MEDIA RELEASE - 23 April 2018

Greens back Public Health Association warning on dangerous gun lobby plan

Greens gun control spokesperson Senator Lee Rhiannon has backed a letter sent by the Public Health Association of Australia urging Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to stand up to the gun lobby’s attempts to weaken Australian firearms policy.

“The gun lobby’s proposal to establish an industry-based government advisory committee to advise on Australian gun policy is dangerous and should be immediately rejected by the PM,” Senator Rhiannon said.

Greens' plan to transition live sheep export industry to local processing backed by meat workers union

The Australian Greens will today launch their '5-Point Plan to End Cruelty and Expand Jobs' that would quickly transition the live sheep export trade to a boxed, chilled meat trade processed locally. The plan has the backing of the Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union (AMIEU).

While glad government has finally recognised that the call wait time is outrageous and is putting more staff on, it is very disappointing that these will be contract staff, Australian Greens Senator Rachel Siewert said today.

"Using a private company to reduce Centrelink call wait times holds serious privacy concerns, and staff should be hired within the public sector.

The Australian Greens are calling on the Government to waive the debts unknowingly incurred by young Australians hoodwinked by private VET providers.

“The rampant rorting of the VET system is one of the most extraordinary and damning examples of failed privatisation that Australia has ever seen,” Greens education spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.

“Young people and students should not be punished with existing debts for education and training they never received from dodgy institutions. 



The Australian Greens will today launch their '5-Point Plan to End Cruelty and Expand Jobs' that would quickly transition the live sheep export trade to a boxed, chilled meat trade processed locally.

The plan has the backing of the Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union (AMIEU).

Charging interest on people that owe a Centrelink debt will disproportionately affect Australians on low incomes and who weren’t intentionally committing fraud, Australian Greens Senator Rachel Siewert said today. 

“The Government has pointed to very rare circumstances of extreme fraud to justify the measure.   

Queensland Greens Senator Andrew Bartlett is calling on the Mayor of Ipswich to explain if waste sector donations were behind the councils decision to bin recycling.

"Politics is broken when we can’t trust our politicians to handle something as simple and common sense as recycling.

"We know the biggest donor to the Mayor of Ipswich's election campaign was from the waste sector.

"What did they expect for the tens of thousands of dollars pumped into the campaign?  

"Who profits when recycling goes straight to landfill?

Abbott-friendly NEG is a dog: Greens

Greens energy and climate change spokesperson Adam Bandt MP today said that as Tony Abbott starts tweeting in support of the NEG, Labor should toughen up and demand better of the Federal government than this dog of a policy.

“The NEG is a dog,” said Mr Bandt. 

“The NEG was designed to appease the coal-huggers on the backbench and Tony Abbott’s latest endorsement suggests that plan is working.”