All people deserve equal access to human rights.

Australia’s nurses and midwives want the Australian government to provide social justice and human rights equally to all people in the Australian community.

1. Violence against Women

In Australia domestic violence is the greatest cause of illness and ill health in women between the ages of 15 and 44. Every week one woman dies at the hands of someone she knows.

The financial cost of physical and sexual violence against women in Australia runs into billions of dollars and the ongoing social and health costs impacting women’s lives are immeasurable.

Nursing in Australia, primarily a female occupation is still identified as at high risk of workplace violence. Research shows large numbers of nurses are regularly exposed to verbal and physical violence.

The ANF calls on the Australian Government to address the violence nurses experience through the funding of a national study to develop strategies to reduce the incidence of violence and aggression toward nurses in the workplace.

For further information on accessing support for those experiencing violence: (24 hour crisis support).

For further information on the federal government’s national strategy against violence and sexual assault click here.

For further information

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2. Asylum Seeker and Refugee Health

All asylum seekers in Australia must be treated with dignity and have equal access to the human rights that Australian citizens take for granted. All people seeking asylum, whatever their method of arriving in Australia are within their rights to do so.

The Australian government’s decision to bring an end to the ‘Pacific Solution’ and to abolish Temporary Protection Visas is a welcome change to Australian policy.

Long term detention has significant impact on an individual’s physical and psychological health and contravenes their human rights. The ANF would like further commitment from the Australian Government to end all offshore and indefinite detention of asylum seekers, and to establish a system that prevents any child from experiencing detention in Australia.

For further information:

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3. Charter of Human Rights

The Australian Nursing Federation supports the move to develop a Human Rights Act or Charter. Developing a national law protecting human rights has the potential to vastly improve human rights protection in Australia.

We need to protect Human Rights in Australia in order to prevent human rights abuses that are already occurring here:

All people deserve access to human rights, the right to freedom of speech, to quality health care, to education, clean and secure housing, and personal safety. This is fundamental to mental and physical health and wellbeing.

For further information

Australian Human Rights Group

The Australian Human Rights Group (AHRG) is a network of organisations and individuals committed to enhancing our legislative protection of human rights by supporting a national Human Rights Act.

4. Don't Deal with Burma campaign

The ANF support s the work of Burma Campaign Australia.

"Don't Deal with Burma" is a national campaign which was launched in September 2009, aimed at cutting all Australian support to the Burmese military dictatorship.

The human rights and humanitarian crisis in Eastern Burma is one of the worst in the world. In the past year 66,000 civilians have been forced from their homes because of attacks by the Burmese Army. Around half a million people are internally displaced, while hundreds of thousands are in refugee camps in Thailand, or have been resettled in other countries. More than 3,200 villages have been destroyed in the past 12 years.

For further information and to support the campaign, please visit the Burma Campaign Australia website

5. Medical Association for Prevention of War

The ANF supports the work of the Medical Association for Prevention of War (Australia) (MAPW). The MAPW works for the elimination of all weapons of mass destruction and the prevention of armed conflict. We promote peace through research, advocacy, peace education and partnerships. Please use our many resources on nuclear weapons, power and waste, peace and conflicts.

Our professional not-for-profit organisation has branches across Australia, and works globally through the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. Please consider joining us, or supporting our work with a donation.

For further information

6. Environment and Health

Human health and the environment are inextricably linked, and nurses are already experiencing first hand the impact of climate change on the health and well being of Australians. The recent high temperatures and drought conditions experienced across the country and internationally are impacting on food production and the physical and psychological health of many people.

The ANF is calling on the Australian government to continue working towards solutions to the problems impacting on the environmental health of our planet, such as increasing our capacity to produce energy through renewable technologies thereby reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and managing our water resources responsibly.

The ANF is concerned that the 5% target to cut Australia’s carbon pollution, set by the Australian government is not enough and maintains that the health of the nation is relying on swift action.

The ANF joins the international community in calling on the Australian government to set stronger renewable energy targets for 2020.

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7. International Health:

Around the world, people are impacted by poverty and injustice. Poverty and conflict have a profoundly negative effect on an individual’s access to basic human rights, and as a result their health and well being.

The Australian Nursing Federation says:

For further information