Gas is a dangerous, polluting fossil fuel. It releases greenhouse gasses that contribute to the horrific bushfires and raging floods we’ve seen devastate communities across the country in recent years. And it isn’t just a disaster for our climate. It’s also bad for our health. Public health experts are concerned about the health risks of cooking with gas in our homes, which can have a similar impact on childhood asthma as living with cigarette smoke. And here in Victoria, we burn more gas per person than any other state. But the good news is that some local councils around the country are bowing to community pressure and taking matters into their own hands - promising to end new gas connections, and help people with the cost of switching to electricity and renewables. And with enough pressure from the community, our local council could join this movement today!

"Natural" Gas is a dangerous and polluting fuel that contributes to the climate crisis. LNG or "Natural" Gas is largely methane, which as we know, can be even worse for the climate than coal because it leaks into the atmosphere. This leaked gas traps more warmth, increasing our risks of severe heat, drought, bushfires and sea-level rise. And it isn’t just a disaster for our climate. It’s also bad for our health. Public health experts are concerned about the health risks of cooking with gas in our homes, which can have a similar impact on childhood asthma as living with cigarette smoke. The City of Greater Geelong has stated in its Climate Change Response Plan that it will be discouraging new gas connections to households from this year onwards, but new planning legislation is required to make this possible. This is an obvious move, it's safer for the climate, safer for our community's health and an all-electric house is cheaper and easier to run. The good news is that some local councils around the country are bowing to community pressure and taking matters into their own hands - promising to end new gas connections, and help people with the cost of switching to electricity and renewables. And with enough pressure from the community, our local council could join this movement today! Geelong is also the location for a new proposed gas import terminal by Viva Energy. This new terminal will import gas from the Scarborough offshore gas field, which will produce some of the dirtiest gas in the world in terms of its emissions and be equal to over a quarter of Australia’s entire national emissions! So let's convince our local Councils to get off gas, so that we don't need dangerous and polluting projects like this in our city.

Gas is a dangerous, polluting fossil fuel. It releases greenhouse gasses that contribute to the horrific bushfires and raging floods we’ve seen devastate communities across the country in recent years. And it isn’t just a disaster for our climate. It’s also bad for our health. Public health experts are concerned about the health risks of cooking with gas in our homes, which can have a similar impact on childhood asthma as living with cigarette smoke. And here in Victoria, we burn more gas per person than any other state. But the good news is that some local councils around the country are bowing to community pressure and taking matters into their own hands - promising to end new gas connections, and help people with the cost of switching to electricity and renewables. And with enough pressure from the community, our local council could join this movement today!

The severely immunocompromised are vulnerable to severe disease when infected with COVID19. Right now, COVID testing programs are insufficient to protect the immunosuppresed. Effective testing is difficult to access and costly to individuals. Supported COVID testing is needed. Severely immunocompromised people need to test those close to them regularly. They need to know when to shield themselves from others. Many severely immunocompromised people are unwell and not mobile and rely on support workers. Many live, study or work closely with others, and risk exposure to COVID, despite their best efforts to shield. Some, like the parents of children, are carers and find themselves in the impossible position of needing those in their charge tested, but can't because they simply can't risk sharing a car with a person with symptoms. It is simply not safe for the severely immunocompromised to line up for a PCR test. Time is of the essence for a severely immunocompromised person with COVID. This is because there are treatments available that can prevent severe disease, but these must be started early. They need ready and safe access to testing. Every day counts.

Forty years ago, the Australian Association for Environmental Education (AAEE) was formed to champion education reforms (Education for Sustainability is the latest term to describe that) focused on positively connecting students with nature, developing critical thinking and analytical skills and empowering them to help develop solutions to our human induced environmental problems. Now, we need an education revolution to save the planet. In Our campaign supports other international campaigns to develop grassroots support and on the ground efforts by students, educators, and civil society to demand national level commitments from Ministries of Education and Environment. Through this campaign, we will ensure that students in Australia and across the world benefit from high-quality education to develop into informed and engaged environmental stewards. AAEE believes that every school in the world must have compulsory, assessed climate and environmental education with a strong civic engagement component focused on achieving a sustainable society.

Since 2013 the Hindmarsh Shire Council has agreed with the constituents of Hindmarsh Shire and surrounding areas that the approx 100yr old iconic railway bridge can be used for people to walk on to cross the Heritage Wimmera River in Jeparit as the main feature of the now named Wimmera River Discovery Trail. Hindmarsh Shire Council announced they had been allocated funding for refurbishment of the iconic railway bridge as the main investment, as well as funding to commence the trail from 4 Mile Beach at Lake Hindmarsh (the largest inland fresh water lake in Victoria) and along the Wimmera River banks to Dimboola. However, Hindmarsh Shire Council in 2020-2021 voted to erect a new bridge at various locations along the Wimmera River because the railway bridge could not be used for people to walk over, with no consultation with constituents. But the engineer report for the railway bridge found that although the bridge could no longer support a train, it can support foot traffic and can be refurbished for that specific purpose (a community member has the engineer report due to her applying for the report under freedom of information). The Victorian Government voted for this railway bridge to be built in approx 1905. It is in great condition compared to other old bridges in the area. By refurbishing the railway bridge we are ensuring that our historic iconic bridge is preserved and valued as a part of our unique history for the area as well as a great tourism asset. This historic bridge is an asset that Hindmarsh Shire Council should continue to invest in because refurbishing this bridge will have not just a healthy economic return but will also have health benefits for the community as a whole. When our historic places are undervalued and disrespected, Hindmarsh Shire Council are perceived as undervaluing and disrespecting their constituents, especially us in Jeparit. We do not want or need a bling new bridge. We want and need to have our iconic railway bridge refurbished as planned and decided from conception between Hindmarsh Shire Council and its constituents.

Housing affordability in Australia has never been worse; even many people with fulltime employment are struggling to be able to find an affordable rental, let alone buy a place to call home! I believe that one of the biggest, and most ignored drivers of this lack of affordability is the short-term leases that are offered to residential tenants across Australia. My wife and I were fortunate enough, thanks to a very generous gift from a relative, to buy a house a few years ago, but we spent well over a decade on the rental rollercoaster. We were constantly offered 6month leases on properties, and lived in fear of being evicted at short notice through no fault of our own. We were at the mercy of our landlord, and a lease period barely long enough to settle in to a place before potentially being asked to move out! This lack of security was one of the main reasons we were desperate to buy a home; had we known we had stable residency for a number of years we wouldn't have felt the same pressure to leave the rental market. I know we're not alone in this; many of the friends I've spoken to feel exactly the same way, and if you're reading this I'm sure you can relate. Short-term residential leases drive up the cost of housing in 2 ways. Firstly, they allow landlords to frequently increase the rent on their property, not because their costs have increased, but simply because they can. Residents can either accept the increase, or deal with the cost and stress of relocating (moving house is recognised as one of the most stressful life experiences). This means that many tenants will simply have to shoulder the rent increase, and the knowledge that they are potentially faced with an ongoing series of future rent increases. And so the cost of rental housing goes up. Secondly, the insecurity around residential rental means that, like my wife and I, many people will feel that their only option to find stability and build a "home" is to buy one. This leads to an increase in buyers in the property market, who might otherwise have been quite happy to simply rent if they had security of tenure. An increase in demand (more buyers) in the property market inevitably drives purchase prices up. And so we have a double-whammy of housing inflation, all linked back to the same problem of lack of security in residential properties. When we look at places like Europe, many people do not own a home, and have no desire to, because they have residential leases that can be anything up to 99years in duration. They have security of tenure; whether they own the building or not, they have a sense of stability, and a place which is their "home". These countries do not have the hyper-inflation of the housing market which we see in Australia. In Australia we offer businesses long-term leases with the option to extend their tenure, and it allows the commercial property market to operate at a profit whilst allowing business tenants to have the necessary security to run their business. Surely we can extend the same practices to residential properties too?! Housing is a basic human right, and one we as Australians are doing a very poor job of providing. We have fallen into the trap of seeing a house as simply a way to make money, rather than a place for someone to live. It's time we made a change for the better, for everyone. Let's make it mandatory for long-term residential leases to be offered to all tenants!

The Tasmanian government is legislating to change poker machine licensing and taxation - and the proposed laws aren’t looking good at all. Unless we speak up and put pressure on the government, this will mean special low tax rules just for casinos, consolidating power and ownership of pokies into a handful of big business at the cost of local pubs, failure to add any extra protections, and no measures to get decent financial return for our state. The Tasmanian government is throwing away the opportunity to responsibly regulate an addictive product and get the best outcomes for our community. Here are some facts about Tasmanian pokies: - Tasmanians lose around $500,000 every day to pokie machines - Currently, people can lose up to $600 per hour! - Australia has more pokie machines per capita than any other country in the world! - Australia has extremely weak consumer protection in place for pokie machines compared to the rest of the world - Australia has higher intensity machines, which means we have far higher losses and more pokies addiction than other countries No other country in the world puts high-intensity poker machines outside casinos or destination gambling venues. Currently, our pokies don’t have the normal, effective, evidence-based consumer protection and harm minimisation measures that are used in other countries. Thousands of Tasmanians are unnecessarily becoming addicted to pokies and experiencing devastating financial harm to provide the industry with super-profits. Poker machine reform NEEDS to focus on protecting Tasmanians and making poker machines safer for people to use. Sign the petition to demand the Tasmanian government protects consumers and makes poker machines safer.

It is undeniable that the ‘mutual’ obligations system needs a major overhaul at the very least, but this bill is not the way to do it. It introduces hundreds of pages of amendments without any substantive positive change, and the government hasn’t given anyone enough time to fully think through the consequences of these changes. Ever since the start of the Coronavirus pandemic, the government has suspended mutual obligations during periods of lockdown. This is an admission that mutual obligations make things harder for the unemployed and underemployed, so it makes zero sense that at the same time they're trying to make it even tougher through this bill. In addition, research shows that if you do mutual obligations it is harder to get a job. There is hard evidence to back up this claim, so these changes appear to be nothing more than purely ideological. This is a dramatic overhaul of a law that is crucial to protecting vulnerable people and the department can’t even explain the potential implications of some of these changes. The PJCHR raised many concerns about this and the need for more information. There are numerous worrying changes proposed in this bill, including; Removal of backdating payments, potentially leaving recipients up to $457 worse off A new points based system that gives points for things like attending a job interview, which is not in a recipient’s control. Automated decision making. This won't just apply for mutual obligation penalties, it will be delaying people's payment starting at all. What happens if there's a problem with the online system? Time and time again we have seen that we can’t trust this government to implement digital solutions. Together we can expose this latest attack on unemployed people and make sure Morrison feels enough political pain to reconsider the welfare bill. But we need all of our voices. Sign our petition!

There is no building like the Nicholas left in Melbourne. In fact you would hard pressed to find anything like it in the southern hemisphere. Seriously. So many people have a story connected to the Nicholas Building. What's yours? We want to keep making more experiences for all Melbournians and guests to our amazing city. Here’s some facts*: • Total cultural tourism exports for Victoria – most of which are generated out of central Melbourne – amounted to more than $2.5 billion in 2019. • Every $1 million of investment in cultural programming and investment, including in creative spaces, in Melbourne, induces more than $4 million in additional tourism exports and supports 40 jobs. Cultural programming and investment does not just refer to the output of major companies. One of the major contributing factors is through the incubation and provision of creative spaces for small social enterprises, artist led initiatives, artisan studios, and bespoke flexible venues. Where else is the content you experience in theatres and on your smartphone developed? Not just at home that is for sure. We need more, not less creative spaces where a critical mass of energy and collaboration turns into productivity and more cultural experience. More facts*: • Each permanent creative space (e.g. studio) generates a net benefit to the Melbourne and Victorian communities of $247,000. This is the present value of a stream of benefits capitalised over an indefinite period. A quarter of a million dollars per creative studio. The Nicholas Building has over 100 such creative studios. DO the math! But beyond the economics, it is the feeling. Coming to a Night at the Nicholas event across 10 floors you will experience live music, art performance and installations, dance parties, palm and tarot readers, VR artists painting you into an artwork, tattoo shops, weaving workshops, choirs, drinks with jewellers, forums, Australia’s largest Joseph Beuys collection! The list goes on. The feeling that crowds report after these events is one of elation, ecstasy, joy and relief that the human impulse to create and share this creativity with others has a place right in the heart of the city. Where people can be immersed in the unique and diverse arts and culture. There is no other way you will get those offerings elsewhere in Melbourne. Without the Nicholas we lose our last Artist Run Initiative Galleries. These galleries have supported thousands of artists over the last couple of decades - your children, friends, parents. Most Melbournians know someone that has been supported or moved by the cultural community of the Nicholas Building. We cannot afford to lose it. And now, as we come out of the pains of the pandemic we must support a creative led recovery. Not just on words in policy documents and vision statements from well meaning institutions. But actual investment into those people and places that already make it happen! The Nicholas Building community have done this off their back for so long. But we can no longer afford to do it on our own. Without the support of those with the power and money to stave off the imminent exodus of another 100 creative souls from our city centre we may as well stay at home and let Netflix tell us the extent of our culture. No thanks! -- *Data gathered from SGS Public Sector Consulting

Many of us will be affected by the cuts. It will mean it's harder to get to the airport without paying through the roof for limited train options, it will mean less connections between the Eastern Suburbs and the rest of Sydney, and it will mean longer wait and transit times. These cuts are being rammed through for 2 reasons: to pay for the light rail they're trying to force people into using, and to further their privatisation agenda. But just relying on light rail will mean longer trips and more transfers for many residents. And privatising the remaining and modified bus routes will be bad for transport workers and bad for us, like it's been in the Western Suburbs. It's also important we take a stand against these undemocratic changes that barely any of us were consulted on. It's our lives that are being affected, not the rich politicians who can pay for drivers to take them where they want. Bus routes that will be cut include: 300, 301, 302, 309X, 310X, 314, 316, 317, 338, 353, 357, 372, 373, 376, 377, 391, 393, 394, 395, 400, 400N, L94, X40, X93, X99. We need to stop this assault on our public transport! References: Dozens of Sydney bus services cut in eastern suburbs transport overhaul, Sydney Morning Herald, 6 May 2021 Outrage as popular bus routes used by thousands are SCRAPPED to pay for Sydney's $3billion Light Rail project, Daily Mail, 7 May 2021

The Kurri Kurri gas plant is a waste of public money. It’s expensive, climate polluting, and it fails to deliver the long-term jobs that were promised to the local community. Right now it’s planned to run on gas, a fossil fuel that contributes to worsening floods and fires caused by climate change. The new Labor Government promised to support the project on the condition that it ran on 30% hydrogen from the day it is operational and 100% by 2030. But energy experts are saying that this won't be possible. The Kurri Kurri gas plant fails to deliver the long-term jobs our community was promised. We need the new government to invest long term, in the technologies of the future and not waste a billion dollars of public money and instead invest it in the Hunter to keep our region as a powerhouse for generations. We know battery storage is a cheaper way to firm the electricity grid and bring down electricity prices for people doing it tough. It’s clear too that we need to move away from climate-wrecking fossil fuels like gas and coal, and towards cleaner, cheaper alternatives like solar, wind, and batteries. So all in all, a pretty shocking idea. But that didn’t stop the Morrison Government throwing public money at the project last year. It didn’t make sense then, but it makes even less sense now. The global price of gas and coal has shot up since the start of the year, meaning new power plants that run on fossil fuels won’t help bring your electricity bills down. It would be a backward step. Our country is lucky to have huge resources of sun and wind, and backed up by batteries these resources are going to power our houses and businesses into the future with cheap, clean electricity. We need our leaders and local MPs to see that this is the future we want for the Hunter, not expensive fossil-fuel powered plants that will soon be irrelevant. People in the Hunter deserve proper investment in jobs and industries that will be around for a long time.