Alexa Ridgway
Continuing our theme on young people’s rights, Zaina Zulfiqar, Policy Advisor for FORE Good and recent Master of Public Policy (RMIT) graduate, argues for the need for Australian policy to uphold international students’ rights by ensuring that they are provided with appropriate support, protection and care.
Read MoreLast week, we published a blog about how financial pressures are impacting the lives of young Australians. This plays out in various ways, one of which is by creating barriers for young people to accessing secure and affordable housing. Below Kylie Smith, Operations Manager of MCM Housing and Master of Public Policy graduate from RMIT, makes the case for Australia’s Housing First for Youth Policy, emphasising the importance of housing ‘rights’ over housing ‘readiness’.
Read MoreIn 2025, Power to Persuade has invited articles on the theme of the relevance of rights for 21st century policy. This post from Everyday Human Rights, an independent, non-political human rights educational consultancy, argues for the continued relevance of human rights frameworks as a tool for policy makers.
Read MoreIn their new article for a special issue of the Australian Economic Review, Sharon Bessell, Cadhla O’Sullivan, Trevor Rose, Megan Lang and Talia Avrahamzon, discuss the need for a child-centred measurement of poverty in Australia.
Read MoreChildren and young people are essential voices and forces for change in public health, yet they are not included in climate discussions and decision-making. In today’s post, public health researchers from Deakin University’s Institute for Health Transformation (@IHT_Deakin) Grace Arnot (@GraceArnot), Dr Hannah Pitt (@HannahLPitt) and Dr Simone McCarthy (@SimoneNicoleM) highlight the important knowledge and experience that children and young people have, and call for their greater inclusion in climate decision-making and public health governance.
Read MoreWhile it has been anticipated for several years now, the Religious Discrimination Bill 2021 is already making headline news for failing to protect individuals from discrimination based on religious belief. In today’s analysis, Helen Dalley-Fisher and Toni Hassan (@ToniHassan) of the Equality Rights Alliance (@ERAAustralia) provide a summary of ERA’s submission that explains how the Bill will undermine gender equality. Portions of this analysis also previously appeared in the Canberra Times.
Read MoreAustralia’s child protection systems have long failed the families and children it was designed to protect. The structural injustices of the child protection system can be tackled by building institutional justice capital. This must include parental rights, non-violence, respectful relationships and public debate argue Dr Sharynne Hamilton and Dr Sarah Maslen.
Read MoreThe concept of a basic income, paid indiscriminately to all by the government, has had increasing support from people on all sides of politics, and this interest has only increased with the onset of COVID-19. Such a proposal has important implications for women, who are more likely to live in poverty and precarity due to their unpaid social roles. In today’s analysis, Beth Goldblatt of UTS (@UTSLaw) and the Australian Work + Family Roundtable provides a gender-sensitive human rights analysis of how a basic income could be designed to support economic justice for women. This analysis is drawn from her article Basic Income, Gender and Human Rights, recently published in the University of Oxford Human Rights Hub Journal.
Read MoreTackling COVID-19 must include building a sustainable response in prison systems and other detention settings.
Read MoreWhile the use of digital platforms has kept us socially connected during times of physical isolation, there are concerns that online safety measures are not enough to deal with potential surges in harassment and abuse, including cyber violence against women.
Auckland University of Technology’s Cassandra Mudgway and Kate Jones are calling for governments to establish an international charter on digital human rights to protect digital citizens from online harassment and abuse.
Read MoreAs the NSW parliament prepares for the introduction of a bill to decriminalise abortion in that State, Ashlee Gore writes that many believe abortion is already legal and freely available in NSW, and that while decriminalisation will be important for women’s choice and autonomy, there will remain many other medical, social and interpersonal barriers that restrict the exercise of this autonomy after the law has changed.
Read MoreIn today’s post, Dr Simone Casey takes a close look at the underpinnings of ParentsNext, a widely-criticised program that aims to encourage eligible parents to plan and prepare for employment by the time their children start school. Dr Casey is an Associate of the RMIT Future Social Services Institute and this post draws on her research into resistance in employment services and the construct of the welfare subject
Read MoreA scathing critique of the NSW government's push for the adoption of children in out-of-home care and a call for positive alternatives from Sharynne Hamilton, Ngunnawal woman and UWA doctoral candidate.
Read MorePerceptions of both the fairness and impacts of gender equality measures can help to either promote greater equity or, conversely, create barriers to their uptake. In today’s post, Pia Rowe of University of Canberra’s 50/50 by 2030 Foundation shares highlights from their recently-released report From Girls to Men: Social Attitudes to Gender Equality in Austria (co-authored with Mark Evans, Virginia Haussegger and Max Halupka).
Read MoreAustralia has many documented barriers to achieving gender parity in the workplace, and while a statistical overview of the pay and superannuation gap, differences in part-time and full-time positions held, and/or the percent of women in senior management or board positions is a good dashboard indicator, the most revealing view is to examine how things sit for women who face multiple barriers to achieving workplace equity. In today’s importance analysis, Catherine Hemingway[1] (@cathehemingway) of WEstjustice (@WesternCLC) shares findings from her Not Just Work report, which explores the high levels of discriminatory actions that recently-arrived women experience in their work places.
Read MoreWe spend a lot of time as a local, national and global community considering the wellbeing of children and what is in ‘the best interest of the child’ when they are at risk of abuse and neglect. We spend much less time considering the rights and responsibilities of parents and other family members who have children in the care of child protection services. It is time for a Charter of Rights for Parents and Families, argues Sharynne Hamilton from the Telethon Kids Institute at the University of Western Australia.
Read MoreWill it soon be possible to outsource our caring responsibilities for ourselves, our children and our parents to robots? Catherine Smith and Helen Dickinson ask what the human rights, privacy, equity and practical implications for care would be in a tech-dominated future.
Read MoreAt the moment, the Australian Government is examining modern slavery and developing a comprehensive response to how it presents in Australia. In today’s analysis, Emeritus Professor Gillian Triggs and Laura Vidal of Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand explore the opportunities this presents for creating a more effective response to instances of forced and child marriage. This article is an edited extract of a keynote presentation given at a ‘Good Conversations’ event hosted by Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand at Melbourne Town Hall on 7 June 2018.
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