Senator Faruqi’s order for the production of documents required the Government to provide data on the ARC CEO’s requested revisions to the National Interest Test (NIT) statement for eight research programs. The data was returned late Tuesday 13 September.

It reveals:

The Greens say an interim report by the Productivity Commission into the National Schools Reform Agreement (NSRA) obscures the fact that persistent funding inequity is the main reason why the Agreement is failing to meet its goals.

It’s projected that, until the end of the decade, private schools will be funded over 100% of their Schooling Resource Standard (SRS), while public schools won’t even reach 91%. On average, public school students are missing out on $1800 in funding every year under the NSRA.

In a legal first, the Gomeroi Nation is using the public interest test, commonly used by fossil fuel companies to fight native title cases, to prevent Santos’ planned gas project in the Pilliga Forest. 

If the argument is successful, it would set a precedent for First Nations people to use climate change as a reason to stop fossil fuel projects on Country.

Lines attributable to Greens spokesperson for Resources and Yamatji-Noongar woman Senator Dorinda Cox:

Speech to the Smart Energy Expo in Brisbane

Thank you very much. I want to acknowledge the Turrbal and Yuggera Peoples, the traditional custodians of the lands we are meeting on here today, and acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded. 

I’m delighted to be here with so many passionate people working to transform Australia’s energy system. I want to thank the Smart Energy Council for organising such an important and impressive expo, and for their continued advocacy.

The Greens call on the Labor Government to immediately shut down plans for seismic blasting that could impact the Mermaid Reef and Rowley Shoals Marine Parks - which the Australian Government and the West Australian Government recognise as ‘one of the most remote and pristine marine areas in the world’. 

Quotes attributable to Greens spokesperson for healthy oceans, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson: 

Greens Treasury spokesperson, Senator Nick McKim, has responded to the RBA Governor, Philip Lowe’s, speech today in which he again failed to acknowledge the role of corporate profits in driving inflation.

“Yesterday’s National Accounts showed that profit’s share of national income hit a new record high and that wages’ share of national income hit a new record low.”

“In the 60 years that records have been kept, never have workers been getting a smaller slice of the pie, and never have business owners been getting a bigger slice of the pie.”

I rise to speak this evening to the climate change bills. I note that many of my Greens colleagues have spoken to these bills and done so with eloquence, intelligence and passion. So while I wish to make a contribution to the debate on these bills, I want to focus on a few key areas. We cannot end the climate wars while opening up new coal and gas projects. It really is that simple. In the month since these bills passed the House of Representatives, Labor has opened up 47,000 square kilometres of ocean to oil and gas exploration.

We've heard a lot of rhetoric from some people in the chamber around the stage 3 tax cuts. But we need to remind ourselves that what we are talking about is people's lives.