The Greens today today vowed to push the mining sector to undertake systemic reform to prevent violence against women on mining sites, as a landmark WA inquiry finds that the industry has failed to protect women.

The report finds that women in the industry “frequently have to deal with sexual harassment and sexual assault”, with many incidents “ignored or overlooked by employers”, and includes 24 recommendations.

Comments attributable to Senator Dorinda Cox, Australian Greens spokesperson for Resources:

Yesterday, the Western Australian Governement pardoned and apologised to the Yamatji family of a baby who was brutally murdered in 2013. After domestic violence left Tamica Mullaley naked and bleeding in a Broome street, police were called and she was arrested.

Police left baby Mullaley’s 10-month-old baby, Charlie, at the crime scene. The man who assaulted Mullaley returned to the scene and kidnapped the child. Police were told several times that he had threatened to kill the baby, but took nine hours to act on the information.

The Greens Leader Adam Bandt says a windfall tax on gas corporations profiteering from the current crisis could be imposed simply by closing loopholes in the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT) in the government’s first budget in October.

The PRRT was designed to tax super-profits, but gas corporations figured out how to avoid paying it by building up a backlog of tax credits to the tune of a jaw-dropping $282 billion. This means that gas companies have to burn through $282 billion in profits until they start paying tax.

The Federal Court bid by the Australian Conservation Foundation to stop Woodside Energy’s Scarborough gas project until its impact on the Great Barrier Reef is assessed, highlights the need for a climate trigger to assess the impact of polluting projects, the Greens say.

Greens Environment Spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said:

"We must stop making climate change worse and that means we stop making pollution worse. Yet environmental approvals don't even consider the impact of a polluting mine or development on the climate. 

Australian Greens Deputy Leader and Education spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has welcomed the Fair Work Ombudsman’s priority investigation of wage theft and casualisation at universities, following revelations of underpayments at dozens of campuses.

Senator Faruqi said:

“Wage theft is widespread in our universities and it is clearly linked to casualisation and job insecurity, which has been allowed to run rampant.

Statement from Australian Greens Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs, Peace and Nuclear Disarmament, Senator Jordon Steele-John. 

“Following The UK’s decision that Julian Assange can be extradited to the US, the Australian Greens are once again calling for the immediate release of Australian journalist, Julian Assange. 

“Extradition to the United States, the country whose war crimes Julian Assange exposed, sets a dangerous precedent for press freedom. 

After the first National Cabinet meeting under Prime Minister Anthony Albanese today, Greens Leader Adam Bandt said National Cabinet failed to address the dual crises of climate and cost of living by setting a more ambitious climate target, getting the country off coal and gas and unwinding the privatisation of Australia’s energy system.

The Australian Greens Leader, Adam Bandt, has announced the party’s updated portfolio allocation for the upcoming 47th Parliament, ahead of the first sittings in July.

Presented to yesterday evening’s Party Room, the new allocation gives newly elected MPs and Senators the power to progress the issues they were elected to advance, while recognising the years of experience behind the Greens existing portfolio holders.

Today it is finally official: lutruwita/Tasmania’s federal election preferences have been formally distributed and Greens Senator Peter Whish-Wilson has been re-elected to the Senate in third position. 

Quotes attributable to Greens Senator for lutruwita/Tasmania, Peter Whish-Wilson:

“The Greens’ Senate quota in Tassie has officially come in at 15.48%. This is our Party’s highest Senate result across all of Australia. 

“In real terms the Greens’ Senate vote in lutruwita/Tasmania climbed almost 25% from 2019.

Australian Greens Deputy Leader and Education spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has said that NSW and Victoria’s announcement of universal preschool for 4-year-olds must spur national efforts to make early education universal and free.

Senator Faruqi said:

“This is a big step forward for universal early education and it must be a catalyst for national efforts.

“There is no reason why we can’t see universal and free early education in every state and territory within a few years — for three and four year olds.