Today, Senator Kate Lundy, Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, launched a resource centre for Muslim women. The Australian Muslim Women’s Centre for Human Rights will be run by the Islamic Women’s Welfare Council of Victoria. It will be staffed by Muslim women, providing advice on issues specific to the needs of women belonging to Australian’s Muslim community.
Yesterday, a survey commissioned by the Victorian Council of Social Service reported that an overwhelming majority of respondents agreed that workers in the community sector are underpaid. On a similar theme, an Essential Report survey released earlier this week indicated an overwhelming majority of respondents supported the notion that the corporate sector shoulder more of the burden for returning the federal budget to surplus. Only one in five respondents supported cutting welfare to the same end.
All week, the Wheeler Centre has run a series on Australia’s national identity in conjunction with ABC Radio National under the banner ‘Who the Bloody Hell Are We?’. Last night we heard Stuart McIntyre, Monica Dux, Melissa Lucashenko, David Manne and chair Damien Carrick discuss the concept of the ‘Fair Go’ in contemporary Australia.
The series ‘Who the Bloody Hell Are We?’ culminates this evening with the event, Our World Class Culture. The event will be chaired by Natasha Mitchell and features Jim Davidson, Mary Vallentine and Don Watson.
We’ll publish a video/podcast of the first event in this series, The Sentimental Bloke, tomorrow. Keep an eye out for more videos and podcasts of these events over the next few days, or follow us on Twitter or Facebook for updates.