Greens spokesperson for the climate crisis, Adam Bandt MP, has warned that the United Nations Climate Summit has made it abundantly clear that even if global Paris pledges are met, it won’t be enough to avoid catastrophic global warming.

“This summit made it crystal clear that even if Australia meets its Paris commitments, that won’t be enough,” said Mr Bandt.

“The world’s Paris pledges, including Australia’s, have us on track for a catastrophic 3.4 degrees of global warming.

Greens Spokesperson for Animal Welfare, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, has slammed the resumption of the live export of sheep to the Middle East.

Senator Faruqi said:

“The resumption of live exports to the Middle East, especially while temperatures are so hot shows the Government is just paying lip service to animal welfare.

“It is going to be over forty degrees in Kuwait over the next few weeks, which means thousands of sheep will continue to suffer cruel heat stress. We are quite literally putting these poor animals into the furnace of the Middle East heat for profit.

By skipping the United Nations Climate Summit to attend the opening of a box factory owned by a billionaire donor to the Liberal Party with President Trump, Scott Morrison is showing just how out of touch he is with the millions of Australians demanding genuine action on climate change, said Leader of the Australian Greens Dr Richard Di Natale. 

I rise to speak to the Customs Amendment (Safer Cladding) Bill 2019. The bill amends the Customs Act 1901 to expressly ban the importation of polyethylene aluminium composite panels, which are a type of flammable cladding. I support the comments by Senator Patrick and Senator Pratt with regards to banning this type of cladding.

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) dolphins are highly intelligent animals, with complex physical and behavioural needs – in the wild, they live in intricate social networks, are migratory and can travel more than 100 kilometres in a single day,

(ii) captive environments are incapable of meeting the needs of dolphins and can severely impact their health and welfare, and

(iii) the Parliament of Canada has passed legislation banning whales, dolphins and porpoises from being bred or held in captivity in most circumstances; and

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) Meat Free Week, organised by Bowel Cancer Australia, runs from 23 to 29 September 2019, and challenges participants to give up meat for seven days,

(ii) intensive animal agriculture is not only cruel to animals, but is a key contributor to the climate crisis, and

(iii) reducing the amount of meat we consume is better for our health, better for animal welfare and better for the environment; and

The Greens call on the Morrison Government to categorically rule out any escalation of Australia’s involvement in US-led military operations in the Persian Gulf, said Leader of the Greens Senator Richard Di Natale.

“Morrison has already embroiled Australia in the increasing tensions between the United States and Iran by joining the US-led military operations in the Persian Gulf.  As the Greens said at the time, it is folly to follow Donald Trump into yet another American misadventure in the Middle East”, said Senator Di Natale.

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) the New South Wales (NSW) Youth Council held their 'Unleash the Future' Conference from 13 to 15 September 2019 in Rooty Hill, and

(ii) young people from across NSW came together to workshop issues, including the need for emergency action on the climate crisis, the role of advocacy, gender and cultural diversity, mental health, youth and family violence, and the importance of having young voices at all levels of Australian government;

I rise on behalf of the Greens to make a short statement on the disallowance of the Fair Work Amendment (Casual Loading Offset) Regulations 2018. We all know that casualisation is up. We know that rising job insecurity is stretching people to breaking point. Working people are under attack like never before. They now have less certainty and fewer rights at work than at any time in recent history. Let me be blunt: insecure work is wrecking people's lives, yet this government is only about protecting big business.

I just want to say: let's not make any mistake about what's happening here today. The government is making good its promise of big cash for the private school sector without doing a single thing for public schools. Nothing any of you have said—and you really haven't said much—can paper over the fact that you are voting for widening the divide between the haves and the have-nots of the Australian education system.