Category Archives: Australian Greens

Victorian Labor at odds with federal party on industrial relations bill

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State treasurer Tim Pallas warns amendments will encourage unions to refuse to bargain as he seeks meeting with Tony Burke

The Victorian government and employer groups have raised the alarm about amendments to Labor’s industrial relations bill, warning they will embolden unions to refuse to bargain with industry.

The Victorian treasurer, Tim Pallas, has written to the federal workplace relations minister, Tony Burke, warning the amendments will guarantee unions “will be no worse off on a clause by clause basis” if they dig in and seek an arbitrated outcome from the industrial umpire, encouraging unions to do so.

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The Greens ring in the new year with a new fight over Australia’s housing crisis

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Adam Bandt signals new rent freeze push and criticises ‘tax cuts for billionaires’ as Labor aims to get ‘help to buy’ scheme through parliament

New year, new housing fight.

The Labor government may have started the year keen to talk cost-of-living relief and housing solutions, but the Greens have entered 2024 vowing to push the Albanese government to make actual change.

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Greens demand full release of government documents on ‘disastrous’ decision to join Iraq invasion

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Nick McKim says national security committee documents used to justify the war may answer questions about momentous foreign policy decision

The release of the 2003 cabinet papers “barely scratches the surface” of the Howard government’s “disastrous decision to go to war in Iraq” and reinforces the need for a parliamentary vote before committing Australia to future wars, Greens senator Nick McKim has said.

McKim has demanded the full release of all national security committee and cabinet documents related to the 2003 decision, which committed Australia to the US-led “coalition of the willing” to invade Iraq.

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Australia news live: only 54.3% of Virgin flights and 66.3% of Qantas flights on time last month, transport minister says

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‘Very disappointing results, it is no wonder that so many Australians remain fed up with our major airlines,’ Catherine King says. Follow today’s news updates live

‘Very, very clear’ renewables are the cheapest form of energy, Bowen says

Renewable energy is the cheapest form of energy, including its storage and transmission costs, the energy minister told ABC RN.

Its conclusions this year are unimpeachable and very, very clear.

The cheapest form of energy is renewable energy, even including the costs that go with renewable energy around storage and transmission.

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Pro-Palestine rally leaders credit public ‘pressure’ with Labor’s shift on Gaza

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Change of heart on ceasefire shows ‘collective action is working’, Sydney protest speaker says

Speakers at Sydney’s pro-Palestine rally have said public outcry against the war in Gaza has pushed the Albanese government to shift its position and back calls for a humanitarian ceasefire, while criticising Labor for not calling for a permanent end to the conflict.

On Wednesday Australia joined 152 other nations in voting in favour of a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and an immediate and unconditional release of all hostages in an emergency session of the United Nations general assembly. The move followed Australia’s decision in late October to abstain from casting a vote on a similar motion.

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Labor and Greens strike deal to establish nature repair scheme

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Legislation being debated in the Senate will create a market to encourage private spending on projects that protect and restore biodiversity

The Albanese government and Greens have struck a deal to establish a nature repair scheme in exchange for fast tracking an expansion of the water trigger to all unconventional gas projects.

The deal would also prevent trades in a new nature market from being used as offsets for other destruction of habitat.

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Coles and Woolworths to face Senate scrutiny amid claims of profiteering

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Greens win support for inquiry into effect of market concentration on food prices and pattern of major chains’ pricing strategies

Australia’s big supermarkets will face fresh scrutiny with a Senate inquiry to investigate their market power and pricing decisions, amid concerns they have profiteered during an inflationary period marked by fast-rising food costs.

The Greens have secured cross-party support to set up the inquiry which will examine the effect of market concentration on food prices and the pattern of pricing strategies employed by the major chains, Coles and Woolworths.

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Stage set for national cabinet clash over GST – as it happened

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The NSW Australian Paramedics Association will take part in a 12-hour strike today, from 7am to 7pm, despite the threat of legal action.

Members will still attend emergency “lights and sirens” jobs as part of an ongoing pay dispute.

We want to assure the public that emergencies will still be attended to, with our focus intensifying on life-threatening cases.

Our decision to limit responses to non-emergency jobs enhances our capacity to manage critical cases.

Facing potential legal repercussions and a substantial fine of up to $20,000 per day, our commitment remains firm.

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Stephanie Foster appointed new home affairs secretary – as it happened

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The NSW Council for Civil Liberties (NSWCCL) has backed the campaign for a royal commission into immigration detention – including onshore and offshore detention on Nauru and Papua New Guinea.

As mentioned earlier in the blog, the campaign will be launched in Canberra today.

Our mandatory, arbitrary immigration detention regime is unnecessarily cruel and degrading. Instead of offering refuge for those who seek the safety of our shores, we imprison people, strip them of their humanity and allow them to be demonised in our media and by our politicians. It is a system that conditions the Australian public to dehumanise others. This cruelty has persisted for decades.

Increased discussion and debate around gender equality, a tight labour market and impending legislative reform have helped drive action on workplace gender equality over the last year.

We see an increase in the proportion of women in management and at the upper pay quartiles, and we also see the proportion of women being promoted and appointed at manager level is higher than the proportion of women managers overall. As this trend continues, we can expect to see the gender pay gap continue to fall.

The management opportunities for part-time employees are negligible; the number of men taking paid primary carer parental leave has barely shifted; and the number of women in CEO roles and on boards has stagnated.

If we want real change, we need employers to take bold action. We need employers to look across the drivers of gender inequality and be imaginative in their solutions.

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‘De facto wages cap by stealth’: NSW Greens seek to change Labor’s workplace bill

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New law would restore sweeping powers to the Industrial Relations Commission, including giving it the ability to act like a court

The New South Wales government has been accused of imposing a “de facto wages cap by stealth” as it seeks to rush through industrial relations legislation during parliament’s final sitting week of the year.

Labor’s plan would restore sweeping powers to the Industrial Relations Commission, including the ability to act like a court, which the former Coalition government removed in 2011.

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Crossbench MPs question family violence response – as it happened

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‘We have been very clear from day one that we oppose antisemitism’: Bandt

Adam Bandt is asked about a photo the Greens senator and deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi put on her social media, and then took down. In the photo, Faruqi is posing with pro-Palestinian protesters, one of whom is holding a poster which showed an image of Israel being put in a rubbish bin. Faruqi took down the image and issued an apology over the poster appearing on her social media.

I just need to clarify – we have been very clear from day one that we oppose antisemitism.

We’ve been concerned about the rise of antisemitism in Australia for some time. It’s been ongoing for a number of years now. We’ve thrown our weight behind … pushes to tackle antisemitism as well as Islamophobia in this country.

From the beginning, since the attacks on October 7 … we condemned or spoke very, very clearly in parliament, condemning – not only condemning antisemitism, as well as Islamophobia.

But we’ve taken a principled position to this invasion, and we do not believe that the people of Gaza should be collectively punished and we’re seeing a humanitarian catastrophe unfold in front of our eyes. And the there has to be not only a temporary ceasefire, but there needs to [be] a permanent ceasefire and we have called for that.

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Thalidomide survivors call on Labor to reopen lifetime support program to new applicants

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Lisa McManus says it is ‘ignorant’ to think all those affected by drug are included in 146 people registered to closed scheme

Thalidomide survivors have asked the government to reopen a lifetime support program to new entrants ahead of next week’s national apology.

Survivors left with significant birth defects and other health issues have welcomed the apology but hope the government will use the occasion to pledge more help.

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Australia news live: school strike for climate protests draw huge crowds in Melbourne and Sydney; Albanese says Apec leaders ‘very interested’ in Tuvalu deal

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‘A ceasefire is where we need to get to,’ Zoe Daniel says

Asked by RN Breakfast host Patricia Karvelas if she supports calls for a ceasefire, Zoe Daniel says:

If you call for a ceasefire, you’re letting down the Jewish community, if you don’t you’re allowing death and destruction to happen in Gaza.

At the end of the day, if I say to you right now, yes, I support ceasefire, that will make zero difference to what is happening in in Gaza.

I’m a former foreign correspondent. I know the logistics of this, of course, a ceasefire is where we need to get to, but you have a terrorist organisation in the middle of this. If there’s just a ceasefire, and there’s no capacity there to try to dismantle Hamas, does that allow Hamas to regroup? What does that actually lead to? That said, I’ve said to you before, very clearly, and I still stick to the position that the Israeli government has to adhere to international law and the rules of war, and I think, in some ways, has not been.

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Australia politics live: Gaza civilian casualties ‘unacceptably high’, Plibersek says; ANZ posts record profit as customers ‘muddle through’ rate rises

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Environment minister says ‘well‑behaved and peaceful’ pro-Palestine protests in Australia are ‘just part of democracy’. Follow the day’s news live

Minister focuses on multicultural cohesion

Pressed on why he wouldn’t call for a ceasefire, Andrew Giles says:

We have seen a considered and careful response by the Australian government through foreign minister Wong pushing towards the sort of outcomes that I think every Australian was to see.

In the last few weeks as minister for multicultural affairs I’ve spent an extraordinary amount of time engaging directly with Australians who have a close personal connection to this conflict.

Palestinian Australians, Jewish Australians and members of the wider Arab and Muslim communities and I’m, of course, deeply affected by every one of these conversations.

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Greens say CSIRO’s independence must be protected after alleged collaboration with BP

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Exclusive: Australian scientific agency rejects ‘ghostwriting’ claims made by US law firm representing victims of Deepwater Horizon oil spill

The Greens have warned that fossil fuel companies must not be allowed to “gag scientists” after lawyers representing victims of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill claimed to have uncovered evidence of the Australian government’s independent science agency collaborating with BP on academic studies.

The Downs Law Group has said documents it received as part of litigation against BP reveal the oil company’s lawyers reviewed and gave corporate approval to nine scientific studies by CSIRO employees, raising questions about the studies’ impartiality.

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“[W]e do not have a revised final with CSIRO authors”

“Planned for December. Approved?”

“Appear to be other papers that CSIRO is drafting and I will need confirmation they are indeed under way so I can track them and make sure they go through the review process”

“CSIRO paper from last year which made it through the review process and was approved”

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Greens stage Senate walkout over Labor’s Israel-Hamas war response

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Mehreen Faruqi leads boycott of question time to protest against claimed Albanese government inaction over conflict in Gaza

The Greens have stormed out of Senate question time to protest what they say is Albanese government inaction over the conflict in Gaza.

The Greens deputy leader, Mehreen Faruqi, led the boycott declaring that Labor’s “weasel words are not going to stop war crimes” by Israel and shouting “free, free Palestine” with her fist raised.

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Brisbane Greens vow to oppose 2032 Olympics at council election as Gabba stoush escalates

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Lord mayoral candidate Jonathan Sriranganathan says $2.7bn plan to redevelop the stadium is unpopular ‘right across’ the city

The Greens candidate for Brisbane lord mayor, Jonathan Sriranganathan, says the party will go to next year’s election opposing the city’s 2032 Olympic Games unless organisers abandon plans for a $2.7bn redevelopment of the Gabba stadium.

Sriranganathan’s high-profile campaign seeks to build upon the Greens’ recent success in Brisbane – including capturing three inner-city seats at the last federal election.

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Large crowd gathers at pro-Palestine rally in Melbourne as WA man mourns sister killed in Gaza

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Australians are grieving for those killed on both sides of Israel-Hamas war, Adam Bandt tells protesters

About 15,000 people have attended a rally supporting Palestine in Melbourne, with the Greens leader, Adam Bandt, telling the crowd they were mourning for those who had died on both sides of the bloody conflict.

Sunday’s protest was one of several held across the country at the weekend. Victoria police said that there were “no major incidents of note”.

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Australia news live: Parliament House in Canberra to be lit up in blue and white in support of Israel

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Follow the day’s news live

AAP has the latest polling results ahead of the Indigenous voice referendum day this Saturday:

Two surveys show the no campaign is still ahead a week out from referendum day despite one poll indicating a slight late gain in support for the yes vote in the past month.

Not at all. It’s only done when people cast their ballots.

We’ll wait and see when they cast their vote. I’m not getting ahead of the Australian people.

I know there’s some arrogance has crept into the no side campaign, but it’s a campaign based upon fear and it’s similar to the sort of arguments that were put prior to the apology to stolen generations. And if people think about that … there weren’t any negative consequences for anyone.

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Qantas chairman’s lounge revolt: why some MPs are ditching the airline’s VIP access

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David Pocock and Barbara Pocock are the latest in a string of independent and minor party politicians to renounce the ‘Canberra bonus’ in the name of integrity

A number of MPs and senators are handing back their access to Qantas’ prestigious chairman’s lounge in the name of integrity after a series of sagas that have painted the domestic carrier in negative light.

It comes as the airline has come under fire in recent months over its influence in federal government and a recent high court ruling finding it had illegally sacked workers during the pandemic.

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