Category: Australian News

The NSW and Australian Labor Governments have kicked off the first Global Nature Positive Summit in Sydney this morning despite the recent approval of 3 massive coal mine expansions and the ongoing logging of the public native forest estate, including the promised Great Koala National Park in NSW. Community members gathered at the International Convention Centre in Sydney to protest the Summit under guard by heavily armed police.

Greens MP and spokesperson for nature Sue Higginson said “Today’s summit in Sydney is a scam against NSW, Australia and the global community. The Labor Governments in NSW and Canberra are trashing the climate and nature, while trying to sell this nature positive lie to the world,”

“The greatest threat to nature, the environment, and humans, is the rapidly changing climate and we are turbo charging this crisis by mining, exporting and burning coal from NSW. Just two weeks ago, the Federal Labor Government signed off on 3 coal mining projects in NSW in one day, extending the mining of coal for another 30 years. This summit today is a sick and twisted charade from a Labor Party that has been captured by the fossil fuel industry,”

“It is galling that as this summit is underway extinction logging across our precious public forest estate continues, including in the Great Koala National Park. Communities from Taree to Tweed are in the forests right now, putting their lives on hold and their bodies on the line to stop the industrial scale logging that is driving the extinction of our most threatened species while Tanya Plibersek pats herself on the back in Sydney. Labor’s cognitive dissonance on nature right now is intellectually dishonest.”

“Labor is trying to hide their failures by blaming weak environmental laws. As a planning and environmental lawyer, I know that the laws we have need fixing – but they could be used to stop coal and gas projects and logging, Labor is just refusing to do it,”

“The heavily armed police at the community rally today was unnecessary and an act of intimidation against peaceful people. If the Police are wondering who the real threats to security are, they’ll find them working in the boardrooms of fossil fuel giants,”

“We have had enough. In Parliament, Members from across the political divide are ready to stop the Minns Labor Government in its tracks. If the Government won’t listen to their own Labor backbenchers, as well as the science, then we will take a stand to make them,” Ms Higginson said.

Following the huge crowds that attended peaceful anti-war protests over the weekend, the NSW Premier Chris Minns has spoken out about the possibility of categorising ongoing assemblies as user-pays events. In NSW, the Police Force provides most policing services free of charge, but are entitled under the “user-pays” agreement to charge the organisers of primarily music festivals excessive fees to police crowds and ensure community safety. There has been sustained criticism in recent years that the NSWPF have been using user-pays to price-gouge organisers and shut-down events they deem inappropriate.

Greens MP and spokesperson for justice Sue Higginson said, “The right to protest, including as part of a sustained protest effort, is the foundation of a healthy, functioning and mature democracy. Threatening to interfere with the right to protest creates a dangerous environment where important voices of democracy are strangled out of existence,”

“The police presence at the civil assemblies in support of the Palestinian and Lebanese people has been extreme, excessive and unnecessary. We now have 52 weeks of evidence that demonstrates these protests are non-violent and peaceful. In 365 days there have been no incidents of violence, except from the police themselves. People are gathering to express their collective grief and they’re calling for an end to the violence. There is simply no justification for such an excessive show of heavily armed and mounted police at these events,”

“If the Premier is concerned about the cost to the public of excessive police presence at protest events, the rational solution is to stop the excessive police presence and allocate those resources elsewhere. It is wrong for him to cry poor on police resourcing and allocation when he has been drumming up the need for the heavy police presence and when there is simply no credible reason for such a show of police to attend these events,”

“The extreme reliance on the Police in this state has been well documented, and under this Labor Government is being ratcheted up to an extreme level. It is not protestors or sustained peaceful non-violence that is a drain on our public funds, but the intense over-reliance on heavily armed and over-empowered police officers. It is time for the police state being swiftly cultivated under Minns’ watch to be called to account,”

“We know that the user-pays price tag is just a thinly-veiled attempt to shut down these important historic anti-war assemblies. The Premier knows well that a grass-roots coalition sustained by volunteers committed to speaking out against injustice have no possible means to pay the hefty price tag associated with a user-pays event. This is a state-sanctioned chokehold on the right to protest and assembly, and a transparent attempt to disband the tens-of-thousands of people critiquing NSW Labor,”

“There is simply no need for such a heavy handed approach and over policing. The Premier is once again responding to shock-jocks who would rather stoke social unrest than listen to the voices of the people. The Premier is now so influenced by 2GB it is hard to tell where one begins and the other ends. Perhaps it is time for Chris Minns to cut out the middleman and hand over the Premiership to 2GBs Ray Hadly,” Ms Higginson said.

A healthy, happy, productive society needs access to nutritious and affordable food. As cost of living pressures continue to increase for Canberrans, the ACT Greens are committing to further food relief for households and public schools students.

“Food is not a luxury, it’s essential to our wellbeing. But the market is failing us – price-gouging, and forcing people into impossible choices between food and medicine, or food and rent,” said Emma Davidson MLA, recontesting her south Canberra seat of Murrumbidgee.

“In a period of just six months this year, 51 per cent more people started visiting the YWCA’s food hub in Lanyon. In just one month, St. John’s Care started helping out 100 more Canberra families.

“For many people, this is their first time having to ask for help with the basics, and it’s essential we work together as a community to respond.”

The ACT Greens will:

• Increase funding for community-run food relief programs, with $330,000 per year on top of the funding already committed in the most recent ACT Budget
• Expand the provision of free breakfast and lunch to 20 ACT public schools by 2028, and provide free fruit twice a week to every public school student
• Support food and emergency relief agencies with improved logistics and storage
• Fully fund the Social Recovery Framework to strengthen community recovery after a disaster.

ACT Greens spokesperson on education, Laura Nuttall MLA, said food is fundamental to a good education.

“Kids have hungry minds, but they also need full bellies to be able to learn properly at school. 

“Food is a basic need. It’s essential. But right now, there are students in the ACT starting their days running on empty. 

“Providing food at school will improve learning and attendance, and help families struggling to afford enough good food.

“The Greens will provide free breakfast and lunch three days each week at 20 of the most in-need schools in the ACT, and give free fruit to every public school student at least twice a week.”

ACT Greens Leader Shane Rattenbury said the food affordability crisis is significant in the overall cost pressures facing Canberrans.

“Make no mistake, this is a cost of living election, but only the Greens have got plans to transform the circumstances we face.

“While we work to fix the price-gouging supermarket duopoly, the ACT Greens will make sure Canberrans don’t go hungry at home or at school.

“While we work to fix the broken housing market, the ACT Greens will build thousands more public homes so Canberrans can rent from the government at a price they can afford, knowing the rent they pay is invested back into this community.

“While people are juggling so many cost pressures, the Greens will deliver 160,000 free GP appointments each year, so you don’t have to choose between seeing a doctor or putting food on the table.

“All this is possible, if you vote for it.”

The ACT Greens’ plans for food relief and to address the cost of living are detailed on the ACT Greens website.

On the first anniversary of the October 7 attacks, we pause to reflect on the horrific terrorist atrocity that reverberated around the globe.

October 7 is a day that carries terrible pain. Over 1,200 innocent Israelis died: the largest loss of Jewish life on any single day since the Holocaust.

We unequivocally condemn Hamas’ actions on that day.

Innocent lives taken at a music festival. Women, men and children killed in their homes. Brutality that was inflicted with cold calculation.

Today, we also think of the hostages whose lives remain suspended in the fear and isolation of captivity. For their loved ones, this past year must have felt like an eternity – the agony of waiting and not knowing, or of having the terrible truth confirmed.

Since the atrocities of October 7, Jewish Australians have felt the cold shadows of antisemitism reaching into the present day – and as a nation we say never again.

We unequivocally condemn all prejudice and hatred. There is no place in Australia for discrimination against people of any faith.

As we mourn and reflect, we also re-affirm a fundamental principle of our shared humanity: every innocent life matters.

We recognise the distress the conflict has caused here in Australia.

Sorrow knows no boundaries and recognises no differences.

The number of civilians who have lost their lives is a devastating tragedy.

Today, we reflect on the truth of our shared humanity, of the hope that peace is possible, and the belief that it belongs to all people.

From today, early learning providers can apply for Commonwealth Government funding to deliver early childhood education and care workers a historic 15 per cent pay rise.

To be eligible to receive the Albanese Government’s funding for the wage increase, early childhood education and care services must agree not to increase their fees by more than 4.4 per cent between 8 August 2024 and 7 August 2025.

This is good for early childhood educators and good for families.

There will also be a limit on fee growth in the second year of the wage subsidy. The percentage limit on fee growth that will apply from August 2025 will be determined by a new ECEC cost index being developed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

This is an important condition that will keep downward pressure on out-of-pocket costs for families.

Services must also pass on funding in full to employees through increased wages.

The 15 per cent pay rise will be phased in over two years, starting with a 10 per cent increase from December 2024, with a further 5 per cent increase from December 2025.

This means a typical early childhood educator who is paid at the award rate will receive a pay rise of more than $100 per week this year, increasing to more than an additional $150 per week from December 2025.

This significant wage increase is an important next step in the Government’s reforms to the sector, building on the successful Cheaper Child Care policy.

Latest data shows that Cheaper Child Care has seen the average out-of-pocket costs for families decrease by more than 13 per cent from the June quarter 2023 to the June quarter 2024.

The Government’s Cheaper Child Care policy increased the base subsidy rates from July 2023 for all families earning up to $530,000, and set the maximum subsidy to 90 per cent for families earning $80,000 or less.

Thanks to the increased subsidy, a family earning $120,000, with one child in care three days a week, paid around $2,140 less last financial year than they otherwise would have.

The Government is currently considering the Productivity Commission’s report handed down earlier this month.

For further information on the 15 per cent wage increase, grant eligibility and how to apply visit How to apply for the worker retention payment.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese:

“Early educators shape lives and change lives. They deserve more than our thanks – they deserve to be paid fairly.

“Parents want their children to be safe, happy and to have the very best start in life. This funding is about fair pay for the people who make this possible.

“Importantly, we’re making sure that our early educators are getting fair wages without putting cost of living pressure on families.

“This is part of our Government’s agenda to make sure that Australians are making more and keeping more of what they earn, while providing that vital cost of living relief.”

Minister for Education Jason Clare:

“The child care debate is over. It’s not babysitting. It’s early education and it’s critical to preparing children for school.

“They lift our kids up and now we are lifting their pay.

“This means wages up for workers and keeping prices down for families.

“A pay rise for every early childhood educator is good for our workforce, good for families and good our economy.”

Minister for Early Childhood Education and Minister for Youth Anne Aly:

“We’re boosting the wages of early childhood education workers, while relieving cost of living pressures on Australian families.

“Properly valuing the early childhood education and care workforce is crucial to attracting and retaining workers and vital to achieving the quality universal early learning sector Australian families deserve.

“A quality early childhood education sector is necessary to support children’s learning and development as well as workforce participation in the broader economy – particularly for women.

“I urge all eligible early learning services to sign up to this important initiative, so their hardworking staff get the full benefit of this wage increase.”

The NSW Police application in the Supreme Court to prohibit pro Palestine assemblies in Sydney on 6 and 7 October has failed. After a day of hearing and negotiations between the Police and representatives of the Palestine Action Group (PAG), agreement was reached that the assemblies will go ahead and the police will withdraw their applications to prohibit the assemblies.

The parties asked the Court to make orders that the proceeding be dismissed. Each party pays their own costs and the prohibition order applications are not pressed.

Greens MP and spokesperson for justice Sue Higginson said, “It was such poor judgement and use of public resources that the NSW Police Force would take the organisers of the longest running peaceful anti-war protests in two decades to court to prevent their planned assemblies. Once again a grassroots community justice movement has stood up for and defended our democracy and the fundamental right to protest in the courts against the strong-arm of an emboldened law-and-order state,”

“While democracy and the right to peacefully assemble and protest has ultimately won the day through, we must see this for what it is. The right to protest in NSW has been systematically attacked by successive Labor and Liberal Governments for decades. This sort of politics sends strong signals to Police that they don’t have to tolerate and assist with peaceful protest and non-violent civil disobedience,”

“The right of all individuals to exercise freedom of speech and the right to assemble peacefully has won the day, but the reality is, it should never have been on trial. If protest was enshrined into law in NSW as it is in other States and Territories, the NSW Police Force would not be so emboldened to attempt to remove these rights,”

“It was clear to every single person in the courtroom today that the Police applications were not well made and relied on arguments based on unknowns and assumptions laden with racist and intolerant undertones. The truth of the day is that the tinder-box is not the assemblies, but the inadequacy and poor judgement of the Police, the Premier and the Prime Minister,” Ms Higginson said.

The ACT Greens have described ACT Labor’s public housing proposal as underwhelming and disappointing, saying it falls far short of the bold, transformative action voters are demanding to fix the housing crisis in this election.

“In a market that is squeezing every last cent out of Canberrans and putting a reasonably priced home more and more out of reach, we urgently need to ramp up public housing construction to give many Canberrans rents they can actually afford,” said Deputy Leader of the ACT Greens, Rebecca Vassarotti.

“But unfortunately, today’s announcement from ACT Labor lacks the ambition and the vision to make meaningful and practical change for Canberrans in an area that many Canberrans have flagged as their highest priority in this election.

“By leaving the bulk of their housing strategy to the market, ACT Labor’s will leave many Canberrans stuck with astronomical mortgage repayments and incredibly high rents for decades to come.

“Even worse, even with the current public housing waiting list, this plan will leave over 2000 people still without a safe place to call home. 

“The question Canberrans have to ask themselves is, are we really willing to vote for a future where the investor-first housing market continues unchecked? 

“Are we really willing to vote for a future where over 2,000 Canberrans remain homeless, while we fail to take action in one of the wealthiest cities in the country?

“This election, it’s time to demand real solutions. We need to see commitment to addressing the issue with urgency and conviction. When you scratch below the surface on this one, its limitations are quickly exposed.

“Building public homes that people can actually afford is one of the only levers the ACT Government has to make a real difference in this housing crisis. 

“The ACT Greens have a bold and ambitious plan to build 10,000 new public homes people can actually afford over the next decade.

“Because these homes will be built by the government, Canberrans will be sheltered from the investors’ market set up by the Federal Labor and Liberal parties, instead having a stable rent that doesn’t break the bank.

“Our plan is fully costed and modelled to show that the ACT Government can deliver on this level of ambition. 

“The message to Canberrans is clear, if you want meaningful action on the housing crisis, the only option this election is to vote Greens. 

“This kind of change is absolutely possible, all you have to do is vote for it.”

Our full plan to build public housing is available on the ACT Greens website

Federal Forests Minister Julie Collins needs to stop undermining global efforts to fight deforestation by working to delay European Union anti-deforestation regulations, the Greens say.

“Instead of protecting precious native forests, Ms Collins has worked to delay European Union deforestation laws, aligning herself with corporate interests over forests, climate and nature,” Australian Greens Forests spokesperson Senator Nick McKim said.

“Collins has revealed her absolute culpability. She is complicit in the breakdown of the earth’s ecological and climate systems.”

“The world needs urgent action to stop deforestation to protect climate and nature, not delay and destruction.”

“Collins’ actions are a direct betrayal of the millions of Australians who want to see forests protected and strong climate action.”

“This is nothing less than a complete sell-out to industries that are devastating our environment.”

“Labor needs to stop blocking international action and start doing what’s right for our planet and future generations.”

“The world is facing twin crises of climate breakdown and mass extinction, and instead of being part of the solution, Labor is actively making things worse.”

“We need to end native forest logging and put in place far stronger protections for our natural environment.”

“Julie Collins and Anthony Albanese should be ashamed for siding with corporations and foreign governments that are bulldozing forests and driving species to extinction.”

Responding to revelations today of illegal landclearing destroying critical koala habitat to expand a coal mine in Queensland, the Greens have called on Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek to intervene immediately.

Senator Sarah Hanson-Young is Greens spokesperson for the environment:

“The Minister must take immediate action to investigate and hold this coal company legally accountable. The Minister must also rule out handing the company any future approvals, including the one on her desk. 

“There should be a one-strike-and-you’re-out rule. These big coal companies can’t be trusted and must not be given any licence to destroy nature.

“The Minister has the power to stop the illegal destruction of koala habitat now, she should use it.

“This is a huge embarrassment for the Government mere days before it hosts the global Nature Positive Summit to boast about its supposed environmental credentials. There is nothing positive about destroying habitat and killing koalas to make way for more coal.

“The koala is one of Australia’s most internationally loved animals – and yet they are being pushed to the brink of extinction while the Government sits on its hands. 

“This is an international disgrace. Logging native forests, destroying critical habitat and greenlighting fossil fuels is nature negative. 

“Unauthorised land clearing has been left unchecked in Australia for decades, with industry thinking they get a free pass to clear critical habitat. This coal company must be held to account and held legally liable.

“Labor needs to stop taking selfies and start saving koalas from coal.

“Labor is failing our environment and failing to protect our koalas. The Government should work with the Greens to enforce and strengthen environment laws to stop native forest logging, protect habitat and ban new coal & gas mines. 

“The Greens are the only party Australians trust to protect the environment and climate.”

Further background:

• The Government is due to host its Global ‘Nature Positive’ Summit in Sydney in coming days, while its “useless” “Nature Positive” legislation remains stalled in the Senate.
• Minister Plibersek approved 3 new major coal expansions just weeks ago & Labor has now approved 26 new coal and gas mines since coming to power. 

As part of the Albanese Government’s ongoing work to assist Australians seeking to depart Lebanon, two Government-supported charter flights carrying up to 500 passengers will depart Beirut Airport tomorrow for Larnaca, Cyprus.

This continues the Australian Government’s work with partners and commercial airlines, which has seen seats secured on several flights this week, including a Canadian assisted-departure flight last night which had 41 Australians on board.

Further flights are planned for subsequent days and will be subject to demand.

Operation of the Australian Government-supported charter flights is subject to the airport in Beirut remaining open and other operational constraints.

Onward travel to Australia is being arranged for those landing in Cyprus. Qantas has confirmed two flights from Cyprus to Sydney and we are grateful for their assistance. We are working with other airlines to confirm additional flights.

These flights will be free-of-charge for those eligible Australians, permanent residents and their immediate family members with a right of entry to Australia. Vulnerable passengers will be prioritised.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade will be in contact with registered Australians to facilitate their departure and will continue to provide updates to registered Australians.

Australians in Lebanon who wish to leave should ensure they are registered via DFAT’s Crisis Portal or by calling the Australian Government’s 24-hour Consular Emergency Centre on +61 2 6261 3305.

Our message to Australians in Lebanon remains – now is the time to leave. Please take the first flight option that is available. There is no guarantee of preferred flights or that these flights will continue.

Media note: Images from last night’s flight are available via DFAT’s Media Library.