Mehreen Faruqi's recent appearances (OpenAustralia.org)
type: channel
language: en-gb
creator: OpenAustralia.org, mprss.php script
date: 2026-02-10T22:05:33+00:00
items: International Relations: Australia and the United States of America, Social Cohesion | Adjournment | Senate debates
items: Perth: Attack | Statements by Senators | Senate debates
items: Cost of Living | Matters of Urgency | Senate debates
items: International Relations: Australia and Israel | Questions without Notice: Take Note of Answers | Senate debates
items: International Relations: Australia and Israel | Questions without Notice | Senate debates
items: Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism (Criminal and Migration Laws) Bill 2026; Limitation of Debate | Bills | Senate debates
items: Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism (Criminal and Migration Laws) Bill 2026; Second Reading | Bills | Senate debates
items: Bondi Beach: Attack | Condolences | Senate debates
items: g76.5
items: g75.1
items: Palestine | Motions | Senate debates
items: Australian Constitution | Questions without Notice | Senate debates
items: Crime | Statements by Senators | Senate debates
items: Albanese Government | Statements by Senators | Senate debates
items: Discrimination | Matters of Urgency | Senate debates
items: Higher Education Support Amendment (Reverse Job-Ready Graduates Fee Hikes and End 50k Arts Degrees) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | Senate debates

International Relations: Australia and the United States of America, Social Cohesion | Adjournment | Senate debates
type: item
description: We are living in dangerous times. Fascism is building right before our eyes, and it is no accident. In the United States, a country built on violence and exploitation, state violence is moving...
encoded: We are living in dangerous times. Fascism is building right before our eyes, and it is no accident. In the United States, a country built on violence and exploitation, state violence is moving out of the shadows and becoming normalised as explicit policy. We have seen ICE agents kill with impunity, children forcibly removed from their families, and protests met with escalating police brutality rather than accountability. What once would have been unimaginable is now ordinary, daily news. Trump now deploys military power with no regard for due process or for human dignity. The chaos and horror are relentless. Yet the Albanese government embraces this terrifying regime. By cosying up to Trump, Prime Minister Albanese signals the type of leader he is willing to align with, one who thrives on cruelty and domination. The government clings to this myth that giving in to power makes us safer, stronger and more prosperous. It does not. Just yesterday it was revealed that the Albanese government may be quietly preparing to hand US authorities, including ICE, direct access to Australians' biometric and identity data. We found out only through the media. This government just keeps bowing to billionaires, to energy giants, to weapons manufacturers, to corporate lobbyists and to the endless demands of the United States. We cannot pretend that these patterns are confined to distant shores. The disease of fascism is taking root here too. Governments crack down on political protest and criticism of policy is treated as subversive. Every measure, every law, that limits dissent—every instance of ignoring injustice—is a warning sign of democracy is being hollowed out. Here at home we face real consequences as well. Cost-of-living pressures are rising, housing insecurity is worsening, climate chaos is intensifying and inequality is growing. Racism is thriving and fear is spreading, and the Albanese government is leaning into it. Laws have been rushed through that validate false narrati…
date: 2026-02-04T19:45:00+00:00

Perth: Attack | Statements by Senators | Senate debates
type: item
description: Since the first colonial ships landed on this continent, First Nations people have been sent a very clear message: that their lives are not valued, that their safety doesn't matter and that their...
encoded: Since the first colonial ships landed on this continent, First Nations people have been sent a very clear message: that their lives are not valued, that their safety doesn't matter and that their fear and trauma are not worth listening to. That message was solidified last week when, in Boorloo, a bomb was thrown into a crowd of First Nations people and their allies on the day of mourning, and the government, politicians and the media barely batted an eyelid. Let me repeat that: a bomb was thrown into a crowd of First Nations elders and children and their allies. It was an attempted terror attack, and yet there was no outrage. There was no mass media coverage. There were no urgent statements made about community safety. There were no calls for action. If a bomb had been thrown into almost any other crowd, the response would have been deafening, but when First Nations people are targeted, exercising their right to mourn, to protest and to speak truth about this country's violence, there is silence. These double standards are not accidental. This hate is cultivated and stoked. It is used as a distraction from billionaires holding wealth, from fossil fuel corporations destroying the planet and from a system that exploits workers and communities alike. First Nations people have a right to live in safety. They have a right to protest. They have a right to exist without fear. We can't change history, but we can—and we must—tackle all racism head on, remembering that there can be no racial justice without First Nations justice.
date: 2026-02-04T13:33:00+00:00

Cost of Living | Matters of Urgency | Senate debates
type: item
description: I must say it is pretty rich of the Liberals—the party most closely aligned with the one per cent—to talk about the cost of living. I am really sick and tired of the Liberals, the...
encoded: I must say it is pretty rich of the Liberals—the party most closely aligned with the one per cent—to talk about the cost of living. I am really sick and tired of the Liberals, the Nationals and Labor lecturing people about a cost-of-living-and-housing crisis that their governments created and their governments continue to perpetuate. It is hypocritical, it is hollow and it is cruel. When ordinary people are suffering, the Liberals turn up like charlatans in the town square, claiming to have answers, but they are selling the same snake oil they always do: racism, fear, hate and blame. They talk about solutions but offer only scapegoats: migrants and minorities. And Labor is cut from the same cloth, just with different marketing. Labor, the Liberals and the Nationals all claim to stand with ordinary Australians, but their actions tell a different story. When it comes time to act, relief flows in one direction only—upwards to the big banks, to landlords, to coal and gas giants, and to billionaires. They protect corporate profits and refuse to tax obscene wealth. This is not an accident. These parties defend a broken housing system, which lets speculators pocket millions while first home buyers and renters suffer. Today's interest rate rise is pure profit for the big banks while mortgage holders and renters are being pushed deeper into pain. None of the big parties can claim the moral high ground while fanning the flames of hate and blaming migrants, exactly like One Nation does, and making matters worse for ordinary people. We need structural change to overhaul an unfair economic system so that it starts working for the 99 per cent. (Time expired)
date: 2026-02-03T17:13:00+00:00

International Relations: Australia and Israel | Questions without Notice: Take Note of Answers | Senate debates
type: item
description: I rise to take note of the minister's response to my question. The Labor government have now stopped even pretending that they care about Palestinians or international law or even international...
encoded: I rise to take note of the minister's response to my question. The Labor government have now stopped even pretending that they care about Palestinians or international law or even international aid. The Labor government want us to believe that they rushed through their reckless, divisive, dangerous and antidemocratic laws in the name of unity, protection against racism, and social cohesion, but the Albanese government are hypocrites, banging the drum of unity while doing the most divisive thing possible by laying out the welcome mat for Isaac Herzog, head of a state committing genocide. You don't fight racism by rolling out the red carpet for war criminals. Isaac Herzog is a man found by the UN commission of inquiry to have publicly incited genocide. This is a man who autographed bombs used to flatten hospitals, murder children and destroy entire apartment blocks indiscriminately, yet Labor and Liberal politicians are falling over themselves to justify his visit. We are now officially a state that not only appeases but welcomes war criminals, a state that no longer believes in international law. Labor's deceit and dishonesty are there for everyone to see. While pretending to crack down on selective racism and hate, they do nothing to stop the ultimate expression of racism—genocide and apartheid. We are now a country where the political class would rather destroy our democratic civil and human rights and make a mockery of international law than take meaningful action against genocide, war crimes, hate and racism. Israel has massacred and dehumanised Palestinians for decades and is on a genocidal mission to erase them. Labor has refused to sign a statement with Canada, the UK, France and other countries, condemning Israel for demolishing UNRWA headquarters in East Jerusalem. The Prime Minister hasn't yet ripped up Trump's invitation to join his farcical and imperial Board of Peace, but people in this country—people who take their moral responsibilities seriously, unli…
date: 2026-02-03T15:30:00+00:00

International Relations: Australia and Israel | Questions without Notice | Senate debates
type: item
description: Minister, tens of thousands—likely hundreds of thousands—of Palestinians have been killed, over 500 since that farce of a ceasefire. These actions are by a country that you continue...
encoded: Minister, tens of thousands—likely hundreds of thousands—of Palestinians have been killed, over 500 since that farce of a ceasefire. These actions are by a country that you continue to call a friend and to trade weapons with and whose president you invite here. Minister, have you stopped pretending to care at all? Will you next be rolling out the welcome mat for Putin?
date: 2026-02-03T14:19:00+00:00

International Relations: Australia and Israel | Questions without Notice | Senate debates
type: item
description: Minister, you have refused to join the UK, Canada and France in condemning the Israeli government's demolition of UNRWA headquarters in East Jerusalem. You have remained silent as Israel bans...
encoded: Minister, you have refused to join the UK, Canada and France in condemning the Israeli government's demolition of UNRWA headquarters in East Jerusalem. You have remained silent as Israel bans Doctors Without Borders from Gaza. Under your watch, we have become a country that has made a mockery of international law. Can you explain how anyone can take your government seriously on human rights ever again?
date: 2026-02-03T14:18:00+00:00

International Relations: Australia and Israel | Questions without Notice | Senate debates
type: item
description: My question is to Minister Wong. Minister, late last year, you told the Australian Institute of International Affairs: Australia will always make our contribution, as part of multilateral efforts...
encoded: My question is to Minister Wong. Minister, late last year, you told the Australian Institute of International Affairs: Australia will always make our contribution, as part of multilateral efforts to protect civilians and uphold international law—because living in peace shouldn't be contingent on where you were born. Yet you are now rolling out the red carpet for Isaac Herzog, the President of Israel—a state committing a genocide that has killed at least 70,000 Palestinians, including thousands of children, journalists, aid workers and health workers—a man the UN commission of inquiry said incited genocide. Why are you inviting war criminals to this country, and will you rescind your divisive invitation to President Herzog—something members of your own party have called for?
date: 2026-02-03T14:17:00+00:00

Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism (Criminal and Migration Laws) Bill 2026; Limitation of Debate | Bills | Senate debates
type: item
description: I ask that the amendments on sheets 3613 and 3616 be put separately.
encoded: I ask that the amendments on sheets 3613 and 3616 be put separately.
date: 2026-01-20T22:24:00+00:00

Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism (Criminal and Migration Laws) Bill 2026; Second Reading | Bills | Senate debates
type: item
description: What happened at Bondi Beach on 14 December last year was an appalling and horrific act of hate and violence that has shattered our Sydney community and the country and no-one more than the...
encoded: What happened at Bondi Beach on 14 December last year was an appalling and horrific act of hate and violence that has shattered our Sydney community and the country and no-one more than the Jewish community. We continue to stand in solidarity with our Jewish brothers and sisters in their grief. Yesterday, in this chamber, we were able to pay our respects and condolences to those whose lives were taken. From today our job as public representatives is to do everything in our power to stop this kind of violence from ever happening again. The Greens have long pushed for strong gun laws. This is an evidence-based, tried and tested response that reduces gun violence. We were pleased and proud to support the gun reforms that passed today, and we made them even stronger. We will always work to get dangerous weapons off our streets. I have never been silent on what needs to be done to combat hate, racism and extremism. I've spent my political life focused on antiracism and on fighting extremism and the far right, but this bill is not the way to do it. This bill is not a responsible response. The sham process that the government has undertaken on this bill is as appalling as the bill itself. That there wasn't even a pretence of consultation for some of the most extreme changes to our criminal laws shows just how little the government thinks of the community. From the beginning the draft bill was quickly exposed to be deeply flawed, divisive and dangerous. It was clear that these laws were designed to protect some and not others. With this bill the Albanese government has thrown Muslims and migrants under the bus. After Labor was forced to back down on the dangerous vilification section of this omnibus bill, they made a terrible, last-minute deal with the coalition to make other parts of this awful, rushed bill even more divisive and more dangerous. Labor did a deal with the coalition—the coalition who want the right to be bigots. This bill will have a chilling and draconian e…
date: 2026-01-20T19:32:00+00:00

Bondi Beach: Attack | Condolences | Senate debates
type: item
description: I rise today to pay my respects and remember those whose lives were mercilessly taken on 14 December and those who were injured by the antisemitic attack that terrorised the Jewish community in...
encoded: I rise today to pay my respects and remember those whose lives were mercilessly taken on 14 December and those who were injured by the antisemitic attack that terrorised the Jewish community in Bondi Beach. Today we again bear our heartfelt condolences to the 15 people whose lives were taken and the families, friends and loved ones, whose sorrow is unfathomable and immeasurable. This act was not only heinous; the place that it was perpetrated at also matters. Sydneysiders know that Bondi Beach is an iconic location, recognisable across the world, which meant that this terror and violence too reverberated around the world. After my family migrated to Sydney 34 years ago, Bondi Beach was a must-do once a week. Sitting on the sand, looking out on the Pacific Ocean, while hearing the waves break on the rocks was a new pleasure for Lahoris from a river city. It will never be the same again. Some wounds will always be felt. Worlds have felt and continue to feel totally inadequate. The grief of the community is immense. The grief of the nation is immense. The shock is profound. The brokenness of the world seems overwhelming, but we stand alongside our Jewish brothers and sisters, who are reeling in the wake of this senseless violence. We mourn with them and we grieve with them. The day following the attack, I went to Bondi Beach with my colleagues to pay my condolences and my respects. It was deeply important for me to pay tribute and to pay my respects to the victims of this violence and especially to my husband's colleague who was brutally murdered on that day. What happened on that day was an appalling and unforgivable act of terrorism and antisemitic violence. As a Muslim woman, my faith teaches me that silence is not an option in the face of suffering. It calls on me to feel the pain of others and to respond with compassion, care and love. It reminds me that nothing is more important than our shared humanity. This humanity was shown by our frontline services and ordin…
date: 2026-01-19T10:49:00+00:00

g76.5
type: item
title: Environment Protection Reform Bill 2025, National Environmental Protection Agency Bill 2025, Environment Information Australia Bill 2025, Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (Customs Charges Imposition) Bill 2025, Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (Excise Charges Imposition) Bill 2025, Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (General Charges Imposition) Bill 2025, Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (Restoration Charge Imposition) Bill 2025; In Committee | Bills | Senate debates
description: Save the forests!
encoded: Save the forests!
date: 2025-11-27T12:29:00+00:00

g75.1
type: item
title: Environment Protection Reform Bill 2025, National Environmental Protection Agency Bill 2025, Environment Information Australia Bill 2025, Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (Customs Charges Imposition) Bill 2025, Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (Excise Charges Imposition) Bill 2025, Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (General Charges Imposition) Bill 2025, Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (Restoration Charge Imposition) Bill 2025; In Committee | Bills | Senate debates
description: The Greens have worked hard to improve a pretty cooked and a pretty crappy Labor bill, to start off with. We've done this to better protect our native forests and our bushlands. We have taken out...
encoded: The Greens have worked hard to improve a pretty cooked and a pretty crappy Labor bill, to start off with. We've done this to better protect our native forests and our bushlands. We have taken out the terrible aspects of Labor's proposed disgraceful environmental reforms which would have fast tracked the destruction of nature. That is the job of the Greens in the parliament. But the real questions here to ask are these. Why did Labor bring in a bill that would damage rather than protect the environment? Why did they write laws for coal and gas corporations and big mining to start off with? Why would Labor even contemplate a deal with the climate denying environmental vandals that are the coalition? Because Labor is too cowardly, too compromised and too beholden to big money, to corporations and to the fossil fuel lobby and their dirty donations. They don't give a damn about the environment. They care about corporate profits much more than environmental protection. And we are here to hold them to account. It took arduous negotiations to get Labor to remove the 30-day fast-track approval for coal and gas projects that they had in the original bill. Why? Because, again, they don't give a damn about the climate crisis. If they did, their first act after winning this election would not have been the approval of Woodside's climate wrecking expansion of the north-west shelf gas project, which will be a disaster for the priceless Murujuga rock art. So, yes, we have put a spanner in the work of the native forest logging industry and ended a legal carve-out that forest campaigners have been fighting for, for decades. That's a good thing. It improves protection for native forests. And we have removed the worst aspects of Labor original, dreadful bill to destroy nature. To be frank, it is shameful that the Labor Party that was elected, the first time, in the climate election had to be dragged back to the status quo and then dragged to improve environmental protections for our fo…
date: 2025-11-27T12:25:00+00:00

Palestine | Motions | Senate debates
type: item
description: I seek leave to move a motion relating to the consideration of general business notice of motion No. 300, on Israel's genocide in Gaza, as circulated. Leave not granted. Pursuant to contingent...
encoded: I seek leave to move a motion relating to the consideration of general business notice of motion No. 300, on Israel's genocide in Gaza, as circulated. Leave not granted. Pursuant to contingent notice standing in the name of Senator Waters, I move: That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent me moving a motion to provide for the consideration of a matter, namely a motion relating to the consideration of general business notice of motion No. 300.
date: 2025-11-27T12:10:00+00:00

Australian Constitution | Questions without Notice | Senate debates
type: item
description: Minister, people in this country are deeply, deeply uncomfortable about Andrew Mountbatten being in the line of succession. I hope you are aware of that. When is your government going to move to...
encoded: Minister, people in this country are deeply, deeply uncomfortable about Andrew Mountbatten being in the line of succession. I hope you are aware of that. When is your government going to move to a republic so that there is not even a remote possibility of this happening?
date: 2025-11-26T14:23:00+00:00

Australian Constitution | Questions without Notice | Senate debates
type: item
description: Prime Minister Albanese has been a long-term advocate for an Australian republic and just last week said that an Australian republic is common sense. If that is the case, why did your government...
encoded: Prime Minister Albanese has been a long-term advocate for an Australian republic and just last week said that an Australian republic is common sense. If that is the case, why did your government get rid of the role of assistant minister for the republic?
date: 2025-11-26T14:22:00+00:00

Australian Constitution | Questions without Notice | Senate debates
type: item
description: My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister. Minister, more than two centuries since the violent colonisation of First Nations land, we still remain subjects of a British head...
encoded: My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister. Minister, more than two centuries since the violent colonisation of First Nations land, we still remain subjects of a British head of state. The monarchy has hit headlines again in recent weeks over disgraced former prince Andrew's relationship with child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. A majority of Australians want him removed from the line of succession, and 43 per cent of Australians indicated their support for a republic—the highest ever. Your government's former attorney-general, Mark Dreyfus, said last week that it is past time for Australia to break its ties with the monarchy and encouraged you all to renew the republic campaign. Will the government acknowledge the surge in public support for a republic and take steps to cut ties and apron strings with the British monarchy?
date: 2025-11-26T14:21:00+00:00

Crime | Statements by Senators | Senate debates
type: item
description: In the latest assault on black and brown kids, the Allan Labor government wants to lock up 14-year-olds for life. This announcement came soon after the Australian Youth Representative to the UN,...
encoded: In the latest assault on black and brown kids, the Allan Labor government wants to lock up 14-year-olds for life. This announcement came soon after the Australian Youth Representative to the UN, Satara Uthayakumaran, published her report which said: Young people describe Australia's youth justice system as punitive, not rehabilitative. First contact is often punishment, not protection: handcuffs before help, cells before care. The testimonies in this report include a child stating: They stripped me in my cell. The moment they pulled my pants down—that's when I stopped feeling like a human. Another said the detention centre 'locked up 14-year-olds with disabilities for 23 hours a day—then wondered why they broke'. While kids in detention centres wrote letters to the Prime Minister pleading with him to look out for them, crying out for protection, Prime Minister Albanese stood side-by-side with Premier Allan, praising this latest move as evidence she is doing an excellent job. How dare the Prime Minister! And how dare Premier Allan sign with one hand the treaty for Victoria, while her other hand writes laws that can jail First Nations children for life. Adult time for adult crime is a harmful, inhumane and racist policy to grab new scope to control votes, while throwing kids under the bus. It does nothing but have devastating consequences for children and families. In the words of Monique Hurley from the Human Rights Law Centre: Children deserve care, not cages and adult prison sentences. The Allan Government's proposed laws will condemn children as young as 14 to irreversible harm and an incredibly bleak future behind bars. These laws are reckless and shameful, and they should be scrapped.
date: 2025-11-26T13:46:00+00:00

Albanese Government | Statements by Senators | Senate debates
type: item
description: If 2025 has proven anything, it is this: our political system is designed to fail ordinary people. Instead of fixing that broken system, the Albanese Labor government has spent the past year...
encoded: If 2025 has proven anything, it is this: our political system is designed to fail ordinary people. Instead of fixing that broken system, the Albanese Labor government has spent the past year defending it, propping it up and polishing it. They have all this power in majority government and nothing good to show for it. This Labor government was first elected in 2022, following the climate election, with a promise to take real action on the climate crisis. What we have seen is anything but. The climate crisis is not an accident. It is a direct result of big business seeking profit at any cost and of governments too cowardly, too compromised and too entangled with big money to stop them. This year, Labor approved Woodside's North West Shelf expansion, a disaster for the climate and for the priceless Murujuga rock art. Why did Labor approve it? It's because Woodside wanted them to, because the fossil fuel industry continues to run the show, because rampant capitalism rewards destruction and because Labor refuse to bite the hand of the carbon cartel that feeds them. Then came the climate risk assessment, a document Labor tried to hide for months because it outlines the devastating consequences we are facing by utterly failing to tackle the climate crisis. Yet the government refuses to even acknowledge what is causing this crisis—the coal and gas projects that they continue to approve left, right and centre. Then there are the environmental reforms that Labor has proposed, which, in their current form, are a gift to environmental vandals. In its current form, it is a framework built around faster and cheaper approvals for fossil fuel corporations to bulldoze First Nations country and destroy the planet. This is corporate lobbying turned into legislation, and the planet and the climate are paying the price. Nowhere is the sickness of our system clearer than in the Labor government's response to Israel's genocide in Palestine. Thousands and thousands of Palestinians have bee…
date: 2025-11-26T12:15:00+00:00

Discrimination | Matters of Urgency | Senate debates
type: item
description: I move: That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency: The need for the Australian Government to take immediate action to tackle racism, the emboldening of the...
encoded: I move: That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency: The need for the Australian Government to take immediate action to tackle racism, the emboldening of the far-right and the rise of neo-Nazism and reject white supremacy and extremism as evidenced by the anti-immigrant 'March for Australia', the violent attack on Camp Sovereignty, and the racist rally outside the New South Wales Parliament. The far right is surging and racism is rising because politicians and the media have spent years dog whistling, scapegoating and stoking resentment. Now the consequences are erupting all around us. Communities are scared; hate crimes are rising; Neo-Nazis are emboldened. Politicians and the media cannot now pretend to be shocked that the wolves have arrived at the door. Racism is raging more openly and more viciously than I have ever seen in my time in this country, and the far right is gaining ground and not just because of their own bile; they get a free kick from the Liberal Party, which is now so desperate for relevance that it jumps to answer the calls of open racists. Just weeks after Neo-Nazis marched through our streets calling for an end to Indian immigration and the expulsion of black and brown communities from what they call 'white Australia', what did the Liberals do? They called for an 'Australian values' screening for migrants—as though the people who come here fleeing war, poverty and persecution are the ones who lack values, and not the politicians who demonise them every single day. But even trickier to confront than the open hatred spewed by the Liberal Party is the sly racism executed by a political party that claims to know better—Labor—because, while the Liberals shout their racism loudly, Labor writes it quietly into law. In Victoria, a Labor government has announced laws allowing children to be locked up for life—laws that we all know will disproportionately incarcerate First Nations and black and brown children. There is nothi…
date: 2025-11-25T17:54:00+00:00

Higher Education Support Amendment (Reverse Job-Ready Graduates Fee Hikes and End 50k Arts Degrees) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | Senate debates
type: item
description: I move: That this bill be now read a second time. I seek leave to table an explanatory memorandum relating to the bill. Leave granted. I seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated...
encoded: I move: That this bill be now read a second time. I seek leave to table an explanatory memorandum relating to the bill. Leave granted. I seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard. Leave granted. The speech read as follows— I am honoured to introduce the Greens' Higher Education Support Amendment (Reverse Job-Ready Graduates Fee Hikes and End 50k Arts Degrees) Bill 2025. This bill does something very simple but very meaningful—and long overdue. It undoes the Morrison Government's cruel, unfair, and downright absurd Job-Ready Graduates package fee hikes. This bill will reverse the punitive fee hikes that have left hundreds of thousands of students saddled with higher and higher debts for simply wanting to study what they love. It repeals the fee hikes from Job-Ready Graduates. It provides that the maximum student contribution amounts for a place in a unit of study in Law, Accounting, Administration, Economics, Commerce, Society and Culture and Communications are reverted to what those amounts would have been on 1 January 2026, accounting for indexation, if the amendments made by the job-ready graduates bill had not commenced. Right now, in 2025, we still live with the ideological wrecking ball Scott Morrison's Coalition government took to our universities in 2020—and Labor has had more than three years to fix it, but hasn't. When the Morrison Government rammed through this bill in 2020, it was an act of breathtaking cruelty and short-sightedness. It came at a time when universities were already reeling from 35,000 pandemic job losses, brutal funding cuts, and years of neglect. Rather than support higher education, the Coalition used the crisis to further its ideological war against public universities and the arts. This was about punishing students. It was about punishing universities. And it was about punishing critical thinking. It was about making education serve the market, not the public. It was about turning universities into profit-dr…
date: 2025-11-25T16:19:00+00:00