Suicide is complex, but helping to prevent suicide doesn’t have to be. Everyone has a role to play and there are some seemingly small changes, that we can all make, that have a big impact. Thinking about the language that we use can do just that. While our language can convey compassion, provide hope, empowerment and optimism, we can also unwittingly express messages that divide and stigmatise. This blog post by Emma Neilsen discusses how even everyday expressions may carry connotations we have not considered and speak to ideas we don’t condone.
Read MoreCollaboration remains the ‘go to’ or ‘gold-star’ strategy as governments, business and community look to connect people, break down silos, cross boundaries, build partnerships and generate collective impact. All of which leads to collaborative advantage. It is likely that this preference will continue well into the future. The allure of collaboration is seen as self-evident: by leveraging the synergies formed from working together, innovation is possible, new knowledge is built, and complex, intractable social and economic problems can be resolved. In addition to these social benefits are the expected cost savings to be had from working in more connected or integrated ways. Robyn Keast*, Michael Charles* and Piotr Modzelewski** discuss the cost of collaboration.
Read MoreSet at the Manus detention centre in Papua New Guinea, the film Chauka Please Tell Us the Time is a unique collaboration between Iranian-Kurdish journalist detainee Behrouz Boochani andIranian-Dutch filmmaker Arash Kamali Sarvestani, made with footage from a mobile phone.
Showing this month, it is the latest piece of brave, innovative work from Boochani to shine a light on what happens in Australia's offshore detention world, where few Australian journalists have been able to venture and health and other workers have risked prison to speak out.
In this interview with Enza Capobianco from the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), Boochani talks about the film and how he has sought a different way to tell the story of detention because ’the language of journalism is too weak to describe the reality in this prison'.
The interview is republished here with permission from ACMI - read the original post here. Chauka Please Tell Us the Time is showing at the ACMI in Melbourne from June 16-18 and at the Sydney Film Festival on June 11 and 15.
Read MoreThe Croakey independent public health journalism team has issued a plea to readers and contributors to consider making a submission to the current Senate inquiry into the future of public interest journalism before the closing date of 15 June 2017.
It is republished here with permission, to also urge Power to Persuade readers and contributors and others – policymakers, public servants, community sector workers, researchers and anyone else with a stake in public policy – to engage in this important debate.
As the Croakey post notes, the inquiry is an opportunity for civil society to be involved in re-imagining futures for public interest journalism which plays a vital role in spotlighting and addressing disadvantage.
Read MoreThe Healing Foundation last week launched a new report into the Stolen Generations, to mark 20 years since the landmark Bringing Them Home report.
Bringing Them Home 20 Years On sets out an action plan to overhaul Australia’s Indigenous policy landscape that raises urgent challenges and concerns for social policy and practice, from mental health through to aged care.
Healing Foundation CEO Richard Weston writes that the report has identified four immediate priorities that are achievable, cost effective, and can reset the policy response to a group of Australians who have been so wronged, at the time of their removal and since.
Read MoreThe Referendum Council for constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples plans to deliver its final report to the Federal Government on June 30.
It follows the landmark Uluru Statement from the Heart delivered last Friday by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander delegates to the National Constitution Convention at Uluru which, Council co-chair Mark Leibler says, will be given "a great deal of weight" in the final report.
In the post below, first published at The Conversation, Constitutional law and Indigenous rights researcher Harry Hobbs outlines the key components of the Uluru statement and their historic context.
Read MoreThe Brotherhood of St Laurence recently released a report their 'Financial Wellbeing in times of Insecurity' working paper. The paper provides a basis for a broader understanding of the factors that shape financial wellbeing and the capacity of individuals to experience economic security. In this post Dr Dina Bowman and Dr Marcus Banks from the Research and Policy Centre explore the paper's key findings.
Read MoreLast week marked the launch of the new Public Service Research Group (PSRG) at UNSW Canberra. PSRG has been established to partner with organisational clients to produce new insights into effective public service implementation and evaluation. Stephen Easton was at the launch and reports below. This post originally appeared on The Mandarin.
*Content warning: This post contains references to sexual violence.*
A recent Victorian court decision to release a teenager charged with sexual assault on strict bail conditions has prompted an outcry from Victoria Police and the state opposition. Today's post from an anonymous Australian lawyer challenges us to consider a more progressive legal and moral standpoint- from an anti-carceral feminist perspective, imprisonment for the sake of harsh punishment will not lead to the teenager's reform and rehabilitation.
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If you watch the news or read the papers, chances are you have heard about income inequality. The issue is complex and polarizing. But what does income inequality really mean? And what are the consequences? In this post, Uma Rani Amara, Senior Economist, and Marianne Furrer, Research Officer in the ILO’s Research Department unpack income inequality, how it affects people’s lives, and what can be done to reduce it. The original articles form a two-part series on the ILO's 'Work in Progress' blog.
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The 2017 Federal budget unveiled by the Coalition held many surprises, mainly in the efforts it went to achieve distance from the disastrous 2014 budget. With significant investment into education, health and housing, some even called it a ‘Labor light budget’. However, these positive inputs are offset by the increasingly punitive approach to people on welfare, contrary to what evidence indicates is effective policy. In today’s post Kathy Landvogt highlights some of the most concerning aspects of the government’s stance towards people on welfare and how it will set Australia back as the land of the ‘fair go.’ This blog originally appeared on the Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand web site.
Read MoreAre gender equality strategies developed by Australian Government departments robust enough to make the APS an employer of choice for women? In today's post, Sue Williamson and Meraiah Foley explore the exemplar strategies most likely to progress workplace gender equality and achieve real culture change. This article was originally published in The Mandarin.
Read MoreToday's post from Gareth Bryant from the University of Sydney and Ben Spies-Butcher from Macquarie University examines how changes in accounting methods have reshaped the politics of HECS since its introduction in 1989. This article was originally published on The Conversation.
Read MoreAs we await the release of the Australian Federal Budget, today's post reminds us of the human impact of government decisions and the importance of giving all citizens a voice. Deb Warr, Helen Dickinson and Sue Olney, together with Jen Hargrave, Pan Karanikolas, Vas Kasidis, Georgia Katsikis, Jasmine Ozge, Dave Peters, Cina Wheeler and Michelle Wilcox, have recently completed a study funded by the Melbourne Social Equity Institute, that examines service users' experiences of navigating the NDIS.
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Tuesday’s budget lock-up for the Victorian State budget revealed significant investment not only for direct family violence services but also for the inter-related services which work together to make women and children safer. In today’s blog, Tanya Corrie, of Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand, breaks down the numbers. Tanya is the Research & Policy Specialist for Financial Security and the acting Head of the Women’s Research, Advocacy & Policy (WRAP) Centre.
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On March 1st, the first of Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand’s Good Conversations[i] was held to discuss child support policies with an expert panel. Today’s policy piece provides a summary of the 7 primary questions on child support that were raised and why they are critical policy areas that need urgent addressing. Collectively, single mothers experience poverty at an alarming rate, and Australia’s child support system is partly to blame. This summary has been co-authored by Kathy Landvogt (Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand), Terese Edwards (National Council for Single Mothers and their Children - NCSMC), and Kay Cook (Swinburne University).
Read MoreThe Government recently tabled its State of the Environment Report 2016 Overview in Parliament. While our national parks and other public lands are generally considered the focal point for conservation efforts, the Overview reinforces the continued need for private land to deliver biodiversity conservation outcomes. In this post Drs Benjamin Cooke and Katie Moon explore opportunities to improve policy outcomes through re-engagement with the ethic of environmental stewardship.
Read MoreThere has been considerable discussion about the trial of cashless debit cards currently underway in Ceduna and Kununurra. With the Commonwealth apparently ready to announce an expansion of the trials in the May budget, David Tennant explores what that would mean and why is it relevant to regional centres like Shepparton.
Read MoreIn this review of Max Harris's manifesto for a new progressive politics, The New Zealand Project, Luke Craven examines tensions between advocates of more radical and pragmatic approaches and asks, in the desired move towards more a values-based polity, whose values are being represented?
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