Category: Causes

Humanitarian

Lockdown takes toll on New Zealanders

Mental wellbeing of New Zealanders plummeted during the early stages of the pandemic. Lockdown successfully eliminated COVID from the community but it came at a significant psychological cost. Nearly one in three Kiwis reported experiencing moderate to severe psychological distress.

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Environment

Royal commission report delivers stark warning

The bushfire royal commission has issued a stark warning. Its final 579-page report tells us how bushfires will affect Australia in the coming years. And, foreseeing a future marked by extreme weather, the commissioners are not mincing their words. Here are the report’s key points.

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Humanitarian

Fixing the aged care crisis

Australia has the knowledge, skills and capability to deliver a world class aged-care system. Instead, a royal commission uncovered systemic abuse, neglect and substandard care. Fixing residential aged care is a priority. But how can we do this?

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Environment

Aussies care about climate change

It’s been a big news week for the climate. Among images of celebrating Melburnians, Europe heading back into lockdown and the non-stop footage of the US election, we discovered both heartening and downright infuriating reports. Here, we look at the biggest stories.

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Humanitarian

Food banks’ struggle to meet demand

A new report has found that 65 per cent of young Australians are experiencing food insecurity and go without food at least once a week. Each year, Foodbank releases a report into food insecurity in Australia, and as you can probably imagine 2020 paints a dire picture.

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Environment

Fight not over for Daintree

While Far North Queensland is one of the most popular ecotourism destinations in the world, the threat to the Daintree lower rainforest is ongoing. The area is under threat of housing development proposals and a gas-fired power plant. The Daintree is UNESCO heritage listed so why this is even possible?

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Environment

Great Barrier Reef loses half its coral

The Great Barrier Reef has lost more than half of its corals since 1995 due to warmer seas driven by climate change, a study has found. Small, medium and large coral populations have all declined, largely because of bleaching events in 2016 and 2017.

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Environment

Opportunity missed for green recovery

In the year of Australia’s worst bushfire crisis, the just-announced budget provides little in the way of new funding for environmental protection while throwing a lifeline to coal. Our world is facing irreversible destruction and still there’s no urgency in Australian climate policy.

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Humanitarian

Charities’ challenge to keep data secure

In light of the ransomware attack on cloud software provider Blackbaud – which has many not-for-profits as its clients – legitimate questions are asked about data protection and privacy, and how well protected the social good community is.

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Humanitarian

Pandemic affects women most

COVID-19 has left more women than men disadvantaged. A picture is emerging that shows unemployment, lowered incomes and underemployment, less secure work, greater household and family demands, and the crisis that is domestic violence.

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Environment

Saving the reef means understanding it

The next federal budget will allocate $33.5 million to nature-tourism projects and reef conservation work. It’s welcome news for Great Barrier Reef which suffered its largest bleaching event in February. Now, the first step to conserving the Great Barrier Reef is understanding what lives there.

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Environment

Wasteland or green haven?

We usually think of urban areas as a cause of species extinctions. A new analysis of 12 million (!) tree planting records has turned these assumptions on its head. Turns out urban areas aren’t quite the concrete wastelands we thought it was. Quite the opposite.

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