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.

I move:

That the Australian Education Amendment (2019 Measures No. 1) Regulations 2019, made under the Australian Education Act 2013, be disallowed [F2019L00558].

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) welcomes the Australian Government's commitment to work with states and territories to end the domestic trade of ivory and rhino horn; and

(b) calls on both levels of government to implement the ban as quickly as practicable.

HANSARD LINK

Greens climate change spokesperson, Adam Bandt MP, has this morning introduced a private members bill which will amend the Fair Work Act to protect workers who strike for climate action, declaring that any boss who sacks anyone for striking this Friday 20 September as part of the Global Climate Strike is ‘a bum’. 
 

Senator FARUQI: My question is to the Minister for Agriculture, Senator McKenzie. Minister, the Moss review was highly critical of the Department of Agriculture as the regulator of live exports, and there is immense public concern about the cruelty of live animal exports. Despite this, your department has recently refused a freedom-of-information request from RSPCA Australia for footage taken aboard the 2018 voyage of MW Al Shuwaikh on which 609 sheep died, including many from smothering. Does the minister consider it appropriate for this footage to be hidden from the public?

Australian Greens Senator for NSW, Dr Mehreen Faruqi, has welcomed the Senate passing her motion calling on the NSW government to give Traditional Owners more time to respond to the Warragamba Dam proposal and to engage in genuine consultation with the community.

Senator Faruqi said: 

“Overwhelming community opposition to the Warragamba dam proposal at the very least warrants longer, genuine consultation from the NSW Government, but they have only been interested in appeasing developers while completely ignoring community concerns. 

I, and also on behalf of Senators Siewert, Keneally and Dodson, move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) Traditional Owners have not been given enough time to assess the cultural heritage impact of a plan to raise the wall of Warragamba dam, with just 40 days to respond to a 2000-page report,

(ii) the raised dam would flood world heritage-listed areas of the Blue Mountains and a number of Aboriginal cultural heritage sites, and

Greens Senators have reacted to the passage of the Government’s anti-protest ag gag legislation which passed the Senate with Labor support.

Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Greens Animal Welfare Spokesperson, said:

“This bill is an absolute fraud. It’s nothing more than ag gag legislation aimed at protecting big agribusiness from scrutiny at the cost of animal welfare and the community’s right to know and protest.

“The Greens are proud to oppose laws aimed at stamping out protest and jailing activists and whistleblowers.”

I just want to make a short contribution and add my voice to what Senator McKim said about amendment (1) on sheet QL133. The government's amendment is to shield more businesses from scrutiny, and this is exactly the scope creep that the Greens have been warning about. Who knows how many other big businesses will be added to this list? It's going to be an endless list, from what I can see.