Tag: Social Justice

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Stories & Feature Articles

Financial counselling crisis

For many years, demand for financial counselling services has far exceeded the available funding for the service. UnitingCare West (UCW) provides financial counselling and emergency relief  services at three sites in the metropolitan area. For every person who is able to get into a counselling appointment, more than three other people are turned away.

The service was originally established as Creditcare by Wesley Mission and in more recent years has been supported by Uniting Church in the City. Governments recognised the need for the  service and added funding that enabled the service to expand.

On 5 June 2015, the WA Government announced that funding to metropolitan financial counsellors who were providing face-to-face services would cease from 30 September 2015. This is a  devastating decision for those people who need affordable, effective, financial support to get back on their feet. UnitingCare West is working actively with a number of other organisations to find a solution to this funding crisis. Your involvement by writing letters of support for the service to your member of parliament or sending messages of support to UCW financial counsellors via the UCW website, www.unitingcarewest.org.au, would be valued.

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News & Announcements

Church groups speak out on the Federal Budget

Church organisations have spoken out on the 2015-2016 Federal Budget, which was delivered last night by Joe Hockey, Treasurer.

The Uniting Church in Australia has expressed overall disappointment at the budget, singling out measures that will add to the suffering of the most vulnerable in Australia and abroad.

Spending on Australia’s First Peoples social security, welfare and health has stalled with expenses dropping or standing still on the back of last year’s $500 million cutback.

At the same time the Federal Government is establishing a $5 billion Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility to support major projects across northern Australia.

“Infrastructure funding is welcome, but it must not be at the expense of human infrastructure, particularly in northern Australia,” said Rev Prof Andrew Dutney, president of the Uniting Church in Australia.

“First Peoples must be equal partners in these enterprises and their rights and sovereignty respected. I expect the role of Indigenous Australians to be duly acknowledged in this process.”

Australia’s overseas aid program has also been hit hard.

The National Director of UnitingWorld Rob Floyd says he will seek further information from the Federal Government in the days ahead to see if and how ongoing programs will be affected.

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News & Announcements

Introduction of No-Fault Insurance applauded by disability sector

National Disability Services (WA), representing more than 100 disability service organisations including Good Samaritan Industries (GSI), applauds the State Government on reports that a No-Fault Insurance Scheme will be included in the upcoming 2015 State Budget. GSI is an agency of the Uniting Church in WA.

NDS has campaigned strongly for a fairer insurance scheme in WA which will cover all people catastrophically injured in a vehicle accident regardless of who is at fault.

According to Insurance Commission of WA figures, an average of 92 people are catastrophically injured on WA roads each year, including 44 people who are deemed ‘not compensable’ because no one is to blame for their accident.

The decision to implement a No-Fault Insurance scheme will ensure those 44 people are compensated for the cost of their lifelong care, bringing WA into line with the rest of Australia and correcting the serious injustice where those with catastrophic injury are divided into two camps: compensable and not compensable.

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News & Announcements

Uniting Church in WA calls for an end to three strikes mandatory sentencing

The Uniting Church in Western Australia and the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress (UAICC) WA hold grave concern over the impacts that proposed changes to the Criminal Law Amendment (Home Burglary and Other Offences) Bill 2014 currently before the Western Australian parliament will have on young Aboriginal people.

Chair of the UAICC WA, Rev Sealin Garlett said, “We work every day to give our people, especially our young people, the best opportunities to reach their potential. Locking them up is not going to help. We need the Government to help us reduce the number of Aboriginal people in jail, not increase it with these hard-line mandatory sentencing laws. We invite the Government to sit down with us to discuss the best ways to address some of the challenges facing our communities.”

Moderator of the Uniting Church in WA, Rev Steve Francis questioned the effectiveness of mandatory sentencing laws in contributing towards the long-term safety of the Western Australian community.

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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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News & Announcements

Groups speak out on new protest laws

The Uniting Church in WA, along with more than 25 other community organisations  have signed a petition calling on MPs to oppose new laws which will criminalise peaceful protests. Rev Steve Francis, moderator of the Uniting Church in WA, spoke out yesterday on this issue, expressing concern over the heavy handedness of these laws which do not protect the rights to protest. Also present was Chantelle Roberts from the Conservation Council WA, Meredith Hammat from Unions WA and Lawyer, Kate Davis.

The full statement is below. 

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News & Announcements

McClure conclusions lay out a strong pathway for welfare reform

UnitingCare Australia is encouraged by this morning’s news regarding the yet to be released final report of the Reference Group on Welfare Reform. “Australia needs a simpler, fairer and more adequate welfare system. If news reports this morning are accurate, the McClure recommendations may offer a way forward to achieve that,” said Lin Hatfield Dodds, national director of UnitingCare Australia.

“We particularly welcome attention being given to the adequacy of payments people receive.”

“For many years, income support payments have been inadequate. This has made it extremely difficult for vulnerable Australians to maintain a decent standard of life,” said Lin Hatfield Dodds.

“Providing adequate payments is at the centre of an effective welfare system. People who rely on income support, need payments that are reflective of community living standards, allowing them to cover their basic needs and participate in the community. It is crucial that payments are adjusted over time to maintain adequacy. Adjusting payments through the use of an expert panel every four years and a six-monthly adjustment according to an index like the Consumer Price Index would be very welcome.”

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WCC commission on international affairs addresses issues related to religion and violence

Violence perpetrated in the name of religion was highlighted as “a defining issue of our generation” by Canon David Porter when he spoke to members of the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA) of the World Council of Churches (WCC).

Porter, appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury as director for reconciliation at Lambeth Palace in London, joined the WCC meeting via Skype on 17 February. The meeting has brought together CCIA members who will set directions for the work of the Commission in coming years.

At the meeting, David said that religiously sanctified violence is a global challenge, and not just an issue of the Arab world.

“The reality is that those promoting such violence are looking deep into their own religious traditions and are attempting to find justifications for their actions,” he said.

“It isn’t just a façade; for many it comes with a deep ideological commitment from their tradition, as they understand it. Therefore the challenge for us is to look again into all religious traditions and see how traditions and texts are used to justify violence,” David added.

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Government makes Australia one of the world’s least generous nations

The Micah Challenge coalition strongly condemns the Government’s deep and unprecedented cuts to Australia’s aid program announced in today’s mid-year budget update by Treasurer Joe Hockey.

The cuts of $3.7 billion over four years come on top of $7.6 billion of cuts made by the Government in the May Budget. The aid budget will be cut by $1 billion next year, which is the largest ever cut made to aid in Australia’s history.

“We find it absolutely disgraceful that for the third time in 15 months the Abbott Government has broken its promises on aid and turned to our poorest neighbours to find their budget savings,” said Ben Thurley, Political Engagement Coordinator for Micah Challenge Australia.

By 2017-18 when the cuts come into full effect, Australia’s development assistance will fall to its lowest ever recorded level of just 21 cents in every $100 of national income.

This cut will make Australia one of the least generous aid donors in the world and further undermine the predictability, stability and effectiveness of Australia’s aid program.

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News & Announcements

Uniting Church condemns strip searching of Christian protesters

The Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) has condemned WA Police for strip searching Christian asylum-seeker advocates involved in a protest in Perth yesterday.

Several ministers of religion and lay workers including two from the UCA were detained by police after a prayer vigil at Foreign Minister Julie Bishop’s office in Subiaco. The protesters from the group Love Makes a Way were part of a national day of action in MPs’ offices calling for all children in immigration detention to be released into the community.

After their arrest, one of the protesters involved says police at the Perth Watch House told them they would be forcibly stripped and searched for weapons or drugs if they refused a strip search order before being placed in a holding cell. A number of those searched were visibly distressed.

Moderator of the UCA Synod of Western Australia Rev Steve Francis says he’s appalled at the protesters’ treatment.

“WA Police have deliberately humiliated people engaged in a peaceful act of civil disobedience,” said Steve.

“Strip searching is an outrageous and offensive response to Christian concern for the vulnerable, and I will be seeking an urgent explanation from the WA Police Commissioner.”

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