Month: September 2024

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has vowed to ‘turn her back’ on Welcome to Country ceremonies and urged “fed up” Australians to join her.

Firebrand politician Pauline Hanson has called for Australians to push back against Welcome to Country ceremonies conducted by Indigenous people.

The One Nation leader delivered a fiery statement in the Senate on Tuesday afternoon, describing the tradition as “divisive” and something “many people tell me they are just over”.

Her remarks follow ongoing controversy over a Welcome to Country performed before the GWS Giants and Brisbane Lions AFL semi-final clash on Saturday.

Brendan Kerin, a cultural educator from the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council, took to the field at ENGIE Stadium in Sydney and bounty declared the custom, typically conducted before major events and meetings, is “not for white people”.

“A Welcome to Country is not a ceremony we’ve invented to cater for white people,” Mr Kerin said. “It’s a ceremony we’ve been doing for 250,000 years-plus BC. And the BC stands for Before Cook.”

The remarks drew the ire of many who felt it was a departure from the norm and felt more like a lecture that some on social media labelled “a disgrace”.

Senator Hanson agreed and called for the practice to cease.

“If they (Welcome to Country ceremonies) are not to cater to white people, then why are white people constantly subjected to them?” Senator Hanson said in the Senate.

“These welcomes are based on lies that Australia is not our home. So many people tell me they are just over it.”

Labor’s proposed ‘Better and Fairer’ Schools Agreement will lock in another decade of underfunding for public schools, cementing Australia’s school system as one of the most unequal and segregated in the OECD.

The Commonwealth Government must raise its offer to fund public schools from 22.5% of the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) to a minimum of 25%. Anything less will lock in another decade of under-resourcing of our public schools.

Greens spokesperson on Primary and Secondary Education, Senator Penny Allman-Payne:

“The federal government’s offer is woefully inadequate, and it will consign another generation of young people to an underfunded education.

“Public education is the fundamental building block of Australian society – if Labor can’t fund that properly, what are they doing here?

“Every school parent and carer can see that this is a deeply broken, inequitable and damaging system. 

“Every day this year, the federal Government will give $51 million to private schools, while leaving public schools underfunded. Every day. Who can look a public school parent or carer in the eye and say that’s a fair system?

“The Government must make a choice. Will it further entrench a two-tier system where public schools, which educate the vast majority of disadvantaged students, are forced to struggle by on inadequate funding? Or will it invest in our young people and properly fund our public schools?

“Let me make this clear: public schools, students and teachers cannot be left to scrape by on less than the bare minimum. Labor’s deal is not a deal for full funding.”

Independent Senator for the ACT, Senator David Pocock:

“Properly funding our public schools must be a top priority and I can’t in good conscience back legislation that will bake in underfunding for a decade to come.

“The ACT has been fortunate enough to be the only jurisdiction to hit 100 per cent of its school resourcing standard but even then we’ve got kids without enough chairs in class, teachers burning out, classes collapsing.

“Australia lags behind OECD countries in equitable access to education and the gap between public and private is widening.

“Every Australian child should have access to the best possible public education and that will take a significant funding commitment from all levels of government.”

Independent Senator for WA, Senator Fatima Payman:

“The Labor Government’s glaring failure to fully fund our public schools is not just a matter of budgetary allocation; it’s a question of values and priorities.

“By neglecting public schools, we are condemning another generation of Australian kids to an underfunded education.

“Every child, regardless of their background, their postcode, their parents income, deserves a fully funded, high-quality education.”

Senator for Tasmania, Senator Jacqui Lambie:

“On the back of the Gonski reforms in 2010, Prime Minister Julia Gillard told Australians that your postcode shouldn’t determine how well you do in life 

“But in 2024 more than half of the $29 billion government spend on schools in Australia goes to private schools! 

“Gonksi was a Labor reform – it blows me away that Education Minister Jason Clare still hasn’t fixed this. While our richest private schools are getting taxpayer money to build libraries that look like castles and sports centres with Olympic swimming pools – my old high school is still using demountables from the late 1980’s.”

The Greens will move for an urgent Upper House Inquiry this week after more revelationsthat cancer-linked forever chemicals have been detected in Sydney’s drinking water catchment – this time well above Australian drinking water guidelines.

New testing has found alarming levels of PFAS concentrations downstream of Medlow Dam in the Blue Mountains at 200 times higher than the guidelines – and upstream at more than 50 times the guidelines.

In December 2023, the World Health Organisation concluded that forever chemicals are carcinogenic. There is no safe level of exposure without a risk of adverse health effects.

“The Health Minister needs to come clean about exactly what’s in Sydney’s drinking water. As recently as Budget Estimates last week, Minister Park said that Sydney’s drinking water is safe, yet now we have independent testing showing PFAS concentrations well above the drinking water guidelines,” said Greens MP and water spokesperson Cate Faehrmann.

“I wrote to the Health and Water Ministers back in June seeking urgent independent testing which they refused to do. Then last week, I was informed that as a result of recent media investigations, Sydney Water and WaterNSW have added PFAS monitoring to their testing procedures.

“It shouldn’t have to take media exposure before the government acts, yet that’s exactly what’s happening. And the public shouldn’t have to rely upon independent testing for the truth to come out about what exactly is in their drinking water and whether it’s safe.

“Members of the public are writing to me in confusion and distress. They don’t know whether they should be drinking the water coming out of their taps. Meanwhile the government says it still doesn’t know the source of the PFAS and it could take months before they do.

“It’s not good enough. The Government can’t be trusted to tell the public everything they need to know about this issue. The public deserves answers and that’s why I’ll be moving for an urgent Parliamentary Inquiry into this issue this week,” said Cate Faehrmann.

The Australian Greens have today called for a federal investigation into missing First Nations men and children in Western Australia, after years of inertia by police and government.

In a letter to the Australian Federal Police Commissioner and the Minister for Indigenous Australians, Greens Senators Dorinda Cox and David Shoebridge said the WA Police Force had had enough time to act, and that it was time for a larger, federal investigation.

In recent years seven First Nations WA men – Zane Stevens, Jeremiah “Jayo” Rivers, Wylie Oscar, Clinton Lockyer, Wesley Lockyer, Brenton Shar, Jimmy Taylor – have gone missing.

The Greens say their families have been in a holding pattern ever since, and deserve better.

While the WA Police Force seems to continue operating as though its business as usual, the government has yet to formally respond to the Missing and Murdered First Nations Women and Childrens report which was tabled over a month ago.

A rally will be held in Perth today for missing First Nations people.

Australian Greens First Nations spokesperson, Senator Dorinda Cox:

“The police and the government are failing the families of these missing men.

“These are humans, people whose families are sitting in a holding pattern waiting for any news.

“Instead the police seem to be operating as though its business as usual, and the government won’t even respond to the Missing and Murdered First Nations Women and Childrens report which was tabled over a month ago.

“Families shouldn’t need to go to public meetings, rally, or fund private investigations to get answers.

“We haven’t even seen rewards being offered for information relating to these cases, yet we have for property offences in Western Australia.

“First Nations people are going missing and have been disappeared by systems at an alarming rate – we are demanding truth-telling and action.”

Australian Greens justice spokesperson, Senator David Shoebridge: 

“Families of missing people shouldn’t have to fight the justice system to get answers about what happened to their loved ones but they do.

“We know that police responses to First Nations families can retraumatise those seeking help and that substandard investigations by police mean missed opportunities to locate missing First Nations men.

“The racist justice system has failed these men and their communities for too long and a comprehensive investigation is urgently needed.”

On the second anniversary of the incarceration and tragic death of Mahsa Jina Amini, the Australian Government is imposing targeted financial sanctions and travel bans on an additional five Iranian individuals.

Mahsa Jina Amini’s death galvanised months of protests in Iran, which were brutally quashed by Iranian security forces.

The individuals sanctioned today include senior security and law enforcement officials who have been complicit in the violent repression of protests in Iran.

The human rights situation in Iran remains dire, particularly for women and girls. In early 2024, Iranian authorities launched a new campaign to enforce mandatory hijab laws through increased surveillance and harassment. Female human rights activists continue to be detained and handed death sentences.

Today’s listings mean the Albanese Government has now sanctioned 195 Iran-linked individuals and entities across multiple sanctions frameworks, including almost 100 individuals and entities linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

These sanctions illustrate the Government’s commitment to holding Iran to account for human rights violations and other destabilising activities.

Australia stands with Iranian women and girls in their struggle for equality and empowerment.

For further information on Australia’s sanctions settings, please visit the Sanctions regimes page on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website.

The following is the joint statement released by the Secretary of State of the United States and the Foreign Ministers of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, on the second anniversary of the death of Mahsa Zhina Amini.

Two years ago today, Mahsa Zhina Amini, a young Kurdish-Iranian woman, was killed while in police custody in Iran. Her death sparked a nationwide protest movement, led by women and girls, which was unwavering in its demand for a better future.

We stand with women and girls in Iran, and Iranian human rights defenders, across all segments of society in their ongoing daily fight for human rights and fundamental freedoms. At least 500 persons died and over 20,000 were detained in the Iranian security forces’ brutal crackdown on displays of dissent in 2022 and 2023. But the global “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement remains united.

The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) on Iran, established by the United Nations Human Rights Council, has said that many of the human rights violations perpetrated against protesters amount to crimes against humanity. The Iranian government has yet to address these allegations and has not cooperated with this internationally recognized mandate.

In daily life, women and girls continue to face severe repression in Iran. The renewed “Noor” hijab crackdown, which enforces Iran’s law requiring women to wear headscarves, has spurred a fresh round of harassment and violence. The Iranian government has bolstered its surveillance infrastructure to arrest, detain, and in some cases torture women and girls for their peaceful activism. According to human rights organisations, Iran is one of the foremost executioners of women globally.

We call on the new Iranian administration to fulfil its pledge to ease pressure on civil society in Iran and to end the use of force to enforce the hijab requirement. The recent surge in executions that have largely occurred without fair trials has been shocking, and we urge the Iranian government to cease its human rights violations now. We, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States, will continue to act in lockstep to hold the Iranian government accountable and will use all relevant national legal authorities to promote accountability for Iranian human rights violators, including through sanctions and visa restrictions.

The Greens have requested that AMDA – the group that ran Land Forces, the largest weapons expo in the southern hemisphere – have its charity status revoked. 

The Greens say that a company that platforms weapons manufacturers that are responsible for genocide and war crimes, is not a charity. 

Greens MP for Richmond Gabrielle de Vietri and the Leader of the Australian Greens Adam Bandt have written to the ACNC to ask that they revoke AMDA Foundation’s registration. 

AMDA runs several major weapons-related trade exhibitions across the country where military organisations, government representatives, trade delegates and military officials from around the world have attended to buy and sell weapons, ammunition, military parts and equipment.

Greens MP for Richmond, Gabrielle de Veitri: 

“It’s outrageous that AMDA, a company that hosts multinational weapons expos, can masquerade as a charity.

“Nothing about this event is charitable. The public can’t even attend this event. This is all about tax deductions for the weapons manufacturers and government representatives looking for their next cushy job. 

“The weapons industry profits from death and destruction. They promote war because they benefit from it. That is no way beneficial to the general public.

“A company that promotes profiting from violent oppression around the world should not be enjoying charity tax concessions.

“Revoking AMDA’s charity status is a step we can take to stop enabling multinational companies to profit from killing people.”