I for one, Senator Hughes, love New South Wales and Sydney—the harbour and everything else that comes with it—and, I must say, I am a little bit offended by your very weird comments on curry.

Having served in the New South Wales parliament for five years, I can tell you that I have had my fair share of disagreements with Premier Gladys Berejiklian and the New South Wales Liberals, but I have to say on this very rare occasion I do agree with them wholeheartedly: Scott Morrison is a Prime Minister for himself and no-one else.

A Senate Inquiry that investigated Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) approvals has used key Tasmanian case studies to blast the Federal Government and demonstrate why reform is desperately needed to restore public confidence in foreign investment.

Rach, before I joined this Greens dream team in the Senate, I had heard about a Senator Siewert from others who had met her. I had heard about her fierce advocacy for marginalised people, the environment and oceans. The forced adoptions inquiry is one in particular that so many people and so many women I met were so thankful to you for.

The Greens have called on Environment Minister Sussan Ley to protect Tasmanian devils from becoming mining-industry roadkill by rejecting Venture Minerals’ application to vary the EPBC approval for its Riley Creek mine in the takayna/Tarkine region.

The EDO Tasmania has launched legal action on behalf of conservationists to stop Venture Minerals from trucking ore at night along the 112kms stretch of critical Tasmanian devil habitat.

I rise to make my contribution to this motion. My heart goes out to the Afghan people, who are suffering the harrowing, horrific and tragic consequences of war at the moment—and have been for decades. So let's not try and obliterate this reality. The truth is Australia failed the people of Afghanistan by waging a war on them with our so-called Western allies, and it's failing Afghans today. Mr Morrison, you have left ADF interpreters and their families in extreme danger.

Dear Prime Minister 

I write to request that the forthcoming National Cabinet meeting consider the inclusion of children and all teenagers in the national vaccination targets.

The National Cabinet’s ‘reopening’ strategy envisages the substantial easing of restrictions when 80% vaccination rates are achieved. However, this is currently only 80% of the ‘eligible population’, defined as over 16-year olds, not 80% of the whole population, as recommended by the Grattan Institute.

Greens leader Adam Bandt said Scott Morrison’s announcement today that children would not be included in vaccination targets was a political decision that made the community less safe.

Scott Morrison’s 80% vaccination target is only 65% of the whole population, as it excludes under 16s. An additional 4 million people need to be vaccinated to reach the 80% target if all children and teenagers were included. The Grattan Institute has warned that opening up at such a low level of vaccination could lead to thousands of deaths.

The Greens are thrilled to announce educator, NGO consultant and local mum Sonya Semmens as the candidate for the federal seat of Higgins in the next federal election.

Higgins is set to be a hotly contested battleground at the next federal election, with electoral redistribution picking up Windsor shifting the balance towards the Greens, and threatening a key Liberal-held seat.

Statement from Greens Senator for NSW, Dr Mehreen Faruqi, following today’s announcement of 633 new locally-acquired Covid-19 cases in NSW:

“Today’s COVID-19 numbers are just devastating.

“But simply telling people to ‘stay home’ is not going to cut it when people aren’t getting the financial support they need to do so. The vast majority of people are doing the right thing, and have been for weeks. Blame-shifting onto individuals is very unhelpful.