Janet Rice's recent appearances (OpenAustralia.org)
Parliament | Adjournment | Senate debates
Our democracy is struggling because too many people have tuned out. They are disconnected from politics and don't think that we here are at all interested in listening to them or actually...
Our democracy is struggling because too many people have tuned out. They are disconnected from politics and don't think that we here are at all interested in listening to them or actually representing them. Largely, they are right. In my decade here, I've heard from so many people who are grateful and surprised that I have listened to them and spoken up for them. In contrast Labor and the coalition have people just where they want them: feeling powerless and disillusioned and resigned to the idea that nothing changes. That gives these parties free range to implement policies that prioritise the profits of the big corporates rather than the wellbeing of the people. With Labor and the coalition largely agreeing on their planet- and community-destroying policies, they can get away with only paying attention to voters in marginal seats and trying to bribe them with trinkets and baubles, rather than committing to the fundamental changes that are needed for a fair and healthy society. Big corporations have too much power in this building. That power is reflected this week in the government's plans to introduce legislation to weaken our environment laws so that the resources minister, not the environment minister, would be the one signing off on massive new 'carbon bomb' gas fields that will destroy the cultural heritage of First Nations land and sea owners, despite a big majority of Australians wanting to see no new coal and gas. Big corporate power explains why, even though Australians think that the top two things that we should be doing about the housing crisis are providing more funding for social and affordable housing and increasing rental assistance for people on low incomes, the government keeps giving massive tax breaks to property developers and will not invest nearly enough in overcoming the huge shortfall in public and community housing or providing sufficient income support to people trapped in poverty. It is no surprise that people don't trust governments and don't engage. How do we get people to realise that their vote matters and to realise that they are powerful? How do we rebuild trust and make parliament and government more representative of, and responsive to, the people? I think there are three important things that should be done. Firstly, parliament has to become more representative of the diversity of Australian society. Changing the Constitution so that people with dual citizenship can be MPs would be a good starting point. We have to open up the discussions here to a broader cohort of people who currently struggle to have their perspectives heard, let alone valued, and to make sure that they are respected, not demonised. Secondly, we have to be more transparent. Information is power. Too often, critical information is hidden to boost the particular case and to discredit others, which corrodes people's faith in our democracy and destroys their trust that we as their representatives are engaging in good governance. Fundamentally we need to all share the same information and commit to basing legislation and other actions in evidence and on quality research and scientific facts, regardless of how inconvenient those truths may be. We need to reform our freedom of information systems and stop blocking orders for the production of documents to ensure that such evidence is available to all of us and to enable us to shine a spotlight on government decisions that are made that are inconsistent with that evidence. Thirdly, we need to work more collaboratively. People want us to work together, but working collaboratively involves not just hearing different perspectives but grappling with, and seeking to understand, different views and seeing if we can agree on some things and respectfully differ on others. I'm not saying that we should strive to reach consensus about everything. We won't always be able to reach consensus for a range of reasons. One reason is that reaching consensus relies on an underlying philosophy that everyone has the right to have their views respected as much as everybody else. Sadly, not everyone here agrees with this. Another is that to reach consensus you have to be able to share information and trust that the information won't be misused. But we can do so much better in sharing perspectives, understanding where others are coming from, learning from each other and acknowledging that no one person or party has a monopoly on wisdom rather than resorting to simplistic slogans and personal attacks. And if Labor and the coalition aren't interested in making these sorts of changes, then there's a clear pathway forward for people who care about strengthening our democracy and better representing people—and, yes, that is to vote Green.
Social Security (Administration) (Declared Child Protection State - New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria) Determination 2023, Social Security (Administration) (Recognised State or Territory - Northern Territory) Determination 2023, Social Security (Administration) (Specified Income Management Territory - Northern Territory) Instrument 2023; Disallowance | Regulations and Determinations | Senate debates
I move: That the following legislative instruments, made under the Social Security (Administration) Act 1999, be disallowed: (a) the Social Security (Administration) (Declared Child Protection...
I move: That the following legislative instruments, made under the Social Security (Administration) Act 1999, be disallowed: (a) the Social Security (Administration) (Declared Child Protection State—New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria) Determination 2023 [F2023L01274]; (b) the Social Security (Administration) (Recognised State or Territory—Northern Territory) Determination 2023 [F2023L01273]; and (c) the Social Security (Administration) (Specified Income Management Territory—Northern Territory) Instrument 2023 [F2023L01269]. Before the last federal election, Labor made a clear commitment to end compulsory income management. They campaigned hard to abolish the cashless debit card and made clear their belief that the BasicsCard should be voluntary. Only one month before the federal election in 2022, Linda Burney, who was then Labor's social services spokesperson, said, 'If people want to be on those sorts of income management, then that's their decision.' The Greens and everyone who had been tirelessly campaigning against compulsory income management since its introduction in 2007 welcomed those words. We were hopeful that the Labor Party would finally take a stand against this harmful and racist system. We never imagined exactly how cynical the approach would prove to be. Instead of abolishing compulsory income management as promised, Labor rebranded and expanded it. They took all the punitive and discriminatory elements of the cashless debit card and relaunched it as the SmartCard regime, which is a sneaky and insidious framework that significantly expands the minister's powers to roll out compulsory income management in new areas. Labor also broke their promise to make the BasicsCard voluntary. Instead, they told people on the card that they had two options: they could stay put or they could move to the SmartCard, effectively trapping over 20,000 people under compulsory income management. Since the introduction of the SmartCard regime, Labor has tabled a series of legislative instruments that seek to perpetuate the punitive system of compulsory income management. To date, the Greens have moved to disallow the majority of these instruments. Unsurprisingly, Labor and Liberal have joined together to vote our disallowance motions down. Today we are moving to disallow three more legislative instruments that Labor introduced last year. These instruments are the 'declared child protection state' determination, the 'recognised state or territory—Northern Territory' determination and the 'specified income management territory—Northern Territory' instrument. These instruments enable the income management, or BasicsCard, regime to continue to operate until 1 July 2026. Under this regime, certain groups of people on social security payments can be forcibly placed on the BasicsCard and have 50 to 70 per cent of their income quarantined. This can happen to you if you live in a certain area and you've been on a social security payment for over a year, you're a young person on income support for an extended period or you're assessed as 'vulnerable' due to experiencing things like financial hardship, domestic violence or being at risk of homelessness. Put yourself in the shoes of a person who's on income support. Every single person on income support who is renting is at risk of homelessness. This means that this BasicsCard, this compulsory income management, can be rolled out on a whim to actively suppress these people, through no fault of their own, just because they are at risk of homelessness. You can also be placed on the BasicsCard and have your income support payments forcibly quarantined if a child protection worker says that that should be the case—or, if you live in the Northern Territory, the Department of Health refers you to the program. The system is horrifying. It's paternalistic. It's something from a dystopian novel, and it is also the reality of tens of thousands of people—the overwhelming majority of whom are First Nations people who live in the Northern Territory. The BasicsCard was one of the many racist and discriminatory policies the Howard government introduced in 2007 as part of the Northern Territory intervention. This regime was expanded by Labor in 2010 to a wider cohort of income support recipients. As of December, the Department of Social Services estimates there are over 21,000 people with an active BasicsCard and over 8,000 people on the SmartCard regime. Around 90 per cent of the people in each regime live in the Northern Territory, and around 80 per cent of those in the Northern Territory on the SmartCard are First Nations peoples. Of the people in the Northern Territory, approximately only two per cent have volunteered to be on the SmartCard and about eight per cent of people have volunteered to be on the BasicsCard. I note that in other states where income management is in effect the rates of voluntary income management are proportionally higher. But the fact remains: for the vast majority of people with a SmartCard or a BasicsCard, their autonomy is completely removed. Compulsory income management doesn't work. That's why this is so serious. If it worked, you'd think there might be an argument for it. But it doesn't work. It is paternalism on steroids. For nearly two decades, since the introduction of the BasicsCard, we've heard evidence from First Nations people, parliamentary inquiries, the Australian Human Rights Commission, researchers and community organisations about the failures of compulsory income management as a tool for alleviating poverty, addiction and other social issues. We've heard time and time again how these disproportionally impact First Nations peoples and violate human rights. This long history of evidence was reinforced by the recent Senate Community Affairs References Committee's report on the review of these legislative instruments on income management. This review examined six legislative instruments made by the Labor government—the three we are seeking to disallow today, the two we attempted to disallow last year and, finally, the volunteers determination. Overwhelmingly, the committee heard evidence that compulsory income management should be abolished and that these regimes are ineffective and incompatible with human rights. The Central Land Council wrote in their submission: … while Indigenous poverty rates are decreasing (albeit to a small degree) across most parts of the country, in remote NT and the West Kimberly, they are escalating—significantly. In these regions, poverty rates are more than 50 per cent, and in some cases, much higher. This level of poverty is unparalleled elsewhere in Australia and evidence of serious policy failure—and income management is a wholly inadequate policy to address it. … … … Genuine efforts to address the poverty crisis in remote NT will focus on policy measures that are preventative, strengths-based and systemic—designed with Aboriginal people and their representative organisations, consistent with the commitments under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap. Mr Christopher Arnott, director of First Nations owned and operated think tank the Kulila Research and Advocacy Institute, told the committee: If you put someone on income management because they're suffering from alcoholism or drug addiction, then taking away the ability to access cash isn't going to fix the problem, because addiction is a medical issue … You can't just remove cash and not expect people to find other means. You're not addressing the problem. You're not going to treat anyone. If you go to a doctor to deal with a medical condition—you can't just take away one component and not treat the underlying cause. Mrs Leeann Ramsamy, the chief executive officer of the Aboriginal Peak Organisations Northern Territory, noted: When we put a blanket over things and we make it mandatory, that's when we start to breach people's human rights around managing their own money. Even if it is unemployment, it's still part of their economy while they're unemployed. … … … Income management should be a choice. Someone may opt in and may find it very beneficial, but we can't say that that's going to be the majority. Legislation cannot decide what's best for the majority of women. Not all women and not all families need their income managed. Charmaine Crowe from the Australian Council of Social Service told the committee: So the compulsory income management policy that is operating in the Northern Territory and in a select few other areas essentially discriminates against people on the basis of where they live and the difficulties they may have in securing a job. That's essentially what you're doing. As has been—for quite some time now—found, it doesn't do anything to increase people's chances of getting paid work. Therefore, why are we subjecting people who are long-term unemployed to this very stigmatising and paternalistic policy that, particularly now—but it has always done so—grossly discriminates against First Nations people? Not only did evidence at this inquiry reinforce years of proof showing that compulsory income management doesn't work, but it also exposed the complete inadequacy and unsuitability of the legislative instruments underpinning Labor's Enhanced Income Management regime. Despite the fact that we heard from a range of organisations and people across various sectors—including the Queensland Indigenous Family Violence Legal Service, Economic Justice Australia, the Accountable Income Management Network and the Australian Council of Social Service—an overwhelming majority of inquiry participants told the committee that they had not been consulted on the legislative instruments under review. Additionally, many participants raised concerns about the level and type of consultation with First Nations communities. There were other significant issues that were raised through the inquiry about these legislative instruments. These were the lack of relevant and adequate explanatory material, which restricts the parliament's and the public's ability to properly scrutinise their impact, and the failure to address years of documented human rights concerns that have been raised by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights. It's clear that, in developing these legislative instruments, the Labor government had no regard for transparency, human rights or working in partnership with First Nations communities. It's completely astounding, given this and with the evidence being so strongly against compulsory income management, that the Labor government has tabled these instruments in the first place. However, sadly, they will most likely vote down this disallowance motion today. So, Labor, what did happen to your promise to leave no-one behind and hold no-one back? Poverty is a political choice, and since coming into government Labor has consistently made choice after choice to keep people in poverty, by maintaining this racist and discriminatory policy of compulsory income management, despite pledging otherwise before the election, and by refusing to listen to the calls of unemployed advocates, social service organisations and Labor's very own hand-picked Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee to substantially raise the rate of income support, instead opting for piecemeal changes that keep people on income support well below the poverty line. Labor continues to publicly back the punitive system of mutual obligations and the privatised model of human services, despite media report after media report and the harrowing evidence given at the Workforce Australia inquiry, which again exposed just how harmful, largely ineffective and pointless these systems are. Finally, Labor recently left people on income support and everyone earning less than $18,000 a year completely out of their cost-of-living tax cuts measures. Instead of supporting people and providing support to low-income earners, they gave tax cuts to the wealthy—$4,500 a year to everyone earning over $200,000—rather than supporting the people who need it the most. Labor can't be trusted with our social security system. If they actually cared about supporting people in poverty, and if they listened to people impacted by their policies, they would raise the rate of income support and abolish all forms of compulsory income management. Instead of continuing to spend massive amounts of taxpayers' money on this compulsory income management scheme, you can substantially invest in services that genuinely support people who are living in poverty and who potentially face addiction issues—things like affordable housing, making health care more accessible and properly investing in financial counselling services and First Nations controlled community organisations. The evidence is clear. Compulsory income management doesn't work. Rather, it is a punitive and harmful regime that disproportionately targets First Nations peoples. I want to end by saying that there is a glimmer of a hope for change. Today in the report that I have just tabled into the extent and impact of poverty in Australia, Labor senators have agreed with a recommendation to the government to continue to reform income management with a view to replacing compulsory income with voluntary models that empower families and communities. So I call on Labor to urgently make that commitment a reality and to end compulsory income management as soon as possible. But, until Labor does that—and sadly I think it's probably going to take some time—and until Labor comes to parliament with a bill that introduces genuine, voluntary income management, the Greens will not stop fighting until all compulsory income management is abolished. We will continue to disallow every instrument that locks in compulsory income management that comes before us in this place. We won't allow the government to continue to force people on these punitive and damaging programs. We will continue to disrupt any attempt by Labor to push through unsuitable, harmful and inadequate instruments that continue compulsory income management. We will keep fighting until our social security actually supports the people who need it most.
Community Affairs References Committee; Report | Committees | Senate debates
I present the report of the Community Affairs References Committee on the extent and nature of poverty in Australia, together with accompanying documents, and I move: That the Senate take note of...
I present the report of the Community Affairs References Committee on the extent and nature of poverty in Australia, together with accompanying documents, and I move: That the Senate take note of the report. In September 2022, I first proposed the idea in this place of a national inquiry into poverty, and today, after nearly 18 months, I'm pleased to present the final report of the Senate Community Affairs References Committee's inquiry into poverty. This inquiry was established almost 50 years to the day after the historic Henderson commission of inquiry into poverty, and like the Henderson inquiry, this inquiry investigated poverty at a national level and gathered significant evidence from people, organisations and communities about poverty in Australia. The committee heard from witnesses across the country at nine hearings and a site visit. I'm incredibly proud that the Greens established this inquiry and I'd like to thank my colleagues for their support and participation in the hearings. I'd also like to thank my fellow committee members for their work on the inquiry—in particular, my deputy chair, Senator Marielle Smith—and, of course, the Community Affairs secretariat for the countless hours of work that they have put into this inquiry and the report over the last 18 months. And most of all, I want to thank everyone who participated in the inquiry, particularly people with direct experience of poverty who shared their testimonies. It can be incredibly difficult to share the traumatic experience of living in poverty, but it is immensely powerful and important for parliamentarians to hear your stories and understand the real impacts of government policies. What was made clear throughout the inquiry was that in the nearly half a century since the Henderson inquiry, policy failures and inaction from government after government have left Australia even deeper in a poverty crisis. Evidence presented to the committee made clear that while there were many complex and intersecting structural drivers of poverty in Australia, the current crisis is largely reflective of the failures of our social security system. Australia's social security system should provide people with a social safety net; it should ensure that no-one is living in poverty, and everyone has the opportunity to live with dignity. Yet in hearings held across the country and in submissions, the committee heard personal and devastating testimonies from individuals who are trapped in poverty due to the inadequate rates of income support. Abigail shared: Energy prices went up, inflation went up and the DSP did not. I had to start making difficult decisions. I couldn't save money, it was just impossible. There were some fortnights where I had to decide whether I was buying myself groceries or paying electricity bills. Chibo said: I've never felt so mentally tortured as when I was unemployed, starting with Centrelink treating you like you're the last dirt from the street. Just coming into the whole situation … really impacts on your lifestyle, on your nutrition level, on anything. Jo told us: I am 58 years old. I have been waiting for a total hip replacement for 14 months. I get $683.40 per fortnight on JobSeeker. It should be more than that, but Centrelink have not recognised my new lease that I have uploaded three times or answered my calls … I am going to lose this tooth because I can't afford to see a dentist. And Genevieve said: I have registered for public and social housing. The local housing organisation tells me that the waitlist is 15 years. There's no transitional or priority housing available. They also told me on several occasions that my son and I will be homeless … apparently there are mums and babies, mums and young children, living in cars in Australia, in this affluent country. I don't have any family or friends to stay with, so our situation is dire. I'm under enormous stress. I'm both physically and mentally exhausted. It is completely unacceptable that in one of the wealthiest countries in the world people like Abigail, Chibo, Jo and Genevieve and so many others are having to live in poverty. Urgent and transformative change is needed. The inquiry's interim report that was tabled before the budget last year centred on the experiences of Australians living in poverty and examined the extent and human impact of poverty and its relationship with income support payments. This final report focuses on Australia's social security system, the impacts of poverty on First Nations people and children, and policy mechanisms to alleviate poverty. In response to the evidence presented, the committee makes 14 important recommendations to the government. These include recommendations for the government to take urgent action so that Australians are not living in poverty by considering the suitability, adequacy and effectiveness of the income support system. There are also specific recommendations regarding changes to the disability support pension, Commonwealth rent assistance, mutual obligations and the employment services system. Other recommendations include actions to reduce the disproportionate impact of poverty on First Nations communities, including committing to the principle of a First Nations led co-design of all First Nations employment services; asking the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee to review the adequacy of the remote area allowance and to continue to reform income management with a view to replace compulsory income management schemes; and measures to reduce child poverty, including significant investment to ensure children have access to quality early education, a review of all student payments and the child support scheme. These recommendations are from a majority report of the committee. I, as chair, and the Labor senators on the committee are supportive of these recommendations. The Liberal senators are putting in a dissenting report, so it's unclear to me as to whether they support these recommendations. But the reality is that the agreed recommendations still fall far short of the transformative action needed to eradicate poverty in Australia. As a member of the Greens and chair of this inquiry, I have put forward a suite of additional recommendations which would seriously address the poverty crisis that we face. Throughout the inquiry there was clear evidence that the simplest, most effective and most urgent step to reduce poverty was to raise the rate of all income support payments significantly. Yet sadly, I note that this is not a recommendation of this report. Another glaring omission in the main report is the lack of any recommendation calling on the government to develop a national poverty measure. Overwhelmingly, the committee heard evidence of the importance of national poverty measures and targets to eradicate poverty. Having no committee report recommendations on a national poverty measure, or anything specific on raising the rate, reveals the lack of willingness by the two major parties to fully acknowledge this and take the serious action that's needed to address the poverty crisis. In response to the limitations of the committee recommendations, I, as chair, put forward a suite of additional recommendations that would effectively transform the social security system, target entrenched disadvantage and build on the work of the Henderson inquiry. Notably, these include clear actions for the government: to lift the base rate of all income support payment to $88 a day; to ensure that poverty alleviation, including developing a national measure of poverty, is a key focus of the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee; to make a national commitment to reduce child poverty; and to abolish all mutual obligations immediately. Further recommendations are to review the adequacy, effectiveness and culture of Services Australia and the Department of Social Services, and to take critical steps to target the high rates of poverty in First Nations communities by increasing the rate of remote area allowance, expanding access to Services Australia services in remote areas and abolishing all forms of compulsory income management. My recommendations also address other issues, including the age of independence, the disability support pension, parenting payment and Commonwealth rent assistance. These recommendations build on the work of advocates, organisations and researchers who have been advocating tirelessly for an end to poverty in Australia. They also reflect longstanding calls by the Australian Greens. Unlike the Labor and Liberal parties, the Greens have consistently called for a significant increase in income support and for a fairer social security system. We believe that a socially just, democratic and sustainable society rests on the provision of an unconditional liveable income, complemented by the provision of universal social services. Before the election, Prime Minister Albanese made a promise to leave no-one behind. But since Labor came into government we have seen them implement a series of centre-right policies that benefit big corporates and the well-off, and leave people living in poverty without access to essential health services and struggling to access affordable housing. This inquiry has laid bare the depth and breadth of the poverty crisis in Australia. The Labor government cannot just dismiss this evidence, as they and so many governments before them have done with the Henderson inquiry. Australians cannot afford another 50 years of meaningless rhetoric and policies that trap people in poverty. For the sake of the wellbeing of our entire community, I call on the Labor government to implement both the recommendations of the main committee report and my chair's recommendations in the upcoming federal budget.
Middle East | Petitions | Senate debates
by leave—I present to the Senate a petition relating to the visas of a local doctor's family who are trapped in Gaza, which is not in conformity with the standing orders as it is not in the...
by leave—I present to the Senate a petition relating to the visas of a local doctor's family who are trapped in Gaza, which is not in conformity with the standing orders as it is not in the correct form.
Israel | Matters of Urgency | Senate debates
I will withdraw and say that the Australian government is misleading the Australian community. There is so much more that Australia could be doing. We must be calling for an immediate and...
I will withdraw and say that the Australian government is misleading the Australian community. There is so much more that Australia could be doing. We must be calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire. We must end all military and security trade and cooperation with Israel. We should be formally, publicly backing South Africa's proceedings against Israel in the ICJ. We should be sanctioning Prime Minister Netanyahu and his entire war cabinet. And, as we called for in our motion that we attempted to debate on Monday, we should be unequivocally withdrawing our support for the state of Israel.
The Labor government has been boldly telling the Australian people an insidious lie. Since 7 October we've heard senior ministers tell us over and over again that Australia has not been exporting...
The Labor government has been boldly telling the Australian people an insidious lie. Since 7 October we've heard senior ministers tell us over and over again that Australia has not been exporting military equipment to the Israeli state. We heard Senator Ciccone just now saying, 'Australia has not supplied weapons'. But the facts just do not add up. That statement means that it's a definitional thing—that parts of F-35 bombers parts of the bomb bay doors, which Australian companies supply, are defined as not being weapons, despite them being the very thing that turns the F-35 from a plane into a bomber. It defines drones not as weapons. It defines armour not as weapons. These are weapons—these are part of weapons. They are parts of Australian sanctioned weapons that are being supplied to the Israeli state and they are part of the genocide which is going on in Gaza. It's outrageous to learn that there are over 50 companies making essential parts for every F-35 fighter jet that the Israel Defense Forces use to kill innocent Palestinian civilians—this, in the most serious of contexts, in circumstances where the International Court of Justice has said there's a credible risk of genocide, where 30,000 people have been killed at the hands of the Israeli government, where 100,000 people have been injured, where millions of people are currently living in absolute fear for their lives in Rafah, starving, desperately trying to keep their children and themselves alive in the throes of famine and disease while being threatened with further invasion and further attacks. In recent days, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Michael Fakhri, has said: Intentionally depriving people of food is clearly a war crime. Israel has announced its intention to destroy the Palestinian people, in whole or in part, simply for being Palestinian. In my view as a UN human rights expert, this is now a situation of genocide. This means the state of Israel in its entirety is culpable and should be held accountable—not just individuals or this government or that person. And many of those weapons being used in this genocide have direct ties to Australia. Australia also plays a major role in Israeli and US surveillance. In November, Michael West Media reported: The Pine Gap US surveillance base located outside of Alice Springs in Australia is collecting an enormous range of communications and electronic intelligence from the brutal Gaza-Israel battlefield—and this data is being provided to the Israel Defence Forces— data that is probably directing where those bombs are going to be killing people. Who knows what kinds of violence and devastation the Israel Defense Forces are using this data for, but Australia should and must not play a part in it. Tens of thousands of Australians are on the streets every week, protesting, speaking out for humanity and for Australians to do more. We Greens support them, and we are with them. The Australian community overwhelmingly sees what's going on, and I salute every person who is speaking out. But, instead of helping to end the violence, our Labor government is continuing to lie and sell military equipment to Israel, has cut aid to Palestine and refuses to sign onto the International Court of Justice investigation. Our foreign minister and our Prime Minister mouth weasel words about 'how Israel conducts itself matters' and make hypocritical statements of concern about the plight of the Palestinian people but refuse to take any action to back up these sentiments. These actions and this lack of action are making our nation complicit in a genocide. Enough is enough. We need action from the government, not lies and worthless statements. We have a responsibility to act decisively, to stop the crime of genocide and to support punishment for genocide wherever it occurs, and there is so much that we could be doing to stop—
Environment | Adjournment | Senate debates
It's most 10 years since I gave my first speech in this place and I talked about my work as an activist on forests and climate and my hopes of what could be achieved in my time in the Senate. I...
It's most 10 years since I gave my first speech in this place and I talked about my work as an activist on forests and climate and my hopes of what could be achieved in my time in the Senate. I said in my first speech: My agenda for my time here is clear. I want to be able to look my grandchildren in the eye and tell them that it was during my time in the Senate that Australia turned the corner and legislated to begin the shift to a zero-carbon safe climate economy. I suggest some simple steps to start us off: set pollution reduction targets based on science; stop subsidising fossil fuels; create more jobs by boosting clean energy production and energy conservation; start closing coal-fired power stations; say no to new coal and gas exports; and make the big polluters pay for the damage they are doing. I also said: I am also hoping to deal with unfinished business and see our forest heritage protected. This means getting timber and woodchips from plantations, not native forests, and no burning of native forests in furnaces for energy. It means creating the Great Forest National Park just to the east of Melbourne. I am here in this parliament for the Leadbeater's possums that live there. Sadly, progress on these eminently sensible and essential aims has been pretty slow over the decade that I've been here. Domestically, we have seen the closure of some big coal-fired power stations over the decade, and clean energy production has increased, but we are nowhere near close to the hundred per cent renewable energy which is where we should be, and where we could have been if we'd set our minds to it 10 years ago. Inexcusably, we are still opening up new coal and gas mines for export and subsidising fossil fuels to the tune of $11 billion every year, and we are paying the price. The world is paying the price for our ongoing inexcusable addiction to fossil fuels. As I flew out of Melbourne on Sunday night, smoke blanketed much of Victoria. There's an out-of-control fire in western Victoria that has burned 18,000 hectares and destroyed homes and property. Snow gums on the summit of Mount Cole in western Victoria have been severely burnt. The Mount Cole summit, a precious remnant alpine ecosystem in the west, has not evolved to cope well with fire, and those snow gums will probably die. Yes, trees are likely to regrow there, but it's unlikely to be alpine vegetation that regrows. So there is more loss of biodiversity, another loss to grieve, as the blowtorch of global heating continues to take hold of our planet. That fire is still burning out of control The forecast for tomorrow is for shocking weather. The warning from Emergency Management Victoria that was issued today is for extreme fire danger with temperatures in the high 30s, along with gusty winds of up to 80 kilometres per hour. My heart goes out to everyone who has lost a home and property, who is currently evacuating, who is worried for their own safety and the safety of their loved ones. Sadly, fires like these have become more common in Australia and around the world over the last decade. They will become more frequent, more intense, more dangerous and destructive, along with more and more intense floods, droughts, heatwaves and cyclones. Sea level rise is making entire island nations uninhabitable, with associated lives lost, families and communities destroyed, and refugees needing to seek asylum. Let me list a few of the weather and climate records that have been broken just this month. Perth exceeded its record for consecutive February days above 40 degrees. Temperatures peaked at 41.7 on Thursday last week, taking the total to five days. The planet is on a trajectory to experience the hottest February on record—after a record hot January, December, November, October, September, August, July, June and May. In recent weeks it was on course for a period of temperatures that are a full two degrees higher than pre-industrial levels. The first half of February has been described as climatic history rewritten, not just because of the number of records being smashed but because of the extent to which they've been broken. Sea surface temperature records have been comprehensively smashed as ocean temperatures continue to rise. In the Atlantic, where strong hurricanes form, they've experienced temperatures as warm this February, which is the end of winter there, as are usually experienced mid-summer. Over the last decade this place's track record on protecting our precious native forests is as underwhelming as it has been on taking serious action on carbon. Our precious native forests are inspiring, wondrous places and the massive carbon stores needed to soak up carbon if we are to have a chance of addressing the climate crisis. They are home to threatened or endangered species, First Nations cultural heritage and totem species. These forests are still being logged. In Victoria last year we had the good news that native forest logging would end. That was good news. It did not happen because of any action in this place; it happened because of the tenacious campaigning of staunch activists over decades. In Victoria, the good news, at least, is that we've got a chance of seeing the Great Forest National Park, which I talked about in my first speech, protected. Unfortunately, we still don't have a recovery plan for the wollert, or Leadbeater's possum. I have asked at every estimates over the 10 years I have been here. In estimates a fortnight ago I was told the recovery plan was 'this close', but we still do not have a recovery plan for Leadbeater's possum. It just shows the lack of priority that is being given to the protection of our threatened and endangered species. But at least in Victoria we now know that our forests—other than some ongoing so-called salvage logging in western Victoria, which needs to end—will be protected. It's the same in Western Australia—our forests in Western Australia are also now going to be protected. But in Tasmania and New South Wales the carnage goes on. In January I visited a forest that was home to swift parrots, of which there are only about 600 left in the whole world, yet in the forests I visited there had been a blockade set up by the Bob Brown Foundation. There was a known swift parrot habitat. There was a wonderful tree and a swift parrot nest of the top of that tree that had swift parrots breeding in it, and yet there was still logging planned. Fortunately, there is now a Supreme Court injunction stopping the logging of that forest, but it shouldn't come to that. How is it we are destroying our forests—the homes of critically endangered species of which there are only 600, the fastest birds in the world—and yet the logging continues? So much of the southern forests of New South Wales were lost in the Black Summer fires, and yet the logging continues. Recently we had the New South Wales EPA put a temporary stop to logging because of the endangered greater gliders. It was admitted that surveys were being done for them only during the daytime, when greater gliders are nocturnal species and come out at night, so surveying for them in the daytime is not very useful. The EPA put a temporary stop to that. Sadly, they are now going to allow the logging of that forest and forests all over to continue. They are no longer even going to pretend that they are surveying threatened species. Rather than doing inadequate daytime surveys, they're doing no surveys at all, with the excuse that they're going to protect a few more trees in the middle of logging coupes. This is not going to protect these threatened species, which are on a trajectory towards extinction. It is just appalling. Last week I had the absolute delight of being in Tasmania in the Styx State Forest with our Tasmanian Greens leader, Rosalie Woodruff, and two of the candidates for the Tasmanian state election. We were in a magnificent area of forest with trees that were 80 metres tall, home to swift parrots, powerful owls and masked owls. It was an absolutely incredible forest and, fortunately, this forest was protected. It was protected the last time that the Greens were in the balance of power in the state parliament. You need the Greens in parliament in order to protect forests—in this place, in the Tasmanian parliament and in the New South Wales parliament. Labor and the Liberals are on a unity ticket of continuing to destroy our forests. It is hard not to feel despairing, but after 10 years I know that we just have to keep campaigning. We have to keep being resilient. We've got to mourn our losses and gird our loins and just keep on going, keep on working until we have a safe climate future, protecting our environment that we need.
That is normal procedure. It means that I, who was the second person here, end up going last, which doesn't seem to be really fair.
Department of Health and Aged Care; Order for the Production of Documents | Documents | Senate debates
I move: That there be laid on the table by the Department of Health and Aged Care, by no later than midday on Thursday, 14 March 2024: (a) all relevant agreements or other documentation...
I move: That there be laid on the table by the Department of Health and Aged Care, by no later than midday on Thursday, 14 March 2024: (a) all relevant agreements or other documentation evidencing the chain of title and licensing rights associated with all intellectual property (including all pre-existing intellectual property) created and used for the Future Fit program, including the chain of title from Miles Morgan Australia's subcontractors involved in the delivery of the program; (b) all correspondence related to the ownership of and licenses to all intellectual property created and used for the Future Fit program; (c) all correspondence and other documentation describing the intellectual property created for the Future Fit program, and including pre-existing intellectual property used in the Future Fit program, and including but not limited to operating models, architectures and design documents; (d) all relevant documentation and invoices evidencing acquittal of payment to Miles Morgan Australia by the Department of Health and Aged Care against each milestone, and against each intellectual property asset created as a result of the 2021 contract between Miles Morgan Australia and the Department of Health and Aged Care (provided in OPD 393), and the extension contract that ends on 9 March 2024; and (e) all relevant documents and invoices evidencing acquittal of payments for the $2.2 million Future Fit pilot program in Whitehorse and Ballarat. Question agreed to.
Middle East | Statements by Senators | Senate debates
I'm humbled to soon be tabling in the Senate a petition with nearly 10,000 signatures that calls on the Australian government to save the family of Akram, a Palestinian-born Australian citizen...
I'm humbled to soon be tabling in the Senate a petition with nearly 10,000 signatures that calls on the Australian government to save the family of Akram, a Palestinian-born Australian citizen who is trapped in Gaza. Akram and his family migrated to regional Victoria from Gaza in 2009, and he has been a devoted doctor to his local community ever since. He works in his local town's clinic and nursing home, while his wife runs a local restaurant. Since 7 October more than 28,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's attacks on Gaza, more than 100,000 have been injured and millions more have been displaced owing to this violence and devastation. With the Israeli government declaring a ground attack on Rafah, there's no where that is safe for Palestinians to go. Akram's family members' lives hang in the balance as they remain stuck at the Rafah border crossing, unable to escape. They have been displaced four times since losing their homes, their collective six houses were all bulldozed in the attacks, and now they're facing starvation, dehydration and disease owing to a lack of clean water. But the Labor government have turned their back on Akram, his family and all other Palestinians living in Australia and in occupied Palestine, as they refuse to call for a permanent ceasefire. Silence in the face of atrocities is not an option. Australia has a responsibility to act to stop the crime of genocide and support punishment for genocide wherever it occurs. I urge Labor to take this petition seriously and to expedite the visas of Akram's family. I also call on Labor to publicly back South Africa's proceedings against Israel in the International Court of Justice to sanction Prime Minister Netanyahu and his entire war cabinet, to end all military and security trade and cooperation with Israel, to restore and increase aid to UNRWA, and to finally call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire.
I present the report of the Community Affairs References Committee on the review of legislative instruments made under the Social Security (Administration) Act 1999, together with accompanying...
I present the report of the Community Affairs References Committee on the review of legislative instruments made under the Social Security (Administration) Act 1999, together with accompanying documents, and I move: That the Senate take note of the report. This review examines six legislative instruments made by the Labor government under Australia's income management system and was the result of a Greens amendment to the Social Security (Administration) Amendment (Income Management Reform) Bill in 2023. That bill established the Labor government's enhanced income management regime and effectively expanded the destructive and punitive system of compulsory income management. For nearly two decades, since the introduction of the BasicsCard, we have heard evidence from First Nations people, parliamentary inquiries, the Australian Human Rights Commission, researchers and community organisations about the failure of compulsory income management as a tool for alleviating poverty, addiction and other social issues, and we've heard time and time again how it disproportionately impacts First Nations people and violates human rights. While we were unsuccessful in our attempts to block that legislation, the Greens were able to secure an amendment requiring a Senate committee review of any legislative instruments made on income management. One of the key concerns we had and still have about this legislation is that it expands the minister's powers in a dangerous way, and this review process that we have added adds a basic level of scrutiny and accountability to that process. The report that I am speaking to today is the first such review by the committee since the passage of the income management reform bill. I want to begin now by thanking the community affairs secretariat for their work on this inquiry; my fellow committee members; and all the participants, who gave compelling and important evidence. This inquiry exposed the complete inadequacy and unsuitability of the legislative instruments underpinning Labor's Enhanced Income Management regime. An overwhelming number of inquiry participants expressed their concern about the extent and nature of the consultation on these instruments and, when asked during the hearing if the government had engaged in a formal consultation process on the instruments with any of the diverse range of witnesses, many, including the Queensland Indigenous Family Violence Legal Service, Economic Justice Australia, the Australian Council of Social Service and the Accountable Income Management Network, they said, no, they had not been consulted. Further, many participants raised concerns about the level and type of consultation that had been undertaken with First Nations communities. A representative from the Queensland Indigenous Family Legal Service highlighted how the lack of consultation does not align with the National Agreement on Closing the Gap priorities, and participants also raised issues about the lack of public information about who and what kind of consultation that had been undertaken. This firsthand evidence of the lack of consultation completely contradicts the claims in the government's explanatory material for these instruments, which stated that 'extensive' consultation had been undertaken. And this wasn't the only issue raised by witnesses about the explanatory material provided with the instruments. Many emphasised how the explanatory materials lacked adequate information for parliament and the public to properly scrutinise their impact. Even more alarmingly, witnesses highlighted how the impact analysis mentioned in each explanatory statement concerned the cashless debit card rather than Enhanced Income Management. It was also pointed out that, despite this analysis being outdated, this wasn't mentioned in the explanatory material at all. For the parliament to properly scrutinise legislative instruments, we rely on explanatory materials. Tabling instruments that lack adequate and relevant information is lazy, deceptive and potentially harmful. And, while there were more issues raised by inquiry participants, another significant flaw in the instruments was the failure to address years of documented human rights concerns raised by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights. It's clear that, in developing these legislative instruments, the Labor government had no regard for transparency, human rights or working in partnership with First Nations communities. We're extremely disappointed that the Senate voted down the Greens motion to disallow three of these instruments last year. However, we urge the Senate to support our upcoming motion to disallow the declared child protection state determination, the recognised state or territory determination and the specified income management instrument in the coming weeks. So, in response to the evidence presented before the committee, the report makes one clear recommendation: that, for any future income management legislative instruments, the Australian government give consideration to undertaking genuine consultation, to provide adequate and relevant explanatory material to parliament to enable appropriate scrutiny and to provide a detailed report on the consultation process and outcomes regarding the proposed determinations. The Greens support this recommendation, and I want to emphasise that implementing this recommendation is an important measure to improve the overall transparency of the Enhanced Income Management scheme. However, the Greens are of the firm view that all forms of compulsory income management should be abolished. They do not work, and we do not believe that this recommendation of disallowing these instruments goes far enough. As the Australian Council of Social Services said during the inquiry hearing: … any amount of amendment to these instruments would fail to address the core problem of continuing mandatory income management, which now mostly affects people in the Northern Territory. While this inquiry only examined six legislative instruments in Australia's income management system, it reinforced a long history of evidence showing compulsory income management schemes are ineffective and incompatible with human rights. For example, the Central Land Council wrote in their submission: … while Indigenous poverty rates are decreasing (albeit to a small degree) across most parts of the country, in remote NT and the West Kimberly, they are escalating—significantly. In these regions, poverty rates are more than 50 per cent, and in some cases, much higher. This level of poverty is unparalleled elsewhere in Australia and evidence of serious policy failure—and income management is a wholly inadequate policy to address it. The Central Land Council go on to suggest: Genuine efforts to address the poverty crisis in remote NT will focus on policy measures that are preventative, strengths-based and systemic—designed with Aboriginal people and their representative organisations, consistent with the commitments under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap. Dr Elizabeth Moore, the president of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists said: … we have advocated for the abolition of welfare quarantining because schemes like this are inherently flawed in their logic and the research indicates they don't actually reduce the purchasing of prohibited items. They have a range of impacts, some of which are negative rather than positive. In fact, the research shows that some of the earlier schemes did not reduce the impact of children not going to school. These schemes failed to support people with concurrent addiction and housing and employment issues, and they failed to support them in bringing around behavioural change; we've heard this from previous speakers. Positive reinforcing strategies and the fulfilment of mental, emotional and social needs have been shown to be much more effective. There is also concern around stigma, discrimination and disempowerment. They may in fact exacerbate grievance, unrest and retraumatisation, especially of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. The evidence is clear: compulsory income management does not work. Rather it is a punitive and harmful regime that disproportionately targets First Nations peoples. As noted, this inquiry builds upon years of evidence pointing to the failures of compulsory income management. It also reinforces the ongoing calls from First Nations organisations for preventive measures and services that genuinely support people living in poverty and who potentially face addiction issues—services that are First Nations led and co-designed. Before the 2022 election, the Australian Labor Party made a clear commitment to end all forms of compulsory income management. Disappointingly, the Labor government broke this promise when they chose to maintain the BasicsCard and establish the enhanced income management regime. Labor, it is time that you honour your commitment and listen to the voices of First Nations communities, social service organisations and those impacted by these punitive policies. It is time to end all forms of compulsory income management. I seek leave to continue my remarks later. Leave granted; debate adjourned.
Poverty | Statements by Senators | Senate debates
On Monday, the Guardian reported that Australians experiencing homelessness are dying at an average age of 44, which is 30 to 40 years younger than the average Australian. This is tragic and...
On Monday, the Guardian reported that Australians experiencing homelessness are dying at an average age of 44, which is 30 to 40 years younger than the average Australian. This is tragic and completely inexcusable. Australia is one of the wealthiest countries in the world. We should be able to provide people with the support they need, particularly the basics of a roof above their head. Instead, too many people are living in cars or tents because they can't obtain secure and affordable housing. They can't get the health care they need, and they and their kids are going hungry because income support payments don't cover the costs of groceries. The cost-of-living crisis is a poverty crisis, and poverty is a political choice. While it was encouraging that Labor finally accepted that the stage 3 tax cuts were unfair, their proposed changes don't go far enough. A Parliamentary Budget Office costing commissioned by the Greens revealed that the lowest 40 per cent of income earners will receive just nine per cent of the benefits from these changes, and all of us parliamentarians will still get a $4,500-a-year cut. No-one in this place needs or deserves a $4,500-a-year tax cut. These rejigged stage 3 cuts will do diddly squat for the over five million people who receive income support payments or are struggling on low-paid work. What happened to Labour's promise to leave nobody behind? People experiencing homelessness are prematurely dying decades before other Australians. This is a national crisis, and it needs urgent and decisive action. Labor must urgently raise the rate of all income support payments to above the poverty line and commit to massively increased investment in public and community housing. We cannot afford to let this poverty crisis take any more lives.
Human Rights | Statements by Senators | Senate debates
Today I'm wearing a jacket today that was gifted to me by Shakila, an Afghan Hazara refugee. Shakila joined her husband, Juma, in Australia mid last year. Thank you, Shakila. The jacket is...
Today I'm wearing a jacket today that was gifted to me by Shakila, an Afghan Hazara refugee. Shakila joined her husband, Juma, in Australia mid last year. Thank you, Shakila. The jacket is beautiful. Juma was one of the many Afghans my office and I advocated for—to receive an emergency humanitarian visa to Australia—when Kabul fell to the Taliban in August 2021. I want to thank the former government and former Minister Marise Payne for the work they did getting people out of Afghanistan. Helping people escape from Afghanistan is one of the very tangible things I feel proud of having done during my time in the Senate. But of course, for every person who gained asylum in Australia and other countries, there are thousands more who can't or who are subject to disappearances, torture and killings. Women and girls are being held prisoner in their homes or stolen from families to becomes brides of Taliban fighters. Before Afghanistan hit the headlines, there was Myanmar. Sadly, the war in Myanmar and the killings, torture and jailings by the brutal junta are still continuing. Ukraine pushed Afghanistan out of the news as the brutal regime of Vladimir Putin attempts to take territory that's not theirs. Israel's invasion and genocide in Gaza have killed more people in four months than civilians killed in Ukraine in two years. Israel's occupation and now genocide of Palestine stands with other occupations, including China's occupation of Tibet in 1959, Indonesia's invasion of West Papua in 1969 and India's occupation of two-thirds of Kashmir in 1947—all in a brutal time line of colonial oppression, including the invasion and occupation of Australia by the English and the genocide of our First Peoples. Yet, over 200 years on, we still have political leaders who dogmatically deny the truth of the brutality of settlement of this continent and the multigenerational trauma still being experienced by too many of our First Peoples. We have political leaders who don't recognise that their wealth and privilege come from stolen wealth, stolen land and the brutal subjugation of the rights of our First Peoples. I've been in the Senate now for almost a decade, and I've spoken many times in this place about human rights. What I want to say today is that, if we believe that human rights are important and if we believe that we should be working for the human rights of all people throughout the world, then we have to be consistent and courageous in our advocacy and our work for human rights. In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, agreed to at the UN on 10 December 1948, the world agreed on what human rights were and how they should be protected. In this speech, I want to focus on the human rights of people in the occupied states of Palestine, Tibet, West Papua and Kashmir because, while human rights are violated all over the world, it's in occupied states where the 30 articles of the universal declaration are comprehensively smashed, and the world collectively needs to be doing much more for people who are so oppressed in these states. In Palestine, occupation has erupted into genocide over the last three months. As the Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq said before the current genocide in Gaza: Palestine has become a litmus test for the effectiveness of the international human rights system as a whole. Only by ending Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territory, realising Palestinian refugees' right of return, and ensuring equal rights for all Palestinians, including citizens, without discrimination, can Palestinians' faith in the international system be restored. This requires genuine accountability and a global effort to end Israel's widespread and systematic abuses … In Tibet, attacks on universal human rights are manifest. As the Office of Tibet representing the Tibetan parliament in exile has stated: … the PRC government continues to operate colonial boarding schools, separating nearly one million Tibetan children from their families and depriving them of the opportunity to learn their mother tongue …and … Tibetan culture and traditions. A significant majority of Tibetans, specially writers, intellectuals, environmentalists, community leaders, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and artists are unlawfully arrested, imprisoned, tortured and subjected to enforced disappearance … … … … Tibetans are particularly repressed in their religious rights, with lay Tibetans and children forbidden from participating in religious activities, while monks and nuns are subjected to political indoctrination sessions and barred from religious teachings and discussion … China refuses to enclose— or, rather, 'disclose'— any credible information on the whereabouts of Tibet's 11th Panchen Lama following 28 years of enforced disappearance… … … … Over two million Tibetan nomads and farmers have been forced to relocate from their traditional grasslands … The vast vacated land has been illegally claimed and … used for military training camps, mining activities, and large-scale government projects, including hydropower plants … that benefit the PRC government at the expense of local Tibetans and the environment. Let me move on to West Papua. West Papua was occupied by Indonesia and was annexed in 1969, and the people of West Papua have been denied the right self-determination since. In 2022, UN human rights experts expressed serious concerns about the deteriorating human rights situation in West Papua, citing shocking abuses including child killings, disappearances, torture and the forced displacement of 60,000 to 100,000 people since 2018. The experts called for urgent humanitarian access to the region and urged the Indonesian government to conduct full and independent investigations into abuses against the indigenous peoples. I will move on to Kashmir. India occupied two-thirds of Kashmir in 1947. UN human rights observers, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have documented ongoing human rights abuses in the 76 years since. Amnesty International reported in 2022 that the Indian government had drastically intensified the repression of rights in Jammu and Kashmir in the previous three years, since the special status that gave them significant autonomy was stripped away. Amnesty documented how people have faced relentless interrogations, arbitrary travel bans, revolving-door detentions and repressive media policies, while being blocked from access to appeals or justice in courts and human rights bodies. The UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor, said last year: Indian authorities appear to be intensifying the longstanding repression of Kashmiri civil society. I want to conclude today with a message to the Australian government and parliament, reinforcing my many contributions in this place about human rights. If we truly are committed to human rights then we have to protect them for all people, without fear or favour, and not pick and choose depending on what is seen to suit Australia's interests. To protect the rights of Palestinians, the occupation must end and Australia must join the South African case in the ICJ, acknowledge that what Israel is doing in Gaza is genocide and apply sanctions against members of the Israeli war cabinet. Australia must do more to protect the rights of people in Tibet. I commend Australia's recent contribution to China's universal periodic review, but we have to do more. We must raise these issues at every forum we have with the Chinese government, and Australia should put a policy in place and advocate for the Chinese to protect the succession of the 14th Dalai Lama without any interference from the Chinese government. We should act on a key ask of the Tibetans, which is for the world to recognise Tibet as an occupied region and an unresolved conflict, not as part of China, and for pressure to be placed on China to come back to the negotiating table. The Chinese government hasn't engaged on the issue of Tibet since 2013. Similarly, with West Papua, the Australian government has been blind to the human rights abuses there, has failed to take action and has blocked action in the Senate to shine a light on them. The Greens stand in solidarity with all West Papuans who are facing such violence, and we urge the Australian government to join the calls for self-determination for the West Papuan people and for the Indonesian government to immediately withdraw all military forces and cease attacks on civilians. Finally, on Kashmir, we urge the Australian government to act to raise the appalling ongoing repression and intimidation in Indian-occupied Kashmir and elsewhere in India in every forum, including bilateral meetings, through the Quad and in other multilateral fora. We should be actively advocating for an act of self-determination for both Indian- and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. Human rights matter for all people across the world, and Australia could be playing a much bigger role in working for an international rules based order where human rights matter, ending occupation, and working for justice in war-torn countries such as Afghanistan and Myanmar. I urge the government to lift our game both at home and abroad, and I commit to playing my part and continuing to work for international justice both in my remaining time here and ongoingly.
Middle East | Matters of Urgency | Senate debates
Twenty-six thousand—that's a conservative underestimate of the number of Palestinians who have been killed in Israel's attacks on Gaza since 7 October. Twenty-six thousand people is one per...
Twenty-six thousand—that's a conservative underestimate of the number of Palestinians who have been killed in Israel's attacks on Gaza since 7 October. Twenty-six thousand people is one per cent of Gaza's population—one per cent of the population wiped out at the hands of the Israeli government in just four months. It's more than the number of people killed in the Nakba of 1947-49, when the State of Israel was created and approximately 15,000 Palestinians were killed in a series of mass atrocities. It's more than the number of civilians killed in the Russian Ukraine war over the last four years. This statistic does not account for the thousands of Palestinians unaccounted for or the millions more displaced. It does not account for the grief, the terror, the fear and the trauma that each individual has faced as their families, their homes and their communities have been viciously destroyed by the Israeli government. In these four months of violence and devastation, Australians have watched in horror while the Labor government has stubbornly refused to even call for a permanent ceasefire. Personally, I broke down in tears a few weeks ago as I was cooking a recipe from a Palestinian cookbook and I thought of the home cooks of Gaza who have been killed in the last four months and those Palestinians who are still alive but for whom cooking their special meal is currently impossible, who are living in stench, in mud and under flimsy plastic shelters, cooking on wood fires if they are cooking at all, and whose kids are starving rather than being nurtured and nourished with maqluba, falafel and fattoush. Silence in the face of these atrocities is not an option. Australia has a responsibility to act decisively to stop the crime of genocide and support punishment for genocide wherever it occurs, which is why the Australian Greens are calling for the Labor government to publicly back South Africa's proceedings against Israel in the International Court of Justice. The Labor government has previously intervened in ICJ court cases involving Ukraine, and we see no reason for it not to intervene now. South Africa's case presents serious and compelling evidence that Israel is committing the crime of genocide. By supporting these important proceedings, Australia can demonstrate that no country is exempt from international law. The Greens are also calling on the government to sanction Prime Minister Netanyahu and his entire war cabinet, to end all military and security trade and cooperation with Israel and to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire. Labor, show courage and demand justice for Palestinians.
Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee; Reference | Committees | Senate debates
I move: That the following matter be referred to the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee for inquiry and report by 8 October 2024: The impact and mitigation of aircraft...
I move: That the following matter be referred to the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee for inquiry and report by 8 October 2024: The impact and mitigation of aircraft noise on residents and business in capital cities and regional towns, with particular reference to: (a) the effect of aircraft noise on amenity, physical and mental wellbeing and everyday life of residents; (b) the effect of aircraft noise on small business; (c) any proposals for the mitigation and limitation of aircraft noise, including flight curfews, changes to flight paths and alternatives to air travel; (d) any barriers to the mitigation and limitation of aircraft noise; and (e) any other related matters.
Murphy, Ms Peta Jan | Condolences | Senate debates
I'm honoured to rise to speak on behalf of the Australian Greens, remembering and honouring the late Peta Murphy here today. I would like to associate ourselves with the remarks of Senator Wong...
I'm honoured to rise to speak on behalf of the Australian Greens, remembering and honouring the late Peta Murphy here today. I would like to associate ourselves with the remarks of Senator Wong and Senator Birmingham. The heartfelt tributes from all sides of politics that we've heard for Peta Murphy, here today in the House and at her memorial service, ring true. They all ring true. In her first speech, Peta said that at the end of a parliamentary career she would like to be able to look back and say that she left Australian democracy in a better shape than when she joined, which is a noble task that we should all aspire to. In the public sphere she fought for equality, and her values and accomplishments in her time in this place are many. It was true to Peta's character that she channelled her personal battle with breast cancer into public policy. Two weeks after being sworn in as the member for Dunkley, Peta received the tragic news that her breast cancer had returned. She took the fight head on. Peta continued to advocate not just for herself but for others—for better treatment, more services and stronger support. She worked with the Breast Cancer Network Australia to advocate a national registry of metastatic cancer patients. While she was going through her own treatment, she turned it into advocacy, not just for reform but also to be an example herself, and she inspired so many in doing so. She used her skills before coming to this place to stand up for people who were doing it tough. She sought to not only improve their individual lives but to change the world so that things would be better for them. I want to recognise Peta's dedicated work with community legal centres and her commitment to prevent further damage and distress to people in need., We have lost Peta far too soon, and the grief that people, especially in the Labor family, are feeling is heartfelt and it is real. On behalf of the Greens, I want to extend our support and our thoughts for what is not only a difficult time now but one that is likely to be a difficult time for some period to come. And to her family and close friends: we are thinking of you in this most difficult of times, particularly her husband, Rod; her parents, Bob and Jan; and her sisters, Jodi and Penni. We are all the poorer for not having Peta Murphy with us. Vale, Peta Murphy.
I present the report of the Community Affairs References Committee on the rental sector, together with accompanying documents, and I move: That the Senate take note of the report. As Chair of the...
I present the report of the Community Affairs References Committee on the rental sector, together with accompanying documents, and I move: That the Senate take note of the report. As Chair of the Senate Community Affairs References Committee, I'm pleased to present the report of the inquiry into the worsening rental crisis in Australia. It's the first ever national inquiry into renting. This inquiry presented a unique opportunity for renters to directly share their experiences with parliament. The inquiry received 407 written submissions, a whopping 16,061 submissions through a simplified submission form, with over 9,000 of these being from renters, and evidence from witnesses across four hearings in Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne. Clearly, the rental and housing crisis is having a huge impact on Australians, and people are desperate for their stories to be heard. I'm incredibly proud that we established this inquiry. Particularly, I would like to thank the Australian Greens spokesperson for housing and homelessness, Max Chandler-Mather, and his team. Without their staunch advocacy and the work of other advocates, renters would never have been such a key political issue, and a national rental inquiry would never have been a priority. I would also like to thank the community affairs secretariat for the countless hours of work they put into analysing the thousands of submissions and for the research and preparation they did for each hearing and this report. Without their work, we would not have been able to undertake such a landmark inquiry. Most of all, I want to thank all those who made submissions, provided evidence and shared the traumatic experience of being a renter. I also want to thank those who have been advocating and continue to advocate for meaningful reforms to improve renters' rights and security. Again and again throughout this inquiry, the committee heard evidence of the dire state of Australia's housing system. We heard how right now there are 640,000 households under severe rental stress, how years of chronic underfunding and privatisation of public housing by governments have led to a shortfall of genuinely affordable housing of approximately 750,000 homes and how this has pushed many renters into the private rental market and led to a system of exponential rent increases, stress and insecurity. What was made undeniably clear by an overwhelming amount of submitters and witnesses is that we are in the midst of a housing crisis, one of the worst that Australia has ever seen. We heard how renters across the country are struggling with the same four issues: the lack of genuinely affordable housing, including public, social and community housing; unregulated and skyrocketing rents; inadequate tenant protections; and systems that fundamentally favour landlords. Renters across the country are having to live in inadequate and unsafe conditions due to the fundamental power imbalance between landlords and tenants. One witness and renter, Leanne, told the committee: There's inequality and unfairness in our current rental system, and it favours our landlords. The system is failing us. Asking for the leaky gas stove to be repaired or for the hole in the back deck to be repaired so we don't step through it in the dark is a risk. Asking not to have to set rat traps under your bed at night so that you can sleep is not good enough. But it's okay because the rent's cheap. Every conversation with my landlord is a mental calculation about how much this is going to cost me. I've just waited two weeks for a new washing machine. There are eight people in our flats using one washing machine. I looked on Google, and $600 is all that costs, but that's a mental calculation in my mind: where's the next rent increase coming from? The list goes on with the repairs, and I wish that the rat trap under the bed was a joke. But it's not. Many witnesses also expressed how unrelenting and devastating rental increases can be to a person's finances and wellbeing. We heard how unregulated rent hikes have driven a family to move into a caravan and how a single mother working in the Public Service was forced to live in a share house with her newborn baby. In response to the many distressing testimonies about the urgency and severity of the housing crisis, as chair of the committee I have put forward a suite of important recommendations to the government in my additional comments. The first and foremost of my chair's recommendations is for the government to commit to substantial further investment in public and community housing in the next federal budget, including specific funding for youth and First Nations housing. While the recently legislated HAFF was a step in the right direction, particularly the extra $3 billion that the Greens negotiated for affordable housing, evidence from this inquiry revealed that this investment falls completely short. It's estimated that the unmet national demand for social housing will be around 550,000 dwellings by 2037, revealing the total inadequacy of the HAFF's promise of 30,000 homes over the next five years. If we want to reduce public and community housing waitlists, have an impact on the extremely low vacancy rates in the private rental market and fix this housing crisis, we must reverse the years of neglect and chronic underfunding of our public and affordable housing system. My chair's recommendations also include providing immediate relief to renters and strengthening renters' rights. Crucially, these include that the government work with the states and territories: to freeze rental increases for two years, followed by a limit on rental increases of two per cent every two years; to amend tenancy laws and strengthen the prohibition on rent bidding; to remove no-grounds evictions; to legislate a minimum set of standards for energy efficiency; and to raise the rate of income support payments and review Commonwealth Rent Assistance. We are in the midst of a crisis, and this demands crisis-level attention. Evidence was provided by many witnesses suggesting a rent freeze as a sensible and effective solution to the escalating rental crisis. Rents have gone up 33 per cent over the last three years. It's going to take a long time for wages and particularly income support payments to catch up with that. Skyrocketing rents are dire for people on Centrelink payments. According to Anglicare's 2023 Rental affordability snapshot, zero per cent of rentals are affordable to a person on JobSeeker and Youth Allowance and 0.1 per cent are affordable to a person on the DSP. Many witnesses told the committee that the current rates of rental assistance are not enough, and we heard how CRA is poorly targeted and often fails to support people who need the most support. Recent changes to CRA and income support simply tinker around the edges of a system that fails to support people on the lowest incomes to find shelter. To truly help people have a secure roof over their head, income support payments must be urgently raised. As the Antipoverty Centre noted, doing so will support the largest number of people experiencing both housing and financial stress. The inquiry also investigated and made clear recommendations on other issues impacting the current housing crisis, like regulating short-term rentals, reforming our tax system, reviewing planning laws and expanding the application of the Privacy Act to all real estate agencies and the RentTech business. These recommendations build upon the work of advocates, organisations and researchers who have been advocating tirelessly for meaningful improvement to renters' rights, and they also reflect the calls of the Australian Greens. I'm incredibly proud of this report and the chair's recommendations. However, I find it staggering and extremely disappointing that, despite listening to the devastating testimonies of renters across the country, both the Labor and Liberal parties could not agree to stronger recommendations that reflected the severity of the crisis, leading the committee down the path of separate recommendations from each party in our additional comments. This inquiry made clear that the current government reforms will fail to make up the massive shortfall in affordable housing, will fail to stop skyrocketing rents and consequent increases in homelessness and will certainly fail to fix the housing crisis. By putting forward recommendations that don't address the impact of unregulated rent hikes, the inadequacy of income supports and the ongoing shortage of our affordable housing stock, both parties are revealing their indifference to renters and the housing crisis more broadly. While I hope that the Labor government takes this report seriously and implements all 26 of my chair's recommendations, I have very little faith that they will take any meaningful action in response to this report. But know this: while the major parties may continue to ignore the calls of renters, the Greens hear you and we will continue to fight for your rights. We won't stop fighting until unlimited rent increases are illegal, there is enough genuinely affordable public housing for everyone who needs it, renters' rights are strengthened and income support payments are raised to above the poverty line. I seek leave to continue my remarks later. Leave granted; debate adjourned.
Middle East | Questions without Notice: Take Note of Answers | Senate debates
I move: That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Foreign Affairs (Senator Wong) to a question without notice I asked today relating to the conflict in Gaza. The...
I move: That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Foreign Affairs (Senator Wong) to a question without notice I asked today relating to the conflict in Gaza. The absolutely catastrophic situation in Gaza was described overnight by the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, in very clear terms. Mr Guterres wrote to the UN Security Council, invoking for the first time in his term article 99 of the UN Charter, which allows him to bring to the attention of the Security Council any event that threatens the security of the world. In his letter, he said he expects public order to completely break down soon due to desperate conditions in Gaza as the territory comes under constant bombardment by the Israeli Defense Forces. He wrote that the humanitarian system in Gaza is facing a severe risk of collapse. He said: The situation is fast deteriorating into a catastrophe with potentially irreversible implications for Palestinians as a whole and for peace and security in the region. … … … I urge the members of the Security Council to press to avert a humanitarian catastrophe. I reiterate my appeal for a humanitarian ceasefire to be declared. He said: We are facing a severe risk of collapse of the humanitarian system. And he added: Amid constant bombardment by the Israel Defense Forces, and without shelter or the essentials to survive, I expect public order to completely break down soon due to the desperate conditions, rendering even limited humanitarian assistance impossible.' Aid organisations say that nowhere in Gaza is safe anymore, there's only a trickle of humanitarian aid getting through and hardly any getting past the Egyptian border. I asked the minister: given this catastrophe, would we join the calls of the UN for an immediate and permanent ceasefire and increase our aid? Minister Wong's response made me both sad and furious. Our government is so joined at the hip in such a craven alliance with the Israeli state and US imperialism in the Middle East that, despite their war crimes, all we're willing to do is 'support international efforts towards a sustainable ceasefire and, if there's a need for more aid, then we would consider it'. We have given $21 million when the estimated need is $1 billion. This is our government. They represent us on the world stage. Through our government's actions and inactions we are complicit in the war crimes being committed by Israel, both in our unwillingness to call out these crimes and, as Senator Shoebridge made clear in his questioning earlier this week, the sale of over $30 million in arms and ammunition to Israel over the last 15 years, on DFAT's own figures. Not in my name. Not in our name. Not in the name of hundreds of thousands of Australians taking to the streets every week while this war is ongoing. Why won't we join the UN and call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire? The answer Minister Wong gave me was because Hamas is holding hostages. I and the Greens condemn the attacks of Hamas on 7 October and the killing of 1,200 Israelis and call for the release of the hostages, but the UN and all the leading aid organisations who are calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire know too that Hamas is holding hostages and they are calling for their release too. There is no doubt that an immediate and permanent ceasefire would have to involve Hamas and the release of the hostages. It is totally spurious to say that the hostages held by Hamas are the blockage to calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire. Minister Wong said that we support a just and lasting peace. If there is one thing that is certain, it's that we're further away from a just and lasting peace for Israel and Palestine every day this war continues. Every day we see the ongoing destruction of Gaza and every day we see the killing of women, children and the elderly is a day we are closer to the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, closer to genocide in Gaza. Every day we are further from that peace. So I implore our government to join the Greens and the international community in the call for an immediate and permanent humanitarian ceasefire. I urge all Australians, as we enter the festive season, to keep letting our government know that the government's position is not their position, to remember the people of Gaza and to do everything they can to work for peace. I've had Handala around my neck as a talisman since 7 October. For the people of Gaza I say, 'Sumud.' I send you my love, prayers, determination and hope for a better future. Question agreed to.
Middle East | Questions without Notice | Senate debates
Minister, aid agencies actually say nowhere in Gaza is safe anymore. More than 80 per cent of Gaza's population have left their homes, and humanitarian aid is not being delivered much further...
Minister, aid agencies actually say nowhere in Gaza is safe anymore. More than 80 per cent of Gaza's population have left their homes, and humanitarian aid is not being delivered much further than the Egyptian border. Australia has given $25 million in aid to Gaza, where there's an estimated need of over a billion dollars. Will Australia deliver an end-of-year gift to the people of Gaza of increased aid and work diplomatically with Israel to ensure it can be delivered to all in Gaza?