After a successful motion put forward by Senator Lidia Thorpe, the Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs is accepting submissions for an inquiry on the application of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in Australia.

“The UNDRIP is a mechanism for First Nations people to enact our Sovereign rights, which have been denied since 1788”, said Senator Lidia Thorpe, a DjabWurrung, Gunnai and Gunditjmara woman and the Greens Senator for Victoria.

In an unprecedented intervention by the federal government fisheries permits will be bought-out for the first time in Australia’s history because of climate change and environmental factors. 

In what was described as a  necessary but “shocking” development by the Australian Fisheries Management Authority, the federal government will spend $20m to buy out vessel permits in the south-east trawl fishery because the climate crisis is affecting population numbers of some species, making current fishing levels unsustainable.

Greens Support Queenslanders with Disability Network Calls For Better Disaster Response For The Disability Community 

Today Greens Spokesperson for Disability Jordon Steele-John and Greens Senator for Queensland Larissa Waters have given their support for a range of policy commitments set out by the Queensland Disability Network.

The Greens have outlined a plan to save the Tasmanian devil and called on the Liberals and Labor to adopt the comprehensive measures required to protect this iconic species. 

Federal funding has been critical to the Tasmanian devil’s survival, but this ended in 2017 despite their recovery from the infectious cancer that decimated their population being far from over.

On International ME/CFS Awareness Day, the Australian Greens extended our strong support  for improved health outcomes for the 250,000 Australians living with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS).

Nipaluna/Hobart will be at the centre of an exciting national trial to roll out more bicycle infrastructure under an $18m fully-costed plan launched by the Greens today. 

In the last power sharing arrangement with the Gillard Labor Government the Greens negotiated an historic $80m national bike path fund. This included a “Bike Blackspot” app and campaign where cyclists can log blackspot in existing bike paths, which generates an email and report to the Minister for Infrastructure, and contributes to a real time map of all Blackspots in Australia. 

The Greens say confirmation in the Reef Snapshot: Summer 2021-22 of the sixth mass coral bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef lays bare the Morrison Government’s near-decade of failure on climate action.  

The Snapshot confirms the Reef has suffered the fourth mass bleaching event since 2016, and the first in La Nina conditions, with 91% of surveyed areas showing signs of bleaching.

Lines attributable to Greens deputy leader and Queensland Senator Larissa Waters: