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Many country towns are witnessing cutbacks and are finding it difficult to attract health professionals. This is troubling considering that the health of rural and remote Australians continues to be significantly worse than their urban counterparts

In 1966 the UN adopted the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which Australia ratified in 1975. Article 12(a) of ICESCR states,

CHAMPS is a project for young people aged between 13 and 18 in the Murraylands Region of South Australia. CHAMPS holds youth forums twice each school term informally discussing youth issues in the area. Thirty young people from different cultural and social backgrounds throughout the region make up the forum. Issues like mental health and peer support are discussed.

The Remote and Rural Training Unit in Dubbo NSW has taken a proactive approach to two familiar problems that face small rural towns: the departure of young people from country towns and the inability of these towns to attract and retain health care workers. It is well documented that there are severe shortages of trained health professionals in remote and rural regions throughout Australia…

Image: Saltwater kids meet Desert kids Young People enjoying what they have learnt from the Desert Acrobats at Ridell Beach, Broome. Photograph by Michael Hutchinson

The Program aims to address the many health problems such as poor nutrition, sugar diabetes, cancer and sexually transmitted diseases that are prevalent in Aboriginal communities.

In 1989 the Association for the Support of Psychiatric Services (ASPS) was established in Warrnambool after a public meeting identified the need for a service to support individuals with a mental illness and their carers. This need was also identified in a study of carers funded by the National Mental Health Funding Scheme and carried out by Lowndes and Harrison in 1993. The report also…

Yeoval is a rural town located in central western NSW, midway between Orange and Dubbo. It has a population of 450 and a surrounding district of 1,500. When the Yeoval Public Hospital was closed in 1988 a vital facility disappeared. The local community, however, was not prepared to lose its hospital without a fight. The community held a public meeting and a decision was reached to form a…

Personal stories: guide for submissions 1. The Commission encourages the submission of personal stories that describe: (a) situations where members of a same-sex couple have been denied financial or employment-related entitlements or benefits that are available to people in heterosexual relationships (married or de facto) because of Australian laws (b) the impact on same-sex couples, and any…

1. The federal government should amend the discriminatory laws identified by this Inquiry to ensure that same-sex and opposite-sex couples enjoy the same financial and work-related entitlements.

When I was a kid, I thought that, when I grew up, I might l like to be an astronaut or an actress, or a lawyer fighting for clients on death row. It changed by the season. But at no point, that I can remember, did I want to grow up to be gay.

The defining feature of the past year has been the focus on reconciliation ... But as we reach this crucial stage in relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, reconciliation has come to mean different things to different people. Reconciliation has been described as a 'peoples movement' ...having reached a level of community support that is now unstoppable. For the government it…