JourneyOnline
What’s coming up
From Waste war to recycling reboot
This is National Recycling Week, but, any time is a good time to commit to good recycling practices. Think, what recycling does your congregation do? Every time we recycle correctly, we reduce what goes into land fill, and help the planet. Check out events near you or put up this “Golden rules of recycling” poster in your church kitchen.
When nature calls
World Toilet Day is 19 November. Horrifyingly, 62.5 per cent of the world’s people don’t have access to safe sanitation. This means human waste, on a massive scale, is not being captured or treated, contaminating the water and soil that sustain human life. When nature calls we have to listen and act. Read more about this important issue.
World Toilet Day is about taking action. One simple thing you can do is switch to the toilet paper which builds toilets for people who don’t have one. To date, Who Gives a Crap have donated $1.8 million to build toilets. Fantastic work! And the goods they sell are environmentally friendly.
Week in review
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Panel announced
Attorney General and Minister for Justice Yvette D’Ath has officially announced the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Panel for the Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council (QSAC), comprising of eight people who would provide expert advice to QSAC as it works to understand and address the over-representation of Indigenous people in Queensland’s criminal justice system.
Government fails to protect endangered species
The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has warned that the government’s plan for protecting endangered species is failing.
In its submission to the senate inquiry into Australia’s faunal extinction crisis, the committee said that while current law provided “significant capacity for action”, the government has recovery plans for just 40 per cent of Australia’s 1775 endangered animal species with more than half of those plans being more than a decade old.
Thursdays in Black Toolkit for Congregations
Raise awareness about gender-based violence and the need to stand in solidarity against rape and violence!
The World Council of Churches has newly published a range of materials for Thursdays in Black. In addition to the promotional resources for Thursdays in Black, there are resources for study, prayer and action to assist your congregation or group to reflect on the root causes of violence, our Christian calling for peace and justice, and the need for public solidarity.
Call to action
What it’s like to live on Newstart?
The email below is from Jeremy Poxon. For the past three years, between jobs and mental health problems, Jeremy has survived on Newstart. He is an activist and advocate for people locked out of paid work. Don’t worry, your details haven’t been shared with anyone. Please read on to hear about what happened to Jeremy last week…
Sue,
When I tell people that I survive on $39 a day to cover rent, bills, food and all other essentials, they often react with horror.
But believe me, the dollar figure doesn’t even begin to tell the story. It doesn’t tell you how it feels to plan what meals you’ll skip that week, or to choose between having your phone cut off or delaying another doctor’s appointment.
And it sure as hell doesn’t tell you what it’s like for people like me to wake up to Murdoch front pages championing yet another government policy designed to vilify and humiliate us.
But last week, our new Social Services Minister, Paul Fletcher, reached a new low. Standing before a room full of people telling him what it’s like to survive on Newstart, Minister Fletcher went on the attack.
He not only told us his government wouldn’t even consider raising Newstart, he actually bragged about having slashed spending on social services and denied that economic inequality is on the rise.
I’m sick and tired of people like me being used as a political punching bag, Sue. That’s why today I’m asking you to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with those of us who are locked out of paid work, and be part of the fight back.
Sign the petition demanding that politicians raise Newstart and lift people like me out of poverty?
School strike for action
One thing that should give us all hope is the next generation of young people, who are standing up against big polluters and the dinosaur major parties. Young people from around Australia are organising themselves to strike from school this month to highlight that we are at absolute crisis point, and must act now.
On Friday 30 November there will be a massive, nationwide School Strike for Action on Climate Change, with protests and rallies held around the country. Here in Brisbane, young people will be converging at Parliament House at noon.
