The Catholic Weekly 23 August 2020

catholicweekly.com.au 3 23, August, 2020 FED UP with waiting for Pre- mier Gladys Berejiklian to enact the state’s anti-slavery legislation, NSW MPs have created an online petition, calling the government’s lack of action “completely unac- ceptable”. The NSW Modern Slav- ery Act 2018 was passed with overwhelming support by the Parliament on 21 June 2018 and received Royal Assent from the Governor of NSW just six days later but has still not been enacted. The petition requires 20,000 signatures from NSW citizens to force the parlia- ment to debate and address the proclamation of the Act. Labor MPs Dr Marjorie O’Neill and Dr Hugh McDer- mott are leading the call for the Premier to proclaim the Act immediately, backing Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP’s recent condemnation of the Government over the is- sue. “Protecting the vulnera- ble in our society is a core value, an issue we should be in agreement on,” said Dr O’Neill. “It is an absolute disgrace that the legislation has not yet been proclaimed. The time for review has long passed. Now is the time to implement this important legislation. “Two years later, a law that is fundamental to protect- ing human rights has still not come into force because of the complete inaction of the Berejiklian Liberal-National Government.” Dr McDermott said it “beg- gars belief” that the Act has been allowed to sit and be de- layed for so long. “We cannot pretend that slavery is a relic of our histo- ry and that it somehow does not affect us in Australia. It is happening here and now,” said Dr McDermott. “More needs to be done to prevent the scourge of slavery in NSW. “We cannot yet be proud of our actions to eradicate mod- ern slavery. We have not done enough. It is far too prevalent in our community.” GregDon- ¾ ¾ Benjamin Conolly It is an absolute disgrace that the legislationhas not yet been proclaimed. The time for reviewhas long passed. Now is the time to implement this impor- tant legislation.” Dr Marjorie O’Neill nelly MLC said it is a “scurril- ous act to not have the will of the parliament fulfilled”. “This is unfinished busi- ness from the last parliament and an attempt to undermine the will of the parliament,” said Mr Donnelly. Mr Donnelly praised the work of NGOs including Arch- bishop Fisher and the Catho- lic Archdiocese of Sydney’s Anti-Slavery Task Force for their continued work to pres- sure the Government into ac- tion. “This is an issue that Catho- lics, particularly young ones should be encouraged to be- come engaged with,” said Mr Donnelly. “We can all do our bit to eliminate slavery and slav- ery-like practices wherever they may be found either here in Sydney or people working on miserable wages in plan- tations in South East Asia tapping rubber trees to collect the rawmaterial used to man- ufacture gloves sourced by NSWHealth.” “The undersigned petition- ers think that it is completely unacceptable that this act was passed through both Houses of New South Wales Parlia- ment well over two years be- fore this petition was created, and still has not been brought into law,” reads the petition. “The Premier stated in her speech on the bill that: There is an undeniable moral im- perative to take action in re- lation to all forms of modern slavery.” The petition can be found at: https://www.parliament. nsw.gov.au/la/Pages/epeti- tions-list.aspx Looking for a new Job? www.catholicjobsonline.com.au Investigation clears Cherrybrook school THE INDEPENDENT Tanga- ra School for Girls in Cherry- brook – a recent Sydney epi- centre for 25 confirmed cases of COVID-19 has been cleared by New South Wales police of health breaches. A police spokeswoman confirmed that a police inves- tigation had concluded and the college had been cleared Police investigated Tangara School for Girls in Cherrybrook after it was linked to 25 COVID-19 cases. of any wrongdoing. In a state- ment on its website, the school said the “misinformation” cir- culating during the “challeng- ing and emotional period” needed to be clarified. “We have always followed the advice of NSW Health around COVID-19 and will continue to do so,” the school said. We won’t wait any longer Retailers urged to stand up CATHOLIC HEALTH Aus- tralia, which manages one in eight hospital beds, is calling on retailers to stop selling N95 hospital-grade masks to the public. The call comes amid fears the stockpile of masks will be exhausted with disastrous consequences for the health system. “These masks are on sale in Chemist Warehouse and Of- fice Warehouse but hospitals across the country are scram- bling to access these life-sav- ing masks,” said James Kemp, Director of Health Policy at Catholic Health Australia. Like the embarrassing toilet paper hoarding frenzy witnessed earlier in the year at the onset of the pandemic - which exhausted supplies ¾ ¾ David Ryan N95 masks are essential for health- care workers in the fight against COVID-19 but hospitals are running short because of retail sales. from shelves- wide scale re- tail access to hospital grade equipment will exhaust es- sential products from the health industry where they are needed in emergency and intensive care wards. “We are calling on retailers andwholesalers to think twice about sourcing these masks to sell to the public,” Mr Kemp said. “As we have seen, this pan- demic can surge very quickly - we need to make every mask count.” A P2/N95 mask re- moves around 95 per cent of all particles that are at least 0.3 microns in diameter – and is essential for staff in the fight against COVID-19 which has claimed the lives of thousands of hospital staff around the world. Mr Kemp said that CHA supports the public wear- ing masks – but that national stocks of the N95 variety need to be preserved. “There is real pressure on the supply of these masks,” he said. “Some hospitals in Victoria are reaching out to health pro- viders in less affected states to ask if they can access their stocks of N95 masks. Mr Kemp said there are many other masks that can protect the public. “The guidelines for wear- ing a mask in public is that it does not need to be a medi- cal grade mask, and certain- ly not an N95. While we all want to protect ourselves and our loved ones, the best way we can do this is to mask-up in public but leave the N95 masks to our clinicians who need them,” he said. “COVID-19 cases are rising all over the country and we have to make sure our front- line staff are protected.” We are callingon retailers andwholesal- ers to think twice about sourcing these masks to sell to the public ... Aswe have seen, this pandemic can surge very quick- ly -we need tomake everymask count.” James Kemp, Catholic Health Australia NEWS