The Greens are calling on the Morrison Government to support the patent waiver on COVID-19 vaccines.

The Greens say that the United States’ announced support for the waiver of intellectual property provisions on COVID-19 vaccines has put further pressure on Australia to back the proposal.

Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Greens spokesperson for International Aid and Development, said:

“Australia must immediately follow the United States and back the TRIPS waiver. We are one of the hold-outs and it’s morally indefensible.

The ‘Implementation of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation Partnership’ audit report has confirmed longstanding concerns from the Greens of a dodgy $443.3 million government grant to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation (GBRF).

Greens spokesperson for Healthy Oceans, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson:

“The audit report confirms long-standing concerns relating to the proficiency of the GBRF and its capacity to deliver on the grants objectives.

“The GBRF is essentially a private organisation with no track record in managing large scientific programs.

Greens Leader, Adam Bandt, has called out the increasing greenwashing of the government’s gas agenda.

The Greens have emphasised since the proclamation of the ‘gas-led recovery’ that gas is as dirty as coal and that plans such as building new gas plants would lock-in climate failure.

“Morrison’s so-called ‘gas-led recovery’ is a shameful exercise in corporate welfare for yesterday’s technology. 

“Adding as little as 5% hydrogen, which is the target for Energy Australia’s mooted ‘hybrid’ plant, is a comb-over for generators of dangerous greenhouse gas emissions.

The Greens say fixing Australia’s mental health crisis must be a budget priority.

The Leader of the Australian Greens, Adam Bandt, has announced the Greens will move in the Senate next week for the Government to revoke its direction under the Biosecurity Act to ban and put in place criminal penalties on Australians and residents returning home from India.

“The ban is racist, it’s possibly illegal, it’s not based on health advice and it must be rescinded immediately.  The Greens will move in the Senate next week to overturn the ban and we believe it will have widespread support amongst Senators.”

Greens leader Adam Bandt will announce the next steps in the Greens campaign to make the billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share today, with a Budget push for the Morrison government to force the billionaires and big corporations who profited from JobKeeper to pay it back.

The Greens will move to outlaw Scott Morrison’s plan to fund a new gas-fired power plant in the Upper Hunter, moving when parliament resumes to block the use of taxpayer funds on new fossil fuels. 

Leader of the Australian Greens Adam Bandt MP said the Prime Minister now had the weekend to decide whether he wanted to throw up to $600 million at a power plant that serves no purpose other than to accelerate global heating.

The Greens have reiterated their calls for Australia to support a global vaccine patent waiver, supported by more than 100 countries, ahead of a critical World Trade Organization council meeting on Friday.

Senator Mehreen Faruqi, International Aid and Development spokesperson, said:

“This is a matter of global justice and responsibility. It is morally bankrupt for Australia to give anything other than full-throated support for the patent waiver.

In the wake of detail-free indication from the Treasurer that he is embracing continued stimulus, the Greens have expressed concern that Josh Frydenberg doesn’t know the difference between job-creating economic stimulus and corporate welfare.