Meet the 16,000 children left behind by our government.
The Refugee Council of Australia are asking you to support a key campaign calling on the Federal government to ensure that children and their families seeking asylum aren’t left destitute as a result of COVID-19.
There are currently around 16,000 children in families seeking protection in Australia. Many people seeking asylum have lost their jobs as a result of COVID-19, as they often work in the service sectors worst affected. People seeking asylum are not eligible for the JobSeeker or JobKeeper payments, like many other workers. They have been left with nothing. It will be hard for them to re-enter the workforce, especially in the current economy.
There are serious concerns that many families seeking asylum have been left in a situation where they have no work, no income, and no way out. Demand on emergency relief at asylum agencies has in most cases trebled, with unprecedented demand for food, medicines and rent relief.
A coalition of educators, carers and students are working to put pressure on the Federal government to ensure adequate support is provided for people in this situation. COVID-19 does not discriminate, and neither should access to a safety net or assistance during this time. We are in this together and there must be support for all who need it, regardless of visa status.
We are launching a petition in support of those educators and want to invite you to sign it in support of them!
The page above has two ways you can sign on – either as an educator or a member of the general public. I encourage you to sign the appropriate action and then share it to your networks.
We know that if we can get a significant number of educators standing in solidarity with those children and families left behind by the Federal government, then we can achieve change. We’ve seen this approach work with the Kids Off Nauru campaign, and we can see it work again.
Only with people like you can we ensure that the Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Minister for Families and Social Services Anne Ruston, hear a deafening call from the public. We need them to hear that leaving children and families behind at this critical time is unacceptable, and we will not stand for it.
People seeking asylum, teachers, students, parents, child-care workers, refugees, community service organisations, unions, principals and the general public. We stand together in calling for #NoChildLeftBehind
In solidarity,
Kelly, for the Refugee Council team
P.S – After signing the petition here, can you help us amplify this amazing interview on The Today Show that campaign ambassador Dorothy Hoddinott AO did this week by tweeting it to the Prime Minister and Minister for Social Services?
Future of myGov – Multiple Languages
The Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) have built a Beta website to trial new myGov content and collect feedback.
The Beta website is called Welcome to the future of myGov and was released on 14 June.
An exciting feature of the Beta website, is the ‘select language’ option that offers users a choice to view the website in over 100 languages. Users must access the website via their personal device or using Google Chrome to use this feature.
Presently, the beta website offers myGov users information about government services and payments, based on events in their life. The ‘select language’ option allows customers with limited or no English to access all of this information in their preferred language.
During the beta stage it is important that the website is trialled and feedback is received so changes and enhancements can be made to improve user experience in later stages.
As such, we encourage you to promote this feature to customers and CTPOs to trial out and provide feedback. Feedback can be left on the myGov beta website by selecting Feedback from any page. The user will be prompted to go to a link where they can provide their feedback.
This is a great opportunity to help ensure this exciting new feature is functional and fit for purpose.
More information
Check out the myGov beta website at beta.my.gov.au.
To access the ‘select language’ feature, go to beta.my.gov.au using Google Chrome or from a personal device, scroll to the bottom of the page and it will give you the option to select a language in the bottom left hand corner.
Illawarra Interagency 