This week, an imprisoned First Nations man was tested for COVID-19 at Bathurst Correctional Centre and was released before the prison received his positive Covid result.

The man then returned to his community in north-west New South Wales which has a high population of First Nations people.

Kids and teenagers must be included in the government's national vaccine targets, Greens leader, Adam Bandt, said today. Young people deserve protection and without high rates of vaccination of the whole population, we will never get out of rolling lockdowns.

The Prime Minister’s current targets exclude children and most teenagers. The PM’s 80% target is really a 65% target of the whole population.

The Senate Community Affairs References Committee has tabled its fourth interim report into the Government’s robodebt scheme.
 
“The Committee does not accept the Government’s ongoing claim of public interest immunity in regards to the legal advice on the illegal robodebt scheme”, Senator Rachel Siewert said.
 

Senator FARUQI (New South Wales) (14:44): [by video link] My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Home Affairs, Senator Cash. As of yesterday, 'fortress Australia' has further tightened its borders. Under the strict new rules, even Australian citizens and permanent residents who ordinarily live in another country will need to seek exemptions to leave Australia if they come back temporarily and could very well be denied the exemption.

I rise to speak on the Education Services for Overseas Students (Registration Charges) Amendment Bill 2021 and other cognate bills in front of us right now. I'll state from the outset that the Greens will not be opposing these bills. The bills update the model for registration charges for the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students, known as CRICOS.

Senator FARUQI (New South Wales) (10:35): [by video link] My understanding is that, in the bill as circulated, there's an error which means that families that earn between $70,000 and $175,000 would not receive the rate of subsidy as was announced by the minister as part of the budget. Could the minister please confirm that the government amendment which was circulated last night will address this problem?

It is hard to describe the current dire state of affairs for Australian universities without getting very angry at the Morrison government. Make no mistake: at every single turn throughout COVID-19 and, in fact, since their election, the Liberals and Nationals have failed and attacked our universities. Earlier this year, Universities Australia estimated the 2020 job losses at our universities at more than 17,000 jobs. This is a truly enormous number, no matter how you spin it. These people are the next generation of researchers, the next generation of educators and thinkers.

Today marks 509 days since Australia's borders closed on 20 March 2020 – 509 days. This situation has posed such challenges and caused such heartbreak for so many in our community as well as their families and friends overseas. As of today, more than 38,000 Australians are still stranded overseas and want to return home. There are many thousands more living here who are separated from loved ones abroad. I am one of them. For us, there is no time line on when we might see our families again. There is just waiting and waiting and waiting. It is intolerable.

I speak to the Prime Minister's Closing the Gap address and associate myself with the heartfelt comments made by my colleagues Senator Thorpe and Senator Siewert. I acknowledge the traditional owners of the many lands that we are here from today and pay my respects to elders past and present. I'm on the land of the Gadigal of the Eora nation, but no matter where we are in this country we are on stolen land. I do this acknowledgement in full recognition of the fact that we are still so far away from justice for First Nations people.