Women can now shut down male-only debates in Germany’s Green Party

A new ruling, adopted at the party’s conference in Bielefeld, which ran from Friday to Sunday, stipulates that its female members have the right to decide whether a debate continues in the event of gender imbalance among its speakers.
The Greens had previously ruled that women and men were required to speak alternately during party debates.
In the event that only men were available to speak, all members were required to vote on whether the debate should continue, according to the women’s statute in the party’s constitution.
But the new ruling states that only female members should have the power to decide whether a discussion continues in such an event.
The amendment means that in the event of a gender imbalance, male members will no longer have a say in whether a discussion continues, placing power firmly in the hands of female members.

Source: Women can now shut down male-only debates in Germany’s Green Party – CNN

Old white men dominate school English booklists. It’s time more Australian schools taught Australian books

We compiled a list of the 15 most commonly cited books taught by English teachers we surveyed.

Most works on this list are written in the past, by male British or American writers. Most of these have formed part of the school literary canon for generations. There are only two texts by women, Hinton and Lee, and no texts by Australian women, migrant Australians or Aboriginal writers.

In response, colleagues and I have partnered with the Stella Prize (a literary award for Australian women writers) to develop the teacher-researchers project.

Source: Old white men dominate school English booklists. It’s time more Australian schools taught Australian books

Plan for tax-deductible child care is on the table, but there is a catch

Families would be able to claim child care costs of up to $60,000 a year as a tax deduction under a proposal to be launched on Tuesday.

The plan would represent a windfall gain if it was extended to cover nannies and in-home care, which is not covered by the existing childcare rebate system for most families.

However, the report’s authors Rosalind Dixon, Richard Holden and Melissa Vogt recognise that tax deductibility offers little benefits to low-income earners.

Source: Plan for tax-deductible child care is on the table, but there is a catch

How we are failing victims of Family Violence

[ed: or How to maximise your compensation payout in a patriarchy]

Tip 1

[I]f you want to maximise compensation for personal injury you should ensure you are injured at work, or in a car accident, or at least in circumstances where you can bring a public liability claim against an insured organisation. Even for sporting injuries in NSW, the maximum amount payable as a consequence of a single incident is $171,000 which exceeds what is available to you as a victim of crime.

Tip 2

If you must be a victim of a criminal assault, you should avoid being assaulted in NSW, where the financial assistance available is the lowest in Australia.

Tip 3

The next tip is to ensure that your assailant is a stranger rather than someone who is well known to you, such as an intimate partner or other family member.

[S]tudies indicate that intimate partner violence is the leading contributor to death, disability and illness in Australian women aged 15 to 44.58 It would therefore appear that compensation schemes which are skewed to assist victims of crimes committed by a stranger are skewed to assist male claimants rather than women.

Tip 4

Ensure its a one-off assault with visible physical injuries, not ongoing abuse over years causing psychological injury.

Tip 5

The final tip is to ensure that you are a capable adult rather than a child or person with a disability or other vulnerability and that you, or those who care for you, have the capacity and presence of mind to report the crime to police and health services and lodge a claim within the prescribed time limit. Of course, if they are the perpetrators of the violence against you, this is particularly problematic.

 

Rather than empowering women to leave violent and abusive relationships by providing an effective compensation scheme or at least adequate welfare payments and supported accommodation, avenues of financial and practical support for women are being increasingly restricted. Meanwhile, the government is instead backing microfinance arrangements to assist women to leave abusive relationships, knowing full well that these will leave women further indebted into the future despite being touted as life-saving. This systemic refusal to fairly compensate women for the impact of male violence on their lives or to provide them with any viable means of escape is truly the patriarchy at work.

Source: Printed-Final_Kerr.pdf

Nine out of 10 Victorian women seeking crisis accommodation turned away

Hundreds of Victorian women who applied for affordable housing through a women’s charity have been turned away because there was no availability.

Nine out of ten Victorian women who applied for affordable housing this year through a women’s charity were turned away.

Source: Nine out of 10 Victorian women seeking crisis accommodation turned away

Iranian lawyer who defended women’s right to remove hijab gets 38 years, 148 lashes

After two trials described by Amnesty International as “grossly unfair,” Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh has been sentenced to a total of 38 years in prison and 148 lashes.

Critics from around the world decried the outcome of Sotoudeh’s case. Amnesty International said it was harshest sentence documented against a human rights defender in Iran in recent memory. Hadi Ghaemi, the executive director of the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran, told CBS News it exposed “the insecurity the regime has to any peaceful challenge.”

Source: Iranian lawyer who defended women’s right to remove hijab gets 38 years, 148 lashes – Women in the World

Aboriginal robbery victim jailed for unpaid fines after seeking police help

An Aboriginal woman – left with a broken rib sustained in a violent robbery over the weekend – feared she would die in custody when WA police jailed her for unpaid fines. Keennan Courtney Dickey, 34, was only released from jail through the #FreethePeople crowdfunding campaign run by Sisters Inside’s Debbie Kilroy, who were able to pay her fines. Her treatment has led to further pressure for the WA government to change the laws that disproportionately target Aboriginal women.

Source: Aboriginal robbery victim jailed for unpaid fines after seeking police help | NITV

A Place To Call Home: National Conference of the National Older Women’s Network

Older women want to live in a society which recognises their
contribution and values them as an individual, regardless of their age.
Older women are the new face of poverty and the fastest growing
cohort amongst the homeless in Australia. Older women are also often
excluded from the statistics of violence against women, and therefore
remain hidden. Many older women are facing a future of economic
uncertainty. Join our conference and take part in the discussions
because Older Women also Refuse to be Invisible and Forgotten! We are
loud, feisty and ready to take up the new challenges ahead.
REGISTRATIONS: http://bit.ly/OWN2019Conf
(02) 9519 8044 or [email protected]

Panels include
Invisible & Unvalued: Let’s Fix Ageism
Jane Caro AO, Wendy Bacon, Layla Pope, Eva Cox AO
How Feminism Changes the Narrative on Violence vs Older Women
Jenna Price, Amani Haydar, Moo Baulch, Sharron Sillett
Affordable Housing: From Myth to Reality
Katherine McKernan, Karen Walsh, Debbie Georgopoulos,
Romola Hollywood, Annabelle Daniel
Ionic Room, SMC Conference Centre, 66 Goulburn St, Sydney
Join us in Sydney on the 17th and 18th October and be part of the
solution to secure the future of Older Women in Australia.
Also featuring performances by: SOS Choir, “Don’t Knock Your Granny”
by OWN Theatre Group, Mansplaining by “It’s Still Germaine”

Source: A Place To Call Home: National Conference of the National Older Women’s Network | Humanitix

Australian Human Rights Commission, where the bloody hell are you?

The deaths of Ms Maureen Mandijarra, Ms Mullaley’s son baby Charlie, Ms Dhu, Ms Amy Armstrong-Ugle, Ms Maher, Ms Williams and her unborn child, Aunty Tanya Day, Ms Cherdeena Wynne and Ms Joyce Clarke shows the fatal consequences of a legal system that refuses to protect Aboriginal woman, and a health system that too refuses to care. These systems work together like a well-oiled machine with devastating results. The one place in which Aboriginal woman should be able to count on to find recourse, one would think, would be the Human Rights Commission. But of course, it too is a state-sanctioned institution that fails to serve Aboriginal women in much the same way that the health and justice systems do.

In June this year, the HRC published ‘Let’s Talk About Race: a guide on how to conduct a conversation about racism’ which seeks to promote “positive” “constructive” and “objective” conversations about racism, to accompany the documentary ‘The Final Quarter’. The guide forms part of the HRC’s signature campaign ‘Racism. It Stops With Me’ which doesn’t appear to attend to the violence of racism, but instead advises that racism can cause “feelings of sadness and anger, even anxiety and depression”. The HRC assures us however, that racism exists among “a small minority of people”.

Right now Aboriginal woman are doing so much of the heavy lifting, while suffering the full brunt of racist violence at the hands of the state, so Human Rights Commission, where the bloody hell are you?

Source: Australian Human Rights Commission, where the bloody hell are you? | NITV