Australian Greens Senator and Spokesperson for Education, Dr Mehreen Faruqi, has responded to today’s release of the 2018 Higher Education Accommodation and Financial Stress Survey that shows high levels of student financial and psychological distress.

The survey found:

The Greens have praised the South Australian Liberal government for continuing the state's leadership on the environment with a ban on single-use plastics. They will continue to work toward a ban on single-use plastics at a national level with a Bill to be introduced to the Senate.

The Australian Greens have today announced updated portfolios, as decided at Monday’s meeting of the Australian Greens Party Room.
 
“Someone needs to stand up against Scott Morrison’s regime of failed trickle-down economics, or we’ll end up living in a dog eat dog society like Trump’s America,” Opposition Leader Senator Di Natale said.
 

I’m honoured to be the new Greens spokesperson for International Development. As someone born in the Global South taking on this role, I am looking forward to bringing a new perspective.

Global poverty is the result of colonialism, structural inequalities, and grossly unfair neoliberal trade and debt systems. We must look at overseas aid as a global justice issue.

I am inspired by the words of Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano, “Poverty is not written in the stars; underdevelopment is not one of God's mysterious designs”.

Leader of the Australian Greens Senator Richard Di Natale has condemned today’s bipartisan destruction of our progressive taxation system, declaring that the Greens are the only party acting as a real opposition.
 
“What a dark day this has proven to be. Centre Alliance seem to be Morrison puppets, Jacqui Lambie has sold out Tasmanian battlers for cents on the dollar, and Anthony Albanese’s Labor folded at the first sign of pressure,” Opposition Leader Richard Di Natale said.
 

I rise to speak on the government's disastrous $158 billion tax bill that is being rushed through parliament. This is a $158 billion mistake. This is a terribly irresponsible choice that the people of Australia will be forced to wear the consequences of for decades to come. How can this government look the 700,000 people barely surviving on Newstart in the eye and say: 'You know what? We can't afford to increase Newstart. We can't afford to support you, but you won't believe what we can afford to do for the very rich.' Shame on you.

Senator FARUQI (New South Wales) (14:40): My question is to Minister Birmingham, the minister representing the Minister for Education. Minister, in the last three years, your government has slashed the repayment threshold for study loans by nearly 20 per cent, in effect cutting the pay of low-income workers. Just this week, the government slugged another 136,000 Australians by cutting the threshold by another $6,000.

Australian Greens Senator and Animal Welfare Spokesperson, Dr Mehreen Faruqi, has today introduced a bill to ban live export. The Live Animal Export (Slaughter) Prohibition Bill 2019 will ban the export of livestock, including sheep and cattle for slaughter. 

Senator Faruqi said: 

“Live export cannot be made safe for sheep, cattle or any animal. It is a business model built on cruelty and is simply incompatible with animal welfare.

I am honoured to introduce the Greens' Live Animal Export (Slaughter) Prohibition Bill 2019, because we know that the live export trade is inevitably cruel and causes untold animal suffering.

Animals are not mere cargo. They are living, breathing, sentient beings. The reality is that live export cannot be made safe for sheep, cattle or any animal. It is a business model that is simply incompatible with animal welfare.

I rise today to show my solidarity with the people of Sudan, who are demanding an end to human rights abuses and violence, and a genuine transition to democratic, civilian rule. In December last year peaceful protests broke out across Sudan calling for economic reforms and an end to the 30-year rule of the dictator Omar al-Bashir. This incredible social movement saw thousands of people put their lives at risk. Hundreds, perhaps more, were killed protesting against the government.