Real News December Week 2 2021
ABORIGINAL PEOPLES
Aboriginal justice expert says governments continue to ‘stall on urgent action’ to prevent deaths
The number of?Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children entering the child protection system could increase by more than 50 per cent over the next decade without "wholesale change to legislation, policy and practice", a report finds.
SNAICC - National Voice for our Children: Measuring trends to turn the tide on the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care in Australia
Our research shows public support for a First Nations Voice is not only high, it’s deeply?entrenched
Ron Levy and Ian McAllister: Much has been written about why Indigenous recognition is important. Such recognition would be a legal change to address the dispossession of Indigenous peoples from their lands and rights, and the widescale damage to Indigenous lives and culture.
Aleisha Orr: Understanding COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in Aboriginal communities is proving vital in the push to increase vaccination rates.
ABORTION
Pro-choice and pro-life groups protested outside Ecuador's National Assembly as lawmakers held the first debate on a law that could allow abortion in cases of rape.
ASYLUM SEEKERS
Seven refugees held in Papua New Guinea by Australia for eight years will start new lives in Canada after they were sponsored for private resettlement.
The consumption of sickening online child exploitation material has skyrocketed in Australia during the Covid-19 pandemic.
CHARITY AND WELFARE
Gilbert + Tobin: To be registered as a charity with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) an organisation must have all of its purposes as charitable purposes for the public benefit. The Charities Act 2013 (Cth) (Charities Act) sets out 12 charitable purposes, one of which is the purpose of ‘promoting or protecting human rights’.
CHILD ABUSE
A clearer picture of child abuse in Australia’s out-of-home care system has emerged, but the full scale of the problem remains unknown.
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
Half of Australian women experience sexual harassment — such as inappropriate comments about their sex life or unwanted touching — in their lifetime.
The number of prisoners on remand increased by 16 per cent to 15,182, while sentenced prisoners decreased by 1 per cent to 27,680, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).?
Bob Debus and Greg Smith: NSW has a prison problem. At a time when there is clear demand for more funding on our hospitals, disability and mental health services, schools and infrastructure, the state is more than halfway through a $3.8 billion splurge on expanding prison capacity – more beds, more cells, more people in prison as a result of a long-term dependence on incarceration as the mainstay response of the criminal justice system.
DEATH AND DYING
The report found age, gender and illness were all linked to suicide
Drought, relationship breakdown, underlying depression, and easy access to guns are found to be key risk factors in a suicide rate 60 per cent higher than rates among non-farmers.
Richard Holden: If you are worried about inequality you probably lament the end of death duties.
DISABILITY
Department of Social Services (Australia): This strategy builds on its predecessor, the National Disability Strategy 2010–2020, which saw a range of reforms introduced to better support and include people with disability.
DIVERSE SEXUALITY
John Malouff: It is scary to write about different sexual and gender orientations.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Australian Institute of Criminology: Previous research exploring pathways into domestic and family violence (DFV) has primarily examined associations between early victimisation and future offending. Less is known about the relationship between adolescent DFV offending and adult DFV offending.
Kate Fitz-Gibbon et al: Brittany Higgins’s disclosure of an alleged rape in our nation’s most prominent workplace put all Australian employers on notice – they too must act to end violence against women and better support victim-survivors of domestic and family violence (DFV).
DRUGS
Australia is being urged to follow in the footsteps of New Zealand and introduce a lifetime ban on cigarettes for young people.
Although science indicates that marijuana poses fewer health risks than alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs, that doesn't mean pot is entirely harmless.
Michelle Jongenelis: Australia has long been recognised as a world leader in tobacco control. Our success can be attributed to the implementation of a suite of tobacco control measures such as ongoing increases in tobacco excise, anti-smoking media campaigns, and the introduction of smoke-free laws. Unfortunately, our position on the leaderboard looks set to tumble.
FAMILY
At age 35, one in four Australian women and one in three men were hoping to have a child or more children in the future. But by age 49, about half report they haven’t yet had the number of children they hoped for.
Australia registered a total of 294,369 births in 2020 resulting in a total fertility rate (TFR) of 1.58 babies per woman according to the latest figures released from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Leslie Loble?and?Travers McLeod: Australian families spend more as a share of their income on early childhood services than almost anyone else in the world, but we are ranked sixth-last in developed countries for how well we support our children.
FINANCE AND INEQUALITY
Conventional wisdom suggests that wealth transfers make the richest Australians even better off. And in fact wealthier Australians do receive larger transfers on average. But by the time people receive an inheritance, they will be well into middle age — about 50 years old on average — already established in their careers and housing, and many will potentially be nearing retirement themselves.
The number of Australian public companies that paid no tax in 2019–20 has risen during COVID-19 lockdowns, according to the Australian Taxation Office's (ATO's) latest transparency data.
Giving everyone a bit of money to live on could end up giving back a lot more to everyone in society, experts in basic income argue.
Ian Verrender: Prime Minister Scott Morrison is almost certain to revert to the tried and trusty electioneering playbook, the mantra which for decades has helped the Coalition scrape across the line; superior economic management
领英推荐
Greg Jericho: Boosted incomes pre-pandemic haven’t been able to dent the effects of inequality, poverty and casualisation
GAMBLING
Ireland is regularly cited as the third-ranked country in the world in terms of gambling spend per head of adult population, after Australia and Singapore.?
HOUSING AND HOMELESS
Greg Ogle: Investing in housing helps not only the low-income and those in rental stress but creates jobs to build an appreciating asset.
Facilities at three TAFE campuses help people aged 16 to 24 who want to study but can’t live at home. On Wednesday, the youth foyers program will receive a funding boost.
IMMIGRATION AND MULTICULTURALISM
Increased exposure to foreign accents makes it easier to process - and that can reduce bias.
The Morrison government will steadily increase permanent migration back to about 160,000 a year to energise economic growth and address skills shortages, with the mid-year budget update to estimate net overseas migration to be 120,000 higher than expected over the next two years.
INTERNATIONAL AID
As the 21st International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa (ICASA) opens in Durban, South Africa, UNAIDS is calling for urgent measures to be taken to reduce the inequalities fuelling the twin pandemics of HIV and COVID-19.
For Ruma Khatri, the social entrepreneurship initiative by Usha Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited is an opportunity to earn a livelihood in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting income loss.
Abhishek Bhati: International nongovernmental organizations, often called NGOs, and other charities often use photos that distort the everyday realities of the people in low-income countries they seek to help despite decades of pressure to stop doing that.
MIND
A new study has found that smiling actually makes people look older – unless they are over 60, in which case the wrinkles have set in and it makes little difference.
Initial results from the first national survey of mental health and wellbeing in 14 years has confirmed the growing importance of mental health services, with Australians seeking mental health support more than ever before.
NATURE
Researchers compile a dataset of over 200,000 plant species worldwide to demonstrate the extent to which species extinctions and non-native invasive plants reorganize plant communities in the Anthropocene revealing biotic homogenization results from human activity whether intentional or unintentional.
PRIVACY
Norman Donato: The recent decision of EIG v North Sydney Council [2021] NSWCATAD 313 in the Civil and Administrative Tribunal, is a reminder that open and transparent government must be weighed against individuals’ right to privacy.
RELIGION
A new study investigates how religion shapes Europeans’ attitudes toward migrants.
While 12 Christian missionaries are still being held almost two months after a brazen daylight kidnapping in Haiti, their community faces questions about the nature of their?work: What are the risks of these trips?and how do they prepare for the worst?
Jue Liang: Traditionally, Buddhism has been opposed to women taking on leadership roles. However, nuns in many Buddhist-majority countries are challenging the patriarchal rules.
Martin Davie: The Bible describes Jesus as Son of God in two different ways.
SUSTAINABILITY
The plastic industry could soon surpass coal in greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, its growing climate impact is largely unnoticed.
A study found the harm from ingesting microplastics included cell death and allergic reactions, and the research is the first to show this happens at levels relevant to human exposure.
Clean transport needs clean vehicles. New power developments are crucial for a mass transit revolution, and each has pros and cons.
In a year of seemingly continuous bad news, there are many reasons to be hopeful about the environment.
TRANSPARENCY
The number of Australian public companies that paid no tax in 2019-20 has risen during COVID-19 lockdowns, according to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).
Penny Wong calls out Morrison’s failure to establish a national commission to tackle corruption ahead of the PM’s scheduled address
The majority of Australians want to see more women in politics and would like to see more politicians that are honest, intelligent, empathetic and transparent.
WORK
Jobs held by Australian women increased 2.2 per cent over the past month, compared with a 0.6 per cent gain for men.
Stephen Molloy: Some Australian businesses are relying on inefficient and ineffective methods for retaining and sourcing talent.
Jonathan Rivett: The words “unacceptable” or “inappropriate” often simply don’t acknowledge the seriousness of some workplace transgressions.
Julia Baird: An inquiry has uncovered a culture of assault, harassment and buried reports.
WHAT’S MORE
Genocide “remains a very real threat” around the world, said the UN chief on Thursday, marking the UN International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide, and of the Prevention of this Crime.
Andrew Trounson: The HILDA Survey is into its 20th year and shows a changing and generally well-functioning society but also reveals the pressure points
Thomas Reese: People in counties that voted for Donald Trump in 2020 are dying at much higher rates from COVID-19 than people who live in counties that voted for Joe Biden, according to a study by National Public Radio.