I rise to speak on the Primary Industries (Customs) Charges Amendment (Dairy Cattle Export Chart) Bill 2020 as the Greens senator responsible for animal welfare.

I rise to make some short comments on the amendment from my colleague Senator Sarah Hanson-Young. I associate myself with the comments made by my colleagues. This government is doing what it does best: hiding from scrutiny, avoiding transparency, making decisions behind closed doors. We know that this legislation is ecocide. We know that you are environmental vandals. That's pretty clear. All you see nature is is as a commodity to use and abuse. Why?

I have spoken numerous times in this chamber about the government's failure to support international students during COVID-19. Sadly, since I spoke on this matter in June the situation has deteriorated even further for the hundreds of thousands of international students who have been left high and dry. Students who are greedily welcomed here are then treated as cash cows.

I rise to support the disallowance motion and associate myself with the comments made by my Greens colleague Senator Waters from Queensland. I will say that loud and clear: she is a Greens senator from Queensland who cares about Queenslanders, who cares about the workers in Queensland, who cares that the environment they work in is safe and healthy, and who cares about a healthy planet for everyone.

The Greens support the motion. Paid pandemic leave should be for all workers. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the profound precariousness and inequality that exists in workplaces. No-one—not a single person—should be forced to choose between protecting their health and the health of those around them and being plunged into economic hardship, yet this is the exact situation many workers find themselves in. The government needs to support workers and guarantee and fund a safety net so all workers have access to at least 14 days of paid pandemic leave. This needs to happen right now.

I rise to speak on behalf of the Greens on the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Improving Assistance for Vulnerable and Disadvantaged Families) Bill 2020. The bill makes changes to additional childcare subsidy (child wellbeing) and to the calculation method used when an individual whose relationship status changes throughout the year meets the childcare subsidy reconciliation conditions.

I rise to speak on the impact COVID has had on young people and the future they face. It's hard to overstate how rapidly and dramatically COVID-19 has changed the world for young people. But we must acknowledge that neither they nor the pandemic are the cause of the greatest challenges they face. Those have been created for them by older generations. A recent Betoota Advocate headline attributes a fake quote to the Prime Minister: 'The sooner young people understand they're effed, the sooner they'll be happy.' It's hard to argue with.

Richard, over the last few weeks I've seen you on Zoom and I've seen a few videos of yours on Facebook. I must say that you look happier, more relaxed and carefree than I have seen you look in the last few years. It's made it very clear to me that the decision you made to step out of parliamentary politics was absolutely the right one at this time. And you deserve to be relaxed and carefree after dedicating a decade of your life to our party and the broader progressive movement as a Greens senator—not to mention years of service before that to the party.

The MV Al Kuwait that departed Fremantle in June was a horrific journey. According to the Independent Observersummary report, up to 5,000 of the sheep on board experienced severe or serious heat stress, with laboured breathing, open-mouth panting and appearances of being stressed or in extreme discomfort; 28 sheep died, and many more were hospitalised. We knew this was going to happen. We knew this was inevitable.

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment (Senator Birmingham) to a question without notice asked by Senator Faruqi today relating to universities.