“She said, you just tell me when it’s not bearable anymore […] But there was no way I could tolerate it without any kind of sedation, and I’m pretty good with pain.” With 25 years experience as a midwife under her belt, Amanda Reilly, 50, is no stranger to the physical pain involved in women’s reproductive health. “My personal interest is in access of care for women in all aspects of their lives, including birthing services, as well as postnatal services, contraception and management of family planning,” she said. When Ms Reilly was in her mid-forties she had a hormonal…
Author: Isla Evans
Australian supermarket giant Woolworths has cut ties with animal welfare benchmark group amidst national rising animal slaughter and meat production rates. Woolworths announced this week (23 May) that they would be ending their goals to align with the ratings of the UK-based Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare ranking system – which ranks the world’s top 150 food companies on their welfare practices yearly – in light of their inclusion of new criteria that would rank companies on their reduction of the sale of animal proteins. A Woolworths spokesperson told Beef Central that the changes to the UK benchmark system…
NSW clubs with gaming and poker machines will be banned from making political donations under new proposed laws by the NSW government. This proposed amendment would classify any NSW club that deals with betting or gambling a ‘prohibited donor’, which is a classification already imposed on businesses in the tobacco and gambling industry, in addition to property developers. NSW premier Chris Minns – who campaigned for the amendment earlier this year in his state election campaign – said the amendment is a necessary step to bar the influence of gambling on politics. “Our bill closes a political loophole,” Mr Minns…
FIFA officials have threatened to impose a ‘blackout’ for European viewers of the upcoming Women’s World Cup if they fail to increase their bids to broadcast the competition. Officials have noted, with an anticipated audience of two billion people globally for the Women’s Football World Cup that begins 20 July, European countries should be willing to pay premium for rights to the games. Some countries have been revealed to have offered as little as one per cent of what they paid for rights to the Qatar Men’s World Cup held last year. The value of women’s football has been the…
Sue Beaven has spent years navigating the twists and turns of National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) to secure adequate support for her daughter, Ashleigh. Ms Beaven said reform of the scheme and yesterday’s discussion, led by Minister for the NDIS Bill Shorten were long overdue. Ashleigh, 19, has lived experience of autism and has been diagnosed with “severe developmental delays”. NDIS funding includes support for medical services, speech and physiotherapy, hiring support workers, attending support groups and more. Ashleigh’s care plans have to be revised every 18 months, which Ms Beaven said stopped Ashleigh receiving support she needs. “It’s a…
A contemporary dance collaboration between Wollongong’ choreographer Lisa Maris McDonell and Mexico’s Raúl Tamez is stepping beyond Zoom screens and onto the local stage this week. ‘Optimal Stopping’ started as Zoom dance workshops between Illawarra dance group Proper Motion and Mexico’s La Infinita Compañía in early 2020. Mexican dancer and choreographer Raúl Tamez said its surreal to finally see the collaboration reach a real-life stage. “I still can’t believe it, it took me a couple of days to really internalise the idea that I was in Australia, that I was going to share [space] with other dances physically,” he said.…
Hot on the heals of criticism of its plastic recycling schemes, the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO) has revisited its 2025 plastic reduction targets at a ‘Phase Out’ seminar. APCO, which represent 1500 Australian businesses – including Coles and Woolworths who were involved in the RedCycle recycling controversy, has targets for 70% of plastic packaging to be recyclable by 2025. Its numbers have remained under 20% since 2018. The APCO numbers reflect Australia’s larger plastic recycling crisis. According to the National Waste Report 2022 87% of plastic ends up in landfill. Professor Geoff Spinks, Head of the Faculty of Engineering and…
Ever found yourself on the fashion side of TikTok? Then you’ve probably come across people showing hauls of the mountains of clothes they’ve bought from the online fast fashion company Shein. It has made it easy to purchase the newest trends at alarmingly low costs, but recent reports have accused fast fashion companies, like Shein, of causing massive damage to the planet through pollution and waste. Despite the assumption that young people are at the forefront of climate change activism in advocating for sustainable change, they are also the demographic which is one of the biggest consumers of the fast…