Parliament

Right now we are facing a manmade disaster of global scale, our greatest threat in thousands of years: climate change. If w e don' t take action, the collapse of our civilisations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon.

The world's people have spoken. Their message is clear: time is running out. They want you, the decision-makers, to act now.

The national interest test proposed by Minister Tehan is straight out of Yes Minister. The farcical proposal is a Liberal tactic of inventing a problem and then trying to solve it. Academics and researchers see right through it. The test's whole purpose is to allow ministers to further interfere in the already independent, rigorous, peer reviewed process for narrow political reasons. The Australian Research Council already requires researchers to demonstrate the benefits and impacts of their research.

Senator FARUQI: by leave—I ask the Minister representing the Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources to explain why the response to the order for the production of documents No. 1238 relating to live exports has not been provided.

I rise on behalf of the Greens to speak to the Home Affairs Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2018. I would like to associate myself with the comments made by my colleagues Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, Senator Nick McKim and Senator Rachel Siewert on this particular bill. We know that this bill will allow offshore processing—it is within the scope of this bill—and we know the horrendous outcomes of offshore processing on men, on women and on children.

We are rapidly hurtling towards a future in New South Wales where our next generations will not see a koala in the bush or in a national park and perhaps not even in a zoo. They will have to go to a museum because governments continue to make reckless, irresponsible and greedy decisions that push our iconic species to the brink. Koalas are on track to be extinct in New South Wales by 2050 if we continue our current path. This is an absolute tragedy.

I rise on behalf of the Greens to speak on the report of the inquiry into the management of PFAS contamination in and around Defence bases, which was tabled earlier today. I want to thank the committee for establishing the inquiry into this important issue, and thank my fellow senators and MPs in the other place who were on the subcommittee and did a very detailed inquiry and produced a report that makes some quite strong recommendations.

I'm very proud to be the Greens spokesperson on education because the Greens are the only party who will stand up for public education at every single opportunity. We are unashamedly the party of public education. We are unapologetic in our advocacy for well-resourced, world-class public education from early childhood to schools and all the way to TAFE and university. I do want to thank up-front the Australian Education Union, the New South Wales Teachers Federation and the teachers federations in other states and territories for their advocacy and activism on public education.

Hundreds of Australian greyhounds were exported to be raced to death in Macau. This is Australia's shame. With the closure of the Canidrome, hundreds of Australian greyhounds have been rescued and are awaiting rehoming. It's time the government took responsibility for their role in this disgusting chapter and helped these groups desperately working to save these really gentle animals. At the moment, there is nothing to stop this travesty from happening again.

I rise on behalf of the Greens to speak to the Higher Education Support Amendment (VET FEE-HELP Student Protection) Bill 2018. This bill provides a long-awaited remedy for students who have incurred debts due to the inappropriate conduct of their VET providers. For that reason, the Greens support the bill.