As Trans Day of Remembrance is fast approaching, we want to send our love, solidarity, and support to the many amazing trans folk and a special call out to Trans Women who have been targeted with misogynistic hate recently.

At Queerspace/ Drummond Street, we see firsthand how this plays out via our clients and peers, we want to say we see you; we are here for you and stand with you. Keep fighting.

As we remember the trans people lost to transphobia and discrimination this Sunday, let’s not wait until it’s too late and stand with our Trans friends, families and loved ones today.

Karen Field, CEO of Drummond Street Services, said

“We can’t stand by while the incredible trans folk we say we love and care for are being targeted.  The LGBTIQA+ communities have a long history of struggle, and we must enact that sense of solidarity at this time!  The far-right politicians’ hate speech is bad enough; let’s not add to it and stamp it out before we lose any more of our Trans loved ones.”

Drummond Street Services is excited to announce that we have recently introduced ‘Navilens’ codes to Drummond Street’s Carlton office for people who are blind/visually impaired to aid in navigating the building/space. If this is successful, we will roll them out across our sites.

Navilens is a QR code system that reads out signage from a distance when scanned using the ‘Navilens’ App.

Drummond Street Services CEO Karen Field said: “We pride ourselves on inclusivity but know there is always room for improvement, so we are excited to trial this system in the hope of becoming more accessible to those with visual impairment. ”

To find out more about how to use and download Navilens, follow this link: https://www.navilens.com/en/#main-section.

Drummond Street Services stand by Diamonds players in their refusal to wear a uniform displaying the Hancock logo, a company owned by Gina Rinehart, due to the outrageous historical comments by her father, Lang Hancock, who famously said in 1984 that “Indigenous Australians should be sterilised to breed themselves out in coming years.”

Diamonds players and the netball community have every right to be outraged by this, and the refusal to wear the Hancock logo should be applauded.

Instead of pulling the $15 million dollar sponsorship deal and causing a financial blow to a sport that empowers women across Australia, Gina Rineheart has an opportunity to distance the company from this derogatory statement by recognizing the harm caused historically and exploring alternative solutions for the team and sport to continue to flourish.

CEO of Drummond Street Karen Field states:

“We should all be outraged by the racist comments of Hancock and these young women should be applauded for standing up against this symbol of racism, not punished for it.”

Drummond Street Services applauds the Victorian government’s announcement today of a redress scheme for victims of historical abuse and neglect in institutional care.

This day is monumental for survivors, it is one day that many would not have expected to see in their lifetime, and is the culmination of the many, many days and years survivors have advocated for justice for care leavers.

The state government’s promise to allocate $2.9 million to co-designing the scheme with survivors themselves, covering the period between 1928 and 1990, will be life changing and will give some relief, justice and validation to many survivors who have felt silenced and forgotten.

We believe the government’s promise to make a formal apology in parliament if re-elected will be welcomed by many who suffered, as well as their loved ones.

Disability Activist, Drummond Street Service’s board member and care leaver survivor, Margherita Coppolino was delighted by the news.

“Finally forgotten Australian and care leavers in Victoria are going to get the acknowledgement, apologies and redress they deserve. Thank you for listening and recognising our need for validation and justice and redress”

Karen Field, CEO of Drummond Street Services said

“We should never forget the historical harms that have occurred for far too many Victorian children, and we see the enduring impacts in our services and sectors today. Justice for survivors is critical for recovery and today, and every day – we acknowledge the strength and resilience of all survivors despite what they have endured.

Nobody should ever have to face harm and neglect, especially in state care. This is long overdue and we look forward to continuing to work with survivors and survivor advocates in their redress process.”

For further comments please contact us on 9663 6733.

Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribes were the first sovereign Nations of the Australian continent and its adjacent islands, and possessed it under our own laws and customs. This our ancestors did, according to the reckoning of our culture, from the Creation, according to the common law from ‘time immemorial’, and according to science more than 60,000 years ago.

This sovereignty is a spiritual notion: the ancestral tie between the land, or ‘mother nature’, and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who were born therefrom, remain attached thereto, and must one day return thither to be united with our ancestors. This link is the basis of the ownership of the soil, or better, of sovereignty. It has never been ceded or extinguished, and co-exists with the sovereignty of the Crown.

How could it be otherwise? That peoples possessed a land for sixty millennia and this sacred link disappears from world history in merely the last two hundred years?

With substantive constitutional change and structural reform, we believe this ancient sovereignty can shine through as a fuller expression of Australia’s nationhood.

Proportionally, we are the most incarcerated people on the planet. We are not innately criminal people. Our children are aliened from their families at unprecedented rates. This cannot be because we have no love for them. And our youth languish in detention in obscene numbers. They should be our hope for the future.

These dimensions of our crisis tell plainly the structural nature of our problem. This is the torment of our powerlessness.

We seek constitutional reforms to empower our people and take a rightful place in our own country. When we have power over our destiny our children will flourish. They will walk in two worlds and their culture will be a gift to their country.

We call for the establishment of a First Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution.

Makarrata is the culmination of our agenda: the coming together after a struggle. It captures our aspirations for a fair and truthful relationship with the people of Australia and a better future for our children based on justice and self-determination.

We seek a Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations and truth-telling about our history.

In 1967 we were counted, in 2017 we seek to be heard. We leave base camp and start our trek across this vast country. We invite you to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future.

One in three Australians have been sexually harassed at work within the past five years. It is prevalent and pervasive. But it is also preventable. We’re calling on the Australian Government to act now to implement the remaining recommendations of the Respect@Work report, which sets out clear and sensible legal reforms to make workplaces safe for everyone. Drummond Street Services are proud to be among more than 60 diverse community organisations who want actions, not words.

Joint statement

Everyone deserves to be safe at work and free from sexual harassment, but our current system is failing us. While sexual harassment is pervasive across all industries and all employment levels in Australia, it is not inevitable. We have the power to prevent it.

We call on the Australian Government to implement all remaining recommendations of the Respect@Work report in full and without further delay. This includes urgently amending our laws to create the following eight changes:

1. Confirmation that one of the objects of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) is substantive equality – Recommendation 16(a)
2. Amending the Sex Discrimination Act to prohibit the creation of a hostile, sexist working environment – Recommendation 16(c)
3. A positive duty on all employers to take reasonable and proportionate steps to stop sex discrimination and sexual harassment – Recommendation 17
4. New compliance and investigation powers for the Australian Human Rights Commission to enforce the positive duty – Recommendation 18
5. A new inquiry power for the Sex Discrimination Commissioner to investigate systemic sexual harassment – Recommendation 19
6. A new process to allow representative bodies to bring actions to court on behalf of people who have been sexually harassed – Recommendation 23
7. Creating an express prohibition on sexual harassment and an accessible new complaints process in the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) – Recommendation 28
8. A new Work Health and Safety Code of Practice on Sexual Harassment at Work – Recommendation 35

One of the core findings of Respect@Work was that our current laws are ‘simply no longer fit for purpose’ and should require employers to take proactive measures to prevent sexual harassment.

Respect@Work highlighted the disproportionate impacts of sexual harassment on women, in particular on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, women of colour, women with disability, younger women, older women, low paid and insecurely employed women, and on LGBTIQ+ communities. It found that we must address gender inequity as the main driver of sexual harassment.

Two years on, we are deeply concerned that key recommendations from Respect@Work have still not been implemented. These sensible and practical changes to our laws must be made urgently to help create gender-equal and inclusive workplaces that are safe, respectful and equitable for everyone.

The Power2Prevent Coalition is a group of more than 60 diverse community organisations, unions, academics, peak bodies, health professionals, lawyers and victim-survivors. We see the effects of sexual harassment on people around Australia every day and how our systems are not responding to the issues.

We stand together to call for this urgent reform to prevent sexual harassment at work.

List of Signatories (as at March 2022)

1. Australian Council of Trade Unions
2. Basic Rights Queensland
3. Carol Andrades, Senior Fellow, University of Melbourne
4. Construction Forestry Maritime Mining Energy Union
5. Community and Public Sector Union
6. Domestic Violence NSW
7. Dr Alysia Blackham, Associate Professor, Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne
8. Dr Belinda Smith, Associate Professor, Sydney Law School, University of Sydney
9. Dr Dominique Allen, Associate Professor, Monash University
10. Drummond Street Services
11. Australian Education Union
12. Emerita Professor, Margaret Thornton, Australian National University
13. Employment Rights Legal Service
14. Equality Rights Alliance
15. Fair Agenda
16. Finance Sector Union
17. Full Stop Australia
18. GenWest
19. Grata Fund
20. Health Services Union
21. Independent Education Union of Australia
22. Job Watch
23. Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research
24. Justice Connect
25. Kingsford Legal Centre
26. Australian Lawyers Alliance
27. Legal Aid Queensland
28. Maritime Union of Australia
29. Maurice Blackburn
30. National Tertiary Education Union
31. North Queensland Women’s Legal Service
32. Northern Territory Legal Aid Commission
33. Not in My Workplace
34. Australian Nursing & Midwifery Federation
35. Professor Beth Gaze, Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne
36. Professor Nareen Young, Jumbunna Institute, UTS
37. Professor Sara Charlesworth, Director of the Centre for People, Organisation & Work, RMIT
38. Public Interest Advocacy Centre
39. Queensland Council of Unions
40. Redfern Legal Centre
41. Safe Steps
42. Australian Services Union
43. Sexual Assault Services Victoria
44. Shop Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association
45. South-East Monash Legal Service Inc.
46. United Workers Union
47. Victoria Legal Aid
48. Victoria Trades Hall Council
49. WestJustice
50. Wirringa Baiya Aboriginal Women’s Legal Centre
51. Women with Disabilities Victoria
52. Women’s Health and Wellbeing Barwon South West
53. Women’s Health in the South East
54. Women’s Health NSW
55. Women’s Health Victoria
56. Women’s Information and Referral Exchange Inc
57. Women’s Legal Centre ACT
58. Women’s Legal Service Australia
59. Women’s Legal Service NSW
60. Women’s Legal Service Victoria
61. Working Women’s Centre South Australia Inc
62. Young Workers Centre

Drummond Street Services and Queerspace express our extreme disappointment that the “Religious Discrimination Bill” passed the House of Representatives overnight.

We know this is upsetting for many of our staff, clients and others in the community. We encourage you to reach out to those around you if you need support or contact our counselling service on 03 9663 6733 or 1800 LGBTIQ (9am – 5pm) or for Queer Peer Support contact QLife on 1800 184 527 (3pm – 12am). If you are in danger, phone 000 or 1800 RESPECT for family violence & sexual assault support (24hrs).

Don’t lose hope as it can still be stopped in the Senate and if not, has the potential to be challenged in the High Court!

Five Liberals crossed the floor to successfully remove provisions that allowed discrimination against LGBTQ+ students, but as we know staff and other support staff can still be discriminated against.

Queerspace/Drummond Street Services stand against all of the bill and encourage all parties and individuals with a conscience to vote it down. As one of the oldest welfare organisations in Australia, we have seen and understand the real and very serious harms caused by discrimination, isolation, and bigotry.

We oppose all forms of discrimination and stand with all LGBTIQ people, women and minorities who are currently under threat of being discriminated against in the guise of religious beliefs.

It must stop here!

Drummond Street/Queerspace encourage those who can attend the next protest against the Bill and to write to relevant politicians.

From Queerspace and Drummond Street Services Executive

On Tuesday, January 28, 2020 Drummond Street Services wrote a submission regarding the second exposure drafts of a package of legislation on religious freedom released by the government for consultation on 10 December 2019:

• Religious Discrimination Bill 2019
• Religious Discrimination (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2019
• Human Rights Legislation Amendment (Freedom of Religion) Bill 2019

We stated then that we were deeply concerned about these proposed reforms. In particular, we referred to the impact these reforms would have on our clients, their families, children, carers and loved ones who we provide support to every day, as well as our own workforce and the broader community.

We are now nearing the end of 2021 and the draft bill is still up for debate and is expected to be debated in the lead up to the yet to be announced Federal election.

Whilst the discourse concerning this current draft suggests it has been ‘weakened’, it continues to include measures that make it lawful to discriminate people based on religious beliefs. These statements of belief allow for individuals to make discriminatory claims that are currently exempt from anti-discrimination and equal opportunity laws.

We have seen clear examples of this, such as footballer Israel Folau who publicly expressed over social media that “homosexuals, adulterers, atheists and other “sinners” would go to hell”, or where people have been sacked from the job based on nothing else, but their identity or sexuality.  Where is the ‘fair go’ or ‘fair play’ in this?

Despite the assertions that no LGBTIQ+ person will not lose their jobs, the bill does give licence to religious institutions to sack staff or refrain from hiring staff who are LGBTIQ+, or a myriad of other reasons, if it is claimed as due to religious beliefs.

We call out that this bill remains outrageously discriminatory and call on government members to oppose it outright. We know that the debate itself is damaging for many within LGBTIQA+ communities. The experiences of the shaming and divisive debates during the marriage equality postal plebiscite have not been forgotten. Revisiting this issue, particularly when some of the very same Members of Parliament express their concerns regarding community mental health rates due to the pandemic, now see nothing wrong with sanctioning discriminatory speech and behaviours.  This bill does nothing to address the shockingly high rates of depression, self-harm and suicide for many in our LGBTIQ communities, particularly our young people.

Furthermore, religious institutions advocating for their rights to be ‘shielded’ from the anti-discrimination laws, would be better placed if they spent more effort in repairing their reputations and practices from their own long histories of harm and institutional abuse, rather than continuing to exclude and judge people based on who they love.  They could also apply their advocacy and public funding to accord with their Social Justice credentials and actively call out discrimination, campaign for human rights and support those who continue to be marginalised, including from LGBTIQ+ communities.

If this bill becomes law, the outcomes will disproportionally affect those in our community.

Freedom and protection from discrimination have been hard won. This is not the time for bystanders, it is time for action.

“To make harmful, discriminatory comments under the guise of religious freedom is not only unlawful but will further harm communities that are disproportionally impacted by systemic oppression. Enabling discrimination by codifying it in law has been a long-standing form of patriarchal colonial oppression in Australia. It is time that we stand against this and ensure that our hard-won protections continue to be upheld by law and by the wider community.”

Paula Fernandez Arias, PhD

General Manager queerspace

For further information please contact Paula Fernandez Arias on 03 9663 6733.

Drummond Street Services’ Centre for Family Research and Evaluation, in partnership with RMIT University’s Centre for Innovative Justice and the Australian Institute of Family Studies, has recently commenced Future-proofing Safety, a major new research project examining how family violence in Victoria has changed since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

The research will span the breadth of Victoria’s whole community services system to understand how services have responded to family violence during COVID-19.

The project is looking at how services adapted, what gaps and weaknesses were surfaced, and how services responded to the crisis. It will also look forward by providing tangible recommendations on how to future-proof Victoria’s responses to family violence during crises like COVID-19.

You can find out more about the project at cfre.org.au/future-proofing-safety or email cfre@ds.org.au about how you can be involved as a peak, organisation or practitioner.

Future-proofing Safety began in August 2021 and is funded by Family Safety Victoria.

Vaccine Equity for Victorians – Including People Living With a Disability

Drummond Street Services wants to offer its solidarity to those who are in our communities, including those who are living with disabilities, their families and loved ones, including children and young people by providing access to the COVID-19 vaccine at a proposed pop-up clinic at some of our services sites.

Some 18 months on from the pandemic, where hopes of ‘building back better’ and ‘all in this together’, showed that the very best of these intentions, did not speak to the lived experiences of many in our communities.

Instead, it showed the many fractures in the very systems that we look to and have the responsibility to ensure all have the care and support they need, and that their health in all aspects is protected.

These times have challenged us all, with our communities and families showing us how resilient and patient they are have been – in adhering to public health orders, staying at home, enduring lock-down after lock-down whilst waiting for the opportunity for access to a vaccine.

Vaccine priority categories were established, and rightly so – in recognition that some of us or among us are made that more ‘vulnerable’ due to our health experiences, socio-economic circumstances and more so due to the social structures and systems that far too often overlook those who need the most assistance.

This was highlighted again when The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability released their draft Report of Public hearing 12: The experiences of people with disability, in the context of the Australian Government’s approach to the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.

We all want to resume our lives and no longer be away from those we love, however the push from some within the communities, our governments and in the media discourse, continue to forget that until those in our communities not only have access, but if needed the support to get vaccinated – they will continue to more at risk.  This is not ‘freedom’ or equity for all, but still only ‘freedom’ for some.

We have also seen first-hand how our systems, attitudes or inactions continue to discriminate, marginalise and harm in our work with survivors of institutional abuse, and People with Disabilities.

Through Drummond Street Services’  free, trauma-informed, inclusive support service, as part of the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability – our ‘Your Way Through’ program, we support people with a disability, their carers and families to share their stories of abuse or neglect or focus on their recovery from complex trauma.

We have an experienced team of complex trauma practitioners and peer practitioners with lived experiences who are available to support people with a disability, their carers and their families navigate the road to trauma recovery as well as make submissions to the Disability Royal Commission.

Karen Field, Drummond Street Services CEO says,

“It is just not good enough, that too many did not – and continue to not – have access to the vaccine, and that their physical and mental health is put at such great risk.  As we always try to do, we will continue to advocate on behalf of those within our communities – whether this is our First Nations brothers and sisters, our LGBTIQ+ communities, people of colour and People with Disabilities”.

We also need and want to play our part. Therefore, I am pleased to advise that we are working with our community partners: YSAS, Odyssey House and Co-health to offer vaccine access at our DS service site in Carlton as part of our network of safe and trusted places that both our clients and those in our communities can get their protection they need”.

We also applaud the Victorian State Government’s recent announcement to provide specialist access to People with Disabilities as part of their State network of vaccination hubs, and that the Victorian Minister for Disability, Ageing and Carers has made a commitment to people with a disability to ensure their health is protected before public health orders are eased”.

Drummond Street Services also wants to offer its solidarity to People with Disabilities Australia (PWDA) and their campaign – #SpeedUpVaxForPWD. 

For updates on our vaccine community clinic and information on our support services, including ‘Your Way Through’ – www.ds.org.au For media enquiries: Ali Hogg at ali.hogg@ds.org.au or Phoebe Wallish at phoebe.wallish@ds.org.au or contact us at 03 9663 6733.