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	Alarming Increase in Attacks on Education Worldwide by Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack   Sep. 2023   More than 3,000 attacks on education were identified in 2022, a 17 percent increase over the previous year, the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA) reported in a data release today.   The data were released ahead of the fourth United Nations International Day to Protect Education from Attack, on September 9, 2023. Almost one-third of all attacks took place in just three countries: Ukraine, Myanmar, and Burkina Faso, with the war in Ukraine accounting for the majority.   According to GCPEA, more than 6,700 students and educators were reportedly killed, injured, abducted, arrested, or otherwise harmed by attacks on education in 2022, an increase of 20 percent from 2021. Armed forces and non-state armed groups using schools for military purposes also rose in 2022, with over 510 cases reported, compared with around 450 the previous year.   Explosive weapons, both targeted and indiscriminate, were frequently used in attacks on education, causing widespread damage. Unexploded ordnance will continue to pose a deadly risk for years to come.   “The International Day to Protect Education from Attack serves as a stark reminder that schools are not always the safe refuges they should be, but instead are often the sites of extreme violence and terror,” said Diya Nijhowne, GCPEA executive director.   “The distressing increase in attacks last year underscores the urgent need for both armed forces and non-state armed groups to safeguard education, including by avoiding using explosive weapons with wide-area effects in populated areas, such as near schools or universities, and refraining from using schools for military purposes.”   The coalition also released a new report, Non-State Armed Groups and Attacks on Education: Exploring Trends and Practices to Curb Violations, which found that, in 2020 and 2021, more than half of all attacks on education, and a quarter of reported military use of schools and universities, were by non-state armed groups. The report highlights the various motivations these groups have for attacking schools and educators, and provides recommendations and strategies for reducing these attacks.   In 2022 and 2023, non-state armed groups continued to perpetrate a significant proportion of all attacks. In just one example, Al-Shabaab, an insurgent group in Somalia, claimed responsibility for a car bomb attack in October 2022 against the Ministry of Education that killed at least 121 civilians and wounded hundreds more.   The Safe Schools Declaration, a political commitment to protect students, educators, schools, and universities during armed conflict, endorsed by 118 countries, plays an essential role in preventing, and mitigating the impact of attacks on education. By endorsing the Declaration, governments also commit to using the Guidelines for Protecting Schools and Universities from Military Use during Armed Conflict.   The use of schools as bases, firing positions, detention centers, training grounds, and for other military purposes, can convert the schools into military targets, putting the lives of those within them at risk, and deterring students and teachers from attending out of fear or because the schools are closed to education.   Those who do attend are vulnerable to sexual violence and recruitment by soldiers. School infrastructure and learning materials are also damaged, affecting the quality of education, and sometimes making learning impossible.   Since 2015, when the Safe Schools Declaration was launched, over a dozen governments have made changes to their national policies, practices, or military manuals, to limit the use of schools for military purposes. Some Non-state armed groups have also taken measures to safeguard education. In October 2022, several groups operating in Burkina Faso signed unilateral declarations committing to protect educational institutions. In Yemen, the Houthis – who control the capital and other parts of the country – signed an action plan in 2022 to end attacks on schools along with other grave violations against children.   “Despite the chilling statistics on attacks on education and the staggering loss of life and potential that these numbers represent, there is still hope,” Nijhowne said. “The Safe Schools Declaration and its guidelines on military use of schools provide a roadmap for preserving the lives and futures of students and teachers, and the communities they build. On this International Day to Protect Education from Attack, all countries should endorse the Declaration and put its commitments into action.”   * The Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA) is a coalition of UN agencies and nongovernmental organizations working in the fields of education in emergencies, protection, and higher education. GCPEA is grateful for the support it receives from the Education Above All Foundation (EAA), Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs   http://www.hrw.org/news/2024/06/20/attacks-education-war-surge-globally http://reliefweb.int/report/world/alarming-increase-attacks-education-worldwide http://protectingeducation.org/the-problem/what-is-the-impact-of-attacks-on-education/ http://reliefweb.int/report/burkina-faso/insecurity-forces-closure-13000-schools-upcoming-school-year-central-and-west-africa http://www.nrc.no/news/2023/march/burkina-faso-home-to-almost-half-of-closed-schools-in-central-and-west-africa/ http://www.nrc.no/news/2023/january/niger-violence-derails-youths-future-in-the-worlds-youngest-country/ http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/conflict-eastern-drc-having-devastating-impact-childrens-education http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/unicef-geneva-palais-briefing-note-impact-ukraine-war-childrens-education http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/school-year-nears-tragic-end-ukraine-amid-child-deaths-empty-classrooms-and http://www.unicef.org/education-under-attack Visit the related web page
	Inequality continues to rise in Australia by ACOSS, Anglicare, Australia Institute, agencies   Mar. 2025   Australia is a wealthy country but it also an unequal one, like so many others where economic elites manipulate the rules of the game to their unending advantage.   Privatising Government services was promised to lower costs and provide more choice. Experts say the consequences are 'devastating', reports Gareth Hutchens for ABC News.   "During the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, Australian governments forced an increasing number of essential social services to be controlled by "market logic".   That process of "marketisation" — where the profit motive is used to regulate relationships between citizens and the state, and citizens and providers of social services, by transforming social relationships into market goods and services — has been applied to everything from education to health, housing, child care, aged care, and employment services.   Voters were told it would lower the cost of services, improve service quality, and increase "consumer choice". But researchers say many of those policy areas have been plagued by very real problems in recent years"..   Inequality continues to rise in Australia, by Kim Gleeson   The neoliberal privatization of Government services has been viewed as a business opportunity, promoted assidously by big business interests, corporate media and conservative political parties and has been embraced by consecutive Labour Governments over the last 30 years. Government is conceived as a public private partnership where market rules frame realities.   Industry self-regulation is the default policy setting. Public sector and regulatory agencies are obliged to give preference to servicing business interests, by their political masters. The public sector has been corporatized, inculcated with a culture of compliance to neoliberal economic objectives, eroding accountability and transparency across agencies of Government with responsibility to uphold the broad public interest.   Citizens are consumers in user pays society. Government social services are under-funded, often under staffed with voice messaging machines and chatbots a popular diversion.   Predominate corporate media agencies maintain ongoing neoliberal market narratives to advance big business interests and the preferences of high wealth individuals. Public broadcasters largely follow the same rules, with a parade of corporate consultants and neoliberal economists defining economic realities and what the government should do to benefit the market.   Big business interests and the preferences of high wealth individuals interests are preferenced and reflected in the economic and regulatory decisions of Governments. This is reflected in budget decisions, legislation and regulatory frameworks.   The public sector has been corporatized and made compliant to the unending profit motive over the broader public interest. The result, the corporate and regulatory capture of Government over the last 30 years, with public services under-funded and increasingly inadequate to meet public demand under the user-pays model of goverance.   The bottom 40% as measured by socio economic status miss out whilst the top 10% are further enriched. The catchcry of a Fair Go Australia is a advertising slogan for a sold out governing class eyeing their corporate lobbying consultancy careers.   Australian banks fined $10 billion for malfeasance. Privatized Aged Care providers spending just $6 a day for 3 meals a day. Privatized Child Care providers 33 cents for young children's food to offer greater profits for shareholders. Ambulances forced to ramp for hours with no room available in public hospitals.   Two thirds of federal parliamentarians with multiple negatively geared investment properties. Tax rate changes in a cost of living crisis offering $4,500 a year discount to those on $200k. With the conservative opposition and the Australian Business Council adamant they should have received $9,000 a year, whilst low income families struggle to make ends meet and food banks report unprecedented demand.   While the Government offers taxpayer funded childcare allowances to families on a income of $650,000, and does not require any capital gains tax on family mansions valued at $6.5 million dollars. But there's never enough public monies to adequately fund social housing despite overwhelming demand, or raise basic social safety net allowances. Whilst the mining and gas industries reap record profits year after year, households struggle to afford sky high energy costs.   With multinational miners and corporations ever adept at minimalizing their taxes under Australian law, framed by politicians wedded to neoliberal orthodoxies that the market knows best - at the expense of the economic well being and public interests of the majority of the population.   Purported regulators, public sector oversight boards and accountability agencies populated with business leaders, corporate consultants and compliant public officials who are rewarded for parroting the neoliberal mantra of trickle down economics for those with the most..   * Tax rate changes: Those with $30K annual income to receive a $354 p.a. discount in 2024-25; Those on $200K to receive a $4,529 p.a. discount in 2024-25. Those on social security benefits to receive $150 energy rebate a year:   http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/mar/25/australia-federal-budget-2025-cost-of-living-policies-tax-cuts-power-bill-rebate-medicare-childcare-student-debt-hecs-help-bulk-billing http://www.acoss.org.au/media_release/budget-reply-fails-to-set-out-plan-to-lift-living-standards-or-tackle-housing-crisis/ http://www.acoss.org.au/media_release/astounded-more-dollars-for-everyone-except-those-with-the-least/ http://www.acoss.org.au/media-releases/?media_release=acoss-calls-for-tax-reform-that-doesnt-raise-gst http://www.abc.net.au/news/adele-ferguson/102592574 http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/02/fair-and-effective-tax-policies-needed-advance-economic-social-and-cultural http://www.hrlc.org.au/news/right-to-housing-report http://www.hrlc.org.au/reports/upr-2025-26/   Nov. 2024   People receiving unemployment benefit (JobSeeker) are around five times more likely to experience multiple deprivation than the general population, according to a new report by the Poverty and Inequality Partnership led by Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) and UNSW Sydney.   Material deprivation in Australia: the essentials of life found about one in two people relying on JobSeeker and one in three sole parents are experiencing multiple material deprivation, compared to about one in twelve people nationally.   Multiple material deprivation is when a person lacks two or more essential items because they can’t afford them. Examples include a decent and secure home, a yearly dental check-up and $500 in savings for emergencies.   The report found eight groups of people are particularly at high risk of multiple deprivation: people relying on JobSeeker Payment; Parenting Payment, Disability Support Pension or Youth Allowance, sole parent families, First Nations people, and those renting social housing or privately.   For example, more than one in three people relying on JobSeeker are deprived of having at least $500 in savings for an emergency, one in three can’t afford home contents insurance and one in five are deprived of dental treatment when they need it.   The report found:   People on JobSeeker are around five times more likely to lack two or more essential items than the general population (45% vs 9%). People receiving a Parenting payment are around four times more likely to lack two or more essential items (38%).   Sole parents (29%) and First Nations people (32%) are three times more likely to lack two or more essential items. Private renters are twice as likely to experience ‘multiple deprivation’ compared with the general population (19%).   People receiving JobSeeker are 14 times more likely to lack a substantial meal at least once a day; almost 9 times more likely to lack a mobile phone or a motor vehicle; and 8 times more likely to lack access to the internet at home or a washing machine.   81% of people with incomes below the poverty line and experiencing multiple material deprivation have low wealth. 50% of unemployed households experience multiple deprivation, lacking two or more essential items.   The report, using data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey, identified 23 essential goods and services considered by a majority of people living in Australia as things that nobody should have to go without, and measured how many people lack those items because they cannot afford them.   The items which people on income support payments most often lack are protections against future risks including at least $500 in emergency savings, home contents insurance or comprehensive car insurance; items for children including new school clothes; health items including dental treatment when needed.   “People receiving income support are experiencing multiple material deprivation at rates that far exceed the general population,” said ACOSS CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie.   “This tells us that JobSeeker, Youth Allowance and related payments are so woefully low that people can’t afford the basic essentials of life.   “The extremely high rate of people with low wealth (81%) among people with incomes below the poverty line who are experiencing multiple deprivation shows the important role that wealth plays as a protection against poverty.   “In its upcoming Budget, the Federal Government must raise income support payments to liveable levels, fix employment services, boost social housing and enact a jobs, services and training plan to reduce long-term unemployment. These policies will go a long way to reducing poverty and material deprivation across Australia.”   Lead author of the report, Dr Yuvisthi Naidoo, UNSW Senior Research Fellow, said: “This research highlights that Australia’s income support system is failing to provide adequate protection against deprivation. Income support payment levels are set assuming that everyone has access to universal healthcare and adequate social services – but the high rates of people lacking dental and medical care shows that assumption is flawed.”   Jesuit Social Services CEO Julie Edwards said: “Through our programs supporting people and communities on the margins, we know that people receiving income support are often having to make extraordinarily difficult decisions about choosing whether to pay for medication or their children’s school supplies. This report puts in stark focus the material deprivations that people are experiencing every single day.   “We have long known that the income support system is inadequate and does not allow recipients to lead dignified lives – let alone during a cost-of-living crisis like we are currently in. We call on our political leaders to lift income support to allow recipients to live above the poverty line and increase their ability to afford access to essentials.”   Mission Australia CEO, Sharon Callister said: “This report confirms what our frontline workers see daily: despite Australia’s wealth, too many people on the lowest incomes who rely on income support, or rent social housing, are struggling to afford life’s essentials and are living in deprivation.   “Homelessness and poverty are closely linked. Without urgent action, more people across Australia will be left behind and at risk of homelessness.   http://www.acoss.org.au/media-releases/?media_release=seven-in-ten-renters-worried-about-asking-for-repairs http://www.acoss.org.au/media-releases/?media_release=independent-committee-calls-on-federal-government-to-raise-the-rate-of-jobseeker-as-top-priority-third-year-in-a-row http://povertyandinequality.acoss.org.au/news/people-receiving-jobseeker-five-times-more-likely-to-experience-multiple-deprivation-new-report/ http://povertyandinequality.acoss.org.au/ http://www.anglicare.asn.au/2024/08/26/anglicare-australia-launches-cost-of-living-index-jobseeker-increase-is-urgent-as-payments-fail-to-cover-essential-costs-2/ http://www.anglicare.asn.au/2024/04/09/new-report-shows-jobseeker-is-too-low-to-cover-basic-living-costs/ http://www.anglicare.asn.au/publications/cost-of-living-index-income-support-2024/ http://www.bsl.org.au/news-events/media-releases/when-the-ends-wont-meet-new-research-on-the-financial-crisis-impacting-lower-income-families/ http://www.bsl.org.au/news-events/media-releases/poverty-inquiry-report-misses-the-mark-during-cost-of-living-crisis/   http://www.monash.edu/msdi/initiatives/transforming-australia http://theconversation.com/politics-and-property-how-our-leaders-are-among-the-privileged-using-legal-loopholes-to-build-their-wealth-250929 http://www.acoss.org.au/media-releases/?media_release=housing-tax-breaks-fuel-housing-crisis-and-must-be-fixed http://media.oxfam.org.au/2025/06/number-of-australian-billionaires-more-than-doubles-in-10-years-turbocharging-inequality-oxfam http://www.oxfam.org.au/2025/01/takers-not-makers-how-billionaires-profit-while-billions-struggle http://australiainstitute.org.au/post/corporate-profits-increase-inflation-fact-sheet/ http://australiainstitute.org.au/post/australia-is-a-low-tax-country-2/ http://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/article/2024/may/23/australia-federal-budget-2024-jobseeker-centrelink-welfare-inequality http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/feb/05/no-way-to-budget-out-of-cost-of-living-crisis-for-low-income-earners-report-finds http://theconversation.com/boosting-jobseeker-is-the-most-effective-way-to-tackle-poverty-what-the-treasurers-committee-told-him-204045 http://antipovertyweek.org.au/2024/10/millions-living-in-poverty-the-focus-of-anti-poverty-week/ http://antipovertyweek.org.au/resources/fast-facts/ http://reports.foodbank.org.au/foodbank-hunger-report-2024/ http://australiainstitute.org.au/report/wealth-inequality-by-asset-types-whats-driving-wealth-inequality/ http://www.hrlc.org.au/news/stop-the-slapp http://www.hrlc.org.au/news/voters-overwhelmingly-support-stronger-whistleblower-protections-new-polling-reveals/   Feb. 2024   Major review finds Australian governments failing to help close the gap between improvements in the life outcomes of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. (Coalition of Peaks)   The life outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples will not change unless there is a fundamental shift in how federal, state and territory governments view the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, according to a major Productivity Commission review.   The review found governments were failing in their commitments under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, did not fully grasp the nature and scale of the changes required, and urgently needed to “close the gap between words and action”.   The Coalition of Peaks, which is a partner to the National Agreement and represents more than 80 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peak organisations, said governments must take the findings seriously.   “As Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, we know what is best for our communities, but governments across the board are still not meaningfully giving us a voice in the decisions that affect our lives,” said Coalition of Peaks’ acting Lead Convenor Catherine Liddle.   The Coalition of Peaks is calling for all governments to fulfil the commitments they have already made.   “The National Agreement sets a road map, informed by our communities across the country, on what is needed by governments to help close the gap. This includes making sure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representatives are at the table with governments to share and lead in the decisions that impact on our communities’ lives.” Said Ms Liddle.   The Productivity Commission review noted the persistence of “government knows best” thinking when designing and implementing services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.   “This review involved extensive community consultation, and it confirms what our own countless conversations have told us – that governments still don’t understand that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people know what is best for our communities,” Ms Liddle said.   “When Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are given ownership over the decisions that affect their lives, the resources they need, and the opportunity to partner with government, we see better outcomes.”   Ms Liddle said more funding was needed to deliver the reforms, noting there had been no significant injection of funding since 2008.   “We are calling for a dedicated Closing the Gap fund, enshrined in legislation, and directed to Aboriginal community-controlled organisations and our organisations to support our self-determination,” Ms Liddle said.   “We are calling for tangible commitments to fully fund the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, to make a meaningful difference to the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.”   * The Coalition of Peaks is made up of more than 80 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled peak and member organisations across Australia, that represent some 800 organisations.   http://www.coalitionofpeaks.org.au/media/community-control-always-was-and-always-will-be-key-to-closing-the-gap http://www.justicereforminitiative.org.au/ http://humanrights.gov.au/about/news/speeches/mabo-oration-2025-one-land-two-laws-its-black-and-white   Feb. 2024   The Australian Productivity Commission's first review of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap has found it's unclear how much funding states and territories have allocated to Aboriginal-controlled organisations.   Commissioner Natalie Siegel-Brown said the final report of the first three-year review found state and federal governments' engagement with Indigenous communities was "tokenistic".   "If governments continue to put money towards programs that don't align with what the community is saying will work, or whether these programs are measured in terms of what the community value as markers of change, then governments will continue to allocate public money ineffectively.   "For example, governments would come up with their own policy or program or services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples that in some instances were actually harmful to those communities.   "The government would only engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people at the 11th hour right before something was about to go to cabinet."   Closing the gap targets have been around for 15 years, but data continuously shows strategies aren't working. In 2020 governments signed up for a radical overhaul and a new national agreement was formed.   The review found that state and federal governments are "failing" to implement what has been promised, and have provided recommendations:   Power needs to be shared, recognising the right that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have control over the decisions that affect their lives. Recognise and support Indigenous data sovereignty. Fundamentally rethink mainstream government systems and culture. Implement stronger accountability.   Ms Siegel-Brown says the government must undertake these changes.   "The task facing governments under the agreement, what they have promised, is to make structural and cultural changes that embed shared decision making, building the Aboriginal community-controlled sector and to achieve that by being completely transparent.   Sharing power with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to make decisions about their communities lies at the heart of what governments committed to. But the Commission found evidence of a failure to relinquish power and the persistence of ‘government knows best’ thinking.   To address this, the report’s first recommendation proposes five actions, including amending the agreement to better emphasise power sharing, and having governments recognise the expertise of Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations in what works for their communities.   “Efforts to improve outcomes are far more likely to succeed when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people lead their design and implementation. Nothing will change until this model of partnership, based on genuine power sharing, becomes the rule and not the exception,” said Commissioner Romlie Mokak.   The report finds that progress is unlikely unless government organisations fundamentally rethink their systems, culture and ways of working.   The lack of progress we have seen reflects a disregard for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s knowledges and solutions throughout government. Breaking down these entrenched attitudes and ways of working will require a focused and deliberate effort from every department and organisation.   http://www.coalitionofpeaks.org.au/media/major-review-finds-governments-failing-to-meet-closing-the-gap-commitments-as-peak-body-calls-for-renewed-efforts-to-existing-commitments-and-a-dedicated-self-determination-fund http://www.coalitionofpeaks.org.au/outcomes-and-targets http://www.lowitja.org.au/news/lowitja-institute-calls-on-governments-to-hasten-action-to-close-the-gap/ http://closethegap.org.au/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-health-equity-and-justice-still-needs-to-be-progressed-closethegapday2024-report-launch/   Apr. 2023   Anglicare Australia has released "A Costly Choice", a report showing that Australia loses billions of dollars each year on tax breaks and concessions that benefit people on the highest incomes. Anglicare's "A Costly Choice" 2023 report: "The cost of concessions for properties, investment homes, superannuation, and trusts has spiralled to $128.26 billion. $72.38 billion going directly to the wealthiest 20% of Australians". Just $4.2 billion (3%) will go to the bottom 20% of income earners.   http://www.anglicare.asn.au/publications/a-costly-choice/ http://antipovertyweek.org.au/2023/10/ending-poverty-must-be-australias-number-one-priority-by-toni-wren/ http://antipovertyweek.org.au/2023/05/budget-2023-misses-opportunity-to-seriously-tackle-poverty/ http://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/too-many-aussies-are-starting-a-family-and-raising-their-kids-in-poverty http://csrm.cass.anu.edu.au/research/publications/fairer-tax-and-welfare-system-australia-0   * In Australia, people in the highest 20% of the wealth scale hold two thirds of all wealth (64%), while those in the lowest 60% hold less than a fifth of wealth (17%). The average wealth of a household in the highest 20% wealth group, is over ninety times times that of the lowest 20% wealth group.   http://povertyandinequality.acoss.org.au/poverty-in-australia-2023-who-is-affected/ http://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/social-affairs/reducing-poverty-and-inequality-australia-possible-report-says http://www.anglicare.asn.au/publications/the-cost-of-privilege/ http://www.anglicare.asn.au/research-advocacy/research-reports/ http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/series/inequality-reporting   Apr. 2023 (Australia Institute)   Inequality has been on steroids in Australia over the last decade with new data revealing the bottom 90% of Australians receive just 7% of economic growth per person since 2009, while the top 10% of income earners reap 93% of the benefits. Stagnating wages, insecure work, soaring profits and an unfair tax system mean many people are going backwards.   Australia is a now global outlier in the maldistribution of gains from economic growth, falling behind the EU, US, UK, China and Canada.   Matt Grudnoff, Senior Economist at the Australia Institute:   “Society works best when we all feel like we have a stake in its success. While this analysis is shocking it has become increasingly clear that the Australian economy is not working for most people.   “From the 1950s to the 1980s Australia was considered the land of the fair go and we saw people benefiting more equally from economic growth. Today, that Australian dream has turned into an inequality nightmare with the maldistribution of economic gains fuelling the cost-of-living crisis for low-and middle-income Australians".   http://australiainstitute.org.au/post/inequality-on-steroids-as-bottom-90-get-just-7-of-economic-growth-since-2009/ http://australiainstitute.org.au/post/profit-price-spiral-excess-profits-fuelling-inflation-interest-rates-not-wage/ http://australiainstitute.org.au/report/ending-child-poverty-in-australia/ http://australiainstitute.org.au/post/tax-system-turbocharging-wealth-inequality-in-australia http://australiainstitute.org.au/post/superannuation-tax-concessions-are-making-inequality-worse/ http://australiainstitute.org.au/report/australias-great-gas-giveaway/ http://australiainstitute.org.au/research/   Nov. 2023 (News agencies)   Robo-debt: 460,000 low income vulnerable Australians issued illegal debt notices using incorrect computer algorithm   Over 400,000 low income vulnerable Australians were issued false and illegal debt notices by Australian Government agencies. The scheme used data from the tax office and the Department of Social Services Centrelink office to automatically raise debts for thousands of dollars on hundreds of thousands of welfare recipients, debts which in many cases didn't exist.   Laura Tingle (Chief Political Reporter): For years, the government defended robodebt despite concerns the system was unlawful.   Prof. Terry Carney, University of Sydney: It's the conduct that you would expect of a tin pot third world country administration.   Laura Tingle: As debt collectors chased down welfare recipients, including pensioners, the disabled and even the deceased, it was clear that the Government automated system was generating debts that didn't exist.   Penny Cahalan: You can't just tell people they owe thousands of dollars without providing any actual proof.   Katherine Boyle, Welfare Rights Centre: It's a nightmare of a system for most people to try and navigate. They're being encouraged to agree to what are potentially wildly inaccurate debts, if the debts exist at all.   Laura Tingle: The Government robo-debt scheme was found to be unlawful.   Mar. 2023   Robo-debt royal commission hearings final week: ‘It served them right, did it?’, by Rick Morton for The Saturday Paper. (Extract)   The royal commission has heard of at least two cases where a robo-debt victim has killed themselves after receiving a letter or debt collection notice. There are more. Beyond the loss of life, significant in itself, it is impossible to quantify the harm perpetuated against ordinary Australians on a massive scale.   People lost jobs or family through the devastating spiral caused by financial wounds, their physical and mental health conditions worsened. Others were ground down to nothing while attempting to flee domestic violence.   At no stage was it apparent that the people designing the scheme cared enough to imagine what its consequences might be.   Despite all of these personal harms committed against real people, there is an effect even harder to define: the loss of faith in institutions that were meant to intervene and did nothing, or that failed.   As robo-debt victim Matthew Thompson told the inquiry, there is already little regard for the behaviour of this new breed of senior bureaucrats and the ministers they serve.   “I really struggle with the way that politicians talk about people like me who access income support,” he told the commission on March 1. “I am made to feel like a welfare cheat. It makes me feel – I have very little faith in the system. Hearing what politicians say about the issue, it makes me sad and sick.”   Robo-debt was a vortex into which many other agencies were pulled.   Government Ministers demanded fealty and got it. They argued that poor people never did anything for the country and then sought to burnish their already fraudulent money management credentials off the misery of those same poor people.   It is difficult to attach a coda to a years-long abuse that will linger for decades in the minds of welfare recipients past and present. If this inquiry does nothing else, it has furnished the bones of the worst abuse of Australian citizens committed deliberately and with legal and personal impunity over five years.   There were multiple moments where documents were wilfully disappeared or left in the apparently inert state of “draft”; where ignorance was installed as a default operating system; where dozens of public servants from the middle ranks all the way to the top either knew or should have known, who, in their commitment to each other but not the people who suffered under their arrogance, sought to cover up an extraordinary act of cruelty.   Their ministers demanded fealty and got it. They argued that poor people never did anything for the country and then sought to burnish their already fraudulent money management credentials off the misery of those same poor people. What has been examined only slightly in this inquiry is an inconvenient fact: even if it were legal (which it was not), robo-debt would still have killed people. It would still have crushed people.   Robo-debt’s architects didn’t even have the faux-decency to try for legal justification: they had long since given up the moral argument.   Whatever Commissioner Holmes finds in her final report, the key witnesses will have been provided with more procedural fairness and due consideration of law than any of the 460,000 robo-debt customers were ever given.   http://www.acoss.org.au/media-releases/?media_release=key-robodebt-rc-recommendations-still-not-implemented-two-years-on http://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2023/march/rick-morton/robodebt-and-empathy-bypass#mtr http://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/tag/robo-debt http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/mar/11/robodebt-five-years-of-lies-mistakes-and-failures-that-caused-a-18bn-scandal http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/royal-commission-into-robodebt http://theconversation.com/amateurish-rushed-and-disastrous-royal-commission-exposes-robodebt-as-ethically-indefensible-policy-targeting-vulnerable-people-201165 http://www.acoss.org.au/media_release/shameful-chapter-restitution-but-not-justice-from-robodebt-class-action-ruling/   Dug up in Australia, burned around the world – exporting fossil fuels undermines climate targets, by Bill Hare. ( Cliate Analytics)   Australia is one of the world’s largest exporters of fossil fuels. While this coal and gas is burned beyond our borders, the climate-warming carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions affect us all.   My colleagues and I at global research and policy institute Climate Analytics were commissioned to find out just how big Australia’s carbon footprint really is. Our detailed analysis of the nation’s fossil fuel exports and associated emissions is the most comprehensive to date. The report, released today, clearly shows Australia plays a major role in climate change.   We found Australia is the world’s third-largest fossil fuel exporter, after Russia and the United States. But it gets worse when the fuel is used. Australia exports so much coal that our nation is the second-largest exporter of fossil fuel CO₂ emissions.   Unfortunately, just when we need to be cutting emissions, Australia is doubling down on fossil gas extraction mainly for LNG production and export. Australian Federal government policies enabling and/or promoting continued high fossil fuel exports threaten to sabotage international efforts to limit global warming.   Australia’s fossil fuel carbon footprint   Australia’s contribution to global warming can only be understood by considering its fossil fuel exports alongside its domestic emissions. Our research found Australia’s coal and gas exports were responsible for 1.15 billion tonnes of CO₂ emissions in 2023. An additional 46 million tonnes of CO₂ were emitted domestically in the process of extracting, processing and distributing those fossil fuels purely for export. That takes the total to 1.2 billion tonnes of CO₂ attributable to fossil fuel exports.   In other words, Australia’s global fossil fuel carbon footprint is three times larger than its domestic footprint. Around 80% of the damage is done overseas.   The International Energy Agency has clearly said there should be no new fossil fuel development if the world is to limit warming to 1.5°C – the Paris Agreement’s temperature goal. Yet Australia continues to approve new fossil fuel exploration and production.   Overall, exports of Australian fossil fuels – and hence fossil fuel CO₂ emissions – are expected to continue at close to current levels through to 2035, under current government policies.   Between 2023 and 2035, Australia’s fossil fuel exports alone would consume around 7.5% of the world’s estimated remaining global carbon budget of about 200 billion tonnes of CO₂. This is the amount of CO₂ that could still be emitted from 2024 onwards if we are to limit peak warming to 1.5°C with 50% probability.   But rather than decreasing, CO₂ emissions from Australia’s fossil fuel exports are set to increase under current government policies. In other words, in the next 11 years, by 2035, exported fossil fuel CO₂ emissions will exceed by 50% that of the entire 63 year period from 1961 to 2023. If we include domestic CO₂ emissions from current policies, this means by 2035 Australia, with 0.3% of the world’s population, would consume 9% of the total remaining carbon budget.   http://climateanalytics.org/comment/dug-up-in-australia-burned-around-the-world-exporting-fossil-fuels-undermines-climate-targets http://www.climatecouncil.org.au/resources/labor-approves-woodside-extension/ http://www.climatecouncil.org.au/resources/extending-north-west-shelf-project-rotten-climate/ http://australiainstitute.org.au/post/gas-export-approval-puts-gas-corporations-before-australians/ http://australiainstitute.org.au/report/emissions-from-wa-gas-exports/ http://australiainstitute.org.au/post/the-safeguard-mechanism-helps-gas-companies-take-the-piss http://australiainstitute.org.au/report/queensland-lng-exports-and-tax/ http://australiainstitute.org.au/coal-mine-tracker/update/taking-out-the-trash-2024-three-big-coal-approvals/ http://australiainstitute.org.au/post/how-the-government-is-setting-everyone-up-to-fail-on-green-claims/
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