The Greens say that the Government will miss out on opportunities to expand and diversify Australia’s vaccine portfolio if they don’t invest in public capacity to produce mRNA vaccines

On 8 March, millions of people across the world will be marking International Women's Day. We will look back and reflect on how far we've come on gender equity. The sobering fact is that we will not see gender parity in our lifetime or our children's lifetime. On current tracking, it will take four to five generations to close the global gender gap. As a woman and as a feminist, that is unpalatable for me. We have fought very hard and we have won battles, many battles. But, when I think of what happens right here in my own workplace, reality hits me in the face.

 I thank Senator Walsh for bringing this matter of public importance to the Senate. Over the last 40 years, Australia has gone from being one of the most egalitarian countries in the Western capitalist world to one of the most severely unequal—one dominated by business interests. Key to the growth of inequality and precariousness in Australia has been decades of neoliberal industrial relations policy designed to smash the power of organised labour and reorientate workplace organisations in favour of maximising gain for employers and giving them more flexibility to hire and fire workers.

The Senate has today debated new laws introduced by the Australian Greens to save our koalas.

Greens Environment Spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said she will now move for a Senate Inquiry into the bill.

“The laws debated in the Senate today would stop land clearing of critical habitat and help save our koalas,” Senator Hanson-Young said.

“This legislative move is absolutely vital to protecting our national treasure from extinction.

Monday 22 February 2021

Australian Greens Disability Rights spokesperson Senator Jordon Steele-John has called for an urgent intervention to lift young, disabled people out of poverty after new data, obtained by Children and Young People with Disability, was published today.

Senator Steele-john said the data, which showed job seekers aged 20 to 25 with a partial capacity to work, had almost quadrupled in the last decade meanwhile the number of students aged 20 to 25 with a disability on youth allowance has skyrocketed almost 1000 per cent.

Everyone is assuming 2021 will be an election year and the Greens are no different. Working closely with the party, our team is raring and ready to go. Your work on policy in previous conferences and again this weekend is making a great contribution to getting the party fit for a campaign. 

The Prime Minister has asked his former chief of staff, now head of his own department, to investigate what Prime Minister’s office knew about an alleged rape of a government staffer, which The Greens say is just perpetuating the cover up.
 
“Every day, more damning information comes out about the involvement of the Prime Minister’s Office.  We need to get to the bottom of it." said Senator Larissa Waters, Greens Leader in the Senate and spokesperson for women.
 

Today the House echoed the Senate to call on the government to take action on coercive control, supporting a cross-party motion coordinated by the co-Chairs of Parliamentarians for Action to Reduce Violence Against Women and Children.

“Tomorrow, Friday 19 February marks 1 year since Hannah Clarke’s murder. Her ex-husband had never laid a hand on her until he killed her and her three children, but for years had been abusing her with coercive control,” said Senator Larissa Waters, Greens Leader in the Senate and spokesperson for women.

The Government’s long overdue Evaluation of the CDC in Ceduna, East Kimberley and the Goldfields Region: Consolidated Report has been publicly released over a year and a half after it was due. 
 

The Greens say quarantine facilities need to be established out of cities and that facilities must be publicly funded and run. 

“Our hotel quarantine system needs to be watertight. The UK, South Africa, Brazil variants are becoming the dominant variants in other parts of the world and we must keep these from getting out into our community”, Greens spokesperson on Health Senator Rachel Siewert said