Australian Greens Housing spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has said the 2020-21 budget delivers nothing for social housing while cutting funding for homelessness services. Millions will be let down and thrust into very difficult circumstances by the Liberals’ failure to commit to funding basic services.

Senator Faruqi said:

Australian Greens Education spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi spokesperson has said that from early learning through to university and vocational training, the 2020-21 budget fails public education.

Senator Faruqi said:

“There’s nothing new in the budget for early childhood education. The government kept the sector on life support at the start of Covid-19, but early childhood education and care has been completely neglected now. Make early learning fee-free and everyone benefits.

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

   (i) the Government's climate-wrecking 'gas-led recovery' plan includes coal seam gas drilling in Narrabri and a gas-fired power plant in the Hunter region of New South Wales (NSW),

   (ii) on 30 September 2020, the NSW planning commission approved the Santos Narrabri coal seam gas project despite more than 20,000 submissions opposing it,

   (iii) greenhouse gas emissions from the Narrabri gas project are estimated to be 128 million tonnes over the life of the project,

Last week I visited Port Stephens to meet with community members who have been raising the plight of koalas in the area, in particular the destruction of 52 hectares of prime koala habitat for expanding the Brandy Hill quarry. Thank you to Brandy Hill & Seaham Action Group, Port Stephens Koalas, EcoNetwork and countless people who have been campaigning with passion, with commitment and with resilience to save our irreplaceable wildlife. They are rightly concerned about the irreversible loss of koala habitat and koalas in this area if this mine expansion is allowed to go ahead.

In respect of the government response to the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee report Feasibility of a national horse traceability register for all horses, I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

Instead of investing in Australia's future, the Morrison government is choosing inequality and climate collapse in its federal budget. The federal budget to be handed down tonight is many things. I'll start by saying that it's a real contradiction. After last year's big proclamation that we were back in the black, after years of highly misleading and incorrect assertions that surpluses are all the evidence we need of good economic management, we are staring down the barrel of an enormous deficit.

The Greens want a thriving, expanding and green manufacturing sector, but this government's plan for manufacturing is based on a completely unconscionable, climate-wrecking expansion of fossil fuels. They could choose renewables, but they don't. They talk up advanced manufacturing while actively decimating local research and innovation. A manufacturing plan without funding for research and skills isn't worth the paper it's written on. The Liberals and Nationals have defunded TAFEs and gutted research. They're not interested in our future.

Senator FARUQI (New South Wales) (12:19): I rise to speak to the Higher Education Support Amendment (Job-Ready Graduates and Supporting Regional and Remote Students) Bill 2020. I want to be clear from the outset: the only correct cost of a student's degree is zero dollars. University staff, research and teaching should be protected. Our universities should be fully funded, and this bill achieves none of those aims. This bill is cruel. This bill is punitive. This bill is an irredeemable mess.

Australian Greens Education spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has said that Centre Alliance has cut a reprehensible deal with the Liberals to support a bill that raises university fees, cuts funding and punishes struggling students.

Senator Faruqi said:

“Centre Alliance has chosen to sell out students, young people and our universities.

“They’ve bought the government spin, hook, line and sinker. They should be ashamed of condemning generations of young people to decades of debt.

Greens Leader Adam Bandt says the Morrison Manufacturing ‘plan’ is being used as a cover for a raft of failed neoliberal ideas, from union bashing to corporate welfare to weakening environmental protections.

Greens Education spokesperson Mehreen Faruqi pointed out a massive contradiction in spending on manufacturing while cutting TAFE, higher education funding and research and development - critical to any country’s efforts to innovate in manufacturing.