The foreshadowing of a package for the arts and entertainment industry by the PM is welcome, but the devil will be in the detail, the Greens say.

Greens Spokesperson for the Arts Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the arts and entertainment industry has been pleading for Government intervention for months.

“The Prime Minister likes his sport, I hope today's reports are a sign he’s starting to recognise the arts and entertainment sector is important too. But the devil will be in the detail," Senator Hanson-Young said.

The Greens have criticised the Morrison Government's plans for a stacked inquiry into domestic and family violence, saying more funding is needed for frontline services, not another inquiry which is designed to endorse the government's inadequate response to the national crisis. 

Greens Senate Leader and Spokesperson on Women, Senator Larissa Waters, said: 

Today's ABS Household data survey provides further confirmation that the impacts of COVID crisis are falling disproportionately to women. The Greens are calling on the National Cabinet to ensure that addressing these disparities is at the forefront of any recovery plans.

The ABS results reveal that women are almost three times as likely as men to have looked after their children full-time on their own during the crisis.

Australian Greens Education spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has called on the Education Minister to extend the current free childcare arrangements.

The Minister is expected to announce the future of free childcare in the coming days, with the program currently due to expire on 28 June.

Tuesday, 26 May, 2020

Australian Greens Peace and Disarmament spokesperson Senator Jordon Steele-John has expressed deep concern that the United States Marine Rotational Force will be going ahead in Darwin in early June.

“All military cooperation with the United States in Australia must cease while the threat of COVID-19 remains high to protect people in the the Northern Territory, including First Nations Communities and Australian Forces who would ordinarily be undertaking shared activities with US Troops based in the Top End,” Steele-John said.

The Greens have said that the Coalition government can’t be trusted to rebuild our vocational education system or create jobs, ahead of the Prime Minister’s address to the National Press Club today.

Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Australian Greens spokesperson for Education, said:

“Free TAFE and uni for all and new investment to rebuild publicly-delivered training in our TAFEs are the crucial first steps needed for any skills overhaul. That's the benchmark for the Prime Minister today.

The Greens are calling on Treasurer Frydenberg to stop being Team ‘Some’ Australians, and immediately expand the JobKeeper program to businesses and workers in the arts and entertainment industry who have been left out.

“For months now the Government has refused to include the hundred of thousands of workers who have lost their jobs in the arts and entertainment industry in their JobKeeper package. They said they didn’t have the money,” Greens Arts and Media Spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.

Given that the government now has $60 billion unspent in the JobKeeper program, Australian Greens Education spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has called for JobKeeper to be extended to university staff and international students, a new funding package provided for higher education, and for free childcare to made permanent.

Senator Faruqi said:

“This ‘mistake’ by the government must be used to provide a lifeline to the many sectors and workers who have been left high and dry during this pandemic.

Greens Spokesperson for the Arts Senator Sarah Hanson-Young is calling on Treasurer Frydenberg to immediately extend JobKeeper to workers who have so far been left out.

“The massive revision on JobKeeper numbers today leaves the Government with no excuse not to extend the program to casuals, migrant workers and workers in the arts and entertainment industry who have been excluded from the program,” Senator Hanson-Young said.

“There is now $60billion already budgeted for JobKeeper that can go to saving more jobs.

Australian Greens Industry spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has responded to a leaked report of the COVID Commission’s Manufacturing Taskforce, which prioritises gas expansion as the way to rebuild manufacturing and create jobs.

Senator Faruqi said: