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Jesuit Social Services visits New Zealand on #JusticeSolutions Tour
Senior leaders from Jesuit Social Services will next week embark on a study trip to New Zealand to learn more about innovative approaches to dealing with adults and young people who have contact with the criminal justice system. The trip to New Zealand continues the organisation’s determination to take a discerning approach to justice policy,…
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#JusticeSolutions New Zealand tour – Victoria University of Wellington
In the first blog reflecting on the observations of our #JusticeSolutions tour of New Zealand, Jesuit Social Services’ General Manager – Justice Programs DANIEL CLEMENTS writes that strong political leadership has resulted in the embrace of restorative justice principles and international best practice in detention facilities. Jesuit Social Services’ Daniel Clements and Catherine Neville at…
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#JusticeSolutions New Zealand tour – Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Court
In the seventh blog reflecting on the observations of our #JusticeSolutions tour of New Zealand, Jesuit Social Services’ CEO JULIE EDWARDS writes that Auckland’s Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Court demonstrates effective justice by holding people to account and supporting them to connect with family and community. Participant handbook at the Alcohol and Other Drug…
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Federal Election – jobactive reform would support more marginalised Australians into work
In the first in a series of blogs highlighting our key areas of interest for the 2019 Federal Election, Jesuit Social Services’ Media Relations Manager KATHRYN KERNOHAN writes that reform of the jobactive system would support more marginalized Australians into work. The Federal Government’s jobactive program, the main employment services program for Australian jobseekers receiving…
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Easter Sunday reflection by Andy Hamilton SJ
When working with vulnerable young people whose experience of life has sometimes been loveless and violent, we often need to renew our hope and to remember springtime. It is precisely the hints of Easter which we see in their lives that sustain us, reflects ANDY HAMILTON SJ. Many paintings of Easter depict springtime: green grass,…
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The (restricted) right of people in prison to vote
People sentenced to prison are deprived of their liberty, but they shouldn’t be deprived of their right to have a voice as part of a society. We must ensure that all people in prison retain the right to vote, writes Jesuit Social Services’ Policy, Research and Advocacy Officer DAVID HOPKINS. A record 96.8 per cent…
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ANDREW HAMILTON SJ reflects on the importance of keeping our children safe. The old saying goes that children should be seen and not heard. But few of us follow it in practice. We spend endless hours talking with children, ensuring that they feel loved, and answering their thousands of questions. We do this because we…
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Human Rights Day – December 10
On Human Rights Day (December 10), ANDY HAMILTON SJ writes that companionship and advocacy work hand in hand to support vulnerable people and to provide them with a voice to defend their rights. When we think of human rights, we often think first of our own rights. We think of such things as our right…
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Medevac repeal vindictiveness foreign to our sense of ourselves as a nation
ANDY HAMILTON SJ writes that the Federal Government’s repeal of the Medevac legislation has stripped the benign mask from the Australian treatment of minorities to reveal a vindictiveness foreign to our sense of ourselves as a nation. To a casual observer the repeal of the Medevac legislation may seem to be unimportant. It touches less…
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Bushfires expose the human reality of being stripped of home and family history – Andy Hamilton SJ
Finn Burns escaping the Mallacoota fires with his family (Photo credit: Allison Burns) The recent fires were more than localised events. They made widespread changes to things that we take for granted: the light of the sun, transparency of the air, colour of beaches and the arrival of birds driven outside their normal habitat. The…