After a few tense moments last week, the Coalition agreed to support the Federal Labor Government's amendments in the Senate to restore the use of income net of reportable fringe benefits as the measure for the level of Family Benefits payable.

1. Care Campaign off and running- what’s it all about?

The CARE campaign was launched in late April with much media coverage highlighting some of the serious issues facing the Social and Community Services Industry. CARE is an industry campaign aimed at improving the funding, wages and conditions and quality of service delivery in the Social and Community Services Industry.

With the community services sector and workers in not-for-profit and charitable services still reeling from the effects of changes to tax arrangements due to come into effect on July 1st, another serious challenge has emerged for the Government in relation to the proposed efficiency dividend of 2% that the Government imposed on most departments as part of the budget.