The Greens are calling on Environment Minister Sussan Ley to immediately release the interim report into Australia's environment laws handed to her a week ago by the independent reviewer.

Greens Spokesperson for the Environment Senator Sarah Hanson-Young who successfully moved an order in the Senate for the interim report to be released by today at the latest, said:

The Greens are calling on the Morrison Government to rule out killing more Australian jobs by permanently abolishing local content rules and to get on with requiring streaming giants to produce Australian-made shows.

Greens Spokesperson for Communication and the Arts Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said now the consultation period for the local content options paper had closed, Minister Fletcher needed to get on with the job.

Greens Leader Adam Bandt has released new analysis showing that because pollution has increased so much since the Liberals repealed the carbon price, Australia’s emissions reduction targets would now need to be at least a 48% cut on 2005 levels by 2030 to be consistent with the Paris Agreement aim of keeping global warming well below 2 degrees. So much of the carbon budget has been spent that future governments will need to tighten their carbon belts even further, not relax targets as has been mooted.

Leader of the Australian Greens Adam Bandt has today said the government's commitment to spend over $270 billion on defence would not make Australia safer and was a reprehensible use of public money while people are still living in tents in Eden-Monaro and suffering poverty in Australia.

“Spending billions more on weapons won’t make Australia safer and may in fact increase tensions in the region. This move will just add to increasing militarisation in our neighbourhood,” said Mr Bandt.

The Australian Greens condemn in the strongest possible terms the Chinese Government’s decision to override Hong Kong’s legislature and pass draconian national security laws aimed at repressing the people of Hong Kong.

The Greens also called on the Morrison Government to, at an absolute minimum and as a first step, grant permanent protection for all Hong Kongers who currently reside in Australia.

Australian Greens spokesperson for Education, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, has said analysis released today shows once again that federal and state governments have monumentally failed to adequately fund public schools.

Data published in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age has shown that, over the last decade, public funding has continued to flow heavily to private schools.

Senator Faruqi said:

“Well-funded public education should be the backbone of our education system, but public schools are getting a raw deal.

ABS stats released today show the arts and recreation industry has lost four times as many payroll jobs as the construction industry but has received a third of the support, highlighting just how inadequate the Morrison Government’s arts and entertainment industry package is, the Greens say.

Greens Spokesperson for the Arts Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said:

“The construction industry is receiving a package worth three times as much as the arts and entertainment industry despite only losing 5.3 per cent of payroll jobs compared to 24% per cent.

The Greens have welcomed the last minute extension to the free-to-air broadcast licences for Community TV stations Channel 44 in Adelaide and Channel 31 in Melbourne.

Greens Spokesperson for Communications Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said:

“Waiting until the night before Community TV switches off forever to grant an extension to their broadcast licences was a cruel move by the Morrison Government, however this last minute reprieve is welcome.

In another damning report, the Australian National Audit Office has found that the government does not adequately assess conflict of interests risks or monitor compliance with the Lobbying Code of Conduct. 
 

The Greens call on the Australian Government to add its voice to global calls and forcefully speak out against the Israeli Government’s plans to annex parts of the West Bank in clear violation of international law.

Leader of the Greens Adam Bandt said: “There has been an increasing and overwhelming chorus of global voices condemning the Israeli Government’s plans to annex parts of the West Bank as soon as 1 July.