The Federal Government must provide income support for temporary visa holders impacted by the coronavirus shutdown, Greens Immigration spokesperson Nick McKim says.

"There are about 1.5 million people in Australia on temporary visas, and the Government has an urgent responsibility to provide income support for those who need it," Senator McKim said.

"Many of them have no income and no capacity to leave the country due to restrictions imposed in response to the pandemic, and face losing their homes and jobs."

Tonight’s crisis National Cabinet meeting should be focused on housing relief to protect renters and tenants, the Australian Greens said today, with the Greens Leader and Housing Spokesperson today writing to heads of Governments to urge compassion through this crisis.

The letter comes following the unprecedented decision of NSW Parliament last night to pass a Greens amendment that enables the Government to ban rental evictions, empower tenants and limit the powers of landlords through the COVID-19 pandemic via regulation alone.

A Senate Committee Inquiry examining access to medicinal cannabis in Australia has made a series of landmark recommendations to significantly improve the lives of Australian patients.

The Committee heard from patients up and down the country who are unable to access the medicinal cannabis treatments they need due to regulatory barriers and enormous cost.

Wednesday 25th March, 2020

Australian Greens disability spokesperson Senator Jordon Steele-John has called on Minister Ruston to urgently extend the COVID-19 supplement payment, announced as part of the government’s second round of stimulus, to disabled people receiving the disability support pension and to carers who receive the carer support payment.

“Minister Ruston has been given extraordinary powers up until the end of this year which enable her to introduce measures to ensure that Australians who receive income support can get through this crisis. 

Too many workers don’t have leave entitlements to allow them to economically survive a diagnosis of COVID-19. Frontline staff in people-facing industries are among the most vulnerable, given the required interactions with hundreds of people a day, but often have few legal protections should one of these interactions make them sick.

Greens MPs are moving across the country to extend workers compensation coverage to workers who contract or are suspected to have contracted COVID-19.

The Greens have said that today’s Depression-era job queues follow the Morrison Government’s failure to link its billions in stimulus payments to wage and job subsidies, urging the Government to reconsider its cancelling of Parliament so that the mess can be fixed up.

“The Greens pushed for a jobs and wages guarantee, because we know that every job we save now is a job we don’t need to recreate after this crisis is over,” said Greens Leader Adam Bandt.

Dr Richard Di Natale has today called on the Australian government to urgently release its COVID-19 modelling in the face of confusing and fragmented advice from state premiers, first ministers and the commonwealth.

"COVID-19 is presenting an unprecedented public health threat, and Australians are understandably extremely concerned," Dr Di Natale, Greens health spokesperson said today.

The Greens will continue to push for a targeted package for the arts and creative industries after the Morrison Government refused to support Greens’ amendments to the Coronavirus Stimulus Package provide extra financial support to the hardest hit industries.

Greens Spokesperson for the Arts Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the stimulus package doesn’t provide adequate support to large sections of the population who will be left behind and disproportionately affected by this health crisis, and the ensuing social and economic shutdown.

More than 250,000 Australians will have an extra $550 a fortnight to get through the Coronavirus crisis, after the Greens pushed the government to extend a crucial supplementary payment that had omitted Australia’s students.

Following questioning from Senator Rachel Siewert and Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Matthias Cormann said the government would now immediately regulate to make Abstudy, Austudy, and Youth Allowance (Student) eligible for the Coronavirus Supplement.

Lines from Adam Bandt MP, Leader of the Australian Greens: