Sentry, May 2020

SENTRY Spanish flu

Dealing with a pandemic a century ago International students

Is Australia a fair weather friend?

Supporting Aboriginal students during shutdown

Learning Skills Adviser

How to improve your online teaching

Published by National Tertiary Education Union

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CONTENTS

International students

Supporting A&TSI students

Has COVID-19 exposed Australia as a fair weather friend to international students?

Ellen Bertani on how UniSA is continuing to support Aboriginal students during the shutdown.

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06 Cover: Young Korean woman wearing a face mask during the COVID-19 pandemic.

(Portuguese Gravity/Unsplash)

Sentry is a free online news magazine for NTEU members and Australian higher education staff.

Sentry will be published during the COVID-19 shutdown in between publication of the Union's regular member magazine, Advocate.

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Online teaching

Spanish flu in Australia

Learning Skills Adviser Jennifer Anderson discusses how to improve your online teaching.

There are similarities to now to how Australia dealt with the influenza pandemic a century ago.

Sentry will be published in May, June, August, September, October and December (if required). Advocate will be published as usual in July and November.

SENTRY ISSN 2652-5992

Editorial 01 Jobs Protection Network 01 In case you missed it... 02 COVID-19 & higher education: a timeline 08 Policy briefings & fact sheets 15 New working from home tax shortcut 16 Sentry

Published by National Tertiary Education Union PO Box 1323, South Melbourne VIC 3205 Australia ABN 38 579 396 344 All text & images ŠNTEU 2020 unless stated Publisher

Matthew McGowan

Editor

Alison Barnes

Production Manager

Paul Clifton

Editorial Assistance

Anastasia Kotaidis

Sentry is available online free as a PDF and e-book at www.nteu.org.au/sentry

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EDITORIAL

Welcome to Sentry, NTEU's new e-magazine Sentry is NTEU's new e-magazine, to be published monthly in between issues of Advocate. It will bring members useful information about coping with the myriad effects that COVID-19 is having on our work and lives, plus lighter items to help you get through the days of lockdown.

In this inaugural Sentry we examine what’s happening with international students and how one university is maintaining its support for Aboriginal students during the shutdown.

There's useful tips for online teaching and information on a workingfrom-home tax shortcut.

NTEU proposes a Jobs Protection Framework Our sector is facing an unprecedented crisis. The drop in international and domestic student enrolments could result in a revenue shortfall of up to $5 billion. Universities Australia estimates up to 30,000 jobs (21,000 FTE) will be lost, without a real rescue package.

Education Minister Dan Tehan hanging university staff out to dry during COVID-19 (TM)

So far the Morrison Government has failed to come forward with any meaningful support, and instead have put a sequence of barriers into place to prevent university employees (including long term casuals) from accessing JobKeeper payments.

We will continue to campaign hard, but with no leadership from government we are doing everything we can to save every job we can. That’s why we are trying to negotiate a National Jobs Protection Framework with university employers, which would secure protections for staff that are not currently available under our enterprise agreements or the Fair Work Act.

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This first issue brings you links to the policy briefings and fact sheets that have been produced to inform members about COVID-19 and its effects on tertiary education, including a timeline of how this has played out over the last months. We hope you enjoy reading our new magazine!

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In order to save jobs it is likely that we will need to agree to some short-term amendments to working conditions. Any agreement reached would be time-limited, indicating when existing employment conditions would be re-established.

We want the Framework to include the avoidance of stand-downs without pay; no new external appointments; redundancies to apply only where the work is ceasing permanently; casuals to receive the work where it is still required to be done; and superannuation payments to be maintained. If we can achieve these things then we would consider offsets that allow employers to implement some cost-saving measures in exchange, such as deferral of pay rises, limited fraction reductions and direction to work other duties.

And of course, no agreement will be finalised until members across the country have voted on it. An online meeting of NTEU National Councillors on 24 April endorsed the plan by an 85% majority vote.

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CATCH UP

NEWS & CAMPAIGNS

In case you missed it....

Saving Jobs in Higher Education A short video detailing what NTEU members have been doing to save higher education jobs during the coronavirus pandemic.

From early February, members around the country have been active across all topics in all media.

Watch the video M

Where's the plan, Dan?

Connect covers coronavirus The March issue of Connect, NTEU's magazine for casual and sessional staff, dealt extensively with the developing story of coronavirus. It's a great read for all members.

On ABCTV Q&A on 27 April, NTEU National President Alison Barnes asked Education Minister Dan Tehan why there was no support package for higher education.

Watch the video M Starts at 44:00

Petition to VCs: 'Coronavirus: Don’t make uni staff pay!'

Our member-driven petition asked Vice-Chancellors to act to protect staff during the coronavirus pandemic. Over 12,000 have signed already!

Sign the Petition File-Signature

Read online Book-Open

Letter campaign to Education Minister Dan Tehan Over 1,800 members and staff sent a letter to Dan Tehan to call for a real rescue package for jobs in tertiary education. It's not to late to join them and ensure the Government hears your voice!

Sign the Letter File-Signature Sentry

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POLICY & ADVOCACY INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

Fair weather friends?

International students in Australia during the COVID-19 crisis

Even before COVID-19 came to our shores, there had been a great deal of discussion regarding Australia’s international student sector.

The sector has seen rapid growth in the last decade – in 2001 international students comprised around 18% of total student enrolments, by 2018, they comprised over 30%.

This growth accelerated in the last few years – to 10.2% in 2017 and 11.2% in 2018.

Given this growth – and the fact that in 2018, 26.3% of all university income was from international students – it’s not surprising that many were questioning the wisdom of the sector’s increasing reliance on

international education. While many concerns (including those expressed by the NTEU) focused on international students being exploited for financial gain, and the fact that international fee income was largely plugging the gap in the proportional decrease in Commonwealth Grant Scheme funding, the Government chose to frame its discussions around ‘foreign interference’ with a particular focus on allegations around the Chinese Government’s activities in research, academic freedom, and student life. next page ➜

Terri MacDonald Acting Director (Policy & Research)

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INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

POLICY & ADVOCACY ing courses online where they can, many international students who are still enrolled are questioning why they are studying an online course onshore when they could be saving considerable costs by studying the same course at home.

Fig. 1: Top 10 jobs for international students 30,000 20,000 10,000 0

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Source: ABS, Insights from the Australian Census & Temporary Migrants Integrated Dataset, 2016

Despite the obvious vulnerability of international student workers, who have been shown to be exploited in both their pay and conditions, the Government has consistently rejected any requests to extend any support...

Skip forward to now, however, and the concerns are very different. Today we are looking at a sector where the ‘what if’ scenarios of the international student market failing are real.

NTEU highlighted many times the risk universities exposed themselves to by relying (at varying levels) on the income from international student enrolments, which form a large part of the discretionary funding pool that institutions use for both domestic teaching and research.

While this year attention was initially on the impact of the travel bans on the Chinese student market (our largest single international student cohort), COVID-19 soon spread to our shores and the focus broadened to the logistics around the shutdown of non-essential services and industries here and the impact on universities and their students.

Although universities are deliver-

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This is particularly galling for those students that responded to the financial inducements offered by many universities earlier in the year, who told their students they could still come as long as they did two weeks quarantine in a third country (and offered ‘financial relief’ to those that did). Yet only a few weeks later, Australian universities were forced to essentially physically close their classrooms and move courses online where possible.

The added sting in the tail to this situation is that in addition to the course changes, many international students are struggling with loss of work. Indeed, international students are the second largest pool of foreign worker visa holders (behind special visas for New Zealand citizens) – in 2016, ABS data showed there to be over 178,000 workers on student visas, making up 22% of all foreign visa workers. Importantly, international students are primarily employed in the cleaning, hospitality, and retail sectors, which have all been particularly hard hit by the enforced shut-downs.

Despite the obvious vulnerability of international student workers, who have been shown to be exploited in both their pay and conditions,

the Government has consistently rejected any requests to extend any support or benefits to most foreign workers, including international student workers.

Simply asserting that students need to have savings or access to support from family does not do enough, given that the world is currently being impacted by an international recession, job losses, business closures and social isolation protocols – legally enforced in many countries (including Australia). It should be assumed that for many students, the financial support they would otherwise be relying upon may not be possible.

Infamously, Scott Morrison’s other advice to international students in economic strife was to simply ‘go home’. The ethics of allowing students to come to study in Australia during a pandemic event – even to the extent of offering financial inducements - raises the issue of what is an inherent duty of care.

Higher Education Providers (HEPs) under the National Code of Practice for Providers of Education and Training to Overseas Students 2018, are required to demonstrate that they provide appropriate advice and support for international students.

What is not said is that in time of crisis, when all other Australian workers will be entitled to support (either through the JobKeeper program, or through JobSeeker (Newstart) or other unemployment benefits), interna-

Fig. 2: Reliance of student visa holders on wages for income, by time since first arrived in Australia Main source

Main source + “A” source

100% 80% 60%

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

POLICY & ADVOCACY

40% 20% 0%

Less than 1 yr

1 – 3 yr

3 – 5 yr

5 – 8 yr

Source: ABS, Characteristics of Recent Migrants, Nov 2016

tional students are specifically excluded from income support and the social welfare safety net.

While international students know they should be prepared to cover their own costs and risks, to the extent that they need to meet the visa requirement to have their own private health insurance, there is a limit to this – the fire department does not check visa status in dealing with a fire, nor are international students excluded should they be the victims of crime.

In short, by inviting these students to come to Australia, we have a responsibility to ensure their health, safety and welfare needs are met.

By excluding them from the social welfare safety nets offered to Australian workers and students, we are failing in this duty.

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...in time of crisis, when all other Australian workers will be entitled to support... international students are specifically excluded from income support and the social welfare safety net.

See p.15 for links to the full report on International Student Workers, plus more recent NTEU Policy & Research Unit papers.

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A&TSI STUDENTS

MEMBER STORIES

Supporting Aboriginal students during the campus shutdown I work at the University of South Australia (UniSA) as an Aboriginal Student Engagement Officer for Wirringka Student Services – the University’s Aboriginal support unit. Usually, my role sees me positioned in the Wirringka Student Centre on campus where I interact, support and contribute to creating a culturally safe environment for Aboriginal students on campus. The main purpose of my role is to support the recruitment, retainment and completion rates for Aboriginal students at the University.

Like many employees and my fellow colleagues, I have transitioned to working from home due to COVID-19.

Whilst understanding the necessity of the changes for both students and staff to work remotely in order to ‘flatten the curve’, immediate concerns have come to mind about how these changes might amplify the disadvantage experienced by some of the University’s most vulnerable populations.

Ellen Bertani Aboriginal Student Engagement Officer University of South Australia

SUPPORTING A&TSI STUDENTS Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people continue to disproportionately experience economic disadvantage due to the ongoing impacts of colonisation.

Ensuring that these students would not be disadvantaged due to the move to online studies has become a priority for my team. To help with this, UniSA has announced a financial hardship grant and in addition,

To tell your COVID-19 story to the NTEU member community, please contact Helena Spyrou

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an Aboriginal Supplementary Grant was released for Aboriginal students to apply for funds to purchase technological equipment so that they can continue their studies from home.

Due to social distancing and working from home, we are not able to continue the informal relationship building with our students that is such an important part of this role.

Fortunately, the University’s response to these needs has been swift and ensures that students will not be disadvantaged in their studies due to financial hardship. In addition to financial support, the University has allowed a ‘grace period’ to the census date to give students time to evaluate their study choices without financial penalty.

For example, for now, we are not able to continue our face-to-face lunches with students. Therefore, like many educational institutions, we are in the process of developing workshops and tools to increase and maintain a meaningful engagement with our First Nations students to ensure their studies are not hindered and that a certain amount of flexibility is available as well.

ADJUSTING TO THE NEW NORMAL The impacts from the move to study and work online is a transition to which many people around the world are adjusting.

Acknowledging that many Aboriginal students thrive in a face-to-face learning environment, it has become apparent that many are struggling with the isolation from their fellow students and teaching staff as well as the additional anxieties around their own health and that of their families and communities.

In South Australia in particular, we are seeing a stabilisation of new cases of COVID-19 and beginning to hear of intentions to loosen restrictions. As we consider opening the world up again, it is imperative that all institutions, employees and students take the same collective responsibility to ensure the safety of our vulnerable populations.

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A&TSI STUDENTS

MEMBER STORIES

... we are in the process of developing workshops and tools to increase and maintain a meaningful engagement with our First Nations students to ensure their studies are not hindered...

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander higher education students (UATSIS)

It is essential that students feel connected to the University and its support services. So, keeping in contact with fellow students about the support the University has available has become a priority. We have found that calling students directly and asking them how they are going and what they might need is the best way of engaging with our students.

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PANDEMIC TIMELINE

NEWS & CAMPAIGNS

COVID-19 & higher education: a timeline Although New Year's Eve 2019 seems like a lifetime away, it’s only been a few months and look what’s happened! NYE was when China first reported a cluster of 41 cases of pneumonia in Wuhan. Here is a potted timeline of what's happened since then.

JANUARY 2020

MARCH 2020

11 First death from COVID-19 recorded in China.

1 First recorded death from COVID-19 in Australia.

13 First case of COVID-19 outside of China recorded in Thailand.

10 NTEU launches COVID-19 website.

FEBRUARY 2020 1 Australia bans entry to all peoplecoming from China, except citizens and permanent residents, preventing many international students from reaching Australia.

2 First death from COVID-19 outside of China, in the Philippines.

NTEU COVID-19 scorecard for WA universities

10 NTEU writes to all vice-chancellors raising concerns about workplace health and safety, workloads, maintaining work for casual staff, and racism on campuses.

14 NTEU writes to Education Minister calling for a support package.

27 Australian Government declares that COVID-19 will become a global pandemic.

Michael Evans National Organiser (Media & Engagement)

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During this time, universities were scrambling to get as many courses as possible ready for online delivery.

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11 WHO declares a pandemic.

12 Government announces first stimulus package, with no relief for casual workers or the higher education sector.

16 NTEU waives three months dues for all casual members.

16 NTEU launches scorecards displaying how Vic universities are looking after staff and slowing the spread of COVID-19. All states and territories covered in following days.

By the end of March, 28 universities had committed to at least a minimum 10 days special leave to cover isolation periods, including for casual staff.

18 Australian Government introduces an indefinite international travel ban.

19 NTEU launches sector-wide petition calling on vice-chancellors to guarantee paid leave for all staff if affected by COVID-19.

NTEU writes to all VCs raising members’ concerns about the failure to ensure social distancing rules.

22 Federal Government announces second stimulus package (increased JobSeeker payments through Newstart), excluding our sector again.

23 State governments progressively ‘locking down’ and restricting movement.

25 NTEU National Executive agrees to open discussions with employers on a sector-wide response to COVID-19, calls on universities to guarantee pay and conditions for all staff and protect staff health and safety, and calls on the Federal Government for a support package.

30 Federal Government announces third stimulus package (JobKeeper subsidy). Universities effectively ineligible for JobKeeper subsidy.

31 Over 1,500 new NTEU members join during March.

APRIL 2020 1 Briefings commence for NTEU Branches on the possibility of a jobs protection framework.

2 One million COVID-19 infections reached worldwide.

5 NTEU email to members launching 'Morrison Monday', encouraging members to post on social media and ring PM Morrison’s office calling for a rescue package.

PANDEMIC TIMELINE

NEWS & CAMPAIGNS 7 Universities Australia warns the sector is facing a deep crisis, with up to a $4.5 billion shortfall in revenue this year, threatening up to 21,000 jobs in the next six months.

8 NTEU email to higher ed staff outlines proposal to consider options for saving jobs as the highest priority.

NTEU's 'Morrison Monday' graphic

10 Global death toll for COVID-19 passes 100,000.

12 Federal Government announces so-called 'relief' package for the sector. NTEU response is that the package is 'smoke and mirrors'.

14 NTEU email to higher education staff details extent of crisis, outlines a possible Jobs Protection Framework, and asks staff to send an email to the Education Minister calling for a real rescue package.

15 Two million infections worldwide.

23 Over 1,800 people send an email to the Education Minister, and over 12,000 sign the petition.

24 Online briefing for NTEU National Councillors. The briefing endorsed the NTEU’s negotiation with VCs for a National Job Protection Framework, with an 85% majority voting in favour of the motion.

'Solidarity is the Best Medicine' illustration commissioned by NTEU at the start of the pandemic (Sam Wallman)

Caption

26 Global death toll passes 200,000.

29 NTEU launches Sentry online magazine to keep members informed and in touch during the COVID-19 crisis.

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ONLINE TEACHING

MEMBER STORIES

Improving your online teaching At Federation University Australia, a regional university with campuses in Ballarat, Berwick, Gippsland and Horsham, the Learning Skills Advisers (LSAs) are used to conducting online consultations with ‘flexi’ students. Yet now that all consultations are online, we’re finding it much more exhausting. How do we explain this? There appear to be multiple factors at work.

In part, we miss the energy surge of face-to-face (f2f) student interactions, of cooperative engagement with study skills and knowledge needed to plan, develop and create relevant and interesting assignment tasks.

We’re also finding that some interactions take far longer, that we struggle to identify student intentions for contacting us. This may be because we need first to address their anxieties: those who chose f2f instruction must now deal with a 100% online environment; the learning for and about university in the same physical space with other students, tutors and lecturers is missing; and Moodle contains a seething mass of text, with vital information spread between multiple ‘hidden’ sites. For example, a lecturer hides a useful resource on ‘How to write the essay’ in the announcements section.

The email students receive, 'I’ve posted it in Moodle', is reminiscent of a complex Easter Bunny hunt for the hidden egg.

In phone consultations with newly arrived international students from English as an Additional Language (EAL) backgrounds, the conversation fillers so necessary for meaning-making such as ‘Ah ha’, or ‘Oh, I see’, or ‘Sorry?

What do you mean?’ are absent, resulting in communication breakdown.

Jennifer Anderson Learning Skills Adviser Federation University Australia

LSAs from other universities ask why we’re not using video conferencing as the default. It’s because so many students have lost their casual jobs, so cannot afford high bandwidth connections. We also understand that many of our students share laptops with friends, and do not have desks or quiet study spaces.

To tell your COVID-19 story to the NTEU member community, please contact Helena Spyrou

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MEMBER STORIES

No matter the communication mode – video conferencing via Skype, MS Teams or Zoom, or non-visual media platforms such as email or phone – many non-verbal gestures shared in real time communication are either not used or invisible. I use the word ‘shared’ because it is this sharing that facilitates a common understanding. Research into the role of mirror neurons in building empathy and a shared intention may be of interest here.

TAKE OUT MESSAGES Be extra careful how you word your instructions online: use dot point instructions and plain transparent English. Place any information about the assessment task in the Assessment section of the LMS. Create multiple opportunities to listen to the voices of the students, through written text and other media.

Encourage online student study groups, whether institutionally organised, such as PASS, or selfselected, and ensure both synchronous and asynchronous online opportunities. Identify those students who are not digitally literate, or cannot afford digital devices. Always offer text-based information as a backstop. And be prepared to repeat key messages in multiple ways, over and over until some of our students can hear through their anxiety.

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HISTORY

MEMBER STORIES

Australia vs the Spanish flu Proportionally, fewer white Australians died in the 1918-20 influenza pandemic than across most places around the world. This is partly for the same reasons that Australia is currently doing better at containing the coronavirus COVID-19, with fewer fatalities than many other countries.

With some exceptions, back in 1919, Australian ports were closed and internal movement was contained by controversially closing state borders and closing down schools, theatres, shops and hotels (but not the footy).

Many people were thrown out of work.

Country towns also quarantined themselves, even stopping passengers alighting from trains.

Travellers needed permission to move around and even returning soldiers from First World War battlefields were soon stopped from going home. As the virus was already rampant through Europe during the last year of the war, Australian authorities had plenty of time to prepare as the troop ships starting returning in late 1918.

Quarantine relied upon honesty in disclosure and rigourous screening, which was not uniformly implemented, so the virus quickly entered Australia and spread across the country.

Jeannie Rea Victoria University

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Nurses leaving Blackfriars Depot, NSW during flu epidemic (NSW State Archives)

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It is estimated that about 40% of the population got the disease. Around 15,000 people perished. Reports vary but estimates of global fatalities run from 20 to 50 million people.

Australian Aboriginal communities tried to restrict outsiders, but as is still the case today, they did not have control over keeping themselves safe. Like today, some community groups went off the grid to protect the old, young and sick. When the flu got into Aboriginal communities, the impact was devastating. A current search for mass graves underway near Cherbourg, at what was Barambah Government Reserve where, in just three weeks in 1919, nearly every one of the 600 residents contracted the disease and 90 died.

This was one of the highest mortality rates in a population anywhere.

International data, patchy though it was, confirms that the mortality rate was much higher amongst colonised peoples, including across India, Africa and in New Zealand. Whilst it is often reported that the pandemic was characterised by attacking fit young adults, the reality was that children and adults who were malnourished with degraded immune systems, and living in crowded conditions with poor hygiene were much more likely to die. This described conditions in Indian and English slums, but also on battlefields and troop ships. Pregnant women and babies were particularly vulnerable.

The pandemic, which became known as the Spanish Flu, was first identi-

fied as something more than the regular bouts of influenza in early 1918.

It spread rapidly throughout Europe and further afield. The origins are still debated, but it was called the Spanish flu because Spain was neutral in WWI and while censoring their own flu news amongst tanking morale of troops and civilian populations, the war's combatants eagerly reported that the Spanish king was battling the flu.

The recently federated Australia had been on war footing since late 1914, and the federal government had become well used to battling with the States over jurisdiction, adopting wide ranging powers over the movement of goods and people. These stoushes continued onto managing the influenza pandemic.

Censorship continued and push backs by the population on being ordered around also continued.

However, unlike today, Australians were used to the fatal repercussions of epidemics of communicable diseases, so stern demands were also made of governments to contain outbreaks.

HISTORY

MEMBER STORIES

However, unlike today, Australians were used to the fatal repercussions of epidemics of communicable diseases, so stern demands were also made of governments to contain outbreaks.

Women in face masks during the Spanish flu, 1919. (National Museum of Australia)

People knew that social distancing and isolation would prevent spread, even if they did not use those terms.

This was a fairly dramatic disease, with powerful symptoms but still initially not readily distinguished from other respiratory diseases. It was spread by sneezing and coughing. Masks were popular but their efficacy debated. next page ➜

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HISTORY

MEMBER STORIES WWI had been highly divisive in Australia with two failed conscription plebiscites, massive strikes and a very public ideological debate over empire, capitalism and warmongering. In his seminal 1976 article on the Spanish Flu pandemic in Australia, Humphrey McQueen wrote:

The burden of dealing with the flu pandemic fell disproportionality on women who had to nurse at home, deal with sick returning soldiers, and feed and keep a roof over the head of families in a time of job losses and food shortages.

Quarantine camp set up at Jubilee Oval (State Library of SA)

Longstanding grievances by seamen came to the fore as they compared their normal working and living conditions with those prescribed under the influenza precautions ashore. The Victorian Government forbade more than twenty people to be in one room, but when the Seamen’s Union complained that the owners of the Loongana expected twenty-four seamen to sleep in one room a Board of Health Inspector said that this was acceptable. ‘Dog kennel accommodation’ had been a point of dispute for years and the election of a new militant executive set the tone of the protracted shipping strike which followed.

If more than 20 out of 24 members of a crew get influenza at once, they must immediately stroll up to the owner’s office, and sneeze violently altogether at once. The owner will then immediately leave his office, and personally conduct you to his private hospital, calling at hotels en route, where you will receive every attention, and a nurse maid for each. Don’t forget that when you are dead you have to go to hell yet for asking for higher wages and more ventilation. You will find no shipowners there to argue with.

The health system was pushed to the edge, with the rate of recovery

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best amongst the better-off. Doctors were in short supply with some still overseas. However, this was an opportunity for nurses to come to the fore creating new nursing jobs and, critically, increasing their wages and status. The burden of dealing with the flu pandemic fell disproportionality on women who had to nurse at home, deal with sick returning soldiers, and feed and keep a roof over the head of families in a time of job losses and food shortages.

Commentators in Australia and elsewhere like to label Spanish Flu as the forgotten pandemic even though the death toll was so massive. In Australia it is very much an addendum to the WWI narrative, as the flu fatalities butted up against the 60,000 killed in the war out of a population of just over five million.

Across the world the Spanish Flu petered out. It is contended that the flu may have mutated into a less virulent strain, but with such large numbers having already been exposed immunity was widespread.

Repercussions continued with people never fully recovering and remaining susceptible to pneumonia.

Improved treatments and nursing as time went on helped with recovery, along with access to decent food.

Unlike Europe, Australians did not have to recover from the pandemic in a land devastated by war. But apparently the mortality rate from the influenza did not drop to the pre1919 level until 1935.

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Jeannie Rea is NTEU Immediate Past President

PUBLICATIONS

POLICY & ADVOCACY

Policy briefings and fact sheets NTEU Policy & Research Unit publications produced in April.

How badly have Australian universities been affected by COVID-19?

The Government’s higher education ‘$18 billion’ Funding Package

A fact sheet from outlining the financial cost to universities of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Download the PDF FILE-PDF

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International student workers

What it is, what it means, and most importantly, how it provides a blueprint for the Government’s re-imagining of the higher education sector.

The impact of the Government's response to COVID-19 on the international student workforce.

Download the PDF FILE-PDF

Download the PDF FILE-PDF

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TAXATION

MEMBER SERVICES

New working from home tax shortcut The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has announced special arrangements to make it easier to claim deductions for working from home during the COVID-19 crisis.

The new arrangement will allow you to claim a rate of 80 cents per hour for all your running expenses, rather than needing to calculate costs for specific running expenses.

Multiple people living in the same house can claim this new rate. For example, a couple living together could each individually claim the 80 cents per hour rate. The requirement to have a dedicated work from home area has also been removed.

If you choose to use this method, all you need to do is keep a record of the hours you worked from home as evidence of your claim.

not be calculated using the shortcut method, and must use the pre-existing working from home approach and requirements.

This new arrangement does not prohibit you from making a working from home claim under existing arrangements, where you calculate all or part of your running expenses.

For more information, download the ATO Working from Home fact sheet at www.nteu.org.au/tax or call the ATO Emergency Support Infoline 1800 806 218

Claims for working from home expenses prior to 1 March 2020 can-

The annual NTEU Tax Guide will be published as usual in late June.

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Transfer of membership between institutions is not automatic.

Please notify us to ensure you are paying the correct fees.

Your credit card or direct debit account details change.

16

You are leaving university employment.

Deductions will not stop automatically.

Sentry

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nteu.org.au/ members Please note that your Member Tools login is different to your Member Benefits login.

For help call 03 9254 1910

Melinda Valsorda, Membership Officer (03) 9254 1910 mvalsorda@nteu.org.au

Please contact: OR

Update online at

Tamara Labadze, Finance Officer (03) 9254 1910 tlabadze@nteu.org.au

may 2020

Have your payroll deductions stopped without your authority?

Please urgently contact Your institution’s Payroll Department