At present, Australia is experiencing a rapidly increasing level of homelessness, which has resulted from a combination of inflation/rising living costs and an extreme shortage of housing (in both the rental and home buyers markets) with some states experiencing a housing availability of only 1%. This phenomenon has created sudden and extreme pressure on both the social housing sector (where some areas have a 15+ year waiting list) and homeless organisations, who have been powerless to be able to locate temporary accommodation solutions. The result is visible all over Australia. Most of us have noticed the Campervans, Caravans, 4wd's and Sedans lining our streets and parks, which have been hastily converted, often to house entire families. Many of us have noticed tent cities popping up behind buildings or in carparks, in a desperate attempt for families and individuals to find places to sleep for the night. At the same time, numerous public facilities lay abandoned and empty. Across the last several years, many states have seen the closure of a number of government owned buildings (such as hospitals and schools) and these are not being utilised for anything. Often these buildings already have bathrooms and showers and they contain large quantities of rooms, where simple mattresses/inflatable mattresses and bedding could be placed for people to sleep. The reality is that at this point in time, Australia is set to experience at least another several interest rate rises, which will push the cost of living through the roof. The increase in our homeless population will literally be in the millions at that stage. We have a crisis level problem, which requires a crisis level solution. Recently the Government pledged $50 billion to build more community housing. The first part of the problem with this proposal was that it was blocked by the Greens and the second of the issues is that it's simply not a fast enough solution to combat the problem. We need action now and what better way of solving the issue than utilising our available resources?. Unfortunately with the current direction of our economy, the majority of Australians will either be experiencing housing instability in the coming months, or they'll know someone who is. So, please get behind this petition. Sign it, spread it, make it go viral until we have enough signatures that state governments can't turn their backs on it. Thank you.

Access to community events, workshops and consultations via online mechanisms, is often the only way for many people to participate. Live-streaming and interactive online gatherings removes one of the common barriers to participation for people with physical or intellectual disabilities (including sensory sensitivities) and single parents, people facing financial hardship and those still 'coviding'. During the COVID-19 lockdowns, organisations, companies and the government, managed to move almost all activity to online platforms. Sadly, since mandates were lifted in October 2022, we have seen most online participation options disappear from our communities; leaving some of our most vulnerable people more isolated and alone than ever. Since the beginning on 2023, we have also seen more companies begin to demand staff return to the office if they wish to keep their jobs; but for many of the aforementioned people, entering or re-entering the workforce was only possible because of the increased availability of work from home jobs. To ensure these people are not left behind and are included in our society, we need to legislate mandatory online options for participation. This would be restricted to local and state government initiatives or events funded either in part or in full, by any level of government. Furthermore, the Victorian Government needs to encourage and incentivise online access to events, workshops, seminars or consultations provided by private businesses and organisations, so that we can ensure everyone in the state of Victoria, can live a fully participatory life in their community. The Victorian government must also legislate work from home concessions by any business or company who can reasonably pivot to these arrangements, for people with disabilities, single parents and those who cannot afford the cost of physically going into the office, as well as those still 'coviding'. We must be a truly equitable and accessible state for ALL people living in Victoria.

In a system that tragically fails to protect marginalized and vulnerable families, we stand united to demand change. As parents, we deserve the right to raise our significant concerns and safeguard the best interests of our children. The current state of affairs limits the power of intervention solely to child protection services and the police, leaving parents voiceless in the battle to protect our most precious treasures. It is time to question this glaring disparity and challenge a system that appears to disregard the vital role parents play in their children's lives. Shouldn't we, as parents, have the right to raise concerns that are of immense importance to the well-being and safety of our beloved children? The answer is a resounding yes! We rally behind Sarah, a courageous single mother who valiantly voices her concerns about the unsafe housing conditions, the injustice, and the negligence she faces at the hands of the Department of Fairness and Family Services (DFFS). Let us join forces and lend our support to Sarah as she fights for her children's welfare—welfare that would have gone unnoticed if she had not been a housing client, exempt from child protection intervention. This is not merely about one person's struggle. It is about the collective power of parents advocating for change. We demand a system that recognizes our concerns, that values our perspectives, and that empowers us to protect our children's best interests. Our voices must be heard, and our rights must be acknowledged. By signing this petition, we send a clear message to the powers that be: the rules cannot remain skewed in favor of government departments while ordinary citizens suffer the consequences. We demand #PeopleCourt—a fair and just platform that allows parents to bring their applications to the children's court, ensuring that our children's safety and well-being are paramount. Together, let us ignite a movement for change, creating a society where the rights of parents are respected, where the voices of the vulnerable are amplified, and where the well-being of children is non-negotiable. Sign the petition today and stand alongside Sarah and countless parents in their pursuit of justice, accountability, and a brighter future for all our children. Click Here to Sign the Petition and make a difference. Your support matters.

As of 2023, trans and gender-diverse Australians cannot identify on any intake form at any RTO because of the current data set by NCVER / DEWR. The Workplace Gender and Equality ACT excludes the participation of gender-diverse people, It only collects information on cis-gendered men and women. This affects every medium to large business in Australia. Nearly Every data set in Australia excludes gender-diverse people including studies on Alcohol and Drugs, Suicide, and first-year indicators in schools. Orchidectomies are given to cis-gender men in the public health system but denied to trans women who need to get off testosterone blockers and affirming their gender. Mastectomies are given to cis-gendered women in the public health system but denied to trans men who need this so they can stop binding, avoid scoliosis and affirm their gender. Breast Surgery is given in some public hospitals to cis-gendered women after mastectomies because it is important to their mental health, gender and well-being but denied to trans women who also need this for mental health, gender and well-being. To my knowledge, no politician or report has stood up to say we could be doing these gender-affirming surgeries right now. And they could be done right now! If the government provides gender-affirming leave and supports trans and gender-diverse people but then there is no way that they can get medical interventions then they are forced to go overseas and sometimes put their lives at risk for surgeries that are substandard compared to Australia. If they can afford them at all. Medicare has an ongoing review process and according to them, no one has ever put in a submission to ask them to review Medicare based on the needs of trans and gender-diverse people. The Sexual Discrimination ACT was updated in 1984 to say there are legally more than 2 genders and yet the Australian Bureau of Statistics which affects all the other data sets I have mentioned failed for 40 years to update their dataset. Thus forcing every other dataset that relies on it to be discriminatory Still to this day, they will only allow us to identify if their stakeholders ask for it, if an average Australian can fill out the question and if politicians ok it to happen. (How can this be in 2023, surely this is sexual discrimination?) Pathology forms across Australia are still behind in allowing us to identify and there are currently no pathology profiles for trans men and trans women. GP software like Best Practice for doctors cannot pull gender identity onto a pathology form which leads to gender-diverse people being misgendered and at times receiving the wrong reference ranges. The Australian Human Rights Commission has failed to advocate adequately and so there is no one else to hold the Government to account why has this happened? Public Health Systems across Australia still don't have pathways for gender-diverse people and to my knowledge, not one of them provides medical interventions for adults. There is no suitable training for doctors, surgeons medical staff in our training establishments. We suffer many forms of discrimination at Services Australia, Medicare and other departments. Many Public Hospitals systems have only recently started to make attempts at updating their computer systems to include gender and to find ways to reduce misgendering but there is no uniform adherence to the 2020 ABS Dataset for sex and gender. And datasets across the medical sector are not unified. The government's own AIHW website contains no health data on trans and gender-diverse people in Australia because we don't have population data because the ABS has never included us in the census. And finally, the Australian Defence Force has a suicide rate of 8.8% which is twice the national average. They have 85,000 serving members. For that, they get a Royal Commission, and over 50 reports + millions of dollars in funding. Gender-diverse Australians number at least 700,000 (equal in number to Indigenous Australians) with Transgender youth alone having approx a 48% attempted suicide rate and we have never had a royal commission or a federally funded report of any kind that I know of. How is it that the Government can be so apathetic towards a mental health and health crisis for more than 700,000 Australians? It was as recent as 1989 that the last Trans woman was fined for wearing the 'wrong clothing' Before that Trans and gender-diverse people were harassed, locked up, fined and had acts of violence inflicted on them. This has never been apologised for. Psychiatry and Psychology pathologised trans and gender-diverse people for 80 years but then reversed this and there has not been to my knowledge an apology. There is no current federal department for LGBTIQ+ people and no independent organisation to hold media accountable when reporting. We need to stop studying Trans and Gender diverse people and start studying the reasons behind being excluded and ignored and why there is and has been a complete and continuing lack of human rights for this cohort. We must address one of the biggest factors in poor mental health which is a lack of medical intervention and there appears absolutely no initiatives to fix this. That is a complete lack in duty of care. It doesn't take time to make change. It IS time to make change.

In this era of climate emergency, all industries are asked to audit their practices to be more sustainable. One way for supermarkets to become more sustainable is to ban the use of plastic bags. The giant chain, Woolworth, has stopped the supply of plastic bags in 2022. They scheduled to scraped their paper bags later this year. Coles Supermarket chain, another giant in Australia, has no plans to be plastic free. They do not even have the alternative of paper bags for their consumers. Furthermore, the use of plastic bags is the only choice for online deliveries (There isn’t a NO BAGS option). Coles has also stopped using their Redcycle plastic bags collection bin, to collect used bags for recycling. They have relinquished their responsibility in any commitment to sustainability. Workplaces that require regular online deliveries are inundated with plastic bags that have NO WHERE TO GO, other than landfill. Coles must address this corporate responsibility.

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.

Over the course of the past three decades, the local GP’s in town visited the hospital, now only twelve GPs visit the hospital and the town's population has tripled, and continues to grow without adequate health infrastructure. Cessnock LGA now has a jail that has two thousand inmates who rely on Cessnock Hospital for all their acute medical needs. Prior to the Covid pandemic, Maitland Hospital was supplying two doctors four days a week to cover the Emergency Department but when the pandemic hit those doctors were taken away and have not been replaced. The GPs have tried to fill those gaps but on many days through the week and after 11 pm at night there is, more often than not, no doctor available in the emergency department. The Area Health Service has tried to plug those gaps with a Telehealth service but this system is slow and cumbersome and can never adequately replace a doctor in person. The lack of full-time medical cover is leading to an unprecedented blowout in wait times, and transfers out of Cessnock and is placing patient safety at risk.

Your support is important. Please sign this petition today and share with your fellow residents of Alice Springs. Here are just a few reasons why a shared road through the iconic Todd Mall would be detrimental to our only pedestrian safe space in the CBD: 1. We, the community, lose our only pedestrian safe space in the CBD. It has always been great to have a place to come to in town, where there are a range of cafes, restaurants, retail shops and businesses and to be able to walk freely without having to worry about traffic, especially if you have children. 2. Safety. Given the current anti-social/crime situation occurring in Alice Springs, a shared road will likely present a number of safety issues including, hooning and shop fronts having to seriously consider the possibility of ram raids. 3. High cost with little benefit. The money spent on installing a road would be astronomical. There are much better ways to spend this money in the Todd Mall. Also, putting a shared road through the Mall does not guarantee increase in foot traffic for businesses. We have seen the dismal results of the road put in the northern end of the Todd Mall, let's not make the same mistake twice. 4. Community Events. To be able to run a community event on a shared road, organisers will have to hire very costly traffic control to close the road. Such expense could be financially unsustainable to many event holders, such as markets and festivals. These extra costs may mean that fewer events will be able to continue in this central and easy-to-get-to location. I am sure there are many other reasons you could list too. The Todd Mall is a great pedestrian space and putting a shared car, pedestrian & bicycle space through it would bring very little benefit, if any, to community well-being as well as to the businesses that are there. The Alice Springs Town Council needs to re-imagine the Todd Mall as an integrated community and business space, without a road through it. Some ideas could include: a water play space, more shade, water misters, tables and chairs, engaging in consistent dialogue with landlords to work towards filling up empty shop spaces, installation of public artworks/sculptures, iconic landmarks, making a better thoroughfare connection between the Todd Mall and the Yeperenye Shopping Centre etc... Together let's SAY NO TO A SHARED CAR, PEDESTRIAN AND BICYCLE ROAD THROUGH THE TODD MALL! Many thanks, Sophie Marriott Concerned community member, shop owner and local family.

There is a tendency to use the word victim as though it is a person's choice. People who find themselves on income support are generally in this unwilling position through various circumstances beyond their control, and in the main would rather be independent as opposed to a burden on society. If you ask yourself what story is really behind the person begging for change at your supermarket, what might come to mind? Do you consider Domestic Violence? Mental Health challenges? Childhood sexual assault? Are they a descendant of Australia's stolen generations? Marginalised due to ethnicity? A refugee? With all that we now understand regarding mental health and trauma, it's time to implement it where it can make the greatest impact. As an educated and privileged nation, we need to take responsibility for those most vulnerable and create genuine compassionate revisions to the services that are here to assist. As an example, NSW Health has available information on their website about Trauma Informed services detailing considerations and responsible processes for dealing with clients who have suffered trauma, along with the principles of Mental Health Human Rights. https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/mentalhealth/psychosocial/principles/Pages/trauma-informed.aspx Services Australia and Centrelink need to take a health based approach in their delivery of human services, to honour and properly reflect the Department of Social Services own Access & Equity policy. We need to remind ourselves we do not exist on a level playing field as far as our life experiences. The rhetoric of equal opportunity doesn't apply to those handicapped by misfortune of their circumstances.

In 2016 the Stafford Bowls Club located on 352 Stafford Road sadly closed their doors. It was a big loss in the heart of Stafford. In 2018 a development application was lodged and approved for Crushers Leagues Club to extend the existing building, transferring their licence from the previous venue. For years now, the Stafford community has waited for the Stafford Bowls Club to be developed into a family friendly hub, connecting the existing sporting facilities and sports communities through to Stafford City Shopping Centre and to thriving small businesses in the Wolverhampton industrial precinct. The Stafford Bowls Club has remained derelict since the closure. Unbeknownst to the community, Brisbane City Council representatives recently debated the handover of this approved lease agreement between Crushers Leagues Club and council to be handed over to a commercial interest - The Brisbane Racing Club. Without debate, and without community support, transparency or input. Three Councillors needed to abstain from voting to support this approval since they had declared receiving gift/s of $500 or more or multiple gifts from Brisbane Racing Club. With a majority LNP council, the decision to hand over a highly valued lease to a commercial racing business was approved. The community was not privy to the decision, nor consulted on what they would like or need for their community. We invite you to join our call to cancel this lease, and take back the decision of how this precinct should be developed for our community. It's time to revision our Stafford hub into something that benefits all community members, rather than line the pockets of commercial interest. Tell Council: No to Racing Club, Yes to Community Hub. What would you like to see in the Stafford precinct? A family-friendly venue operated by a local business (also free of 80+ pokies). A precinct much like the Grange Library and Grange Thistle Football and Bowls Club? A water play space with outdoor performances? Want to volunteer to help? https://forms.gle/3KR8UZdX2zQ9Y1L98 More reading on the decision can be found here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-27/stafford-bowls-club-new-lease-passed-by-brisbane-city-council/101578534

The extra sessions are absolutely essential for people suffering mental health challenges. Sufferers need access to the same practitioner with whom they have a rapport and have built trust. Mental health issues do not go away after 10 sessions. The extra 10 sessions have given patients huge relief knowing they can continue with their therapist throughout the year. This is something that needs to stay. Please do not take it away from the people who need it most. For some people it can literally mean the difference between life or death. For all sufferers it provides much greater peace of mind and a sense that they are being listened to and are cared about and that the support they need is available and affordable.

Tasmania's waters and beaches are pristine. Our region is a drawcard for visitors from all over the world. Anyone in the world can support this petition. We have a flourishing tourism industry which will be destroyed by salmon farming. We rely on our clean, green image for employment and the success of many businesses. We do not want to trade our tourism industry for polluting salmon farms.