• Royal Commission into treatment of trans and gender-diverse Australians
    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.
    6 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Cloé Sophia
  • COLES TO BAN PLASTIC BAGS
    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.
    6 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Suzette Lau
  • Safe Streets to School: Parramatta
    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.
    1 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Melissa Brooks
  • Support for a full-time doctor at Cessnock Hospital Emergency Department
    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.
    2,025 of 3,000 Signatures
    Created by Jenna Vaughan
  • SAY NO to ROAD THROUGH TODD MALL
    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.
    1,318 of 2,000 Signatures
    Created by Sophia Marriott
  • Make Centrelink a “trauma informed” service.
    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.
    7 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Renee Falez
  • Community Hub, not Racing Club. Stafford, Queensland
    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
    493 of 500 Signatures
    Created by Anna Campbell Picture
  • Keep 20 Medicare Sessions for Mental Health
    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.
    13 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Lindsay Hayman
  • Stop Salmon Farming on Tasmanian Northwest Coast
    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.
    408 of 500 Signatures
    Created by Robyn Weare Picture
  • Residents for Safe Streets to School: Ku-ring-gai
    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.
    11 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Ela Ostovary
  • Bent and Broken
    All of us have had some experience with someone experiencing chronic illness. Imagine if it were you, and you have faced a life being told, ‘it’s in your head, oh it’s not that bad, I don’t know what’s wrong!’ This is the common experience of people with rare conditions. The social media groups are filled with horror stories of poor treatment, medical gaslighting and a profound level of medical ignorance. It is appalling that here in Australia we do not have adequate trading of Dr’s in these conditions. I think most of us could recall a time when we have had a bad experience with medical treatment, imagine if that one experience was repeated many times over, over many years. At the same time you just continue to get more unwell. This is what it’s like to have a rare genetic condition. I believe that we can demand better from our decision makers. I believe that this is an opportunity for Australia to lead the world in coordinated treatment and research options for those with these conditions.
    852 of 1,000 Signatures
    Created by Tracy Finnegan
  • Make Summerleas road safer for all, people and wildlife.
    We are concerned for the safety of all road users including pedestrians, cyclists, dog walkers, horse riders and wildlife that traverse the road. Speeding drivers ignore speed limits and fail to drive to the conditions killing wildlife at night and increase the risk of accident and injury to people in the day time. Wildlife deaths occur almost every night in this well known black spot. The average for the whole of Tasmania is one wildlife death per 3 kilometres. At certain times of the year this section of Summerleas road has recorded an average of one death per 8.5 metres. A total of 65 wild lives were lost on this section of road between the 4/9/21 and the date of this petition. This figure does not include at least 9 known joeys that also died along with their mothers and 3 injured animals that had to be rescued and euthanised due to the severity of their injuries. The Natural Values Atlas lists 3 threatened mammal species of concern for this area. They are the Eastern barred bandicoot, Eastern quoll and the Tasmanian devil. Several Bandicoots have been killed recently on the road. Eastern quolls and Tasmanian devils have been sighted (and devils accidentally trapped) by residents on properties close to the road. The phycological effect on the community that witnesses this amount of death on such a short section of road must not be overlooked. The danger to human life of injury and death is just as real and also needs to be addressed. There is a concentrated population of horse riders in this area, and close surrounding areas and a long established horse agistment centre actually within the section of road that is our major concern. To reach the few safe and designated riding trails that exist, riders must ride through this section as they have no alternative choice. There have been many incidents of very near misses involving horses, their riders and inconsiderate and speeding drivers. There are no safe pathways or verges. The road has at least one dangerous blind corner and is quite narrow in places with nowhere to safely get off the road. The shoulders are narrow with significant ditches and areas where the ground drops away steeply while other sections have a high embankment. These conditions make it dangerous for horse riders, cyclists, dog walkers and pedestrians in general. Many school children regularly walk to and from school bus pick up, and drop off points. The community includes cycling enthusiasts and people who regularly walk their dogs. Both groups also report incidences where an accident has only been averted by sheer luck, including a dog (on lead) that was lucky to escape with severe bruising after an accident involving a speeding driver. The road is undoubtedly a shared zone and drivers need to be alerted to that fact and encouraged to drive appropriately. Signage alerting drivers to the wildlife death black spot need to be installed and a reduced dusk to dawn speed limit imposed. It has been well studied and documented that a reduction of speed between dusk and dawn would reduce the wildlife deaths on Tasmanian roads by a huge amount. (Hobday 2010 ) Some estimates suggest as many as half the estimated annual 500,000 animals could be saved by reduced speed between dusk and dawn. Other mitigation initiatives should also be explored such as speed humps and new generation virtual fences designed for Tasmanian conditions and wildlife. Other options could include community based and created art works that highlight the issues and engage the public in creative and new ways. The people who have signed this petition request Kingborough Council implement speed restrictions, signage and safety measures to make this particular road a safer place for everyone, people and animals.
    376 of 400 Signatures
    Created by Ruth Waterhouse