Category: Social Impact

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Social Impact

MYEFO: Human services funding must focus first on those most vulnerable

UnitingCare Australia has reported that the Mid-year Economic and Fiscal Outlook has adjusted spending in essential human services, particularly aged care.

“UnitingCare Australia supports the reduction of childcare subsidies for high income families. Our focus is to ensure that vulnerable and low income parents are provided with adequate support and access to quality childcare; as the results of regular access to early learning and education are well documented,” said Lin Hatfield Dodds, National Director of UnitingCare Australia.

“Social and aged care services require adequate funding to meet the needs of those who rely on them. Sustainable public funding is critical, as are increased private contributions from those with the capacity to do so.

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Social Impact

Compassion for refugees well overdue

Hundreds of people turned out in Perth for the Palm Sunday Walk for Justice for Refugees on Sunday 29 March. The crowd gathered at St George’s Cathedral in Perth before peacefully marching through the CBD calling for humane policies for asylum seekers and refugees in Australia. The event was organised by the Perth Justice4Refugees network, comprised of more than 20 community groups and churches.

Tim Winton, multi-award winning West Australian author spoke powerful words to the crowd.

“We’re here to call a spade a spade, to declare that what has become political common sense in Australia over the past 15 years is actually nonsense. And not just harmless nonsense; it’s vicious, despicable nonsense.  For something foul is festering in the heart of our community, something shameful and rotten,” he said.

“If current refugee policy is common sense, then I refuse to accept it. I dissent. And many of my countrymen and women dissent alongside me. I don’t pretend to have a geopolitical answer to the worldwide problem of asylum seekers. Fifty million people are currently displaced by war and famine and persecution. I don’t envy those who make the decisions in these matters, those who’ve sought and gained the power to make decisions in this matter. I’m no expert, no politician. But I know when something’s wrong. And what my country is doing is wrong.

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Social Impact

Free the children – End the abuse

The Uniting Church in Australia is calling for the immediate release of all children and their families from Australian-run immigration detention centres, after the publication of a shocking report by the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC).

The damning report, The Forgotten Children, is the largest survey of children in detention ever conducted anywhere in the world. It details brutal and damaging treatment on Nauru and Christmas Island. In the 15 months to March 2014 there were 233 recorded assaults involving children and 33 incidents of reported sexual assault.

“Australia’s state-sanctioned abuse of children must end,” said Uniting Church President, Rev Prof Andrew Dutney.

“The level of mental distress and long-term harm suffered by children as a direct result of their detention is appalling. These children are losing the most important years for their growth and development and some will be scarred for life by their experiences.

“For the sake of the children, to protect them from further harm, the Government must release the children and their families, including those from Nauru, into the community,” said Andrew.

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Social Impact

Uniting Church Minister explains why he protests

Anti-coal activists at the controversial open-cut coal mine at Maules Creek, near Narrabri, are at times surprised to find themselves accompanied by a Uniting Church Minister. Rev John Brentnall joined a blockade for the third time on 26 November, together with three Buddhists and another Christian, this time at the gate of a coal processing plant in Gunnedah. On a previous occasion he was arrested.

Why would a Christian Minister work in such unlikely ways? John explains: “Like many other Christians, I interpret the word ‘neighbour’ to include not just the people who live next door but all of humanity. Not just the ones who are alive now, but the ones in the generations to follow. I also include all living creatures.”

John cites the various objectionable impacts of the coal mine. He is concerned about the health impacts of toxic dust; the mine’s heavy use of water in a drought-prone agricultural area; the destruction of the last remaining intact Box Gum grassy woodland, habitat for dozens of endangered species; and the destruction of various sacred sites of Gomeroi Traditional Custodians.

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Manea College a sea of purple

Students from Manea Senior College in Bunbury rallied together on Wear it Purple Day to support sexually diverse peers and raise money for UnitingCare West’s True Colours program. Wear it Purple Day  was held on Friday 29 August, building awareness around issues that many young sexually diverse people might face.

The College became a sea of purple as students were invited to dress up for the occasion. They also held a presentation at lunchtime including information on the concept behind the event, performances, a  best dressed competition and berry smoothies made by the college’s Health Committee throughout the day.

Lauren Baxter, youth worker at the college, said that the year 12 Student Executive Team wanted to be proactive on the issue and run the event to highlight to the community that they offer an inclusive  environment.

“It was student led and it just makes it more relevant to the students,” Lauren said. “We’re aware that there are going to be students that are sexually diverse and we want the students to know that we are  supportive and there are services in Bunbury that they can go to.”

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Update: 5 Christian leaders arrested at MP Kevin Andrew’s office in Doncaster after prayer sit-in

Advocates for children suffering in detention have been arrested after sitting in the office of MP Kevin Andrews to request the release of all children and families from immigration detention.

Five church leaders have been arrested after a prayer sit-in in at Cabinet Minister for Social Services Kevin Andrews’ electorate office. The group were requesting a timetabled commitment for the release of all children and families from immigration detention centres.  They asked that Kevin Andrews become a public champion for the immediate release of children and families. Despite an invitation to respond to their message, Kevin chose to remain silent and decided to arrest the church leaders and close his office early today at 3pm.

Those arrested included local clergy and Christians from different denominations. One of those arrested, former disability nurse Leonnie Wickenden had this to say about her participation in today’s action: “I’m here today because the evidence of over 15 years of bipartisan asylum seeker policies, show us that vulnerable children continue to be put at immeasurable and unacceptable risk of life-long developmental disruption. Having over 20 years of service to people with disability, my faith determines that we owe children immediate freedom from detention so they can thrive in all aspects of their development, away from the bars of hopelessness and despair.”

The group made this request of Kevin Andrews because he is both a Cabinet member and a vocal public advocate for children’s welfare.

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Christian leaders hold prayer sit-in inside Kevin Andrews’ Doncaster office

Advocates for children suffering in immigration detention intend to stay until they have a timetabled commitment from the Government for all children and families to be released.

5 Christian leaders are right now holding a prayer sit-in inside current Minister for Social Services and former Minister for Immigration Kevin Andrew’s Melbourne electoral office calling on the Federal Government for the immediate release of all children and families from immigration detention centres.

The group, comprised of church leaders from Pentecostal, Church of Christ and Uniting Church backgrounds entered Kevin Andrew’s office at 11am and say they intend to remain there until they get a timetabled commitment for the release of all children and their families.

The group is making this request of Kevin because he is both a Cabinet member and a vocal public advocate for children’s welfare. In his recent address for National Child Protection Week, Kevin said that “child protection is a unifying issue in a place where we are so often divided. It’s one of those things that should be bigger than the to-and-fro of partisan politics.”

Speaking of the governmental “duty to protect,” he stated, “At the end of the day, the best interests of the child must always be pre-eminent and paramount. There should never be ambiguity on this question.”

However Kevin Andrews has been silent regarding the harmful effects of the detention of asylum seeker children.

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