Features

Investing in a better future

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Bill McKibbon (centre) founder of 350.org, on his recent tour in Australia. 350.org is an international campaign encouraging divestment in the coal industry. Bill congratulated the NSW/ACT Synod on their recent decision. Bill is shown here with Dr Miriam Pepper, Uniting Earthweb; Rev Dr Brian Brown, Moderator of the Uniting Church in NSW/ACT; Justin Whelan, mission development officer, Paddington Uniting Church and Rev Elenie Poulos, national director of UnitingJustice.

Bill McKibbon (centre) founder of 350.org, on his recent tour in Australia. 350.org is an international campaign encouraging divestment in the coal industry. Bill congratulated the NSW/ACT Synod on their recent decision. Bill is shown here with Dr Miriam Pepper, Uniting Earthweb; Rev Dr Brian Brown, Moderator of the Uniting Church in NSW/ACT; Justin Whelan, mission development officer, Paddington Uniting Church and Rev Elenie Poulos, national director of UnitingJustice.

At the last Synod meeting for the Uniting Church in New South Wales (NSW) and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), a bold decision was made to divest in companies involved in the extraction of fossil fuels (coal and coal seam gas) as they seek to invest, instead, in renewable energy. It was a big step for the Synod, and a decision that wasn’t taken lightly.

But what is ethical investing, and why should we be thinking about it?

When money is invested into an account, the financial institution’s role is to make the most out of it they can, by buying and selling shares – this is where ethics comes in. Without  doing the research, you could unknowingly be buying shares in companies involved in weapons, gambling or tobacco, just to name a few. Continue Reading

From the burbs to the outback: It’s not all beer and skittles

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A train returns to isolated Tom Price

Over the last two decades, Western Australia has seen a 400% increase in fly-in fly-out work. It has become so prevalent, that it’s likely you know someone who works a fly-in fly-out (FIFO) or drive-in drive-out (DIDO) job, if not someone in your own family.

As of May 2012, The Australian Bureau of Statistics recorded that the resource industry in Australia employs around 269,300 people. Although there is limited data about how many of  these people work FIFO, one private survey, with over 18,000 participants found that 47% of mining employees were working FIFO or DIDO practices.

While a lot of families and communities benefit from this kind of work, which incurs extensive travel to a workplace resulting in being away from home for periods of time, it can also  come at a cost.Continue Reading