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The ACT Greens will support volunteer trail builders and deliver new trails at Stromlo Forest Park, to maintain Canberra’s appeal as a mountain biking destination for locals and tourists.

“Mountain biking is one of Canberra’s fastest growing sports, and more trails means more fun,” said Laura Nuttall MLA, Greens spokesperson on sport and recreation, recontesting her Tuggeranong seat of Brindabella.

“Mountain biking has already brought $30 million a year in domestic tourism to the ACT, and an international event happening on the South Coast next year is a huge opportunity for Canberra – if we can maintain our status as a mountain biking destination for tourists.

“We need to get on and deliver the Master Plan for Stromlo Forest Park and keep Canberra’s other trail networks in great shape.

“That’s why the ACT Greens will invest $1.2 million in our trails and the people who look after them,” Miss Nuttall said.

The ACT Greens will:

• Invest $800,000 in new trails at Stromlo Forest Park, as a start to delivering the Master Plan
• Provide $400,000 to community groups building and maintaining trails across the ACT
• Make the most of the opportunity offered by Sea Otter 2025 coming to Mogo Trails next October.

“Mountain biking is good for our health, it’s great fun, and it’s a wonderful way to appreciate Canberra’s environment,” said Jo Clay MLA, recontesting Greens Member for Ginninderra.

“We have excellent trails across the city for locals and visitors. But our volunteers need support to keep them that way.

“The Greens plan will build on the improved maintenance we’ve secured at Stromlo, to support local groups to maintain trail networks across the ACT, from Majura Pines and Cotter Pines to Bruce Ridge, Kowen Forest and more.

“This investment will get the gears moving again on making Canberra Australia’s mountain biking capital – where locals, tourists and competitive riders can shred the day away.”

More detail about the Greens’ plans for mountain biking and community sport is on the ACT Greens website.

The NSW and Australian Labor Governments have kicked off the first Global Nature Positive Summit in Sydney this morning despite the recent approval of 3 massive coal mine expansions and the ongoing logging of the public native forest estate, including the promised Great Koala National Park in NSW. Community members gathered at the International Convention Centre in Sydney to protest the Summit under guard by heavily armed police.

Greens MP and spokesperson for nature Sue Higginson said “Today’s summit in Sydney is a scam against NSW, Australia and the global community. The Labor Governments in NSW and Canberra are trashing the climate and nature, while trying to sell this nature positive lie to the world,”

“The greatest threat to nature, the environment, and humans, is the rapidly changing climate and we are turbo charging this crisis by mining, exporting and burning coal from NSW. Just two weeks ago, the Federal Labor Government signed off on 3 coal mining projects in NSW in one day, extending the mining of coal for another 30 years. This summit today is a sick and twisted charade from a Labor Party that has been captured by the fossil fuel industry,”

“It is galling that as this summit is underway extinction logging across our precious public forest estate continues, including in the Great Koala National Park. Communities from Taree to Tweed are in the forests right now, putting their lives on hold and their bodies on the line to stop the industrial scale logging that is driving the extinction of our most threatened species while Tanya Plibersek pats herself on the back in Sydney. Labor’s cognitive dissonance on nature right now is intellectually dishonest.”

“Labor is trying to hide their failures by blaming weak environmental laws. As a planning and environmental lawyer, I know that the laws we have need fixing – but they could be used to stop coal and gas projects and logging, Labor is just refusing to do it,”

“The heavily armed police at the community rally today was unnecessary and an act of intimidation against peaceful people. If the Police are wondering who the real threats to security are, they’ll find them working in the boardrooms of fossil fuel giants,”

“We have had enough. In Parliament, Members from across the political divide are ready to stop the Minns Labor Government in its tracks. If the Government won’t listen to their own Labor backbenchers, as well as the science, then we will take a stand to make them,” Ms Higginson said.

Following the huge crowds that attended peaceful anti-war protests over the weekend, the NSW Premier Chris Minns has spoken out about the possibility of categorising ongoing assemblies as user-pays events. In NSW, the Police Force provides most policing services free of charge, but are entitled under the “user-pays” agreement to charge the organisers of primarily music festivals excessive fees to police crowds and ensure community safety. There has been sustained criticism in recent years that the NSWPF have been using user-pays to price-gouge organisers and shut-down events they deem inappropriate.

Greens MP and spokesperson for justice Sue Higginson said, “The right to protest, including as part of a sustained protest effort, is the foundation of a healthy, functioning and mature democracy. Threatening to interfere with the right to protest creates a dangerous environment where important voices of democracy are strangled out of existence,”

“The police presence at the civil assemblies in support of the Palestinian and Lebanese people has been extreme, excessive and unnecessary. We now have 52 weeks of evidence that demonstrates these protests are non-violent and peaceful. In 365 days there have been no incidents of violence, except from the police themselves. People are gathering to express their collective grief and they’re calling for an end to the violence. There is simply no justification for such an excessive show of heavily armed and mounted police at these events,”

“If the Premier is concerned about the cost to the public of excessive police presence at protest events, the rational solution is to stop the excessive police presence and allocate those resources elsewhere. It is wrong for him to cry poor on police resourcing and allocation when he has been drumming up the need for the heavy police presence and when there is simply no credible reason for such a show of police to attend these events,”

“The extreme reliance on the Police in this state has been well documented, and under this Labor Government is being ratcheted up to an extreme level. It is not protestors or sustained peaceful non-violence that is a drain on our public funds, but the intense over-reliance on heavily armed and over-empowered police officers. It is time for the police state being swiftly cultivated under Minns’ watch to be called to account,”

“We know that the user-pays price tag is just a thinly-veiled attempt to shut down these important historic anti-war assemblies. The Premier knows well that a grass-roots coalition sustained by volunteers committed to speaking out against injustice have no possible means to pay the hefty price tag associated with a user-pays event. This is a state-sanctioned chokehold on the right to protest and assembly, and a transparent attempt to disband the tens-of-thousands of people critiquing NSW Labor,”

“There is simply no need for such a heavy handed approach and over policing. The Premier is once again responding to shock-jocks who would rather stoke social unrest than listen to the voices of the people. The Premier is now so influenced by 2GB it is hard to tell where one begins and the other ends. Perhaps it is time for Chris Minns to cut out the middleman and hand over the Premiership to 2GBs Ray Hadly,” Ms Higginson said.

A healthy, happy, productive society needs access to nutritious and affordable food. As cost of living pressures continue to increase for Canberrans, the ACT Greens are committing to further food relief for households and public schools students.

“Food is not a luxury, it’s essential to our wellbeing. But the market is failing us – price-gouging, and forcing people into impossible choices between food and medicine, or food and rent,” said Emma Davidson MLA, recontesting her south Canberra seat of Murrumbidgee.

“In a period of just six months this year, 51 per cent more people started visiting the YWCA’s food hub in Lanyon. In just one month, St. John’s Care started helping out 100 more Canberra families.

“For many people, this is their first time having to ask for help with the basics, and it’s essential we work together as a community to respond.”

The ACT Greens will:

• Increase funding for community-run food relief programs, with $330,000 per year on top of the funding already committed in the most recent ACT Budget
• Expand the provision of free breakfast and lunch to 20 ACT public schools by 2028, and provide free fruit twice a week to every public school student
• Support food and emergency relief agencies with improved logistics and storage
• Fully fund the Social Recovery Framework to strengthen community recovery after a disaster.

ACT Greens spokesperson on education, Laura Nuttall MLA, said food is fundamental to a good education.

“Kids have hungry minds, but they also need full bellies to be able to learn properly at school. 

“Food is a basic need. It’s essential. But right now, there are students in the ACT starting their days running on empty. 

“Providing food at school will improve learning and attendance, and help families struggling to afford enough good food.

“The Greens will provide free breakfast and lunch three days each week at 20 of the most in-need schools in the ACT, and give free fruit to every public school student at least twice a week.”

ACT Greens Leader Shane Rattenbury said the food affordability crisis is significant in the overall cost pressures facing Canberrans.

“Make no mistake, this is a cost of living election, but only the Greens have got plans to transform the circumstances we face.

“While we work to fix the price-gouging supermarket duopoly, the ACT Greens will make sure Canberrans don’t go hungry at home or at school.

“While we work to fix the broken housing market, the ACT Greens will build thousands more public homes so Canberrans can rent from the government at a price they can afford, knowing the rent they pay is invested back into this community.

“While people are juggling so many cost pressures, the Greens will deliver 160,000 free GP appointments each year, so you don’t have to choose between seeing a doctor or putting food on the table.

“All this is possible, if you vote for it.”

The ACT Greens’ plans for food relief and to address the cost of living are detailed on the ACT Greens website.

On the first anniversary of the October 7 attacks, we pause to reflect on the horrific terrorist atrocity that reverberated around the globe.

October 7 is a day that carries terrible pain. Over 1,200 innocent Israelis died: the largest loss of Jewish life on any single day since the Holocaust.

We unequivocally condemn Hamas’ actions on that day.

Innocent lives taken at a music festival. Women, men and children killed in their homes. Brutality that was inflicted with cold calculation.

Today, we also think of the hostages whose lives remain suspended in the fear and isolation of captivity. For their loved ones, this past year must have felt like an eternity – the agony of waiting and not knowing, or of having the terrible truth confirmed.

Since the atrocities of October 7, Jewish Australians have felt the cold shadows of antisemitism reaching into the present day – and as a nation we say never again.

We unequivocally condemn all prejudice and hatred. There is no place in Australia for discrimination against people of any faith.

As we mourn and reflect, we also re-affirm a fundamental principle of our shared humanity: every innocent life matters.

We recognise the distress the conflict has caused here in Australia.

Sorrow knows no boundaries and recognises no differences.

The number of civilians who have lost their lives is a devastating tragedy.

Today, we reflect on the truth of our shared humanity, of the hope that peace is possible, and the belief that it belongs to all people.

From today, early learning providers can apply for Commonwealth Government funding to deliver early childhood education and care workers a historic 15 per cent pay rise.

To be eligible to receive the Albanese Government’s funding for the wage increase, early childhood education and care services must agree not to increase their fees by more than 4.4 per cent between 8 August 2024 and 7 August 2025.

This is good for early childhood educators and good for families.

There will also be a limit on fee growth in the second year of the wage subsidy. The percentage limit on fee growth that will apply from August 2025 will be determined by a new ECEC cost index being developed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

This is an important condition that will keep downward pressure on out-of-pocket costs for families.

Services must also pass on funding in full to employees through increased wages.

The 15 per cent pay rise will be phased in over two years, starting with a 10 per cent increase from December 2024, with a further 5 per cent increase from December 2025.

This means a typical early childhood educator who is paid at the award rate will receive a pay rise of more than $100 per week this year, increasing to more than an additional $150 per week from December 2025.

This significant wage increase is an important next step in the Government’s reforms to the sector, building on the successful Cheaper Child Care policy.

Latest data shows that Cheaper Child Care has seen the average out-of-pocket costs for families decrease by more than 13 per cent from the June quarter 2023 to the June quarter 2024.

The Government’s Cheaper Child Care policy increased the base subsidy rates from July 2023 for all families earning up to $530,000, and set the maximum subsidy to 90 per cent for families earning $80,000 or less.

Thanks to the increased subsidy, a family earning $120,000, with one child in care three days a week, paid around $2,140 less last financial year than they otherwise would have.

The Government is currently considering the Productivity Commission’s report handed down earlier this month.

For further information on the 15 per cent wage increase, grant eligibility and how to apply visit How to apply for the worker retention payment.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese:

“Early educators shape lives and change lives. They deserve more than our thanks – they deserve to be paid fairly.

“Parents want their children to be safe, happy and to have the very best start in life. This funding is about fair pay for the people who make this possible.

“Importantly, we’re making sure that our early educators are getting fair wages without putting cost of living pressure on families.

“This is part of our Government’s agenda to make sure that Australians are making more and keeping more of what they earn, while providing that vital cost of living relief.”

Minister for Education Jason Clare:

“The child care debate is over. It’s not babysitting. It’s early education and it’s critical to preparing children for school.

“They lift our kids up and now we are lifting their pay.

“This means wages up for workers and keeping prices down for families.

“A pay rise for every early childhood educator is good for our workforce, good for families and good our economy.”

Minister for Early Childhood Education and Minister for Youth Anne Aly:

“We’re boosting the wages of early childhood education workers, while relieving cost of living pressures on Australian families.

“Properly valuing the early childhood education and care workforce is crucial to attracting and retaining workers and vital to achieving the quality universal early learning sector Australian families deserve.

“A quality early childhood education sector is necessary to support children’s learning and development as well as workforce participation in the broader economy – particularly for women.

“I urge all eligible early learning services to sign up to this important initiative, so their hardworking staff get the full benefit of this wage increase.”