Whether a child feels they belong at school can have a significant impact on their prospects after graduating from high-school. Dr Rhiannon Parker discusses her recent research that shows that low school belonging is a risk factor for whether someone is Not in Employment, Education, or Training (NEET) after leaving compulsory schooling.
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Health literacy is increasingly seen as a way to reduce health inequities. But are we relying too heavily on a concept that is becoming too broad to wield? Dr Jane Lloyd discusses if and how we can improve health literacy to address disadvantage.
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There is increasing interest in the links between women’s health and their socio-economic constraints. Today’s vitally important analysis is drawn from a newly-published longitudinal analysis that demonstrates a range of factors that are overwhelmingly gendered is creating a road to poverty for Australian women, negatively impacting on their mental health in demonstrable ways. This piece is authored by Joanne Enticott (@EnticottJo), Emily Callender (@EmilyCallander), Rhonda Garad, and Helena Teede, all of Monash University’s Centre for Health Reserach and Implementation (@MonashUni). This article originally appeared in Monash Lens and is republished with permission.
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After being punished by hostile welfare and housing systems, a trans welfare recipient reveals how she was able to rebuild her life through the power of queer solidarity and mutual aid. The author, Natalie Feliks, is a writer and activist currently living in Naarm. This post is part of series of articles curated for Power to Persuade by the Australian Unemployed Workers Union, shining a light on people’s experiences of the welfare system.
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Today’s post is the first of a series of articles curated by the Australian Unemployed Workers Union shining a spotlight on people’s experiences of the welfare system. In the wake of yet another Federal Budget that punishes and starves welfare recipients, a woman living on the Disability Support Pension details the “tightrope of poverty” that she fears will result in her death. This brave and important piece is by Emma Morris, a passionate advocate for disability, LGBTQIA+, and neurodiverse rights as a proud member of each of these communities.
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This article by Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor in the School of Population and Global Health at the University of Melbourne, examines Australia’s 2022-23 Budget through a health lens and highlights missed opportunities for the federal government to improve primary care and aged care. It is republished from The Conversation.
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While approaches to ensure better legislative decisions for women include such activities as gender responsive budgeting, the most fundamental action would ensure that women are truly representative in Australia’s legislative bodies. In the lead-up to the Federal Election, we are running a series of specific asks for policy change. Today’s piece by Sandy Venn-Brown, Menaka Cooke and Terrie Roberts, all of the Women’s Electoral Lobby (@WELAus) makes the argument for instituting a quota system.
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Today’s post from Sam Thorp and Dr. Jeremiah Brown (@jeremiahtbrown) is a summary of a new report from Social Ventures Australia (SVA) and the Centre for Social Impact (CSI), which finds that not-for-profit organisations across Australia are, in general, not funded for the actual cost of what they do. The result is less effective operations and reduced impact.
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Today's post looks at what 'shared responsibility' means in the context of natural disasters.
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In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, countries introduced border closures or restrictions that essentially paused most forms of mobility, with significant consequences for migrants, their countries of origin, and destination countries. A new report by the Migration Policy Institute explores the rationale for deeper international cooperation on migration, the obstacles impeding it, and ways forward.
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In the lead-up to the Federal Election, we are running a series on specific asks for policy change at the federal level. The Federal Government has made it clear they continue to support compulsory income management; there is disproportionate targeting of Indigenous people, with Indigenous women’s experiences of such programs replicating colonial control and abuse. More broadly, there are serious concerns about the gendered impacts of compulsory income management schemes and their effects on the wellbeing of children and families. Today’s analysis by Priya Kunjan (@PriyaKunjan) and the policy team at the Accountable Income Management Network (@AIMNau) provides a specific policy ask of the Federal Government – put an end to the Cashless Debit Card and BasicsCard and invest the money in ways that will make a lasting community change.
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Refugees and asylum seekers in Australia face a myriad of challenges in accessing higher education. Welcoming Universities is a new initiative that aims to change that.
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The lack of public acknowledgement of sexual violence against women and children during the first month of UK lockdown could have long-term implications not only for individuals but for the services put in place to support them, a group of UK experts have argued in an article published by the Journal of Gender-Based Violence.
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Reform of Australia’s welfare-to-work system and its ripple effects are recurrent themes on the Power to Persuade blog. In today’s post, Siobhan O’Sullivan, Michael McGann, and Mark Considine discuss their landmark, long-term research into privatisation in Australia’s welfare-to-work system. Their new book Buying and Selling the Poor: Inside Australia’s Privatised Welfare-to-Work Market examines how well Australia is supporting its most vulnerable citizens, and what might be done differently.
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In the lead-up to the Federal Election, we are running a series on specific asks for policy change at the federal level. Today’s piece by Philippa Hall and Sandy Venn-Brown draws from the Women’s Electoral Lobby (@WELAust) Election 2022 Policy Platform. Here they explain what needs to change to close the gender pay gap and increase women’s financial security from employment.
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Will the New Employment Services Model realise the vision of the Expert Panel? Probably not without more investment in the needs of people who do not get jobs easily says @simonecasey in this week’s Power to Persuade blog.
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