<strong>The long read</strong>: Mohammed El Halabi is accused of stealing relief money and giving it to Hamas for their war effort against Israel. But five years on, the evidence against him looks seriously flawed
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After eight years of casual work, academic and single mother Jennie Jeppesen was in a tenuous position. Now, in the wake of COVID-19, her future is bleaker still. “Because of the pandemic, my career is probably over,” says the 41-year-old.
Like many sessional university teachers, she has been a casual, mostly at Melbourne University, though sometimes at Deakin in her hometown of Geelong. Jeppesen is an expert in American and Australian history specialising in convict transportation, race and racism, and always knew being an academic could be a struggle.
“I never expected to get rich from it,” says Jeppesen, who would gladly take a teaching job that paid a pittance if it meant a permanent position.
Casual university teacher fears pandemic has put paid to her career smh.com.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from smh.com.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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When the pandemic hit in March and Melbourne went into lockdown, Melis Layik lost all three of her casual jobs.
Luckily for the law and global studies student, she was among 339,000 Australian recipients of the Youth Allowance who got a special $550 fortnightly coronavirus supplement. Another 1.3 million Australians on JobSeeker got the $550 supplement too.
Student Melis Layik lost three casual jobs when the pandemic hit.
Credit:Paul Jeffers
But the fourth-year Monash University student said since then little had changed for her in the employment market. I haven’t really seen much of anything come up, said the 21-year-old, who until March worked for two medical companies, helping with training for medical students, and as an English tutor. She is still looking for work.