Category: Australian News

The Australian Greens have today announced that Lidia Thorpe will be the next Senator for Victoria, following a massive state-wide ballot of the Victorian Greens membership.
Lidia Thorpe, Aboriginal leader, activist and Gunnai-Kurnai/Gunditjmara woman will be sworn into Parliament in the coming months to fill the casual vacancy soon to be left by Senator Richard Di Natale.
Victoria Greens Co-Convenors Effy Elden and Ella Webb said thousands of members took part in the vote over two weeks, with Lidia Thorpe securing a decisive victory.
“We are delighted to announce the next Senator for the Victorian Greens, who was elected directly by our membership at the culmination of a fantastic grassroots preselection process. We are proud to be the only progressive party in Victoria whose members currently have a genuine say in their parliamentary representation.
“The Victorian Greens have over 3,600 members who were eligible to cast their vote in the state-wide preselection. With 65% choosing to participate, they have delivered a clear and decisive result in selecting Lidia.
“We look forward to seeing Lidia Thorpe join our fellow Victorian Greens MPs Adam Bandt & Janet Rice, as well as the rest of our federal team in parliament later this year.”
Building upon her work as the Member for Northcote, Lidia has a strong track record of fighting for environmental and social justice that benefits the whole community.
“It’s an incredible honour and a huge responsibility to be chosen by Greens members as the next Senator for Victoria. I won’t let you down,” Lidia Thorpe said.
“It’s so important for kids growing up today in places I grew up to know they can do what I’ve done. Kids in the Commission flats, or out in country towns, or single mums, or survivors of domestic violence. This isn’t out of your reach.
“I’m ready to fight for the issues we all believe in – climate, injustice, inequality. Now more than ever, we need to not accept the old ways – this is our chance to build back better, and I’m ready to bring us together to get it done.”
Leader of the Australian Greens, Adam Bandt MP said he was thrilled to be able to work with Lidia in the federal parliament.
“Parliament is due for a shake up, and Lidia’s fearless advocacy for economic and social justice will strengthen the case for a Green New Deal and provide a voice for so many people that have been let down by politics,” Adam Bandt MP said.
“From being the first Aboriginal woman elected to Victorian parliament, to winning renters rights, forestry protections and LGBTIQ support, Lidia has an incredible track record of fighting for change.
“With an escalating inequality and climate crisis, there has never been a more important time to make sure the Greens reach new communities to speak with everyone in this country and leave no one behind.
“I’m proud I’ll be working alongside Lidia in Canberra. She’ll be an incredible addition to the Australian Greens team.”

“Degrees should cost students zero dollars,” Greens spokesperson for Education, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, said this morning in response to the “government’s pathetic uni fee hikes”.
“Arts graduate Minister Tehan’s jobs rhetoric is empty. He’s part of a Government that would rather throw a tantrum at humanities students and slam them with higher fees than do the hard work of creating jobs across the economy.
“The government’s juvenile Murdoch-driven loathing of students and the humanities is on clear display today. Education isn’t just about getting you a job – it’s a public good and it’s certainly not about punishing students who wish to study humanities and the law.
“This is the government recognising the abject failure of their 2018 funding freeze and crawling back with their tail between their legs and another disastrous approach to uni funding.
“We need free TAFE and uni for all students to meet rising demand during the recession and ensure access to education for all throughout their lives. Anything short of that won’t do.
“Our unis are in crisis with rolling cuts to jobs and courses around the country. Without a substantial funding increase thousands more jobs will go and education quality will suffer,” she said.

The Morrison Government will leave millions of Australians behind when JobKeeper is scrapped on September 27.
In just 100 days any JobKeeper recipient unable to return to work as a result of the continuing pandemic, or the economic damage it has caused, will be back to Centrelink to join the unemployment queue.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he would give Australians the economic lifeline they will need in the many months ahead to make it through and to get on this bridge we’re building together to the other side.
In 100 days he is determined to push them off that bridge.
When the pandemic began, the Prime Minister told us we were all in this in together.
“Our JobKeeper plan sees every Australian worker the same way, no matter what you earn. There is not more support for some than there is for others. That is not the Australian way. If one person falls on a hard time, if anyone falls on a hard time, it’s the same hard time. We’re all in this together.” Scott Morrison 30 March, 2020
His message today is “In 100 days – you are on your own”

Labor’s support of the Morrison Government’s plans to fast-track approvals for major projects risks permanent destruction of our environment and the future of our native wildlife, the Greens say.
Greens Spokesperson for the Environment Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said:
“Labor is teaming up with the Morrison Government to green light environmental destruction.
“It is very naïve of Labor to think the process for environmental approvals won’t be shoddier as a result of this deregulation plan.
“The government has not laid out any plans to improve the standards by which these decisions will be made.
“The truth is this deregulation plan will mean corners are cut, state laws that are even weaker than the already weak federal environmental laws will apply and our environment will be worse off for the sake of corporate profits.
“The government isn’t just planning on cutting the time of assessment, it’s cutting vital checks meaning projects are approved regardless of the damage to the environment.
“Over the last 20 years only 2 per cent of projects under the EPBC Act have been knocked back. Labor’s support for the government’s plan will risk even more destruction.
“Australia has one of the worst extinction rates in the world and this shameful statistic was created on the watch of Labor and Liberal governments.
“We need stronger protections for our environment, not weaker ones. And we need a real opposition, not the Labor Party that keeps siding with environmental vandals.
“Australians will be extremely disappointed that Labor is sacrificing the environment and native animals in favour of mining profits and big developers.”

Australian Greens Housing spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has said that the federal government and National Cabinet must act urgently to ensure renters and those in housing stress are not left in enormous debt or at risk of homelessness as the eviction ban ‘cliff’ rapidly approaches.
Senator Faruqi said:
“Over the coming weeks and months, renters face the prospect of eviction and possible homelessness as eviction bans come to an end across the states and territories.
“With unemployment skyrocketing, we must do everything we can to avoid a worsening of the homelessness and housing crises.
“The National Cabinet must work to implement waivers for rent arrears, with relief for those with rental debts. It must also agree on a national standard of renters’ rights and rental laws to protect people from unfair evictions.
“Rent increases should be frozen and lenders directed to give mortgage relief with no interest accrual for property owners.
“This is the time for massive investment in public and community housing, and to ensure we recognise housing as a human right.
“The COVID-19 crisis has further exposed existing inequalities in our broken housing system. It’s time to ensure that we not only make it through the pandemic, but fix housing in this country once and for all,” she said.

Federal Labor sent a clear message to the Australian people last night that they are more interested in protecting the rights of paedophiles than they are in protecting the safety of children.
Anthony Albanese’s Senate team voted down a key part of a Government Bill which provided mandatory minimum sentences for Commonwealth child sex offences to ensure perpetrators receive the jail terms they deserve.
But faced with a fierce public backlash this morning, Labor then reversed its position and agreed to support the Government’s Bill in its entirety when it was brought back to the Senate for another vote this afternoon.
“In all my years in politics I have never seen a greater display of hypocrisy from Labor, which claims on the one hand that it wants to protect our children, but then says it is opposed in principle to minimum terms of imprisonment, despite having supported mandatory sentences for people smugglers when they were last in government,” Attorney-General Christian Porter said.
“It shouldn’t have taken three years of opposition and a public relations disaster today for Labor to finally realise the hypocrisy of its position and it now needs to explain to victims whose lives have been ruined by these ruthless predators why it let them down in the Senate last night.
“The need for mandatory jail sentences could not be clearer. As I’ve said before, 39 per cent of offenders convicted of Commonwealth child sex offences last financial year were not sentenced to a single day in jail. That simply doesn’t fit with the community’s expectations and does nothing to deter offenders who know there is strong chance that they won’t go to jail if they get caught.
“The changes approved by the Senate today will ensure that the punishment is in line with community expectations and that offenders face the powerful deterrence of knowing a jail cell will be waiting for them when they get caught.”
As well as setting new mandatory minimum jail terms, the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Sexual Crimes Against Children and Community Protection Measures) Bill, 2019, creates a new maximum life penalty for the most serious Commonwealth offences, and a presumption against bail to help keep offenders in custody while they face trial.
“The Bill reforms the full sentencing cycle, setting a presumption against bail when offenders are first arrested, through to increasing supervision when they are ultimately released and tougher penalties for breaches of parole and other supervision orders,” the Attorney-General said.
The Bill also creates:

• Increased maximum penalties across the spectrum of Commonwealth child sex offences, including up to life imprisonment for the most serious offences
• Presumptions in favour of cumulative sentences and actual imprisonment
• Ensuring that all sex offenders, upon release from custody, are adequately supervised and subject to appropriate rehabilitative conditions
• Preventing courts from discounting sentences on the basis of good character where this is used to facilitate the crime.

These measures complement a broad package of reforms already introduced by the Coalition during the last Parliament, which strengthened laws relating to child sexual abuse and created new protections for the community.
This included tough new measures to stop child sex offenders from travelling overseas to abuse children and the introduction of Carly’s law, which targets online predators who use the internet to prepare or plan to sexually abuse children.

Following an unsuccessful last-minute court challenge by Animals Australia, Australian Greens Animal Welfare spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has said that the Agriculture Minister, David Littleproud MP, must urgently intervene to halt the departure of the RETWA live export ship from Australia.
Senator Faruqi will move a motion in the Senate this afternoon calling on the Minister to intervene and stop the RETWA ship from departing Australia.
Senator Faruqi said:
“Minister Littleproud should do his job and enforce the new rules that are designed to protect animal welfare. This whole farce has revealed that the ‘independence’ of the Department as the regulator is a joke.
“It’s outrageous that for this government, when business interests and animal welfare collide, profit wins out every time.
“50,000 sheep will face inevitable suffering and great risk of death if this journey goes ahead.
“This exemption makes a complete mockery of the new animal welfare rules which were only very recently introduced, to prevent animals being shipped during the dangerously hot northern summer conditions.
“We are now halfway through June, and it’s only going to get hotter as this ship makes its way towards the equator.
“We need an Independent Office of Animal Welfare, operating at arm’s length from other functions of government. Animal welfare should be protected on principle and not thrown out the window whenever there’s a buck to be made,” she said.
Motion 670 available on the Senate Notice Paper.

The Senate has supported a Greens motion calling on the Government to urgently legislate protections for witnesses seeking to make a submission to the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Exploitation and Neglect of People with Disability in confidence.
Australian Greens Disability Rights spokesperson Senator Jordon Steele-John said confidentiality protections were not only essential, but time-sensitive to ensure that the Royal Commission could do its job properly.
“The Government has already wasted the best part of a year of a Royal Commission process that has only been scheduled to take three years,” he said.
“Failure to act quickly has had, and will continue to have, a chilling effect on the Royal Commission.
“I have people contacting my office all the time – people who have lost all faith in the system because of the violence, abuse, exploitation or neglect they, or their family, have suffered – wanting to know when it will be safe for them to tell their stories.
Under current legislative arrangements confidentiality can only be guaranteed until the end of Royal Commission.
The Government indicated in the Senate today that they were “considering their options” and that “a decision would be made shortly”.

The Greens will today introduce a bill in the Senate that will prohibit political donations from certain industries, and impose a cap on all other donations.
Greens Senate Leader and spokesperson on Democracy, Senator Larissa Waters said:
“We must put a stop to the rorts and favours for mates that are rife under the Morrison Government.
“Since 2012, the Liberal, National and Labor parties have received over one hundred million dollars from corporate donors. And we’ve seen those donors benefit from favourable policy outcomes and project approvals.
“My bill today sends a clear message – the community is fed up and our democracy should not be for sale.
“The Banning Dirty Donations Bill seeks to stop all political donations from industries with a track record of seeking to influence decisions: the mining, banking, gambling, alcohol, pharmaceutical, defence, tobacco and property development industries.
“It also caps all other donations at $3,000 per parliamentary term, so wealth doesn’t equate to influence.
“Big money should not run politics, the public interest should.
“If you want evidence of donors guiding policy, look no further than the National Covid Coordination Commission (NCCC).
“After years of receiving donations from the gas industry, the government handpicked a NCCC stacked with gas representatives. So it’s no surprise the NCCC is recommending a ‘gas-led recovery’ that benefits Commission members but will be toxic for the climate, our precious water supplies, and farmland.
“Trust in politics is at an all-time low and the best way to fix this is to stop selling our democracy to the highest bidder. The major parties should join with the Greens and help clean up politics,” Senator Waters said.
 

The Morrison Government has voted eight times over two days to slash Australia Post deliveries and threaten jobs and wages.
Today Labor Leader Anthony Albanese moved to disallow the Prime Minister’s regulations which cut the frequency of postie delivery rounds, extend mail delivery times for millions of Australians and put the jobs of up to one in four posties and many others at risk.
This follows Labor’s move to disallow the regulations on Friday.
Many Australians, including isolated, vulnerable and older Australians and those living in regional areas, rely on regular postal services.
The Prime Minister’s regulations rip away Australia Post services from Australians who need them most.
The Prime Minister has used the coronavirus pandemic as cover for an attack on essential services and frontline workers.
Labor considers the parcels boom an opportunity to preserve and create jobs — not cut them.