Author: admin

The People’s Blockade of the World’s Largest Coal Port has been under sustained attack by the NSW Government. 2020 Newcastle Young Citizen, Alexa Stuart, is today taking the NSW Minns Labor Government to the Supreme Court in a bid to find their 97 hour exclusion order for the Hunter River mouth and beaches unlawful.

Greens MP and spokesperson for Justice and public interest lawyer Sue Higginson said “This is a very important case, at this time. This case is about the rule of law and questioning whether the Government has unlawfully stepped above it. The Court will be asked to determine if this is a lawful use of power and for a proper purpose,”

“The question is, has the notice excluded the public from the water beyond the power that the Marine Safety Act provides. The powers under the law to exclude vessels and people are to facilitate special events such as swim events, regattas and events involving vessels, they are not unfettered powers for the Government to do as they want, when they want, to control people and infringe upon the ordinary rights of people wanting to play in the waters of NSW,”

“We know the NSW Labor Government does not want the people to protest against their current climate change and coal policies that are allowing the continued export of coal through the port of Newcastle,”

“The Government continues to say that its exercise of power against the people is all about safety, but we know if it was about safety – they would be working with the people, to ensure safety, not criminalising ordinary behaviour such as swimming, exercising, paddling, playing and cooling down in the public waters of the state.”

“Keeping people safe means working with people, not trying to squash, hurt and criminalise them. When a Government is at war with the people, it doesn’t go well for anyone, we do see excesses of power and it offends our democracy,” Ms Higginson said

It’s good to see the Treasurer’s move to direct the Future Fund to invest in things we all need like housing and renewable energy but the Government also needs to make clear what the fund should stop investing in.

Senator Barbara Pocock, Greens spokesperson on Finance:

“Any new mandate should make clear that the fund should not invest in coal, oil and gas. We can’t keep putting our foot on the accelerator and the brake at the same time. We’re in a climate crisis and Australians don’t want to see us investing in the very things that will make this crisis worse.

“I’ve been campaigning for two years to have the investment mandate updated to reflect Australians wishes to transition to a clean energy economy. The overwhelming majority of us want this.

“This $230 billion belongs to all Australians and is there to benefit future generations. What sort of future will we leave them if we continue to using our investments to prolong the energy transition and risk climate catastrophe.

“Years ago, the Future Fund was directed not to invest in tobacco. Well, here’s the news, fossil fuels are the new tobacco.

“The Government has a responsibility to direct investments away from coal, oil and gas and contribute to a clean, green and safe future for our children.”

The Greens have criticised Labor and Liberal for ignoring expert evidence and ramming laws through Parliament to ban young people from social media without genuine scrutiny.

The Greens have called on the Government to protect children with a ban on the targeting, harvesting, and selling of their data, a Digital Duty of Care, and a range of other measures supported by the Joint Select Committee into Social Media.

Senator Sarah Hanson-Young is Spokesperson for Communications, Senator for South Australia:

“The Government’s deal with Dutton to ram through a social media age ban in under a week is rushed, reckless and goes against the evidence. We can’t let the tech giants off the hook.

“As parents, we are rightly worried about the safety of our kids. This is why the Greens and experts have been calling for measures to reduce the damage being done by poisonous algorithms that fuel division, damage democracy and target our kids with extreme content.

“The recent Parliamentary Inquiry into Social Media heard time and time again that an age-ban will not make social media safer for anyone. It is complicated to implement and will have unintended consequences for young people. Yet the Government and Coalition have chosen to ignore the evidence and ram this bill through in the final week of sitting.

“Whether you’re a 14-year-old or a 64-year-old – these companies have a responsibility to provide a safe product to the community and that’s why a Digital Duty of Care should be the priority.

“If the Government can rush these laws through, why can’t they implement the legislated duty of care they promised, or take measures that actually make platforms safer for everyone, like banning platforms from collecting, selling and exploiting Australians’ data?

“You don’t make platforms safer by just locking young people out. The Greens do not support a blunt age ban and will keep pushing for stronger action backed by evidence to tackle the toxic algorithms and insidious business model of these giant corporations.”

The Greens have also called for:

• A ban on the targeting, harvesting and selling of young people’s data
• A Digital Duty of Care on tech platforms
• EU-style guardrails to limit the toxicity of algorithms and extreme content
• The ability for users to turn down and opt-out of unwanted content
• The full release of the Online Safety Act review.
• Investment in education for young people and their families to help develop digital literacy and online safety skills, and equip them with the tools and resources they need for positive and responsible online use.

Responding to the Government and Opposition blocking the Greens move to refer the electoral reform bills to a Senate inquiry Greens Senate leader and democracy spokesperson Senator Larissa Waters said:

“Today in the Senate the government and the opposition teamed up to block an inquiry into the electoral reform bills. This is bad for democracy.

“There are some straightforward transparency measures in this bill, like lowering the disclosure threshold to $1,000 and real-time disclosure, which we have long called for. 

“The Greens are ready to pass transparency measures.

“However, we want an inquiry to ensure that the proposed funding reforms to get big money out of politics don’t entrench the two party system and make it harder for diversity and new entrants.

“It is the job of the Senate to scrutinise proposed legislation and that is what we have called for today.

“Any reform which limits donations to anyone who challenges Liberal and Labor, while protecting the establishment parties’ sources of income, will be seen for what it is – a complete stitch up, undermining our democracy, and the public’s expectation of fair play.

“Both the big parties continue to accept huge sums of money from dirty industries like coal and gas with a track record of trying to buy favourable policy outcomes. 

“The Greens have been calling for reform for decades.

“The Greens are ready, with a bill, that provides real electoral reform, but we’re very suspicious that the two big parties will gang up to rig the system to benefit themselves and lock out smaller parties and new entrants.”

The Greens will vote against Labor’s new aged care reforms after Labor joined forces with the Coalition to block Greens amendments that would have created criminal penalties for bad providers and stopped older people being slugged more for their care.

Earlier in the Senate, Labor and the Coalition rejected a Greens amendment to the Aged Care Bill 2024 to establish criminal penalties for crooked providers which – despite promising them before the election – Labor removed in a dodgy deal with the Coalition. Labor and the Coalition also joined forces to vote against a Greens amendment to remove  the chapter 4 funding provisions that will force most older people to pay increased co-contributions.

Greens spokesperson on Older People, Senator Penny Allman-Payne:

“Once again Australians are left wondering, ‘What is the point of Labor?’

“Presented with a blueprint from the Royal Commission to reform a broken aged care system by putting the rights of older people at its heart, Labor has instead capitulated to the Coalition and the for-profit aged care industry with new laws that will bolster the bottom lines of providers at the expense of older Australians.

“Older people and advocates say that older people must have rights that are unequivocally clear and enforceable, and the Greens have long supported a shift to a rights-based framework.

“Yet under laws that seem likely to pass through parliament today, many older Australians will now be required to pay more without any enforceable rights to quality care.

“The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety found that there was an urgent need to improve care, quality and enforcement in the sector. This was never meant to be about so-called ‘budget repair’ or provider profitability.

“Despite all of the shocking witness testimony about the appalling treatment many have suffered in this broken market-based system, Labor is simply doubling down.

“If greater reliance on a user-pays model is the answer, then we’re asking the wrong questions. Older people aren’t commodities. It should be an obligation of any moral society for the Government to guarantee high-quality care for all. 

“The Greens will continue to push for a phasing out of for-profit providers and for an aged care system that puts the rights of older people first.”