People tend to delay their own check ups because they don’t have others holding them accountable to make and attend appointments. If we were able to shift the focus from individualised health care to “get everyone together” and collectively book longer group sessions with friends, family and/or colleagues; and even combine the appointment with something fun and community-focused like a morning tea, a lot more people would probably make an effort to keep up to date with preventative/early diagnostic testing.

International students suffer terribly from the travel ban. High school students cannot go to school. University students struggle with online lessons with bad quality such as old videos which were shot years ago. We are forced to defer because of invalid internships and in-person courses. Students can learn nothing from zooming or videos. Besides, a huge portion of students do not have online classes and they have to be exempted to enter Australia and go to schools as soon as possible. Our human rights of attending school are being deprived and leads our family to horrible mental illness. We do not pay our family’s saving for video lessons or rent for house which we cannot even live in. International students contribute millions of dollars to Australia community and benefit Aussie society in various areas. We appeal exemptions for international students not only for student’s future and human right but also for the recovery of Australia economy. International students are willing to quarantine, obey any rules and pay all the fees. We are willing to quarantine in students apartments and will not take any stranded Australians’ places. Please allow international students who do not have online lessons and are at urgent to study enter Australia and continue their education on a voluntary basis.

As a science teacher, I'm lucky to get to work with young people learning about the impact of pollution on our environment. My classes are shocked to learn about how plastic causes harm, especially to marine ecosystems, and while it's great that we're rolling out free pads and tampons statewide to end period poverty, we should make sure that we're also looking after the environment. Tampons have a polyester veil and are composed of approximately 6% plastic. Sanitary pads are made up of 90% plastic. Having plastic so close to such an intimate part of a young person's body is not good for their health and not good for the environment. As well as their contribution to plastic pollution, a year's worth of typical menstrual products impacts the climate too, with a carbon footprint of 5.3 kg CO2 equivalent per individual. The average person who menstruates throws away 200 kg of menstrual products in their life time. Unfortunately some period products enter the sewage system. Overtime their plastic content breaks down into smaller pieces, known as micro-plastics and fibres. This poses a further threat to vital eco-systems where they can enter the food chain from the bottom, up. This petition is about giving young people choice over how they manage their period. If given a choice, I argue that many young people will choose to manage their period in a sustainable way. I am asking that the Victorian Government provide Victorian students with the option of choosing eco-friendly period products; menstrual cups, period pants or washable pads. Young people should be able to make their own decision about how they wish to manage their period. Giving them this option will help encourage Victorian school aged children to manage their periods in a sustainable way and keep huge amounts of waste out of Victorian landfill. It will also help foster sustainable life habits and choices. A person needs to only have 7 menstrual cycles before the costs of a menstrual cup and one pair of period undies are re-couped. The alternative proposed, over the life time of this initiative, will save the public purse immensely and as well as save costs to landfill.

Illawarra children deserve to walk or ride to school safely. Walking to school improves kids' fitness and independence. However, they are often driven over short distances to school by parents. Parents perceive that their child's journey to school is unsafe on part of or on their whole journey. As a result, our streets are subject to tens of thousands more car trips every year, making them even less safe and clogging up roads with unnecessary traffic during morning drop off and afternoon pick up. Streets without footpaths and crossings with speed limits higher than 30km/h are not considered safe by Australia's safe system approach. The Case for crossings: Research shows that children cannot judge gaps in traffic consistently when cars go faster than 30km/h to safely cross a street On streets where there are no footpaths and crossings, reducing the car speed to 30km/h would prevent most accidents: the stopping distance for a car traveling 30km/h is 13m. Stopping distance for a car traveling 50km/h is 37m. The risk of death or serious injury if hit at 30km/h is less than 10%; compared to 90% if hit at 50km/h. It is an unreasonable risk to place our children in harms way on their journey to school.

In October 2020 Annaliesse Ugle, an 11 year old child, took her own life when she found out her sexual abuser of 6 years, had been released on bail. Anna's Mum Sam did not want Anna to be forgotten, to become another statistic. So we have formed #annasvoice. Anna will be the driving force for change. It is a fact across the whole Australian community that children continue to be sexually molested and commit suicide or suffer in silence. At present they have no effective tools in which they can use, allowing them to determine what is inappropriate, if a person is a sexual predatorial or what grooming is. Deadly Guardians provides them with the tools, the means to reach out without fear and will detect if a child is at risk of self harm. It will also empower school age children to be protectors of their younger siblings. We need government to step up and fund Poche Centre for Indigenous Health so they can undertake the pilot and prove the program will:- Allow a child the means in which to reach out without fear of retribution or shame Give the child the tools in which to identify a sexual predator without demonising men or women. Provide the child with the understanding of what grooming looks like. Provide a framework that will allow strong Elders and leaders the ability to create change through the children in this challenging community issue. That it is easily adaptable to suit mainstream primary schools. That it will enable Kids Helpline the ability to determine if a child is at risk of self harm every morning. By providing a child with an online mentor, a famous athlete or singer who, as an avatar, they will be able to continually support the child emotionally, in academic achievement and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Provide a means by which a child can address emotional challenges as a child rather than as a traumatised teenager. Poche Centre for Indigenous Health is keen to work with me to complete the program development and then undertake the pilot. It has been 10 years since this program was originally developed. Until we all stand up and demand that something be done to protect our children then many will continue to either take their own lives or suffer in silence. Please sign the petition and also go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/416994042637214/ This is Deadly Guardians current landing page. https://www.deadlyguardians1.com/

A Clean Recovery will make energy cleaner and cheaper, and create more jobs than dangerous fossil fuels like methane gas. Australia can be a clean energy superpower, proudly exporting energy from our wind, waves and sun. We can power our businesses and homes with solar, make our houses more affordable and energy efficient, and restore the natural landscapes we love. To make it a reality, we need widespread support from key politicians and community members across the country. Sign the petition for clean, affordable energy and climate-friendly jobs for people across the country.

Since 2018, international students from the Philippines and other countries have faced horrific treatment from Lawson College in Dandenong. Students are promised that their course will lead to permanent residency. But they arrive in Australia only to be met with appalling quality of teaching, abuse, mistreatment and bullying. Students have reported inadequate facilities, taking classes where up to 50 students are crammed in a room for 20, unstable internet connection forcing hundreds of students to use up their own mobile data and poor quality teaching with multiple assessors within a single subject providing extremely inconsistent and delayed assessment feedback – sometimes as late as 3 months. When tuition fees cost $10,000 a year, it is understandable that students want to transfer to better quality education providers. However, Lawson does not let this happen. Instead, institutional harassment and gaslighting ensues. Lawson has threatened students with visa cancellation and deportation, falsified attendance issues and failed students who made requests for release and transfer. They’ve rejected compelling reasons for release such as mental health issues and continued to charge tuition fees and issue debt collection notices even if students have appealed for release on several occasions. Those who are eventually able to transfer to another provider are not issued with their completion certificates even if they have finished a course and paid in full. Students are repeatedly rejected on their applications for release until they give up, due to exhaustion from the entire appeals process, which can take as long as 6 months. Furthermore, there is also workplace exploitation and wage theft, with international students not being paid fair rates when employed by Lawson. These existing injustices have since been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, with international students facing systemic discrimination and neglect with many unable to afford food and experiencing homelessness. Students have submitted a petition to Lawson college demanding: – A 30% discount in all scheduled tuition fee payments for June, September and December 2020 – Waiving the Late Fee Penalty ($200 AUD a Fortnight) for the year 2020. But Lawson College has ignored their request. This cannot go on anymore. We must stand in solidarity with students calling for fair treatment, so that Lawson College can not ignore them any longer. International students are not cash-cows who can be abandoned during the pandemic. We must take a stand against the racist complex of education trafficking, which serves to funnel international students into debt bondage, enabling further exploitation in Australia. Sign this petition in solidarity with the students at Lawson, to ensure their demands are being heard and fought for.

A Federal ICAC will either dispel or confirm reports of widespread dishonesty in the distribution of Federal Government Funds, for example, and not limited to: $150 million for the “regional” swimming pools, including $10 million for the region of the North Sydney pool $272 million Regional Growth Fund most of which was dished out in a hurry just before the last Federal election. $841.6 million for the Building Better Regions Fund. $200 million in government advertising in the lead up to the election – an unprecedented level of self-promotion with your money $2 billion for the ironically-named Climate Solutions Fund. $4 billion Urban Congestion Fund incorporating the $500 million Commuter Car Park Fund that mainly benefited coalition marginal seats $300 million Drought Communities Program – where the government ignores its own criteria and hands out money without regard for eligibility $220 million Regional Jobs and Investment Package – ministers rejecting 28 per cent of the recommended applications and approving 17 per cent without recommendation $22.65 million for the Stronger Communities Program, and $22.65 million for the Communities Environment Program. (Thanks to Michael Pascoe, The New Daily) The people of Australia deserve to know that the elected representatives in our employ are acting in a legal and moral manner in regard to ALL matters before them. And ensure that OUR money is spent to provide the electorate with the best outcomes. COVID 19 has bought a change of circumstances. Lessened parliamentary sittings have seen the usual checks and balances severely restricted. A Federal ICAC would go some way to remedy this, and demonstrate that our Federal Parliament is, and has been acting in the best interests of the electorate.

Our COVID Wish List for Kids: Simple and practical solutions are needed. 1. Mandate Masks. As we learn to live with COVID governments could try to firstly mandate masks across the whole population e.g. when outside and when you can’t socially distance, like other countries in our region, and see the impact that has before cancelling anything to do with kids and school. Other countries are doing that and it’s working. Kids in other countries are living life in a fairly usual way, going to events, hosting sports, visiting family etc. Simple. #wearamask 2. Border closures. For ALL the families who have children attending schools (day and boarding school) who have to cross a border (eg. live in NSW go to school in VIC) each day, weekly or at the end of term (boarders) for their school holidays Government must find workable solves so they can see their families and not be locked up for the duration. This also includes Australians who live overseas for work (expatriates) and whose children are educated in Australia. These families seek an urgent solution. They cannot manage (afford) quarantine, nor up to a month of quarantine every time they wish to see their kids. Many are coming back from countries where the virus/community transmission is more under control than Australia. Like other nations there could be a safe list of nations for whom either Stay at Home quarantine notices are issued for 7 days (see the Singapore example for Australians), or where COVID tests are given and cleared for countries with very limited/zero cases. Also, putting an unaccompanied minor into a hotel to quarantine is unreasonable. The wellbeing of the child is not being considered and families should NOT be separated. If they must should quarantine at home. Parents need to see their children and children need to be able to attend their schools. Green lane travel bubbles for such families, across domestic and international borders, as are currently happening in other nations in our region and in Europe must be considered and implemented as matter of urgency with holidays just weeks away. #loveourfuture 3. Class of 2020. PLEASE support all our Year 12's (the “COVID Class of 2020”). This year is to their "rite of passage". Governments have made unreasonable decisions - no graduation with parents, no formals, cancelled sports, cancelled assemblies, the list goes on and on and this is on top of students struggling from isolation, pressures of whether exams will go ahead etc., disappointments and increase in the numbers of suicides, depression and anxiety. So many are devastated by these decisions. Governments have taken steps to ensure adults can attend restaurants, pubs, sporting matches etc and the same opportunities should be afforded to our kids. It’s up to governments to find solutions that allow Australian kids to have rights too. #COVIDclassof2020 4. General School Events for all kids: If governments won’t be satisfied with #wearamask for school events then for example before any event at the school each parent could have a COVID test 2 days prior the event. If negative they can attend wearing a mask and social distance. If positive they watch it from their lounge room. For parents and kids wishing to attend such events please introduce a solution e.g. every parent has to have a COVID test prior to the event. School Formals - the same applies as above. Each student is tested and if negative attends wearing a mask! These children should be able to have a school formal. These are just some ideas to get the debate started. Right now, like most other nations globally, we need to learn to live with COVID and give our kids the best future possible –they are the future of Australia. We cannot leave them behind… #covidgeneration #loveourfuture

This is important as it will help to fight the worldwide obesity epidemic, it will encourage uptake of a new Olympic sport, it will help generate new climbers (boulderers in particular) to support the local bouldering facilities that are burgeoning in the region. It will provide economic stimulus to the area of climbing provision be it outdoors shops such as K2, pinnacle, wildfire kathmandu etc, gyms (urban climb, 9 degrees, rockit, rocksports, core climbing, alpine, urban extreme etc, or even local guides and coaches. It will also support the local campsites in and around rural Queensland as boulderers love to travel to find climbing areas and it is usual to stay in a campsite near to the boulderfields for the weekends/weeks if further afield. Not to mention that with climbing being one of the fastest growing sports in the world and a soon to be newly minted olympic event (in the 2020/21 olympics) it will no doubt see a further surge in participation. Some of the climbers that will be competing on that world stage found their passion for the sport on boulders similar to those proposed in this petition (Ashima Shirashi for example (A world leading American Boulderer) first climbed on her local boulder in a park in New York). So for these reasons please include bouldering into the park.

Early childhood educators are at the frontline providing vital care and education for over 1.3 million children. But they are doing it tough. A decline in the number of children attending services means that some services will close their doors and educators will loose their jobs. EC educators required to self-isolate for their safety, the safety of the children in their care and the wider community – may loose their income. Job losses and service closures will have huge ramifications for educators, children, families and the Australian economy, now, and in the future. If we guarantee to support our educators now, the flow-on effect for children, families and childcare businesses, whether for-profit or non-profit, will be immense. It will keep people in jobs and not reliant on welfare. At this time of national crisis, and coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child (UNCROC), the need to keep Australian children’s early childhood education and care services working is never more pressing.

This is to (re)introduce very basic yet crucial health hygiene, as well as a beautiful way to greet people. (Please sign this campaign and take a moment to share it with others via email, social media or good old fashioned word of mouth.)