16 News

The Australian Government has imposed targeted financial sanctions and travel bans on a further 110 individuals in response to Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine, made up of senior Ukrainian separatists and Russian members of parliament.

The listings include 34 senior members of the Russian-led movements in Ukrainian regions Donetsk and Luhansk, the so-called “People’s Council of the People’s Republic of Donetsk” and “People’s Council of the People’s Republic of Luhansk”.

These individuals have violated the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine through their assertion of governmental authority over areas of Ukraine without the Ukrainian Government’s authorisation. The “People’s Republic of Donetsk” and “People’s Republic of Luhansk” do not hold the status of “state” under international law.

Australia also announces listings on a further 76 Members of the State Duma. Some of these additional individuals voted in favour of the resolution calling for President Putin to recognise Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states, and the majority subsequently voted in favour of ratifying one or both treaties on friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance between the Russian Federation and the so-called “People’s Republics”.

One additional Duma member, Oleg Matveichev, has been listed for the dissemination of disinformation and propaganda. As a mouthpiece for President Putin, he even argued disingenuously for the payment of reparations for harm caused by Western sanctions and the war itself.

With these announced listings, the Government will have sanctioned 812 individuals and 47 entities in response to Russia’s illegal war. Australia reiterates our unwavering support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and for the people of Ukraine.

Monash University researchers have developed customised electronic toolkits to help encourage STEM knowledge, logical thinking and creativity for people living with intellectual disabilities. 

TronicBoards, created by researchers from the Faculty of Information Technology (IT), are a range of customised colour-coded printed circuit boards with large controls and recognisable symbols adapted to facilitate easy circuit making for diverse intellectual abilities.

Lead researcher PhD candidate Hashini Senaratne said a variety of simplified electronics toolkits are increasingly available to help people engage with technology. However, they are often inaccessible for people with intellectual disabilities, who experience a range of cognitive and physical impairments.

“We developed TronicBoards as a curated set of electronic modules to address this gap in accessibility. These boards can be combined with conductive tape and other electronic components, including LEDs, vibration motors, buzzers and push buttons etc. to create and demonstrate working electronic circuits,” Ms Senaratne said.

“The design of TronicBoards was informed by workshops conducted by co-author Dr Kirsten Ellis involving 148 adults living with intellectual disabilities. The participants were guided and supported by the researchers and support workers from various disability support organisations. 

“We found that the participants, with varying degrees of support, were able to logically interact with the boards, complete workable circuits and in some cases were also able to add creativity and craft personally meaningful objects like adding lights to a mirror and a music box that can change melodies with a slide switch.”

Research co-author Dr Swamy Ananthanarayan said the overarching goal of TronicBoards is to provide an opportunity for marginalised communities to move from being passive recipients to actively participating in the design of diverse technologies. 

“We envision a future where the tools and systems are flexible enough so people living with disabilities can craft smart artefacts and potentially their own assistive devices independently or with limited support from caregivers and disability support workers,” Dr Ananthanarayan said. 

Through the workshops data has been gathered to improve future iterations of the TronicBoards. The researchers are working to integrate the next editions of the boards with braille to improve accessibility for people living with visual impairments. 

The research findings will be presented during the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems being held in New Orleans, USA, from 30 April–5 May.  

Lead researcher, Hashini Senaratne, from the Faculty of IT’s Department of Human Centred Computing is available for interviews. 

To read the conference paper, please visit: https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3491102.3517483

The Victorian Budget has slashed funding for a highly successful homelessness program which halved rough sleeping in Victoria, with Council to Homeless Persons warning it will leave the most vulnerable out in the cold, and ultimately end up costing the state more in the long run. 

Today’s Victorian Budget revealed funding to From Homelessness to a Home (H2H) program has been reduced by $43 million annually, 78% of its earlier budget which translates to 1,440 people missing out on support. 

From Homelessness to a Home (H2H) saves an estimated $13,100 public expenditure for each participant annually, by diverting people away from hospitalisation, acute mental healthcare, and incarceration.  

“The government has failed to seize the opportunity to consolidate the success of From Homelessness to a Home, which effectively halved Victoria’s rates of rough sleeping,” said Jenny Smith, CEO of Council to Homeless Persons. 

“Failing to support people out of rough sleeping only guarantees more pressure on other services, such as hospitals, psychiatric wards, and prisons. It’s not just an economic costs, there’s also a societal cost to not helping our most vulnerable.

“The cut to the majority of the funding means 1,440 people will miss out on life-changing support that provides stability for people with enormous complexity in their lives.

“From Homelessness to a Home showed when we have the political will, we can get a roof over people’s heads as well as the support they need to keep that home, quickly and effectively. This Budget puts the brakes on the significant momentum we saw in sharply reducing rough sleeping.”

During the pandemic, tens of thousands of Victorians without homes were provided with short term relief in hotels, and then supported into private rentals. As part of this, H2H was introduced to meet the ongoing needs of those who’d experienced long-term rough sleeping and had more complex needs. 

The program has provided 1,845 households with stable medium and long term housing and support packages, including counselling, mental health, family violence and health and wellness services. Council to Homeless Persons says it is vital these places are at the very least maintained, and when vacancies occur they are open to more of the 9,000 rough sleepers seen by our homelessness services in Victoria each year.

“One of the few good things to come out of the pandemic was the government’s promise of a home for life and long-term support for rough sleepers. Now, the government’s walked away from that promise and nearly 1,440 of those people will miss out on that life-changing ongoing support.”

The announcement of a $75 million investment in tackling homelessness over three years will provide welcome capital investment and over time some additional services, but the peak body for Victorian homelessness services warned it remained that there was now no soft landing for rough sleepers. 

“Homelessness is more than missing out on a safe bed at night – it creates insecurity which conspires to deprive people of work, education, and social opportunities. 

“One H2H participant described almost being poisoned by the adrenaline of living in constant crisis while on the streets, but a safe, secure home gave him a chance to take a breath and begin to rebuild.”

The From Homelessness to a Home program is inspired by housing first principles, a successful international model ending rough sleeping by housing and supporting people who have experienced long term and recurring homelessness. Key ingredients in the success of housing first is that housing is permanent and support must be available for as long as people need it.

Rising interest rates will put additional pressure on vulnerable Australians already struggling to survive as prices surge, wages stagnate and safe, secure housing slips further from reach.

St Vincent de Paul Society National President Claire Victory said: ‘Today’s rate rise will be another kick in the teeth for Australians living in poverty, who are already stretching every dollar to its limit.

‘The surging cost-of-living, shortage of affordable housing, increasingly insecure work and stagnant wages are making it all-but impossible for a growing number of Australians to survive.

‘Today’s interest rate hike will add to these pressures and disproportionately impact the most vulnerable people in the community, who are already struggling to get by, often with limited family or social support networks,’ Ms Victory said.

The St Vincent de Paul Society has released a suite of simple, compassionate and affordable polices in the lead up to the federal election and is urging parties and candidates to put Australians in need at the heart of their campaigns.

The cost of implementing these policies involves modest reforms to superannuation and taxation, asking only the most well-off and able to afford it, to pay a little more.

‘Vinnies has stood by Australians in need for more than 170 years, providing emergency relief, housing, and other support services,’ Ms Victory said.

‘Our election statement, A Fairer Australia, is informed by our members’ experience meeting and helping Australians in need, and offers practical solutions to address widening inequality in households and communities, and lift many people out of poverty.

‘We are calling on parties and candidates to take urgent action in the remaining weeks of the campaign to support Australians living in, or at risk of falling into, poverty,’ Ms Victory said.

For more information on A Fairer Australia and a fairer tax and welfare system, visit www.vinnies.org.au

The Greens will push to build 118,900 homes in Western Australia over the next twenty years as part of their plan to build one million affordable homes across Australia to tackle the housing crisis.

To do this, the Greens will establish a Federal Housing Trust to construct and manage dwellings in partnership with states, territories and community housing providers. The national Greens build will end homelessness, slash housing waiting lists, provide housing options for people locked out of the housing market and create thousands of jobs. Three-quarters of all homes will be built for low-income renters who are eligible for public housing, with the remainder to be evenly split as affordable rentals and properties for purchase through shared ownership with the Commonwealth.

The federal policy has been fully costed by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office and will reduce the fiscal balance by $7.5 billion over the forward estimates period. The full Greens ‘Homes for All’ policy is available on the Australian Greens website.

According to the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, 68,300 additional social housing dwellings will be needed in Greater Perth over a twenty year period. Outside of Perth, 18,200 additional dwellings will be needed across WA. The Greens build for Western Australia will surpass this projected shortfall and build 93,900 homes in Greater Perth and 25,000 outside of Perth, creating more than 6,300 jobs in the process.

Australian Greens Housing spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi will be in Perth on Monday 11 April to announce the policy alongside WA Greens Senator Dorinda Cox.

Latest data sees rental vacancy rates at an all time low in WA, with a growing surge in rental prices and increased competition for renters, many of whom are struggling to find affordable housing. 

Senators Cox and Faruqi are hosting a Housing town-hall style forum in Perth on the evening of 11 April to discuss the housing crisis and the Greens plan to solve it.

The Greens have also announced policies on strengthening renters’ rights and winding back negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount in order to solve the housing crisis and provide a home for all.

Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Greens spokesperson for Housing said:

“Safe, secure, high-quality housing is a human right, not a privilege reserved only for those who are able to afford to pay through the nose for it. 

“Under the Greens plan, people will be able to afford to rent or purchase a property where they want to live.

“People who have been locked out of a home due to skyrocketing prices and a housing system stacked against them will be able to own a high-quality sustainable house and make it their home.

Senator Dorinda Cox, Greens Senator for WA said:

“Every West Australian deserves a roof over their heads, and a safe place to call home.

“In a property market rigged for speculators and wealthy investors, buying a home is well out of reach for most people. In WA, it’s currently too expensive for many people to both pay rent and save for a deposit. The Greens plan to address WA’s housing crisis tackles this head-on.

“Whether you are renting a home or buying one, a housing system should work for people, not profit.”

Greens Leader Adam Bandt has joined Arts spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young at the Comedy Republic in Melbourne to back live arts with a pledge to 

• back the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) call for $250 minimum fee for artist performances at publicly-funded events, 
• establish a new $1b ‘Live Performance Fund’ 
• and deliver a Live Performance Insurance Guarantee

These commitments are all part of the Greens’ Creative Australia plan to invest in our arts, music and stories, with long-term funding and good, well-paid jobs. This also includes additional grant funding for COVID recovery through the RISE Fund, initiatives to boost our screen industry to tell Australian stories, the establishment of a Creativity Commission, and an artist-in-residence program.

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson Young said:

“For the last two years of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Greens have been advocating for better support for our arts and live performance sector.

“The sector was smashed literally overnight and suffered the longest and hardest, yet repeated pleas to the Morrison Government for adequate help to survive and rebuild have been ignored.

“The Morrison government has treated the arts sector and creative workers with contempt, like a bunch of dim philistines who dismiss the public good of the arts but love belting out tunes from their favourite artists.

“The arts helped us all get through lockdowns whether it was listening to our favourite bands, watching our favourite shows, reading a good novel or appreciating other forms of art, it’s time we are there for them.

“Performers are the reason audiences show up, they deserve a minimum fee for publicly funded events – it’s the least the government can do.

“This minimum fee pledge is part of a comprehensive policy to revive and secure our arts and live performance industry, including with an enhanced grants fund (RISE) and a live performance insurance guarantee.”

Greens Leader Adam Bandt said:

“Artists helped get us through the longest lockdown in the world here in Melbourne, but Government support has been sorely lacking. 

“The impacts of the pandemic are still with us, as we saw with the devastating impacts of COVID-caused cancellations at the Melbourne Comedy Festival.

“A live performance insurance fund will help artists and performers hit with COVID-related cancellations.

“For too long performers have been expected to wear massive financial risks, and this instability means a lot of people can’t get into or stay in the industry. 

“In balance of power, the Greens will push for musicians, comedians and other performers playing in government-backed events to get properly paid, and for more support for artists when gigs are cancelled.”

Background on Minimum Gig Fees Campaign

The Greens policy backs in the call from the MEAA for a minimum performance fee of $250 for musicians when organisations receive government funding. The policy will ensure artists are recognised and remunerated for their work, and go some way towards providing stability for artists who continue to face economic insecurity due to COVID. By legislating this, it will ensure publicly funded events reflect industry standards for payment as determined by industry bodies.

The MEAA campaign for a minimum support fee for musicians has been endorsed by State Governments in VIC, QLD, WA and SA. In NSW, support was given by the upper house, however it is yet to be legislated following the appointment of Perrotet as premier. Government-funded events should have the same approach.