Senator Mehreen Faruqi

Media Alert

21 January 2019

Greens supporting local residents on PFAS contamination and sand mining: Senator Mehreen Faruqi visiting Tuesday 22 January

Australian Greens Senator for NSW and water engineer, Dr Mehreen Faruqi, has visited the Menindee Lakes and Broken Hill to meet with locals and discuss the crisis of the Murray Darling system.

Dr Faruqi said:

“It’s clear that there is justified and widespread community anger at the situation and at the Liberal/National Governments at state and Federal levels that have caused it to happen.

Greens Senator for NSW, Dr Mehreen Faruqi, will visit Broken Hill and Menindee tomorrow (17 January) to meet with locals and see first hand the devastation occuring in the Murray Darling system as a result of mismanagement and climate change. Senator Faruqi is a civil and environmental engineer who has worked on water management for the last two decades.

Senator Faruqi will also meet the Broken Hill Greens Convenor, Eve-Lyn Kennedy. Senator Faruqi will be available for media on Thursday and on Friday morning.

Senator Faruqi said:

Australian Greens Animal Welfare Spokesperson, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, has launched a campaign for an inquiry into a National Horse Traceability Scheme. A register would ensure all horses in Australia, including racing horses, would have lifetime tracking.

The national register would benefit biosecurity, including for the prevention and management of Emergency Animal Diseases such as equine influenza and African Horse Sickness; improve safety for riders; tackle backyard breeding; and combat rural crime.

Senator Faruqi said:

Australian Greens Education Spokesperson, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, has condemned the Liberal Government’s punitive $328.5m cuts to University Block Grants.

Senator Faruqi said:

“The Liberal Government has continued their war on universities with the $328.5m cut to Research Block Grants announced in the Mid Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook.

“These punitive cuts demonstrate the Liberal government’s disrespect for the higher education sector and the vital research work conducted in our universities.

Australian Greens Housing Spokesperson, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, has described Labor’s housing announcement as tinkering around the edges.

Senator Faruqi is calling on the Labor Opposition to commit to building more public housing stock which will be affordable in the long-term.

Senator Faruqi said:

“Housing in Australia is monumentally messed up. With so many people in need of affordable housing we need radical solutions.

Senator Mehreen Faruqi, the Australian Greens spokesperson for Education and a former academic, reacted to this morning’s news that the University of Wollongong has accepted the John Howard-led Ramsay Centre’s funding for a degree in ‘Western Civilisation’.

She said:

“Today’s news is a blow to academic freedom in Australia.

“As a former academic, I can unequivocally say that allowing any organisation to influence curriculum, let alone one as shady as this centre, is a huge mistake.

Motion

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

         (i) the Yat Yuen Greyhound racing track at Macau, known as the Canidrome, has been described by Grey2k as a "death camp for dogs" where tens of thousands of greyhounds have been killed over the last 50 years,

         (ii) in 2013, Greyhounds Australasia blacklisted Macau on animal welfare grounds and stopped issuing 'greyhound passports',

Australian Greens Senator for NSW and Animal Welfare Spokesperson, Dr Mehreen Faruqi, has held up pictures of the sheep killed on the Awasi Express in the Senate today to highlight the continued cruelty in the live export trade. While holding it, she said "This is what you are allowing. This is the animal cruelty that you aid and abet. You should be ashamed of yourselves."

This comes after the Federal Governmnet failed to table draft versions of the Moss Review into Live Exports on Monday night, as was ordered by the Senate when it passed Senator Faruqi's motion last week.