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Chris Minns has once again turned his back on the people of Western Sydney, refusing to support an inquiry to get to the bottom of why patients continue to suffer at Blacktown and other western Sydney hospitals.
 
This week, more confronting stories were revealed about patient care in western Sydney hospitals. A mother was left in a filthy hospital room at Mount Druitt that hadn’t been cleaned. A man was left waiting 40 hours in the emergency department for a bed at Blacktown.
But this morning in the Legislative Council, Labor opposed the Opposition’s Notice of Motion to hold an Inquiry into Western Sydney health services.
 
Opposition Leader Mark Speakman said people in Western Sydney deserve better than a Premier who ignores their calls for improved healthcare.
 
“Whether it is patients waiting days in EDs, giving birth on couches, being forced to sleep on the floor, or waiting over 389 days for surgery at Westmead, people in Western Sydney deserve to know why Chris Minns won’t act.”
“Chris Minns must be afraid of the truth if he keeps refusing to support an inquiry into these hospitals,” Mr Speakman said.
 
Shadow Western Sydney Minister Robyn Preston said people in Western Sydney were sick of Labor’s excuses and spin.
 
“Every time there is an issue with Western Sydney hospitals the Premier promises to do better, but the problems keep happening and there are no solutions in sight,” Ms Preston said.
 
Shadow Health Minister Kellie Sloane asked how many more stories of patients suffering does Chris Minns need to hear before he finally steps up and acts.
 
“Patients in Western Sydney know there is a problem because they are living it. Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and an inquiry will help find answers and come up with solutions for the systemic issues Western Sydney hospitals are experiencing,” Ms Sloane said.

The Opposition, with support from the crossbench, successfully suspended standing orders in the Legislative Council today to secure the passage of the Workers Compensation Amendment (Firefighters’ Diseases) Bill 2025 through that House. The Bill will now proceed to the Legislative Assembly.
 
The Bill adds an additional nine cancers, including three cancers of the female reproductive system, to the list of presumptive firefighters’ diseases in Schedule 4 of the Workers Compensation Act 1987. This means firefighters who have served for the relevant qualifying period of five to fifteen years do not have to prove that they contracted the cancer as a result of their employment or volunteer service as a firefighter.
 
Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations Damien Tudehope said the Minns Labor Government made an election commitment to address this issue as a priority.
 
“Instead, it has delayed any action while pretending to be working on it, but the Opposition and the crossbench united to support our firefighters by passing this legislation as a priority,” Mr Tudehope said.
 
Shadow Minister for Emergency Services Gurmesh Singh said Parliament must back in our firefighters ahead of the upcoming fire season.
 
“Firefighters need the presumptive cancer legislation to protect them against the added stress of having to prove their cancer is work related,” Mr Singh said.
 
“I urge all members of the Legislative Assembly to support the speedy passage of this legislation.”

The Australian Government is lowering the Russian Oil Price Cap and imposing targeted sanctions on a further 95 Russian ‘shadow fleet’ vessels.

The action to lower the Oil Price Cap, from USD60 a barrel to USD47.60, will drive down the market value of Russian crude oil and help starve the Russian war economy of oil revenue.

Australia has taken this action alongside our international partners, including the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and Japan. Australia maintains its total ban on imports from Russia of oil and refined petroleum.

Australia will also impose targeted sanctions on a further 95 Russian ‘shadow fleet’ vessels. With these additional listings, the Albanese Government has now sanctioned more than 150 shadow fleet vessels since doing so for the first time in June 2025.

Shadow fleet vessels are used to circumvent international sanctions and support Russia’s war economy. They also pose serious environmental and maritime safety risks by operating under deceptive practices, including flag-hopping, disabling tracking systems, and operating with inadequate insurance, to enable the illicit trade of Russian oil and other sanctioned goods.

Australia has imposed over 1,600 sanctions in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which support Ukraine in defending its sovereignty and territorial integrity. We will continue to take coordinated and decisive action to disrupt Russia’s ability to fund its invasion, including through constraining its oil revenues.

Australia renews its calls on Russia to immediately end this war and withdraw from Ukrainian territory. We remain steadfast in our support for a comprehensive, just and lasting peace for Ukraine.

Labor’s home guarantee scheme won’t ease the housing crisis. It will pour fuel on the fire. The experts are clear: it won’t work for single and low-income first home buyers. Labor needs to stop tinkering in ways that make the housing crisis worse, and do things that actually work. 

From October, under the scheme, borrowing limits will be increased and income caps lifted, which Treasury’s own modelling says will cause house prices to rise. 

The Greens say the scheme, while out of reach for many, will leave more people in higher levels of debt and drive up property prices, further fueling the housing crisis.

Greens housing spokesperson Senator Barbara Pocock:

“It’s reckless for the government to encourage first home buyers to spend more than they can realistically afford – repayments of over $1,000 a week are just not doable for most.

“Borrowing 95% of a mortgage when homes are eight times the average household income are a recipe for financial stress, not stability.

“This isn’t help — it’s hype. Even Treasury’s own numbers say it’ll push prices up. First-home buyers will be left paying more.

“Without additional housing supply, without addressing the root causes of our housing crisis, this scheme will just hike property prices. This will lock out even more first home buyers, especially single and low income earners, like teachers and nurses, unable to live close to where they work.

“This scheme is just smoke and mirrors — all it does is supercharge house prices and dump even more debt onto first-home buyers. It does nothing to tackle intergenerational housing inequality in Australia and it does nothing for tackling our housing crisis. 

“Experts agree these demand-side schemes drive prices up, with house prices forecast to increase by 9 percent next year. We need real change. That means cutting back tax perks for rich investors and building affordable homes where people live and work.

“Australia’s housing system is rigged for the wealthy. It is working well for them, but it is failing everyone else. Negative gearing and capital gains tax discounts let cashed-up investors outbid everyday Australians — and young people, single people, low income workers are the ones paying the price.

“This government has an opportunity to fix the housing crisis — but if they keep dodging real reform, they’ll lock a whole generation out of ever owning a home.”

Greens Deputy Leader and spokesperson for Higher Education, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, has responded to UTS’ decision to proceed with their proposal to close the School of Education & International Studies and School of Public Health, cutting hundreds of jobs and leaving students in the lurch. 

Senator Faruqi wrote to the Education Minister in August requesting that the Minister refer UTS to TEQSA to investigate any breaches of the higher education threshold standards.

Senator Faruqi, Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens and spokesperson for Higher Education:

“It is a disgrace that UTS management don’t have a problem with forking out millions of dollars on private consultants and hundreds of thousands to attend extravagant alumni events abroad, yet have no qualms about slashing disciplines like education, international relations, and public health. 

“This decision flies in the face of all that universities should stand for – public institutions for public good. UTS management should hang their heads in shame for moving ahead with this disastrous plan.

“As per usual, it is the staff, students, and the wider community that will bear the brunt of terrible management decisions, while those making them continue to be rewarded with exorbitant salaries and lavish benefits. 

“Overhauling university governance is absolutely urgent. Staff and students deserve to be key decision-makers at their universities, not overpaid executives or corporate appointees.” 

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The NSW Government have announced further planning reforms claimed to fast-track, streamline and see more houses built. The changes will include a one stop shop through a Development Coordination Authority, a climate resilience objective and make changes to community consultation and expand the category of smaller developments that slip through the system.

Greens MP and spokesperson for Planning Sue Higginson said:

“The Minns Labor Government has made it their clear mission to see developers build more new housing and development in NSW. In what certainly looks like a gift to developers, following the mantra of cutting proverbial ‘red tape’, the Minns Government will now establish the Development Coordination Authority which will cut out the advice of independent expert agencies. Limiting and filtering expert independent advice is never a good plan,”

“It’s telling that in their announcement, the Premier, Treasurer and Minister for Planning, didn’t mention this week’s Climate Risk Report that identified one million homes are at ‘very high risk’ and will be effectively uninsurable by 2050. Fast tracking houses is no solution as long as people are still moving onto floodplains, biodiversity is being trashed, climate resilience is merely an objective, and public and affordable housing is an after-thought,”

“We need certainty that new developments will not occur on flood or bushfire prone land, that development will not destroy more biodiversity and mature trees and that new homes are being built to the highest thermal standards. Under this Government we have already seen thermal standards reduced for some of their accelerated up-zonings,”

“While coordination is always a welcomed feature of any system, the establishment of the Development Coordination Authority seriously threatens the integrity of our planning system and decisions made. This new super-office will be responsible for every single development application or planning proposal – it’s a Trojan Horse that will remove the critical independent expert voices in Government agencies that raise serious and legitimate concerns. This has been on the wishlist for developers for a long time, and it looks like this bill will deliver,”

“We need firm and clear requirements that all new builds will have a best standard proportion of in-perpetuity affordable homes, and a minimum requirement for social housing. The Government needs to make sure that 30% of new builds are affordable homes, and 10% public homes,”

“Setting up the planning system to reward developers, so they can profit from building houses, won’t fix the housing affordability crisis which is where real housing pain is being felt – and it will do nothing for the 66 thousand households on the wait list for social housing,”

“We support appropriate and well planned new housing, that’s not in question. Where we disagree with the Government is how the community and expert advice should be involved in decisions, and making sure that we are taking on board the existential threat of the climate and biodiversity crises,” Ms Higginson said.

This afternoon, the ACT Legislative Assembly is set to pass legislation which will enshrine housing as a human right following the introduction of the legislation by the Greens in November of last year, their first parliamentary action of the term.

“The passage of this legislation is a landmark moment for social justice in Australia, with Canberra yet again leading the nation by enshrining the right to a safe home as the foundation for a fair and decent life,” said author of the Bill and Leader of the ACT Greens, Shane Rattenbury.

“This legislation introduced by the Greens will start the process of reshaping the way we think about housing is this city. It will create a new requirement, by law, for the government to treat housing not as a private asset for wealth creation, but as a foundational social good—just as we already treat education and healthcare.

“This will mean the government has a legal responsibility, as part of building a just society, to facilitate the fair provision of housing in either the private or public market.

“And if anyone in this city believes the government is not living up to this responsibility, they now have a legal mechanism to challenge decision making or change unfair laws so that the government works for the interests of the people, not the housing market.

“For too long, governments have been walking away from their responsibility to ensure and affordable and decent home for all. But today marks the beginning of an acknowledgement: housing is not a commodity; it is a human right.

“From now on, when new laws are introduced in the Assembly, the government will have to consider Canberrans’ fundamental right to housing. That means weighing how policies impact home security, affordability, access to essential services like water and electricity, and whether homes are well-located and accessible to shops and services.

“Across the country, Labor and Liberal governments have backed a cooked housing system that has eroded trust in democracy and public institutions. There was once no such thing as a ‘housing crisis.’ But years of privatisation, deregulation and distorting tax incentives have made it clear we need change.

“Here in Canberra, rents are at record highs, public housing is at record lows, and waiting lists grow longer every year. With mortgages and interest rates also soaring, the housing system is breaking—and when it breaks, it’s our political system that will fracture first, not the market.

“Enshrining the right to housing is a crucial step in trying to turn the tide and restoring trust in government as an institution that has a responsibility to make real people’s lives better.      

Angela Cartwright, CEO of Better Renting:

“Recognising housing as a human right under ACT law has the potential to deliver tangible, positive outcomes for renters. Despite important steps towards improving renting in the ACT, too many renters continue to live in unhealthy, energy inefficient homes while facing housing stress and instability.

“Inadequate rental protections particularly harm renters on low incomes, renters with disabilities, older renters, and people living in marginal or precarious tenancies, entrenching inequities and demonstrating the need for a major shift in how we view housing.

Craig Wallace, Head of Policy at Advocacy for Inclusion:

“We support the Human Rights (Housing) Amendment Bill 2025. People with disability face a two-pronged housing crisis in Canberra due to a lack of appropriate built form at a price point which is available to people who are often on lower incomes due to exclusion from the labour market, costs of disability and inadequate rates of income support.

“Enshrining the right to adequate housing will provide accountability mechanisms to protect our community members and provide a prompt for action. Too many people with disability are trapped in hospitals, group homes, nursing homes or unsafe circumstances due to a lack of accessible and affordable housing. Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disability recognises the equal right of all persons with disabilities to live in the community, with choices equal to others.

“This Bill will require government to consider housing as a human right, hopefully driving concrete action toward better housing outcomes for people with disability who too often face discrimination and inadequate support in housing”

Kym Duggan, Chair of the Social Justice Committee, St Vincent de Paul Society Canberra/Goulburn:

“The St Vincent de Paul Society Canberra/Goulburn believes enshrining the right to housing in the ACT’s Human Rights Act will strengthen protections for vulnerable people, improve government accountability, and lay a foundation for fairer, more inclusive housing policies and outcomes in our community. We encourage the ACT Government and all parties to demonstrate leadership and to support this amendment.

Rebecca Zappelli, Executive Director of Families ACT:

“Families ACT strongly supports the inclusion of the right to adequate housing. In 2021-22, 1889 families in the ACT were without a home, the second highest cohort being families with one parent and children.

“All children and families in the ACT should have access to safe and stable housing as a basic human right, creating the foundation for better developmental, economic, social and emotional outcomes for children and families to reach their full potential.

Ravi Krishnamurthy, President of the Australian Multicultural Action Network

“Housing is not just a policy issue – it is a fundamental human right. By enshrining the right to adequate housing, the ACT can ensure dignity, security, and inclusion for all, particularly for those most vulnerable in our community.