BSL Talks

Watch our recent BSL Talks and register for our upcoming webinars

BSL Talks is a regular webinar series hosted by the Brotherhood of St. Laurence. Evidence and research are discussed across a range of topics from housing affordability to climate justice. The aim is to consider the real life impacts of research on policy making and service improvements. While the community sector is the target audience, the general public are also encouraged to attend.

Watch our latest BSL Talks webinars

Opening opportunities: Removing employment barriers for young people with disability

The most significant barrier to employment for young people with disability is not ability, it’s opportunity. We need to address the culture of low expectations for young people with disability and address the system-level issues that result in them following a ‘polished pathway to poverty’.

That’s why the National Collaboration on Employment and Disability (NCED) was established by the Brotherhood of St. Laurence: to achieve genuine and lasting reform so that young people with disability can successfully transition from education into decent and meaningful employment. Collaborating with governments, schools, employment and disability services, researchers, employers, and young people, the NCED works to remove barriers and support young people with disabilities in living, learning, and working.

Everyone has a part to play.

Watch our discussion on how we can break down these barriers, facilitated by BSL Chief of Services Julie Ware, hear from youth advocate Maddison Bergen, Swinburne Centre for Social Impact’s Dr Jenny Crosbie, and an employer who has been actively championing inclusion in his workplace, Damien Charles, Regional Manager Northern Territory at NEC Australia.

BSL Talks - Locked out: Poverty and the Australian housing crisis

In Australia almost everyone is being impacted by the current housing crisis, but those on the lowest incomes are hit the hardest.

While mortgage holders are being hit with high interest rates, those in private rental accommodation are being hit with eviction notices. The recent State of Housing Report, issued by the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council, showed that rents were up 35% since 2020 and 8% in 2023, with a vacancy rate of 1.6% making it increasingly difficult to find a rental home, let alone hold onto one.

Watch our special Anti-Poverty Week edition of BSL Talks focusing on what can be done to address the housing affordability crisis for people on the lowest incomes.

Facilitated by our Social Policy and Research Centre, you will hear from Maiy Azize (Deputy Director of Anglicare Australia and Chairperson of Everybody’s Home), The Hon. Kevin Bell AO KC (former Victorian Supreme Court Judge and author of Housing: The Great Australian Right), and Juanita McLaren (advocate, expert by experience and research).

BSL Talks - Why measuring poverty matters with Prof. Sabina Alkire

BSL Talks - Why measuring poverty matters featured Prof. Sabina Alkire who presented her groundbreaking work as the co-creator of the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI). This tool is used by the United Nations and many countries to identify and track progress on deprivations in addition to income poverty. This was followed by a thoughtful panel discussion facilitated by our Executive Director Travers McLeod and including Jenny Davidson, CEO of the Council of Single Mothers and their Children, Professor Roger Wilkins, Deputy Director of the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research and Dr. Nicole Bieske, Director of BSL's Social Policy and Research Centre. Watch below now.

Inequality in Australia: Insights from the Life Chances study

BSL's Social Policy and Research Centre's ongoing Life Chances Study began in inner Melbourne in 1990 with 167 babies and their parents. Over 14 stages the study has focused on different aspects of inequality.

Focusing on diverse aspects of the life course, the study has contributed important insights into the dynamic interrelationship between individual lives and social and economic policy on the life chances of the participants.In June 2024, the Life Chances study concluded.

Watch the recording of the final report launch and a special edition of BSL Talks - Inequality in Australia: Insights from the Life Chances study. Dr Rebecca Huntley launched the report, and the event featured a special BSL Talks panel discussion with two Life Chances participants, along with Dr Rebecca Huntley, BSL researcher Dr Dina Bowman and Professor Roger Wilkins from the Melbourne Institute.Learn more about the Life Chances study: https://www.bsl.org.au/research/our-r...

Counting women in
A special edition for International Women's Day

“Our ultimate aim for this group, Women in Poverty, is not to exist”, said Aradia Sayner, co-founder of the group, in our latest BSL Talks. Discussing the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day, Counting Women In, the webinar focused on breaking poverty cycles by improving women’s economic security.

Our esteemed panellists - Dr Anne Summers AO, Aradia Sayner, Terese Edwards from Single Mother Families Australia and BSL’s Dr Margaret Kabare – were joined by nearly 200 online guests. Hosted by our Social Policy and Research Director, Dr Nicole Bieske, the webinar was a moving discussion that canvassed a wide range of reasons as to why women find themselves trapped in poverty and how we could change this with both short and long-term solutions. Housing affordability, low participation of women in employment, high rates of part-time roles for women, high costs of further education, unpaid caring responsibilities, and woefully inadequate rates of government payments were just many of the barriers mentioned.

Panellists acknowledged that while there have been some recent positive steps towards improving systems – like the abolition of the punitive Parents Next program – much more needs to be done. Watch the webinar below.

Past BSL Talks Webinars

Watch some of our recent BSL Talks webinars below. Subscribe to hear about future events.

Quick links:

19 October 2023:
BSL Talks. Ending child poverty in Australia: systemic and practice-based solutions
13 September 2023:
BSL Talks. The Difference the Voice Will Make
3 August 2023:
BSL Talks. Enabling Electrification Report Launch
5 July 2023:
BSL Talks. #DeadEnds - How the social security system is failing us
21 June 2023:
BSL Talks at Parliament House. Partnering for a Poverty Free Victoria
20 June 2023:
BSL Talks. Engaging Multicultural Communities on the Voice Referendum
10 May 2023:
BSL Talks. Tackling Poverty in the Early Years
9 March 2023:
BSL Talks. Mind the Gap! A special International Women's Day Webinar Edition
13 December 2022:
BSL Talks. Power Pain: Opportunities to reduce energy stress
20 October 2022:
BSL Talks. Tackling child poverty through policies and payments
22 August 2022:
BSL Talks. Developing a modern health and human service workforce: a systemic change approach
28 June 2022:
BSL Talks. Work, care and social security: making it work for children and families
7 April 2022:
BSL Talks. Not just boomers vs millennials: Life chances and intergenerational equity
10 March 2022:
BSL Talks. Enabling women's economic security in 2022 and beyond
5 November 2021:
BSL Talks. Financial Lives in Uncertain Times Webinar
15 September 2021:
BSL Talks. Shifting the dial on child and family poverty

Date: 19 October 2023
Webinar Title: BSL Talks. Ending child poverty in Australia: systemic and practice-based solutions
Duration: 57:39