Month: July 2024

Greens Deputy Leader and Higher Education Spokesperson has responded to new campus protest rules imposed by Sydney University which include bans on camping, three days’ notice for any demonstration and requirements to obtain approval to use megaphones or even to attach banners to university buildings.

Breaches of the rules allow the Sydney University to dissolve protests, remove property, and direct students and staff to leave parts of campus.
 

Senator Mehreen Faruqi:

“Students and staff should not need permission to exercise their fundamental right to protest on their own campus.

“What we are seeing here is a despicable attempt by neoliberal, corporate university management to stifle student activism and shut down political expression.

“Staunch campus activism has changed the world. Universities campuses should always be political spaces where students and staff are encouraged to speak out on issues of social, racial and environmental justice.

“Sydney University students  campaign for Indigenous rights, an end to South African apartheid and the Vietnam War. They were on the right side of history then, and they are on the right side of history now with their protests for a free Palestine.

“Sydney University is trying to smother activism and these  rules are a shameful attempt to quash further protests against the genocide in Palestine. 

“Sydney University must dump these shameful anti-protest rules, which disturbingly seem to have been introduced without consultation or notice.”

Labor is once again announcing something that isn’t new or adequate funding for frontline services. Meanwhile, Destroy the Joint report that at least 40 women have been killed by family and domestic violence this year.

Australian Greens leader in the Senate and spokesperson on women, Larissa Waters

“Labor’s announcement today is yet another re-hash of previously committed funding. The 19 projects that will be constructed will be done using $100 million in funding announced in the 2022-23 October Budget.

“The construction of 720 safe places is welcome and desperately needed, but will accommodate at most a mere three percent of women and children seeking housing. Moreover, waiting three years until 2027 for these facilities to be built is cold comfort to women and children being killed by family and domestic violence now.

“This government keeps making announcements, but there’s never any new or adequate funding for frontline services, which is what the women’s safety sector and this crisis of men’s violence demands.

“In 2022-23,73,287 people experiencing family and domestic violence presented to homelessness services. 720 safe places is a drop in a very large ocean of need – at most it could help three percent of people who need help – and they won’t provide anyone safety until 2027.

“With no new funding announced today for crisis accommodation or affordable housing, Labor is forcing women and children to remain in violent households, because there is nowhere for them to go.”

Australian Greens Deputy Leader and Antiracism spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has said that the Government needs to urgently implement the National anti-racism strategy and fully fund the Race Discrimination Commissioner to ensure all forms of racism are combated.
 

Senator Faruqi: 

“Combating Antisemitism, Islamophobia and all forms of racism is an important priority, but it seems like the Government is making policy up on the run.

“We already have a Race Discrimination Commissioner which is empowered to fight all forms of racism. 

“Labor is trying to reinvent the wheel instead of backing the solution they already have. The Government should adequately fund the Race Discrimination Commissioner to urgently complete and implement the national anti-racism strategy rather than meddling with its mandate by creating new positions that eat into its remit.

“You can see how little Labor has considered this approach by the fact that the Islamophobia Register wasn’t consulted and the anti Islamophobia envoy was hastily added on to the announcement without even a candidate. Muslims facing Islamophobia in this country should not be an afterthought.

“We need a united effort to defeat racism in this country, which is so pervasive and deep seated, especially against First Nations people. The best way to dismantle Antisemitism, Islamophobia or any other type of racism is by working in solidarity with groups facing hate and racism.

“Australia still hasn’t reckoned with the Christchurch mosque massacre where a man from this country with an extreme Islamophobic ideology killed 51 Muslims.

“If the Albanese Government was serious about tackling racism, they would drop their Trump style immigration policies, stop blaming international students and migrants for their own policy failures and end their own Islamophobic crusade against Senator Payman.”

This month marks 50 years since the landmark establishment of the Australian Safeguards and Non-Proliferation Office (ASNO).

In July 1974, the Whitlam Labor Government showed global leadership by establishing what is now referred to as ASNO following Australia’s ratification of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).

ASNO was one of the first agencies of its kind dedicated to preventing nuclear war and stopping the spread of nuclear weapons.

The establishment of ASNO and Australia’s ratification of the NPT has demonstrated Australia’s commitment to nuclear non-proliferation to the international community and helped bolster global efforts towards a world free of nuclear weapons.

Over the past 50 years, ASNO been implementing the highest standards of nuclear safeguards to help prevent the misuse of dangerous nuclear material and to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

ASNO has also been central to strengthening the international nuclear non-proliferation regime, leading Australia’s efforts to implement the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). This includes hosting 21 stations as part of the international monitoring system, which is critical to detecting nuclear weapons tests, for example, in North Korea.

ASNO is now working with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and AUKUS partners to develop a first-of-its-kind safeguard arrangement for Australia’s conventionally armed nuclear-powered submarine program that sets the highest non-proliferation standard.

ASNO will continue to work to strengthen global non-proliferation verification standards and support regional partners implement their non-proliferation commitments.

Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator the Hon Penny Wong:

“Australia has a proud history of advocating for non-proliferation and disarmament – and the Albanese Government is continuing this legacy.

“Given that it is nuclear weapons that most risk catastrophe, we must work harder to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons.

“We will continue to work with others to strengthen the NPT and urge progress on a Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty.”

An FOI request released today clearly shows Immigration Miniter Andrew Giles deliberately misled the Parliament.

Minister Giles received clear written advice from Home Affairs that drones were not used to monitor immigration detention detainees at large in the community just hours before he made the false claim on television that they were.

In a Sky News interview on 30 May, Minister Giles said:

“There is a quarter of a billion dollars that we’ve invested in supporting our law enforcement agencies to enforce, and that’s enabled things like using drones to keep track of these people we know.”

Five days later, Minister Giles made the embarrassing confession in the Parliament that drones were not being used to monitor detainees and he blamed Home Affairs staff for the mistake.

He told the Parliament during Question Time on 3 June:

“Last week, in an interview on Sky News, I did state that Operation AEGIS was using drones. I relied on information provided by my department at the time, which has since been clarified.”

The FOI shows that Minister Giles received written advice from his department that contains no mention of drones being used to monitor detainees.

The FOI, published on the Right to Know website, requested all documents from Home Affairs that Minister Giles relied upon when he made the incorrect claim that drones were being used to monitor detainees.

In response, Home Affairs provided an email sent by Associate Secretary Emma Cassar at 9:39am on 30 May, just before Giles’ Sky interview at 11:15am, that said:

“Quick points on case monitoring in the community: – Drone footage over accommodation – to ascertain a) property risks, b) proximity to other properties/community/risk settings (eg: licenced venues).”

Click here to read the full email from Home Affairs to Giles.

Click here to read the full FOI request correspondence.

Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship Dan Tehan said today’s FOI revelation heaped more embarrassment on a Minister who had demonstrated he was not up to the job.

“What is clear from this FOI is that Andrew Giles has deliberately misled the Parliament,” Mr Tehan said.

“One read of the very short and very clear advice from his department and it is obvious that drones were not being used to monitor detainees at large in the community.

“What this FOI proves is that Minister Giles was throwing the department under the bus when he said he was provided advice that required clarification. The advice was very clear and required no clarification. Minister Giles just got it wrong.

“It is even more unbelievable that it took Minister Giles five days to correct his mistake when the advice from his department was written in black and white, suggesting Minister Giles was again hiding from accountability and hoping to avoid responsibility.

“Minister Giles has a track record of dodging responsibility. He refuses to front the media when things go wrong, and this is not the first time he has thrown his department under the bus.

“But it’s the coverup that gets you, and Minister Giles has been caught deliberately misleading the Parliament by blaming Home Affairs staff for his own incompetence.

“Andrew Giles should do the honourable thing and apologise to his department and then resign.

“It has passed time for the Prime Minister to sack this incompetent minister.

“It is now beyond a joke that Giles is still in his job and still making mistakes.

“It just shows how weak the Prime Minister is that he will not sack his factional ally.”