Right Now‘s May 2014 issue, Human Rights and Money.
Feature
Laura Jean McKay, The Machinery of Government:
On being a person in the turning cogs of aid
Articles
Marta Skrabacz, The “Mess and Noise” of Boycotts
Fiona So, Crowdfunding for a Better World
Monique Hurley, The Cost of Voluntourism
Alistair Robertson, Is Economic Equality a Human Right?
Interview and Reviews
Right Now Radio, Budget Analysis:
Impacts on women and Indigenous health
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On 14 May 2014, the 2014-15 Federal Budget was revealed in all its austerity. The reaction has been both in-depth analysis and, in many quarters, deep antipathy. Protests have followed, with tens of thousands taking their anger over unforeseen cuts to areas such as education and health to the streets. Just as worryingly for those who take the idea of a “mandate” seriously, many of the cuts were either not foreshadowed or were positively guaranteed not to be made before the federal elections. They are now presented as necessary and inevitable.
Right Now’s May issue appears in this milieu, but does not attempt the line-by-line speech analyses or hour-by-hour dissections of Question Time that have followed. Rather, we’ve focused on some distinct and personal meeting points of human rights and money: people dependent on aid, people who hope to raise funds to promote human rights, people who want to enhance human rights abroad through overseas volunteering and, yes, those who wonder whether economic equality is indeed a human right.
Our somewhat austere May issue (and June issue to come) do, however, have a pretty good justification (and we did let you know about it ahead of time). On 29 May 2014, Right Now launched its first print anthology, Poetic Justice: Contemporary Australian voices on equality and human rights, as part of the 2014 Emerging Writers’ Festival. The Footscray Community Arts Centre hosted the launch, which included readings from the anthology and performances from the West Writers’ Group collective. The anthology has been a labour of love for the Right Now team, and is the culmination of many years of work by many dedicated volunteers. Find out more about Poetic Justice, and get your copy here!
Finally, with no shortage of articles on the intersection of human rights and money in Right Now’s vault, we offer this short selection to explore:
Sayomi Ariyawansa, Who’s your Nanny? Exploitation, Choice and Migrant Childcare Workers
Sarita Ryan, Having it Both Ways: Australia’s Conflicted Position in the Timor Sea
Abraham Mamer and Sara Maher, Remittances to South Sudan: An Unrecognised Source of Aid
Sienna Merope, The Economic Cost of Our Asylum Seeker Policy
Robyn Carroll, Sometimes an Apology is Worth More than Money
Beth Gaze, The Workplace Gender Equality Act: Reducing Women’s Disadvantage at Work
