Operation Fortitude, a controversial plan by the Australian Border Force (ABF) to crack down on people overstaying their visas in Melbourne’s CBD this weekend, was cancelled on Friday afternoon amid public outrage. The Australian Border Force was launched in July of this year, as a merger of the Customs and Border Protection Service,…
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Over the past year, we’ve seen people in the entertainment industry draw attention to ageism directed towards actresses. And whether it’s Maggie Gyllehaal speaking out about being told she was ‘too old to play the lover of a man who was 55’ at 37 years old, or the writers of Inside Amy Schumer discussing their…
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Trigger Warning: Rape and Violence Against Women On Monday, Los Angeles rapper Tyler, the Creator – real name Tyler Okonma – took to his twitter to tell his 2.48 million followers, ‘T IS NOW BANNED FROM AUSTRALIA, YOU WON @CoralieAlison IM HAPPY FOR YOU <3 [sic]’. Coralie Alison is the Director of Operations at Collective…
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It was only recently that Obamacare, or its less catchy name, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) celebrated its fifth birthday. The plan was introduced with the aim of revolutionising the United States healthcare system. It was a big ambition for a developed country that unlike others, offered no form of basic universal healthcare. Five…
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A 20-year-old New South Wales woman banned from breastfeeding has had the legal decision overturned. The ban emerged during a custody battle for her young son, with the injunction’s reason cited as a recent tattoo potentially exposing the child to blood borne illnesses, including HIV, through feeding. This ban was enforced despite the woman testing…
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It wasn’t until a self-righteous contributor for the site ‘Return of Kings’, Aaron Clarey, penned a tantrum about feminist Trojan horses taking over Hollywood film that I had any interest in seeing Mad Max: Fury Road. Good action films with well developed plots and at least one complicated and compelling female character are both joys…
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Today Yarra Glen Football and Netball Club will host the second annual Pride Cup – an event that recognises and celebrates the diversity and inclusion of members of the LGBTIQ* community in sport. The match is also marked by International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT), an annual initiative seeking to educate people on the…
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Coalition drops ‘double dippers’, ‘rort’ rhetoric in paid parental leave discussion The Coalition has vowed to phase out its use of troubling language to describe parents, namely women, accessing both government and employer paid parental leave schemes to fund time off work with their children. The revelation comes as both the Abbott government’s Assistant Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg and…
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The Coalition’s 2015 Budget has been poorly received by various politicians, with both the Labor Party and the Greens admonishing the Abbott Government for insufficient initiative in advancing the status of women. ‘The 2015 Budget has neither the qualities or the priorities of the Australian people,’ Labor leader Bill Shorten said in his budget reply on…
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The 2015 Federal Budget is here. Its meaning for each population is shrouded by political jargon, complex statistics and three-word slogans like “have a go”. Following significant discourse, Joe Hockey has detailed who the Australian government determines most worthy of funding. Spoiler alert: it’s not the disadvantaged. Listening to Hockey’s speech, even without a political…
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Last year the New South Wales government introduced the Going Home, Staying Home reforms in an effort to reduce the growing rate of homelessness. Statistics show that around one third of all clients seeking help from specialist homelessness services in 2012-13 were experiencing domestic violence, and domestic violence is the biggest cause of homelessness for…
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It is a murky practice that is rarely discussed within its own culture, let alone outside it. Khadija Gbla is a nationally recognised spokesperson and survivor of Female Genital Mutilation. ‘I didn’t even know what Female Genital Mutilation was growing up, I never heard of it being spoken of,’ Khadija says. Khadija, aged 27, was…
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Trigger warning: this article contains discussion of rape and violence against women Stephen Sullivan is part of a movement that has gathered thousands of followers in just a few weeks. Sullivan says it has tapped into an emotion. ‘People have been thinking about what’s been happening the past few years and they’ve actually come on…
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It doesn’t feel like all too long ago that I was sitting drafting the first of my Lip articles about travelling Australia on my own. When my travels were stretched out in front of me, it felt like forever, but now that it’s almost over it seems my endless days are numbered. I can now…
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