Leader of the Australian Greens Adam Bandt has today said the government's commitment to spend over $270 billion on defence would not make Australia safer and was a reprehensible use of public money while people are still living in tents in Eden-Monaro and suffering poverty in Australia.

“Spending billions more on weapons won’t make Australia safer and may in fact increase tensions in the region. This move will just add to increasing militarisation in our neighbourhood,” said Mr Bandt.

Thursday 20th June 2020

Australian Greens Peace & Disarmament spokesperson Senator Jordon Steele-John said today that buying new military technology to equip Australia for future wars was the "worst way to spend" $200 billion, especially during a pandemic.

"Hundreds of thousands of people across our community are struggling right now and are unable to access the support they need," Steele-John said.

Tuesday, 26 May, 2020

Australian Greens Peace and Disarmament spokesperson Senator Jordon Steele-John has expressed deep concern that the United States Marine Rotational Force will be going ahead in Darwin in early June.

“All military cooperation with the United States in Australia must cease while the threat of COVID-19 remains high to protect people in the the Northern Territory, including First Nations Communities and Australian Forces who would ordinarily be undertaking shared activities with US Troops based in the Top End,” Steele-John said.

Australian Greens Senator for NSW Dr Mehreen Faruqi has welcomed today’s news that class action participants have reached a settlement of $212.5 million with the government over PFAS contamination, though has labelled the recent government response to the federal PFAS inquiry as extremely disappointing.

Senator Faruqi said:

That the Senate—

(a) notes:

   (i) that the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade tabled its report on the Inquiry into the management of PFAS contamination in and around Defence bases in November 2018, to which the government response is overdue by a year,

   (ii) that in a resolution of 29 July 2019, the Senate called on the Government to provide a response to the aforementioned report,

The Australian Greens have today launched a campaign to get rid of corporate influence from the Australian War Memorial.

Australian Greens Peace and Disarmament spokesperson Senator Jordon Steele-John said The Australian War Memorial is a vital national space of learning and reflection, not a billboard for corporate arms dealers.

"The War Memorial is where our community comes to remember those who have lost their lives in conflict, share stories with those who’ve survived and reflect on the importance of creating a world free from violence," he said.

Australian Greens Peace and Disarmament spokesperson Senator Jordon Steele-John has reiterated his calls to fundamentally restructure our defence force, after a speech prepared for ADF Chief Angus Campbell - released under FOI - warned climate change could stretch our capacity and had the potential to "exacerbate conflict".

Senator Steele-John agreed climate change was the biggest threat in our region and said preparing our defence force for the impacts - food and water shortages, increasing natural disasters and mass displacement of people - must be an absolute priority.

The Greens call on the Morrison Government to categorically rule out any escalation of Australia’s involvement in US-led military operations in the Persian Gulf, said Leader of the Greens Senator Richard Di Natale.

“Morrison has already embroiled Australia in the increasing tensions between the United States and Iran by joining the US-led military operations in the Persian Gulf.  As the Greens said at the time, it is folly to follow Donald Trump into yet another American misadventure in the Middle East”, said Senator Di Natale.

Australian Greens Peace and Disarmament spokesperson Senator Jordon Steele-John has reiterated calls for Australia's defence force to urgently develop and implement a climate change strategy, after revelations today that senior bureaucrats have been wargaming climate change scenarios.

Senator Steele-John also called on the government to immediately release the details of the climate change scenarios, which they have so far refused to release through Freedom Of Information.