What we learned: Wednesday 21 August
This is where we’ll wrap up the blog for today – but first, a quick recap:
Indigenous affairs minister Linda Burney has said “community-led truth” is key to reconciliation in her valedictory speech to parliament.
Bill Shorten announced the government has agreed to amendments on the NDIS bill.
Anthony Albanese has said “nastiness is not a strength” as questions about Palestinian visas continued from the Coalition during question time today.
Independent MPs are suggesting term limits on federal politicians to curb the normalisation of disrespectful parliamentary behaviour, urging political leaders to follow the advice of the Stop It At The Start advertising campaign and “stop it at the top”.
The domestic, family and sexual violence commissioner, Micaela Cronin, has called for governments to make DFV an “election issue” during a press club speech she gave gefore the tabling of her inaugural report on the issue.
Every day in Australia, on average, one child has a hospital stay related to domestic or family violence.
Mark Dreyfus’s deepfake porn legislation – which criminalises the non-consensual creating and sharing of it- passed the Senate with no amendments.
90% of the 120 frontline housing organisations surveyed for the Everybody’s Home People’s Commission report ranked stress or mental-ill health as one of the biggest impacts of the housing crisis, the second was homelessness.
Almost a third of all flights in Australia during July were cancelled or delayed.
Updated
‘Unfair’: Victoria’s court interpreters speak up as hours slashed
Language interpreters claim their profession is being undervalued by Victoria’s court system as their hours and pay have been slashed to save costs, AAP reports.
Those facing court from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds or who are deaf are at risk of not getting access to justice following cuts by Court Services Victoria, interpreters say.
Spanish interpreter Blossom Ah Ket told AAP on Wednesday:
We haven’t seen a pay rise in six years, so if anything we needed a pay rise and we’ve got a pay cut.
Interpreters are sick and tired of feeling disrespected and not valued for the essential and critical work we do in the justice system.
These pay cuts, as well as affecting us personally, will result in worse conditions and worse results for the people we serve.
Most court interpreters are employed as contractors or on a casual basis by language providers such as LanguageLoop. Those those who provide services to the state government had their minimum pay rates increased in 2018.
The workforce, much of which is made up of migrants, refugees and women, has not received a pay rise since then.
AAP has contacted Courts Services Victoria for comment.
