Real News March Week 4 2021
ABORIGINAL PEOPLES
Australia's education system must move away from its colonial world view
Nathan Towney: Our values system is based on assimilation and economic growth, instead of cultural identity and social justice
We need to create diverse spaces that include Blak women. The time for invisibility is over
Shiralee Lawson: As Aboriginal women we have to fight tooth and nail to be listened to, even in spaces where we are beyond capable
Why Indigenous recognition is a national imperative
John Hewson: In the process of recognition, it is important that structures and processes are put in place to ensure our First Australians are heard, and that their exhaustive experience and expertise can be properly drawn on.
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
More laws are not the answer: the case for restorative justice to address sexual assault
With conviction rates of just 2%, it is clear the justice system is failing victims. Could survivor-led actions be part of the solution?
Youth bail law reform is in the spotlight again, but this retiring judge says it's not the answer
Amid a growing political stoush over bail laws and youth crime in the Northern Territory, a retiring Supreme Court judge says the debate is missing the mark.
Criminal courts defendants down 16 percent
The number of defendants finalised in Australian criminal courts fell by 16 percent in 2019–20 coinciding with the introduction of COVID-19 restrictions, according to data released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Locking up children is a national shame and a waste of money
Renee Hancock: Prison is no place for a child and will have a profound and long-lasting negative impact on their life.
Men are more likely to commit violent crimes. Why is this so and how do we change it?
Rick Sarre et al: Criminology is the study of individual and social factors associated with crime and the people who perpetrate it. One of the discipline’s well-established truths is that men commit violent and sexual offences at far higher rates than women.
DEATH AND DYING
Tasmania has legalised voluntary assisted dying. What happens now and how will it work?
Voluntary assisted dying is now legal in Tasmania but it will be more than a year before people can access it and only some will be eligible. Here is everything you need to know.
Deborah Morris: This is an important day for the veteran community. After five years of campaigning for a royal commission, parliament has backed a motion to establish one. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has also signalled he would no longer oppose the move.
DIVERSE SEXUALITY
Why have nearly half of transgender australians attempted suicide?
Ada Cheung and Sav Zwickl: Stigma and discrimination must be urgently addressed to reduce alarming rates of attempted suicide among transgender Australians
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Almost 1,500 calls a month to Australia's domestic violence support line have been going unanswered
During Senate estimates, Department of Social Services official Liz Hefren-Webb said although some calls went unanswered, people seeking support could call back later for assistance.
DRUGS
Psychedelic substances represent a chance to alleviate Australia's mental health crisis
Michael Winlo: On February 3, the Therapeutic Goods Administration published an interim decision not to reschedule psychedelic substances, including MDMA and psilocybin, to schedule 8 of the poisons standard.
FAMILY
When parents kill: The struggle to stop an unthinkable crime
The recent case of a Melbourne woman who killed her three kids before suiciding has left a community reeling. But filicide is not as rare as we'd like to think — and experts say services working with vulnerable families are too often failing to recognise the risks before it's too late.
Teaching consent to children: 'The joke is where it starts and rape is where it ends'
How do we ensure children and teens know about consent? Here’s a guide to changing the culture early to prevent sexual assault
Call to delay “deeply concerning” SA adoption reform
Proposed sweeping changes to South Australian adoption laws could breach human rights standards and prevent children and their birth parents from being heard in court, adoption and child welfare groups have warned.
FINANCE AND INEQUALITY
Disadvantage accelerates as private school funding rises six times public schools over the decade
Trevor Cobbold: By 2029 public schools will be underfunded by $60 billion; private schools overfunded by $6 billion
What a lovely pandemic: Australia’s 250 richest now own the equivalent of 25% GDP
Christopher Warren: Last year Australia's 250 richest people were worth a collective $377 billion. Today, they're worth $470 billion.
Pull out your rags and riches again - our moment of equality is over
Jessica Irvine: We had a chance to become a happier society, thanks to the pandemic. But we blew it.
HOUSING AND HOMELESS
Homelessness services fear turning people away if wage funding isn’t renewed
Federal money to cover higher wages for the sector’s mostly female workers runs out at the end of June, leaving services fearing a cash crunch.
IMMIGRATION AND MULTICULTURALISM
Freedom from racial discrimination is a right, not a privilege
In marking the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the United Nations Network on Migration calls on States to scale up efforts to condemn racial discrimination and to pursue, by all appropriate means, the elimination of all forms of discrimination.
Migrants encouraged to learn about their health and safety rights in Australian workplaces
A new campaign is hoping to assist workers from culturally diverse backgrounds to better understand their health and safety rights in the workplace by translating resources into 19 new languages.
We need to do more to help stateless children realise their right to Australian citizenship
Katie Robertson, Sarah Dale: An unknown number of children are being born in Australia to parents who have no nationality. They have a right to apply for citizenship but their families don’t know about it.
MIND
3 trauma takes the media gets wrong
Meera Atkinson and Michael Salter: Originating in the medical sciences, where it referred to physical injury, the term “trauma” is now often used in popular and scholarly discussion to refer to psychological injury. While large-scale mental health surveys consistently find sexual assault is a major risk factor for traumatic illness, it’s often assumed pre-existing mental illness is the cause of the allegation itself.
NATURE
Australia's lesser-known ecosystems are heading for collapse. Here's what we stand to lose
From the arid woodlands of central Australia to mangrove forests in the Gulf of Carpentaria, a damning report has found that 19 of the 20 Australian ecosystems studied are heading toward collapse if we don't intervene.
If we're going to stop deforestation, the numbers don't stack up
Governments must invest far more in protecting the world's tropical forests, a key ally in warding off climate change and future pandemics.
Major 'State of the Planet' report out in advance of first Nobel Prize Summit
Human actions are threatening the resilience and stability of Earth's biosphere - the wafer-thin veil around Earth where life thrives. This has profound implications for the development of civilizations, say an international group of researchers in a report published for the first Nobel Prize Summit, a digital gathering to be held in April to discuss the state of the planet in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
RELIGION
How the tale of milk and sugar kept my people’s faith alive
Dilnaz Billimoria: My faith is Zoroastrianism, the oldest monotheistic religion in the world, originating in ancient Persia.
What does 'love your neighbour' look like in practice?
Rob James: "Love your neighbour" is a well-known saying of course but our communities would be very much happier and healthier if we allowed it to shape the way we relate to each other.
SUSTAINABILITY
Is it worth investing in solar PV with batteries at home?
Solar energy is a clean, renewable source of electricity that could potentially play a significant part in fulfilling the world's energy requirements, but there are still some challenges to fully capitalizing on this potential. Researchers looked into some of the issues that hamper the uptake of solar energy and proposed different policies to encourage the use of this technology.
Climate change and EVs: How will future cars stem global warming?
Electric vehicles have become a hot trend. But how much better are they for the environment than standard gas or diesel-powered cars?
TRANSPARENCY
Rorts scandals in politics are rife. So what exactly are the rules?
Anne Twomey: Every time another government rort is exposed, the response is always that the action was "entirely within the rules". But what actually are "the rules" and does anyone ever enforce them?
More than $1bn of ‘dark money’ has gone into politics in two decades. You OK with that? [$]
Richard Holden: The rules governing political donations in this country are a joke. Surely it's time they changed.
Transparency gap: business interests become conflicts of interest — and few seem to care [$]
Georgia Wilkins: The 'game of mates' has allowed conflicts of interest to flourish in Australian politics 'rampantly and shamelessly'.
WORK
How do workplaces turn toxic and what can be done to fix them?
With workplace behaviour firmly in the spotlight, what are the warning signs that a workplace is turning toxic, and what action can you take?
At present rates, the gender pay gap will vanish in 268 years
Jim Bright: The failure to remove inequalities in the workplace now needs direct intervention. Quotas work.
WHAT’S MORE
Australia's modern slaves are 'a real mix' and they are 'suffering in silence'
On the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery, Australians are being urged to reach out to those who may be experiencing exploitation, while also ensuring they are being ethical consumers.
Human embryos are people, and should be treated as such
Anthony Fisher: This week the media celebrated the achievement by Monash University scientists of so-called “model human embryos”, or “artificial human embryos”.