniel Andrews recently announced a ‘Big Housing Build,’ a $5.3 billion ‘spending blitz’ to construct 12,000 low-income housing units, including 9,300 new social housing units. A renewed commitment to social housing expenditure is a small victory for housing activists across Victoria.
We must not waste this opportunity to have a lasting impact on homelessness
Abigail Lewis: The multi-billion investment in social housing must be done in a way to improve the lives of the homeless and those experiencing housing insecurity.
IMMIGRATION AND MULTICULTURALISM
Labor's new 'multicultural statement' stresses the need to support often-neglected communities
The statement outlines a series of government failures when responding to the concerns of people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
INTERNATIONAL AID
The coronavirus pandemic has seen humanitarian needs balloon around the world with 235 million to require help in 2021, the United Nations says.
Aid coming to north Ethiopia, refugees recount war suffering
Relief agencies in Ethiopia prepared convoys on Thursday to truck aid into Tigray region, where a month of war is feared to have killed thousands of people and has forced refugees to flee along corpse-strewn roads.
MIND
Knowing just six neighbours can help prevent loneliness
A global study spearheaded by an Australian loneliness expert has revealed that knowing just six neighbours reduces the likelihood of feeling alone and is directly linked to reducing stresses incurred by the coronavirus pandemic.
NATURE
Report assesses promises and pitfalls of private investment in conservation
Scientists, lawyers, investors and economists explore how privately financed conservation projects can generate both financial returns and positive conservation outcomes.
Threatened plant index of Australia: 2020 results
While it's understood about animal species being under threat, there is a growing understanding of dangers to native plant species.
Global sustainable fishing initiative agreed by 14 countries
Governments to reduce pollution in oceans and end subsidies that contribute to overfishing
It's not too late to save 102 species at risk of extinction
Co-governance model for implementing conservation management plan gives species their best chances of survival
International lawyers draft plan to criminalise ecosystem destruction
International lawyers are drafting plans for a legally enforceable crime of ecocide – criminalising destruction of the world's ecosystems – that is already attracting support from European countries and island nations at risk from rising sea levels.
Humanity is waging war on nature, says UN secretary general
António Guterres lists human-inflicted wounds on natural world in stark message
RELIGION
What does the Old Testament say about caring for the environment?
Irene Lancaster: On issues such as ecology, it is far better that Christians and Jews work together. …
Anglicans, Christmas, and the birth of God?
Spencer Gear: He pointed out that early Anglicans such as Latimer, Ridley and Cranmer were burnt at the stake with the consent of most of the rest of the bishops in Mary's church.
Church punches below the belt then knocks out its fighting priest
Elizabeth Farrelly: A much-loved priest's marriage breaks down, then his church ousts him. Are there not greater concerns for a church today?
Eric Metaxas and the losing of the evangelical mind
Robert K. Vischer: Christians can’t wait for the sociologists to sort out why our fellow congregants believe in ‘Q’ or that Trump won the election. We need a strategy to restore a few basic truths.
SUSTAINABILITY
A 'zero waste' life starts with your groceries
From meal prepping to 'reductionism', it is possible to turn your home into a sustainable haven with these small tweaks.
The Global Sustainable Competitiveness Index 2020
The Global Sustainable Competitiveness Index is based in 127 quantitative (not quantitative!) indicators across the dimension that shape a country: natural capital, resource efficiency, social capital, intellectual capital, governance performance. The Global Sustainable Competitiveness Index is the most accurate reflection of country performance & development.
TRANSPARENCY
Australians trust government to handle Covid but not corruption, report finds
Report sees independent, well-funded federal integrity commission as key to anti-corruption effort
Without the Audit Office, we'd never have known about sports rorts
Melissa Donnelly: It is the work of our accountability institutions, such as the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO), that help maintain confidence in the functions of government. They hold our parliament accountable and ensure public resources are being used properly and fairly.
WORK
No children doesn't mean more savings for single women
New Australian research has debunked the assumption that single women without children have no career interruptions and healthy retirement savings.
We know job panels can be bias against women, but so can recruitment websites
Algorithms used to help employers select job applicants could be amplifying the gender bias they should prevent, new research shows, with the study author warning not discriminating against women for things such as taking parental leave has to be "coded in" to a program.
This recession has not spared Australia's youth. Nothing could be further from the truth
Greg Jericho: Despite a rise in part-time employment, those in their late teens and early 20s are in the most precarious position of anyone in that cohort since the 1990s
WHAT’S MORE
Does climate change violate children's human rights?
The field of climate litigation has been growing quickly in recent years. More than 1,300 climate-related cases have been filed since 1990, mostly in the U.S.
Peace in the age of chaos – Finding a new approach
Steve Killelea: Peace is a prerequisite for the survival of society as we know it in the 21st century, writes Steve Killelea AM, in this extract from his new book, Peace in the age of chaos: The best solution for a sustainable future.