Janet Rice's recent appearances (OpenAustralia.org)
type: channel
language: en-gb
creator: OpenAustralia.org, mprss.php script
date: 2024-06-30T23:05:41+00:00
items: Parliament | Adjournment | Senate debates
items: g173.3
items: Community Affairs References Committee; Report | Committees | Senate debates
items: Middle East | Petitions | Senate debates
items: Israel | Matters of Urgency | Senate debates
items: Environment | Adjournment | Senate debates
items: Racism | Adjournment | Senate debates
items: Department of Health and Aged Care; Order for the Production of Documents | Documents | Senate debates
items: Middle East | Statements by Senators | Senate debates
items: Poverty | Statements by Senators | Senate debates
items: Human Rights | Statements by Senators | Senate debates
items: Middle East | Matters of Urgency | Senate debates
items: Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee; Reference | Committees | Senate debates
items: Murphy, Ms Peta Jan | Condolences | Senate debates
items: Middle East | Questions without Notice: Take Note of Answers | Senate debates
items: Middle East | Questions without Notice | Senate debates

Parliament | Adjournment | Senate debates
type: item
description: 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...
encoded: 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 an…
date: 2024-03-18T20:10:00+00:00

g173.3
type: item
title: 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
description: 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...
encoded: 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 h…
date: 2024-02-28T18:06:00+00:00

Community Affairs References Committee; Report | Committees | Senate debates
type: item
description: 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...
encoded: 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 …
date: 2024-02-28T17:23:00+00:00

Middle East | Petitions | Senate debates
type: item
description: 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...
encoded: 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.
date: 2024-02-28T17:20:00+00:00

Israel | Matters of Urgency | Senate debates
type: item
description: 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...
encoded: 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.
date: 2024-02-28T17:08:00+00:00

Israel | Matters of Urgency | Senate debates
type: item
description: 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...
encoded: 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 sho…
date: 2024-02-28T17:08:00+00:00

Israel | Matters of Urgency | Senate debates
type: item
description: It's genocide!
encoded: It's genocide!
date: 2024-02-28T16:50:00+00:00

Environment | Adjournment | Senate debates
type: item
description: 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...
encoded: 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 …
date: 2024-02-27T20:13:00+00:00

Racism | Adjournment | Senate debates
type: item
description: 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.
encoded: 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.
date: 2024-02-27T19:30:00+00:00

Department of Health and Aged Care; Order for the Production of Documents | Documents | Senate debates
type: item
description: 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...
encoded: 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.
date: 2024-02-27T17:10:00+00:00

Middle East | Statements by Senators | Senate debates
type: item
description: 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...
encoded: 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.
date: 2024-02-27T13:34:00+00:00

Community Affairs References Committee; Report | Committees | Senate debates
type: item
description: 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...
encoded: 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 legisl…
date: 2024-02-08T16:27:00+00:00

Poverty | Statements by Senators | Senate debates
type: item
description: 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...
encoded: 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.
date: 2024-02-08T13:34:00+00:00

Human Rights | Statements by Senators | Senate debates
type: item
description: 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...
encoded: 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 …
date: 2024-02-07T12:34:00+00:00

Middle East | Matters of Urgency | Senate debates
type: item
description: 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...
encoded: 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 gov…
date: 2024-02-06T17:43:00+00:00

Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee; Reference | Committees | Senate debates
type: item
description: 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...
encoded: 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.
date: 2024-02-06T16:39:00+00:00

Murphy, Ms Peta Jan | Condolences | Senate debates
type: item
description: 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...
encoded: 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 no…
date: 2024-02-06T16:00:00+00:00

Community Affairs References Committee; Report | Committees | Senate debates
type: item
description: 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...
encoded: 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 a…
date: 2023-12-07T16:29:00+00:00

Middle East | Questions without Notice: Take Note of Answers | Senate debates
type: item
description: 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...
encoded: 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 …
date: 2023-12-07T15:33:00+00:00

Middle East | Questions without Notice | Senate debates
type: item
description: 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...
encoded: 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?
date: 2023-12-07T14:25:00+00:00