Women on the Line

In 2016 the Federal Government quietly rolled out the Online Compliance Intervention. It would later become known as Robodebt because of its automatic debt recovery process. Income data matching isn't new. The Department of Human Services has been comparing data submitted to the Australian Taxation Office, with earnings reported to Centrelink, as far back as 2004. But this time around it was diffe...

We hear from two historians, Mary Sheehan and Liz Crash, talking on the experience of the Influenza pandemic that peaked in 1919 through the lens of today's pandemic. They cover a broad area, with Mary touching on experiences of nurses in Melbourne including Valda Kelly, community support, comparisons to today; and Liz exploring history repeating, technological changes, gender, unemployment and re...

In this episode of Women on the Line you’ll be hearing from several women and gender non conforming people about their experiences of connection and disconnection during this current COVID19 pandemic crisis. Many of these were personal submissions made from voice memos apps on phones or computers. We explore what it’s like to live in social isolation in this time, connection with and histories of...

This week, we are joined by Madison Griffiths, producer of Tender, a Broadwave Productions podcast about what happens when women leave abusive relationships. Madison is a writer, producer and poet whose words can be found in the Guardian, VICE, Overland, Meanjin, Kill Your Darlings and more. We speak about the need to center survivors in their stories and why it is important to talk about what hap...

It’s been almost a month since eligible Australian’s started receiving their Coronavirus Supplement. This extra $550 a fortnight payment was the government’s financial response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This week we're joined by Kristin O'Connell from the Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union to help us make sense of the supplement, and why our government insists on punishing the poor. Produced and...

This week we look at two different areas, but both relating back to this current pandemic. Many disabled and chronically ill people have been navigating living at home long before the pandemic and have been supporting each other through it. In the first half of the show we hear from writer and facilitator Julia Rose Bak on care work in disabled communities, and bittersweet reflections on how non-d...

What is it like working from home for women and people with caring responsibilities? How can we expect women and carers to do two jobs at once? May the 1st is May Day, an important day for workers, and this week on the program we look at work under COVID-19 through a feminist lens. We'll hear a personal account of someone working from home with two children undertaking remote learning, and speak w...

This week on Women on the Line, we explore how the COVID19 pandemic is affecting people in immigration detention both in the US and here in Australia. First, we listen to a conversation between Max Castle from 3CR Community Radio's Thursday Breakfast, and Maru Mora-Villalpando, a community organiser working in Seattle/Tacoma, Washington, about the threat of coronavirus outbreaks in US immigration...

It’s a strange time at the moment, a time to stick together, while doing our best to physically stay apart. This week on the program we speak with epidemiologist Dr Meru Sheel based at the Australian National University about the public health implications of COVID-19 and the best things we can be doing to work towards solidarity in community and global health at this time. We also hear from Sally...

This week on Women on the Line, we hear a speech by social theorist and activist Professor Patricia Hill Collins on why intersectionality matters. This talk was recorded at the Activism at the Margins conference organised by RMIT University.  Professor Patricia Hill Collins is Distinguished University Professor of Sociology Emerita at the University of Maryland, College Park and Charles Phelps Taf...

This week on Women on the Line, we hear some highlights from the Activism @ the Margins conference. In the first half of the show, Kashifa Aslam, an RMIT researcher, looks at the women behind the viral hashtag #illridewithyou.  Kashifa also explores whether their activism was real, or symbolic. Later in the program, RMIT lecturer, Pauline Anastasiou discusses the silent activism of the Big Umbrell...

This week on the program we look at flood plain harvesting in NSW and the impact of bushfires in East Gippsland. We'll hear excerpts from a recent interview by 3CR Community Radio Tuesday Hometime presenter Jan Bartlett, who spoke with Fiona York for news from East Gippsland after the devastating fires. First though we speak with Bev Smiles, President of the Inland Rivers Network, about the recent...

This week we hear speeches from protests tackling racism in the settler colony. First, we hear from the Invasion Day 2020 rally in Melbourne, organised by the Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance, with Sasha Edwards speaking on Justice for Jesse Edwards, and from Apryl Watson-Day on Justice for Tanya Day. Second, we hear from the protest, No to racism, lift the travel ban rally by Stand Together...

Since October 2019, Chile has been crippled by rolling strikes across multiple sectors of the economy, and generalised political rebellion in the streets. The cause of these uprisings at one point, was the raising in prices of fares on the Santiago subway, but has since channelled people’s general anger and frustration at political corruption and enduring poverty in that country. Juliana Rivas, is...

On this show, you will hear from Donna Lyon, academic, filmmaker and boxer discussing her project ‘Left/ Write// Hook’ - designed to help women who have experienced sexual abuse and trauma find a connection to their body, mind and spirit through weekly transformative writing and boxing workshops. You will also hear from Mischa Merz, boxer, writer and owner of Mischa’s Boxing Central Gym discussing...

Today on Women on the Line, the campaign to abolish Australia Day. January 26 marks the anniversary of the 1788 arrival of the First Fleet of British Ships at Port Jackson, the invasion of Australia and the start of genocide against the original owners of this land. For the last 3 years, the campaign to abolish Australia Day – not just to change the date – has garnered a lot of public support. We...

This week we hear about the broader issues of oppression around the struggle for Justice for Filipina trans woman Mhelody Polan Bruno, who was killed on holiday in Australia last year. We hear from Lina Cabaero, from Migrante Australia, who also talks about Phillipines solidarity. We then hear excerpts from a vigil last year in Melbourne, organised by Members of Filipinx, Trans, Asian Diaspora com...

India’s Hindu-supremacist BJP government has stepped up its state repression by ramming through areactionary Citizenship Amendment Act in early December 2019. The law grants Indian citizenship to non-Muslim immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan but denies that right to Muslims from any country in South Asia. Immigrants from other countries in the region, including Tamils from Sri La...

The fourth and final part in a series of recordings from LaTrobe University’s Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society’s one-day symposium looking critically at the intersection points of HIV and people’s lives, especially people and communities affected by HIV who have not been at the centre of the Australian HIV response. Hear from Dr Jennifer Power, Research Fellow at the Australia...

Part three of a four part series of recordings from LaTrobe University’s Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society’s one-day symposium looking critically at the intersection points of HIV and people’s lives, especially people and communities affected by HIV who have not been at the centre of the Australian HIV response. Hear from Dr Jennifer Power, Research Fellow at the Australian Res...

Part two of a four part series of recordings from LaTrobe University’s Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society’s one-day symposium looking critically at the intersection points of HIV and people’s lives, especially people and communities affected by HIV who have not been at the centre of the Australian HIV response. Hope Mathumbu, secretary of the Victorian African Health Action Netw...

Part one of a four part series of recordings from LaTrobe University’s Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society’s one-day symposium looking critically at the intersection points of HIV and people’s lives, especially people and communities affected by HIV who have not been at the centre of the Australian HIV response. Hear from Hope Mathumbu, secretary of the Victorian African Health A...

The sex workers rights movement had a win with a bill for the decriminalisation of sex work in the Northern Territory passed on November 26th. Decriminalisation allows sex workers to access basic labour rights and protections as in other sectors. This week we hear from sex workers involved in campaigns for sex workers, first in the Northern Territory from Scarlet Alliance ATSI chair Desirae August...

This week on the program we look at Re-Register: Australian Women Sculptors from the Women’s Art Register, which the inaugural Women’s Art Register Artist-In-Residence program. The Register, which is based in Richmond, was established in 1975 and is a living archive of women and gender non-conforming people’s art practice and an artist run and not-for-profit community and resource. We speak Caroli...

On 6 October 2019, Donald Trump ordered American troops to withdraw from northeastern Syria, where the United States had been supporting its Kurdish allies. Three days later, Turkey launched airstrikes on border towns. The air assault resulted in the displacement of over 300,000 people and countless civilian deathsThe Middle Eastern and North African alliance of socialists organised an internation...