Greens bring on a bill to increase ADF transparency, scrutiny, and ensure a vote of both houses of parliament would be needed for the ADF to engage in any future wars.   

The Australian Greens War Powers Reform Bill will be before the Senate on Monday. This bill would mean that to deploy the ADF overseas there would need to be a vote of both houses of Parliament.

The Labor and Liberal parties have voted to pass the Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill 2020 which makes three new warrants available to the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC). 

Network activity warrants allow the AFP or ACIC to monitor online activity, without investigating or accusing a person of a crime. Account takeover warrants enable police to take over an account and change their data, which could then be used as evidence in a criminal proceeding. 

“Traditional Owners of the Gundanji and Garawa nation do not consent to fracking in the Beetaloo basin, but the government has put $50 million towards doing it anyway,” said DjabWurrung, Gunnai and Gunditjmara woman Lidia Thorpe, the Greens Senator for Victoria.

“These are communities that don’t even have access to proper health and housing infrastructure. As a government, it’s our job to provide this and instead of doing that we’re paying private companies to poison their waters and destroy their lands.

The Greens say that Mr Morrison’s failure to include children in the national vaccination targets will cost too many lives. 
 
“Mr Morrison has finally succumbed to public pressure and is now saying National Cabinet will talk about how to vaccinate children and teenagers (12-15 years old) tomorrow, but we urgently need to have targets for children”, Greens spokesperson on Health Senator Rachel Siewert said. 
 

Over the last two weeks we have seen alarming revelations in the media about the extent and character of far-right organising in this country. The 'Nazis Next Door' investigation conducted by the Nine papers and 60 Minutes in collaboration with antifascist researchers has revealed some dark truths about the growing threat of white supremacy and far-right extremism. The investigation was shocking but not entirely surprising for those of us who have followed the rise of the far-right closely and are impacted by racism and its deadly consequences.

Rach, before I joined this Greens dream team in the Senate, I had heard about a Senator Siewert from others who had met her. I had heard about her fierce advocacy for marginalised people, the environment and oceans. The forced adoptions inquiry is one in particular that so many people and so many women I met were so thankful to you for.

The Australian Greens have savaged Labor’s decision to vote with the Liberals today in the Senate to spend public money opening up massive gas fields in the Beetaloo Basin, saying the move raised questions as to whether Labor still believes the climate crisis is real.

If Labor had voted with the Greens and crossbench, the fund would have been abolished, given the numbers in the Senate. Labor is responsible for the continued existence of the $50 million Beetaloo Co-operative Drilling Program to open up new gas projects.

We are in a critical time for climate action, and the Liberals are busy giving handouts to their political donors, for gas giants to frack the Beetaloo basin and plunge us further into a climate emergency. Labor's capitulation on this dodgy, climate-destroying project is yet another terrible decision from the so-called opposition. The Beetaloo slush fund stinks of corruption. It will be deadly for our climate.

The Greens and the disability community have achieved another huge win!

After years of raising the alarm that the confidentiality provisions in the Disability Royal Commission are insufficient, the disability community, alongside Greens Senator Jordon Steele-John, have locked in amendments that will allow those with confidential information to come forward to the Disability Royal Commission with trust.

I speak to take note of document No. 5 in the Senate Order of Business, the Australian Research Council grant recommendations July 2021. Firstly, I must congratulate those researchers who were successful in the current round of DECRA, as listed in the document. It is not an easy time to be an early-career researcher in this country, and I hope that you're able to conduct your rigorous academic work, which will be of enormous benefit to the community for years to come. But let's be honest about the process for this funding round and the recent Future Fellowships round.