Latest news with #HeidiTucker
SBS Australia
26-05-2025
- Politics
- SBS Australia
SBS News in Easy English 26 May 2025
Listen to Australian and world news, and follow trending topics with SBS News Podcasts . Welcome to SBS News in Easy English, I'm Camille Bianchi. Bringing emergency supplies and medication is a focus for emergency services helping 14 flood-hit communities in New South Wales. About 32,000 residents are cut off from roads in the mid-north coast region, and crews have done more than 770 rescues. Five people have died in the floods. State Emergency Service Deputy Commissioner Daniel Austin says more than 300 properties are no longer able to be lived in. "Resupply and particularly medication is something that we've focused on very significantly over the last few days. There is a significant state-level plan to try and get resources back in where possible.' Today marks National Sorry Day and the start of Reconciliation Week in Australia. This year's theme is Bridging Now to Next - connecting the past, present and future. The day and week remembers the impact of government laws when as many as 1 in 3 Indigenous children were taken from their families, until the 1970s. These children have become known as the Stolen Generations. Heidi Tucker is the CEO of Anchor Community Care. "Aboriginal children are still 22 times more likely to be taken into the care of the state than non-Aboriginal children. Those are statistics that we need to change. What can we do now that bridges future goals and future outcomes for Aboriginal people. We need to commit to now and the future of reconciliation." A big shopping centre in Melbourne's north was shut down on Sunday afternoon, during a fight between around 10 people and some had knives. Police arrested two people and one person was taken to hospital with serious injuries. Victoria Police are still searching for all those involved. Superintendent Kelly Lawson says the meeting was planned between groups and this was not a random attack on shoppers. "There have been others identified and police are working through identifying the remaining gangs, as you know, Victoria Police has a focus through Operation Alliance in relation to our gangs, and we will know who these people are, and it will not take very long to go and arrest them." The International Committee of the Red Cross says the war in Gaza must end now, after two of their staff members were killed by a missile. Israel says it attacked the same area on Saturday. Ali Abu Hashem is a friend of the two Red Cross staff members who were killed. "What is the reason for assassinating them? What did they do? Words cannot express all this. Israel don't distinguish press or safety; they don't have any red lines." In cycling, Carlos Verona has won stage 15 of the Giro d'Italia. The 32-year-old from Spain has been cycling on the World Tour for 13 years. He says he did not expect to win the stage. "And actually, I was enjoying this Giro the most because it was the first one I didn't have the ambition maybe to win a stage, you know? Yeah, and then everything changed yesterday, like we lost Cicco. And today I said 'Okay, maybe I don't want to do it for me, but I have to do it for the team'. I only got one victory before; it was in the same situation - the day before we lost our leader. And today I was riding with my mind and my legs in them. And today I was fully with all my heart for this team." Isaac Del Toro is the overall winner - with one week left of the race. And that's the latest SBS News in Easy English.
The Guardian
08-03-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Lynette is on the pension, a casual teacher, a golf instructor
In the shed of the house where Lynette* sleeps, boxes are piled high. The 66-year-old dreams of unpacking the cartons – placing plates on shelves, hanging her coats in a wardrobe, picking fresh flowers for her favourite vase. Lynette is on the pension and works as a casual primary school teacher. On the weekends she teaches golf. She is also homeless. For the past two years, she has been staying with a friend in Kilsyth, in Melbourne's outer east. It's not ideal for either of them, but it is keeping her from rough sleeping. 'She is my closest friend,' Lynette says. 'She said, 'I won't have you sleep in the car'.' Like many essential workers, Lynette is priced out of the area where she works. Homelessness organisations say they are witnessing an increase in essential workers – often part-time nurses, teachers – needing their services. Lynette has been on the public housing waitlist for nine years. 'There's just no way I'll ever be offered a place off that list,' she says. Last month, the non-for-profit Community Housing Limited suggested she apply for a place coming up in Mordialloc, 24km south-east of Melbourne's CBD and about an hour's drive from the two schools she teaches at. 'My friends and support and family are here,' she says. 'I can't go that far away.' In October 2022, Lynette's Lilydale rental property was wrecked in flooding. The water came up under her bed, forcing her to flee. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email For over a year she lived on friends' couches and in temporary accommodation before her friend invited her to stay with her until she found something permanent. Lynette has moved eight times in the past two years. She has tried rentals and caravan parks, but there is nothing she can afford. She just wants a place of her own. 'The whole system is broken,' she says in despair. 'It's not just me.' The CEO of Anchor, Heidi Tucker, says in the last fortnight her organisation had seen three households seeking help after mortgage foreclosure. All three households had people in work, she says. 'We're seeing more and more people looking for support who are employed. 'The biggest pressure that people have when they're coming out of ownership, or like Lynette, is there is nothing on the rental market.' Tucker says it is common for social housing to be offered to tenants over an hour away from where they live. 'That's happening all the time. There's so little stock that it's not spread evenly.' She says mum and dad landlords are running 'small businesses' to grow wealth for their retirements – and so do not offer affordable rentals. 'There's so little in affordable housing, I think that's the real missing link that we've got in Australia at the moment,' she said. According to the Australian Taxation Office, 2.2 million Australians own 3.25m investment properties. And at least 2,500 investors own or part-own 10 or more rental properties. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion In October last year, Anglicare's rental Affordability Snapshot revealed nurses can afford just 1.4% of properties, ambulance workers 2.2%, while firefighters and teachers could afford less than 4%. Maiy Azize, a spokesperson for Everybody's Home, a coalition of housing, homelessness and welfare organisations, says it's a 'dire picture' for workers in lower-paid industries such as retail, cleaning and delivery. 'It's not really clear how they can afford to live,' she says. 'If they don't have a partner, they're doing something like renting in a share house, in rental stress.' Up until the early 1980s, it was common for the federal government to fund affordable housing, Azize says. 'As the federal government has really stepped back from funding social housing, what we've seen is that the eligibility criteria that the different [social housing providers] use has become really, really restrictive,' she said. 'It's now basically just a safety net for people at the margins, as opposed to something that's regarded as a basic human service.' Unless the federal government steps in to fund housing, she says services will become more stressed and affluent communities will lose essential workers from their neighbourhoods. 'It's not possible to fix it without the federal government. They're the only level of government that has the money to do it.' Since the last federal election, rental prices have skyrocketed 27% to $635 a week, and housing affordability is the lowest the nation has ever seen. The Labor government has announced measures including the help-to-buy scheme targeted at first home buyers and a $10bn Housing Australia Future Fund to fund the building of 30,000 social and affordable homes. Meanwhile, the Coalition has promised to allow first home buyers to access up to $50,000 – or 40% – of their super to buy their first home, to reduce overseas migration and ease home lending rules. The Greens want a rent cap, a national renters protection authority to protect renters' rights and an end to investor tax breaks like negative gearing and capital gains. * For privacy, only Lynette's first name has been used. In Australia, support is available at Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline on 13 11 14, and at MensLine on 1300 789 978. In the UK, the charity Mind is available on 0300 123 3393 and Childline on 0800 1111. In the US, call or text Mental Health America at 988 or chat
