Category: Australian News

The ACT Greens say today’s pre-budget announcement from the minority Labor Government is enough for the community sector to survive, but not enough to create a truly strong safety net for people in Canberra.

“More people than ever are turning to local community organisations to cover the basics like food, housing, healthcare and household needs, so if today’s funding announcement is the end of it, that’s a real problem,” said ACT Greens Leader Shane Rattenbury.

“The Greens have been working with the community sector ahead of this year’s budget to really pressure Labor not to balance the books at the expense of people who most need the government’s support.

“Today’s announcement shows pressure works, and we’ve got to keep pushing.

“If Labor uses this budget to shut down the Rent Relief Fund or cut other essential supports, even more people are going be forced to seek help from the community sector.

“Today’s announcement only helps community organisations with multi-year government funding arrangements. Other services have an anxious wait, year after year, to find out if they’ll be able to keep operating.

“That has real life consequences for Canberrans who may lose their jobs, their support networks, or the roof over their heads,” Mr Rattenbury said.

“Today’s announcement of $10 million sounds nice, but spread across two years and 150 organisations – an average of $33,000 per year won’t go far.

“When you hold this $5 million per year up against the $100 million we could raise every year from taxing big corporations in a way they’d barely notice, you see how much more the government could do.

“I’m urging the Treasurer to take up the Greens’ proposal and raise extra revenue from the banks, the supermarkets, the airlines and the big retailers, which are contributing to cost of living pressures while racking up billions of dollars in profits.

“These corporations that love the ACT for being a prosperous, growing market should contribute more to our community. A drop from their ocean would be a significant pool of revenue for the ACT Government to properly fund the services Canberrans really need.

“The ACT Greens’ vision is for Canberra to be a genuinely progressive city where we look out for one another. That’s why we’ve got community services as a priority in our balance of power agreement that allowed Labor to form minority government, and why we’re watching the unveiling of this budget very closely.”

In response to the extension of the deadline for Woodside to respond to its approval conditions, Greens spokesperson for the environment Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said:

“The Australian public and Traditional Owners have the right to see Minister Watt’s approval conditions for the North West Shelf gas plant given the significant impacts this project will have on the environment, cultural heritage and the safety of our climate.

“With Woodside given seemingly unlimited time to negotiate with the Government behind closed doors, how can we be assured the approval conditions are not being watered down by the fossil fuel giant?

“These gas corporations will do everything they can to avoid strict conditions and scrutiny. The public has a right to know what the Minister originally said was needed and why the Government would be offering any compromise to Woodside.

“Give these fossil fuel companies an inch and they will take a mile. No easy ticket or carve outs should be offered.

“It is devastating that so soon after the public elected one of the most progressive parliaments in Australia’s history, the new Environment Minister’s first act in the job has been approving one of the biggest, dirtiest gas projects in Australia out to 2070 – and is letting them dictate the conditions behind closed doors.

“This monstrous gas expansion will be an environmental disaster – unleashing gas pollution on a huge scale, destroying cultural heritage and threatening pristine ecosystems like Scott Reef, home to threatened endangered species like the green sea turtle and the pygmy blue whale.

“The least the Minister can do is provide the public and Traditional Owners transparency over his decision making.”

A further 20 projects have been declared as State Significant Development following recommendations from the Housing Delivery Authority (HDA).

Of these proposals, 18 are in metropolitan Sydney and 2 are in regional NSW.

If lodged and approved, this could create more than 8,100 homes, including affordable housing across New South Wales.

To date, 136 proposals amounting to more than 53,300 potential homes have been declared state significant.

Since the formation of the HDA, 47 projects have had Secretary Environmental Assessment Requirements issued and one Development Application has been lodged.

Recommendations from the HDA are published as required under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 before the SSD declaration.

This is all part of the Minns Government’s plan to build a better NSW with more homes and services, so young people, families and key local workers have somewhere to live and in the communities they choose.

The Ministerial Order can be found here.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will travel to Fiji, the United States of America and Canada from 13-19 June 2025.

On 13 June 2025 in Nadi, Prime Minister Albanese will meet with the Hon Sitiveni Rabuka, Prime Minister of Fiji.

Leaders will discuss bilateral cooperation under our elevated Vuvale Partnership, including on climate change and regional security.

In Seattle, the Prime Minister will meet a range of business leaders to discuss how the US and Australia can work together to take advantage of emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence.  

Prime Minister Albanese will also visit Kananaskis, Canada to attend the G7 Summit.

The G7 brings together seven of the world’s largest advanced economies – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States – and the European Union to discuss and agree on collective solutions to global challenges. 

Canada has also invited a select group of partner countries, including Australia.

Prime Minister Albanese will participate in G7 partner discussions focusing on global energy opportunities and challenges, including the role of critical minerals, secure and reliable supply chains, enabling and advanced technologies, and underlying infrastructure and investments.

At the Summit, the Prime Minister will work to advance our economic security and resilience to deliver benefits for Australian workers, businesses and communities. 

He will have bilateral meetings with a range of world leaders.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles will be Acting Prime Minister while Prime Minister Albanese is overseas.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese

“Visiting Fiji so soon after the election is a deliberate decision to reinforce my Government’s Pacific priorities and to exchange views with my dear friend Prime Minister Rabuka, a respected Pacific statesman.

“I am honoured to be invited by Prime Minister Carney to attend the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Alberta as a key partner.

“I look forward to working productively with world leaders to discuss how we tackle some of the most challenging issues facing Australia, our region, and the world”

The inaugural ballot for the Falepili Mobility Pathway will open to registrations from Tuvaluan citizens on 16 June, enabling up to 280 Tuvaluans each year to live, work and study in Australia.

As a low-lying island nation, Tuvalu is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to the effects of climate change.

The opening of the mobility pathway is an important milestone in the delivery of the groundbreaking Falepili Union Treaty, which was signed in 2023 in response to Tuvalu’s request of Australia to help safeguard the future of Tuvalu.

The agreement supports the people of Tuvalu to live and thrive in their home through land reclamation and continued investments in infrastructure, education and health.

At the same time, it will provide a pathway for mobility with dignity as climate impacts worsen.

This is also the first agreement of its kind anywhere in the world that recognises that Tuvalu’s statehood and sovereignty will continue, notwithstanding the impacts of climate change-related sea level rise.

In 2025-26, Australia has committed $47 million in development assistance for important climate adaptation, telecommunications, infrastructure, health and education projects in Tuvalu.

This includes support for Tuvalu’s flagship national development initiatives, the Tuvalu Coastal Adaption Project (TCAP) and the Vaka Cable.

Our development partnership is advancing a peaceful, prosperous and resilient Tuvalu, which safeguards the future of Tuvalu’s people, identity and culture.

More information about the Falepili migration pathway including how to apply, is available on the Department of Home Affairs website.

Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator the Hon Penny Wong:

“The opening of the Falepili Mobility Pathway delivers on our shared vision for mobility with dignity, by providing Tuvaluans the opportunity to live, study and work in Australia as climate impacts worsen.

“The Pathway reflects the deep trust between our two countries, and we look forward to the contributions Tuvaluans will make to Australian society.”

Australia’s Minister for Home Affairs, The Hon Tony Burke MP:

“I am honoured to open the inaugural treaty stream visa ballot, delivering on Australia’s commitment to provide a special mobility pathway under the Falepili Union.

“This will provide Tuvaluan citizens the choice to live, work or study in Australia, bringing our nations closer together.”

Australia’s Minister for Pacific Island Affairs, The Hon Pat Conroy MP:

“The Falepili Union is the most significant agreement between Australia and a Pacific country since the agreements for PNG’s independence in 1975.

“The opening of the Mobility Pathway ballot is a landmark moment for Australia and Tuvalu.

“Alongside the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme and the Pacific Engagement Visa, the Falepili migration pathway will strengthen relationships with our Pacific neighbours.

“It demonstrates how we are working in partnership with the Pacific to ensure our region remains peaceful, stable and prosperous.”

Background

The Finocchiaro CLP government has today announced they will initiate a 12 month trial allowing civilians to possess and use pepper spray for personal protection. The NT will be the second jurisdiction to do so, following WA.

Pepper spray is a dangerous substance for both the user and the person it is used against. It can cause permanent disability, vision impairment, breathing difficulties and burns. It is especially dangerous when used on children. It should not be made available in our community. 

The NT Greens oppose this trial and demand that the CLP listen to the experts and people with lived experience, and take a humane, evidence-based approach to tackling crime. The CLP must not enable the proliferation of chemical weapons in our community. 

Nic Carson, Acting Convenor of the NT Greens

“This policy is highly insensitive and offensive in the wake of two Blak deaths in custody in as many weeks. This initiative won’t make our communities any safer.” 

“If the CLP was genuinely committed to community safety, they’d be properly funding preventative and supportive measures, like therapeutic and rehabilitative programs, public housing, and crisis accommodation.”

“Legalising civilian use of a restricted chemical weapon risks encouraging vigilantism, which is already so often racially motivated against Aboriginal communities.”

“Pepper spray is banned for military use under the Geneva Convention. It is bad enough that the police have an exemption to use it. We cannot allow chemical weapons to become commonplace in our community.” 

“We have already seen the immense social and health impacts of pepper spray when used by police against civilians. We cannot make this chemical weapon more widespread in our community.”

Kat McNamara MLA, Member for Nightcliff

“This is vigilantism masquerading as personal safety and choice.” 

“The CLP is fuelling crime panic with this dangerous trial.”

“This is the CLP sending the message that they have given up actually improving community safety or preventing crime.”

“It’s foolish to think that we can control whose hands these weapons fall into. It’s only a matter of time before we start seeing pepper spray being misused.” 

“We want less weapons in our community, not more. This is an incredibly dangerous and ill-thought-out plan.

New ABS data that reveals rent has increased more in Western Australia than any other state or territory is the latest symbol of the Cook Labor Government’s total desertion of renters.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ latest insights into the rental market, which measures data from around 480,000 private rentals around the country, places the current median weekly rent in WA at a whopping $613.

The figure represents a 75 percent increase in average weekly rent in less than five years.

Prior to 2021, WA’s median weekly rent was $350 – a figure that had remained steady since at least June 2018, the earliest date included in the ABS dataset.

The updated data cements WA’s position as the second most expensive place to rent in Australia only after NSW, further highlighting the urgent need for meaningful residential tenancy reform.

Tim Clifford MLC, Greens WA spokesperson for housing and homelessness:

“For the almost one-third of Western Australians who rent, this latest ABS data is more than just a collection of statistics – it represents a daily reality marked by relentless stress, fear and uncertainty.

“The Cook Labor Government can pat itself on the back as much as it wants for its so-called progress on rental reform, but the data doesn’t lie.

“Labor is tinkering around the edges of the housing crisis and packaging it up as meaningful policy, which is pushing more and more Western Australians into acute housing stress and homelessness.

“The fact that rents began their seemingly endless upward trajectory at the same time WA Labor gained a supermajority at the 2021 election clearly shows where the government’s priorities lie. 

“They had every opportunity to enact meaningful rental reforms, like the ones recently introduced in the ACT. They chose not to – a decision that is crushing everyone from single parents to uni students. 

“WA Labor is trading our basic human right to a safe and secure place to live for the profits of their property developer mates. In a state as wealthy as WA, it is simply unacceptable.

“As the Greens (WA)’s spokesperson for housing and homelessness, I look forward to working alongside the community to deliver real reform to the Residential Tenancies Act, and I won’t stop calling out the government until that happens.”

As the US begins an ‘America First review of AUKUS every rational observer can see that the deal is sinking and it’s time Australia abandoned ship before billions more are squandered.For more than 2 years it has been clear that the US will not supply Australia with second hand nuclear submarines in the early 2030’s as proposed under AUKUS, for the simple reason that they will not have any spare submarines.

Report after report from the independent Congressional Research Service has explained that in the early 2030’s the US will have critically low numbers of nuclear attack submarines. To meet this “valley” the US needs to produce close to 2.5 new nuclear attack submarines a year yet it producing only 1.3. Despite billions more invested in the US submarine industrial base, including from Australia, this has not lifted and likely will not lift due to workforce and industrial constraints.

The US knows this even if Australia wants to ignore it.The Greens identified that the AUKUS agreement has an escape clause for the US. It only requires the US to supply Australia with nuclear submarines if the US President certifies the transfer will not impact the US’ own defence capability. No US President, especially not Trump or any future President like Trump, will do this.

Senator David Shoebridge, Greens Spokesperson for Defence and Foreign Affairs, said:

“Donald Trump is erratic, reckless and careless of America’s allies and alliances but he does have one fairly constant trait, he puts US interests first and allies last.

“The USA is reviewing whether to scrap AUKUS while Australia has just handed the US an $800 million AUKUS tribute payment. We’re locked into a $375b deal that our “partner” might walk away from.

“It’s time for Parliament to launch a full inquiry into this dud deal, and allow critics of AUKUS a seat at the table, not just a nodding bunch of Labor and Coalition members.

“The USA reviewing AUKUS shows what the Greens have been warning about for years – this deal makes Australia a junior partner in America’s military strategy, not an equal ally.

“The Australian public deserves an urgent inquiry into AUKUS before Labor wastes more billions on submarines we will never see.

“It’s pretty clear what any US review into AUKUS will say, the US does not have any spare submarines to give to Australia.

“Trump will use this review to either terminate AUKUS and pocket the money already paid or extract an even more eye-watering sum from Australia to stay in the sinking project without any hard promises for the US to deliver.

“While Trump considers scrapping AUKUS, Australia remains committed to a spending billions each year on a deal that ties us to America’s military aggression against China.

“We need an independent defence and foreign policy, that does not require us to bend our will and shovel wealth to an increasingly erratic and reckless Trump USA.”

The Greens have renewed calls for the Albanese government to reject a major expansion of shark nets used in the Queensland Shark Control Program.

It comes as yet another rescue operation is underway this morning to save a whale stuck in a shark net off the Gold Coast. 

The Queensland LNP Government has controversially announced plans to expand shark nets, in a move that would need exemptions from already weak federal environment laws. 

Greens spokesperson for healthy oceans, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson:

“The evidence of how damaging shark nets are to our marine wildlife is playing out before our eyes, yet the Queensland government continues to ignore the facts. 

“Shark nets cause mass destruction to marine wildlife, and evidence proves they do not make our beaches safe. In fact, evidence shows shark nets may attract sharks to beaches, where they can feed on marine wildlife caught in the nets.

“The LNP’s decision to expand the use of shark nets in Queensland’s Shark Control Program goes against the advice of its own government-commissioned report. It is a desperate distraction to create division within communities and is sadly straight out of the culture war playbook that the LNP loves.

“Under federal laws the Albanese government has a legal responsibility to protect endangered marine wildlife, including wildlife killed by lethal shark nets and drumlines deployed by the states of Queensland and NSW. 

“I’ve written to Minister Watt imploring him to use Labor’s upcoming commitment to reform Australia’s environmental laws to remove existing exemptions to state-controlled lethal shark net programs that risk federally protected species.”

“Governments can help keep ocean-goers safe by supercharging investment in modern-day alternatives to outdated and ineffective shark nets and lethal drum lines: investing in shark shield personal deterrent devices, shark spotter programs, eco-shark barriers, bite proof wetsuits, and increasing public education are amongst many emerging risk mitigation alternatives.

“A 2017 Senate Inquiry into shark risk mitigation recommended the federal government show national leadership on driving this investment, but this has so far been ignored – it’s time to change that.

Australian Greens Deputy Leader and Higher Education Spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has called on Monash University to dump its partnership with climate wreckers Woodside Energy amid staff concerns about attempts to cover up a “climate change and energy transition” conference with the gas giant at the university’s Prato campus in June 2024.

Earlier this year, Senator Mehreen Faruqi introduced a Bill that requires universities to disclose and divest from any partnerships with dirty industries, including fossil fuel companies and weapons manufacturers. This Bill and Explanatory Memorandum can be found here.

Senator Mehreen Faruqi:

“Instead of covering up its partnership with Woodside, Monash should rip it up altogether.

“Universities should be places that advance the public good, not help morally bankrupt companies like Woodside greenwash their reputation and muddy the science as they torch the planet for profit.

“Last month, Woodside got approval from the Labor Government to proceed with the most polluting fossil fuel project in the Southern Hemisphere. That should be a red line for Monash University, especially since it will be young people, like Monash students, who will bear the brunt of climate collapse.

“The funding cuts of successive federal Governments have led universities to cozy up to companies like Woodside Energy and Elbit Systems which profiteer from the destruction of people and planet.

“The Albanese Government must commit to fully funding universities to be places of democracy, equity and public good.

“The Greens stand in solidarity with Stop Woodside Monash, and will keep pushing all universities to disclose and divest from dirty industries.”