Described as a crude and cruel mechanism, RoboDebt received thorough investigation in the final Royal Commission Report, with the assessment stating the unlawful Scheme made many people feel like criminals.

Following a condemning account of federal ministers and public servants, the report made 57 recommendations, including a change in social attitudes towards welfare recipients.

With thousands of lives left devastated by the Scheme revelations have again sparked major reaction from media and activists with a local poverty advocacy group urging the need to tackle the culture of welfare bashing that RoboDebt has come from.

Image: Image courtesy of Wikimedia: Gary Houston CCO 1.0

Produced By: Emma Wotzke

Featured In Story: David Winderlich member of South Australian Anti-Poverty Network Co-ordinator Committee , Anna lived experience of homelessness and victim of RoboDebt, and

First aired on The Wire, Thursday 13 July 2023

The post welfare advocates urge culture change in the wake of RoboDebt revelations appeared first on Fraser Coast FM 107.5.

Australias 200-year relationship with race has set the theme of a new book, written collaboratively by proud Murri man with Chinese ancestry, Wayne Long, and, Federal MP for Moreton Graham Perrett.

The Long Story, chronicles Mr Longs ancestral links through the history of interracial relations, race injustice, and the importance of the Voice to Parliament Referendum.

National Radio News reporter Amy OHalloran asked Graham Perrett some of the stories of resilience shown in the book.

Image: Image courtesy of Pixabay

Produced By: Amy OHalloran

Featured In Story: Graham Perrett Federal MP for Moreton, and

First aired on The Wire, Thursday 13 July 2023

The post An interwoven story: a personal lineage through interracial relations in Australia appeared first on Fraser Coast FM 107.5.

The Albanese government will kick off its Multicultural Framework Review to better reflect what works for Australia in terms of migration and support services.

The Review will give policy advice on whats working for our community and what is needed to continue being a successful example of multiculturalism.

The Wires Real Manyuchi asked Federal Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs Andrew Giles whats the balance of promoting cultural diversity and fostering social cohesion.

Image: Image courtesy of Radio 4EB

Produced By: Real Manyuchi

Featured In Story: Andrew Giles Federal Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, and

First aired on The Wire, Thursday 13 July 2023

The post Launch of Australias Multicultural Framework Review: where to strike a balance? appeared first on Fraser Coast FM 107.5.

Content warning: reference to sexual harassment

Over 40 groups and individuals Australia-wide have signed an open letter urgently calling on the federal government for immediate action to address sexual violence in university spaces, in the face of escalating rates.

Advocates say university leaders are claiming to have had zero tolerance to sexual assaults in the six years since the landmark Change the Course Report yet recent figures in the latest National Student Safety Survey reveal a different story.

The Wire contacted Universities Australia for comment on the issue Universities Australia chief executive Catriona Jackson said:

Sexual harm is a societal problem. We all have a responsibility to act, which is why universities are working hard to reduce instances of this behaviour on campus. Working closely with students and victim/survivor groups, Universities Australia launched the world-first, sector-wide Respect.Now.Always initiative in 2016. This set in motion the development of hundreds of measures and programs at universities across the country to prevent and better respond to sexual harm. Our universities have a strong understanding of their own unique demographics, their campuses and their students, which is why they are best placed to continue building on the extensive work undertaken to date. The policy frameworks, good practice guides and other resources we have developed with experts on behalf of the sector will continue to assist universities in combating sexual harm on campus.

Image: Image courtesy of Pexels Felipe Ces Pedes

Produced By: Emma Wotzke

Featured In Story: Sharna Bremner Founder and Director of End Rape on Campus , and

First aired on The Wire, Thursday 13 July 2023

The post Open letter urges the Federa...

On Friday 7 July, Falcon Air (NSW) Cirrus Design Corp. SF50 Vision Jet VH-LCR was noted passing through Rockhampton Airport.  It arrived from Bankstown and Gold Coast and later departed to Townsville.

File photo

On a grey rainy day in the World War one  battlefields at Pozieres, two diggers made a promise to look after one anothers wives if either survived the conflagration setting down upon them.

That was the beginning of Legacy, and the Torch flame as the symbol of Legacy has been carried from France, across Europe and Australia on the 100 year centenary of that day.  The Torch is due to arrive in Sydneys Martin Place today, with Minister for Veterans Affairs Matt Thisthlethwaite, and Governor General General Sir Peter Cosgrove.

The Torch then turns south to travel through the Riverina and on to Melbourne where it will end at the first Legacy branch.

Image: Image : Courtesy R Chambers Lancaster Wireless Op

Produced By: Roderick Chambers

Featured In Story: Lillian Sanelli Legacy Torch Relay Director

First aired on The Wire, Wednesday 12 July 2023

The post Legacy Centenary Torch Relay appeared first on Fraser Coast FM 107.5.

Often people in more remote areas never got their birth registered and as such have no birth certificate.

This may not cause much of a problem as a child, but nowadays getting a licence, joining a club, doing anything with Government involves producing a birth certificate or Passport for which you need a birth certificate.

Pathfinders are a group led by First Nations people who help those without birth certificates

Image: Image: Pathfinders

Produced By: Roderick Chambers

Featured In Story: Ron Naden coordinator of the National Aboriginal Birth Certificate program Pathfinders

First aired on The Wire, Wednesday 12 July 2023

The post Pathfinders are on the case appeared first on Fraser Coast FM 107.5.

Music has been shown to be cathartic for many people.  It can also help with language.

New research from the Lyon Research Centre in France, Western Sydney University MARCS Institute for Brain Behaviour and Development and the Vanderbilt University Medical Centre has shown that  regular rhythms can boost sentence repetition in children with Developmental Language Disorder.

They have tested these methods in French and Hungarian, now Vanderbilt has a study underway in English which should reinforce their findings.

Image: Image: Unsplash

Produced By: Roderick Chambers

Featured In Story: Dr Anna Fiveash Cognitive psychologist and co-lead author from Western Sydney University MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development

First aired on The Wire, Wednesday 12 July 2023

The post Music to your ears appeared first on Fraser Coast FM 107.5.

John Schumann (ex-Redgum lead singer/songwriter) and the Vagabond Crew are returning to Brisbane with The Redgum Years in August. Here, Schumann reflects on gigging in the dark days of the Bjelke-Petersen regime, and finds Redgums protest songs from the 70s and 80s still apply today.

It was September 1979. We were staying in some crappy three-star holiday units in Tweed Heads and Tim Woods, our tour manager, assembled us in one of the kitchens after breakfast.

Redgum was very much a part-time band then. Two of us were high-school teachers so touring opportunities were confined to school holidays. Tim, now a successful concert promoter, was the only member of the touring party who had the faintest idea about the music industry and Queensland.

Okay, anyone with any drugs at all I mean at all  put them on the table now.

People shuffled uncomfortably and little by little, small quantities of marijuana in tobacco tins and Gladbags and the odd morsel of crumbly black hash in tinfoil appeared on the Laminex table. It was pretty pathetic, really. These days the combined stash would be considered well within personal use limit for one person.

Right. Were going into Queensland. Were Special Branch targets so we need to be as clean as a bottle of Dettol. Smoke it now, flush it, bury it somewhere I dont care. But its not coming across the border.

Wed released our first album, If You Dont Fight You Lose, barely a year before. One of my contributions was a strident song delivered in my strangulated, nasal tones called Letter to BJ. It was addressed to Queenslands notorious premier and it had garnered a fair bit of attention on both sides of the civil liberties argument. Plenty of Queenslanders were dying to see us play it live. Plenty more would have been just as happy to see our heads on pikes lining the road out of Tweed Heads.

...

When you modify a Boeing 737-700 with a state-of-the-art airborne early warning and control system, you get an Australian E-7A Wedgetail.

The Wedgetail is an invaluable piece of equipment for The Royal Australian Air Force with the ability to track maritime and airborne targets at a range in excess of four hundred kilometers, with aerial refuelling capability and all of the communication equipment required to act as a mobile command centre.

The Prime minister has pledged a Wedgetail to support NATOs logistical support for the Ukraine War in which the E-7A will be based out of Germany on the same day that the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has agreed to the purchase of one-hundred Boxer heavy weapons carriers wroth one billion dollars making it one of the biggest arms deals in Australia history.

Image: Image: Shutterstock: Chris Andrews Fern Bay

Produced By: Dominic Giles

Featured In Story: Dr James Dwyer, Lecturer in Social Sciences, Specialising in Security and Strategic Studies from the University of Tasmania

First aired on The Wire, Wednesday 12 July 2023

The post Australian Wedgetail Flies Over Europe appeared first on Fraser Coast FM 107.5.