Together members love to practice their Excel skills and learn more with ASU Career Launchpad. Expert IT presenter, Ben Pisani is back to teach you how to work smarter in Excel, improve your efficiency and impress with your results. In this live and interactive webinar you will learn how to better organise, analyse and present your data using Excel spreadsheets Excel Advanced Course Presented by Benjamin Pisani Wednesday, 27 October 2021 1-2pm Register here Build your Excel skills with in this course - Ben will cover worksheet techniques, page set-up & printing strategies, essential functions, protecting your data and more. Sign up for your spot here.
This Friday young people across Australia are taking action on climate change. Together proudly supports the students who are stepping up and demanding real and immediate action to tackle climate change. Join them in your local area by registering for a School Strike for Climate event here. Whether you are joining online in lockdown or in person in your local area, there are events all over Australia! In just a few weeks’ time global leaders will meet at the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference or COP26 to ramp up targets on emission reduction and improve measures to reduce the devastating effects of climate change. Leaders from around the world are showing up, the kids are showing up. So where is our Prime Minister Scott Morrison? The longer our leaders wait to act, the harder it will be to fight for a safe future. Show your solidarity on October 15 and demand the Morrison Government take immediate action on climate change.
Last week Together members in Cairns and Hervey Bay, joined by their fellow health workers, spoke out about the need for urgent additional investment in our Health system here in Queensland. The message is clear - Health needs urgent care. This is not just about the pandemic, it’s about the increased needs of our community - across acute health care, community and preventive care, mental health care and more. Political leaders are responding to this call in different ways. Premier Palaszczuk has called on the federal government to improve funding for health services - to lift the contributions to deal with the increased need. The Premier said on the weekend hospitals need to have the capacity and that requires additional funding coming from the federal government to support the growth in numbers. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has called this shakedown politics and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has said I don’t know how many ventilators there are… it's the states' job to run hospitals. What do you think? Health members have called on both levels of government to address the need. I think the Premier is right to make this call for additional funding. Given the health system has to be funded by the federal government who collect our taxes - and given the devastating under funding of aged care and disability support - shouldn’t the federal government step up? We think it’s time. Every state health minister has written to Federal Minister Greg Hunt asking for a review of hospital funding. Do you support the Premier's call for an increase in funding to Queensland’s hospital system from the federal government? Together members in Queensland Health provide world class services every day but there urgently needs to be more resources put in to our system to cope with demand. As one of our delegates recently put it “we cannot slice the pie any differently, there needs to be more pie” - there are more patients, who are sicker, needing urgent care. And together we believe every Queenslander has a right to access health care wherever we live in our great state.
What is ethical practice in the social, community and disability sector? How can we be at the core of structural change in our society? This September we’re inviting you to join our special live discussion on ethical practice in the community and disability sector led by Dr John Falzon. John Falzon is a senior fellow in inequality and social justice at Per Capita and was national CEO of the St Vincent de Paul Society for over 10 years. Register and join us here. ASU Career Launchpad live webinar - Ethical Practice in the Community and Disability Sector Tuesday 1pm 28th September 2021 QLD / VIC / NSW / TAS: 1pm-2pm SA and NT: 12.30pm-1.30pm WA: 11am-12pm Presented by Dr John Falzon, Per Capita Register for your spot here. In this special event we will discuss the need for structural change in our society, how ‘being there for each other’ as professional workers in the community and disability sectors is about both social service and social struggle. Don’t miss out RSVP here.
You should be recognised and celebrated for the essential role you play. We know the world class education Queensland students receive would not happen without you. It’s time to celebrate you! That’s why each year Together promotes School Support Staff Recognition Week. Some members may be celebrating this week! This week was the original date, however, due to the recent COVID outbreaks your ability to gather and celebrate may have been hampered – so we are relaunching School Support Staff Recognition Week for the last week of Term: 13-17 of September, 2021. Change your social media profile picture, download a poster, get together and celebrate! Your work is essential. It’s time to be recognised! During School Support Staff Recognition Week your union delegates will also host some online forums you can join to hear from delegates and members across the state – more on that soon. Another way to celebrate the work that you do is by entering the QSuper SSSRW 'ThankQ' Competition! Nominate your colleagues, have your colleagues nominate you. ThankQ – Enter Now! Thanks to the excellent support of QSuper this year there is also a wonderful competition that you can enter – or nominate a colleague for! This competition is specifically for school support staff. Here are the details: Join in the celebrations for this year’s School Support Staff Recognition Week with a chance to win one of seven prize packs valued at $500 for your school and a $100 voucher for the nominee. To enter, in 25 words or fewer: Share with us a moment when a school support worker made education happen. The competition is open to school support staff within the Queensland Department of Education, and includes Schools Officers, Administration Officers, Science Technicians, School Business Managers or IT Technicians to name a few. Entries close at 11.59pm on Friday, 3 September 2021. Winners will be announced on Monday, 13 September 2021.
The Queensland government has announced new budget principles as part of the state budget. In a significant reform, after lobbying and pressure from union members, the government has moved away from a previous budget principle (Principle 6), which limited the growth in staffing levels to population growth. This budget principle had seen the number of the public servants reducing, as the growth of Queensland Health employment was higher than population growth. It was important that our health system grew to meet demand but it should not have been at the expense of the rest of the sector. This budget principle was also resulting in departments increasing the use of labour-hire arrangements as a way around the budget principle. The budget papers state that: A narrow focus on FTEs could also create perverse incentives for agencies to outsource services at higher cost to the state. This change shows that the government has listened to public servants and your union on the need for reform on how the sector is managed. This is an important reform which should see an appropriate focus on services to the community rather than an obsession with staffing levels and how they are reported (or mis-reported) by the Courier-Mail. Recruitment freeze concerning However the government has announced the creation of 'the Pool' and a new revised process for establishment management, to be led by the Public Service Commission. The Treasurer has been reported as announcing a continuation of the public service recruitment freeze. Together is gravely concerned that the these two announcements will result in a de facto process of natural attrition with the public service for positions not considered 'frontline.' Together has sought an urgent meeting with the Public Service Commission so we can be briefed on what these announcements will mean for members. We have also sought urgent clarification from the Treasurer on the announcements and confirmation that the government's policy in relation to public service employment level remains consistent to the commitments given by the ALP to the Queensland community and the Queensland public service prior to last year's state election.