Hello,
I'm Pat Turner CEO of the National
Aboriginal Community Controlled Health
Organisation
NACCHO. Firstly i want to acknowledge the traditional owners
of all the lands from where we are
joining this video today
my organisation with 143
local health services spread throughout
the country
has worked extremely hard to prevent
Covid-19
wreaking havoc in our communities
we have collaborated and coordinated
with all levels of government
to ensure the safety and well-being of
First Nations people
no matter where they live. I acknowledge
that the country as a whole has done a
great job
in working together to reduce the spread
of Covid-19.
We are all in this together but for some
people
the risks are far greater in terms of
their health status
and their incomes or lack thereof
our health sector has continued to
ensure
that our most vulnerable community
members
with multiple chronic illnesses have
received
continuity of care throughout the
lockdown
and I commend them for that.
With restrictions being eased we all
need to be on high alert
and do our very best to minimise the
spread of Covid-19.
First Nations mental health continues to
be a high priority
as does the vulnerability of our
juveniles and adults
in custody. We all need
more resources directly invested
in our community organisations to
respond to the needs
of these highly vulnerable groups in the
best possible way
our message is to stand as one
and continue to be strong because our
work is far from over.
We need governments
to work with First Nations people
and other community organisations
right across the country as
equal decision making partners
as we continue to respond and
reconstruct our society
in recovering from this current crisis.
A fair go in ensuring
everyone gets a decent level of income
support
and ready access to appropriate services
to support anyone experience hardship,
experiencing hardship is essential.
Please stay listening to hear from other
community leaders
across the community sector on how we
can ensure
that nobody is left behind. Thank you.
Hi I'm Darryl O'Donnell. I'm the CEO of
the Australian Federation of Aids
Organisations.
With the immediate crisis Covid-19
passing we face a long period,
years not months of adaptation of social
distancing of cough etiquette
and of hand washing
and taking care of ourselves and looking
out for our loved ones
our families and our communities to keep
them safe and out of hospital
we've taken good first steps on Covid-19
with government investment in mainstream
services in health workers
in public health action and in research.
Now we need to complete the picture by
investing in community-led
effort. It's through the work of
community-controlled organisations,
organisations of migrants, of people with
disabilities,
of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
communities that will prevent Covid-19
in the long term
and protect the most vulnerable
organisations created
by LGBTIQ communities, by sex workers,
by people who use drugs and people who
live with HIV,
have quietly and successfully controlled
HIV
in Australia for nearly 40 years.
They've done this through education
support and care
led by peers who are credible and
trusted
governments can achieve the same success with Covid-19
by investing in these communities and in
others.
I'm Mel Gibbs. I'm the Director of Media
and Communications
at People with Disability Australia. Covid-19
has been really hard for many people
with disability myself included.
We've seen huge changes to the way we
get support
including for lots of people those
supports just been withdrawn altogether
and that is not okay
for many people with disability it's
been an incredibly expensive time
there's been increased costs in terms of
delivery
personal protective equipment and not
seeing the coronavirus supplement for
people on the DSP
has been really hard. It's been great to
see though the increase in the JobSeeker allowance particularly for the 40%
of people with disability who rely on
that payment
the changes to Telehealth have been
fantastic i've had lots of great chats
with my GP
and it's helping to keep me safe. We need
to make sure these continue particularly
for those of us
who the lockdown isn't going to change
anytime soon.
My name is Nicole Batholomeusz and I'm
the Chief Executive at cohealth.
cohealth is a health and social support
organisation
providing care to the most vulnerable
people in our community
one of these groups the people who
experience homelessness
we know that people who experience
homelessness
have greater health inequity and this
has been exacerbated
during the pandemic. Victoria, like many
other states has done a terrific job
in finding temporary solutions providing
additional support
and shelter for people who are sleeping
rough
i'm concerned what might happen when
these temporary solutions end
it's critical that long-term solutions
are put in place
beyond the pandemic and this includes
maintaining higher income support
payments
and finding long-term housing solutions
during the crisis as a nation we've done
a tremendous job
providing a safety net around people who
are homeless
rather than returning to the way things
were this is an opportunity
for us to find an enduring solution that
will improve the health
equity of a vulnerable community and end
homelessness in Australia.
it's not right that there were more than
3.2 million Australians and
over one in six kids living in poverty
in a country as wealthy as Australia
even before the bushfires and the
terrible Covid-19 pandemic struck
and it's not right that in a country as
wealthy as Australia
that just getting sick can make you poor
and being poor especially for a long
time often makes you sick. We're particularly
concerned about people who are most at
risk of entrenched poverty
and that's our First Nations people, sole-parents and their children,
people with disability and of course
people who are already unemployed and
trying to live
on very low payments
but we also know we've got the keys to
unlocking poverty more than a million
Australians and 300 000 children have
started to be lifted out of poverty
because of the very welcome doubling of
the JobSeeker payment.
We can never go back to $40 a day we need income security that's above the poverty
line
and we need to give access to everyone
who needs it including those on
temporary visas
then we can have the healthy and
prosperous nation we all want.
Right now we face a health crisis that
is unprecedented in our lifetime
Covid-19 is hurting all of us our
families
our livelihood our sense of safety our
sense of security
but those hurting the most are our most
vulnerable people
people like the ones I work with at the
Asylum Seeker Resource Center
people seeking asylum lifting a pandemic
without access to job keeper
or job seeker left without a safety net
meaning left without medicare
income or even the right to work right
in the middle of a pandemic
right now we need a more equitable and
fair inclusive Australia.
We need a Morrison government to leave
to leave no family behind
no mother father or child behind, no
worker behind we need all people on
temporary visas
whether they be asylum seekers, whether
they be international students,
migrant workers, casual staff, casual
people in the arts industry
or teachers, no one can be left behind
right now we are fairer
more just and inclusive Australia and we
need it now.
The time is now.
you
