I rise to speak briefly on Senator Pratt's motion to refer to the Senate Education and Employment References Committee a reference about early childhood education. I want to say at the start that early childhood education and care is an essential service. It should be universal and it should be free. I say this not just from a rights perspective. There is a compelling case for free and universally available early childhood education and care because it has enormous benefits for children and enormous benefits for families. Of course, it has enormous benefits and is good for women.

The Greens have said that Australia must support a World Trade Organization (WTO) proposal that would waive intellectual property provisions to allow Covid-19 vaccine production to be rolled out and made accessible and affordable to everyone in the global community.

The WTO Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Council is meeting this week, with the Covid-19 vaccine on the agenda.

Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Greens spokesperson for International Aid & Development, said:

In the wake of recent parliamentary sexual abuse revelations and the petition started by Chanel Contos, the Greens have used International Women’s Day to call for $190 million to be allocated in the May Budget to fund respectful relationships education including sexual consent in all schools across the country.

$190 million over four years would support rolling out Our Watch’s respectful relationships education program, which has been successfully piloted in Victoria and Queensland.

Australian Greens Anti-racism spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has expressed her serious concerns about a Lowy Institute survey which found that 1 in 5 surveyed Chinese-Australians have been threatened or attacked during the past 12 months.

Senator Faruqi said:

“There’s no doubt ‘Covid racism’ is at play here. But we should not disregard the impact of political rhetoric and the consequences of heated debate over Australia-China relations.

Australian Greens Senator for NSW, Mehreen Faruqi, has said that today’s announcement of a NSW ban on firefighting foam containing PFAS chemicals is welcome, but long overdue.

The Commonwealth should now proceed with a national ban.

Senator Faruqi said:

“Communities across NSW will welcome this news. It is long overdue. Our environment and people’s livelihoods have been ruined by toxic PFAS chemicals.

Australian Greens Anti-Racism spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has said that all key government agencies have indicated in initial PJCIS committee submissions that the threat of far-right extremism is growing.

However, the Greens say substantial policy change and political action is nowhere to be seen.

Senator Faruqi said:

 I rise to speak on the Higher Education Support Amendment (Freedom of Speech) Bill 2020. This bill amends the Higher Education Support Act 2003 to provide a new definition of academic freedom that enshrines in law principles of freedom of expression and substitutes the existing term 'free intellectual inquiry' in relevant provisions with the term 'freedom of speech and academic freedom' to align the language of provisions within the model proposed by Robert French.

Tonight I want to talk about homelessness and housing. Over the last few decades, Australian governments have created a housing system that actively impoverishes people and makes inequality worse. Safe, secure, high-quality housing is a human right, not a privilege reserved for those who are able to afford to pay through their noses for it. Instead of ensuring everyone's right to a home, governments have implemented and persisted with policies that benefit big developers and wealthy investors, to everyone else's detriment.

I rise to take note of the document Australian Meat and Live-stock Industry Act 1997—Livestock mortalities during export by sea—report for the period 1 July to 31 December 2020. These latest numbers help to confirm that in 2020, despite it being the year in which so much of the global economy and global trade was disrupted, the brutality of the live export trade still went on. Nothing, it seems, will stop the Australian government from continuing to export sheep and cattle for profit.

The Greens have responded to sickening reports of a violent assault by a man with a swastika on a First Nations woman and her daughter in Western Australia.

Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Greens Anti-racism spokesperson, said:

“This is a horrendous act of racist violence and I hope the perpetrator is identified and prosecuted without delay.

“Far-right extremists and neo-Nazis are feeling emboldened. This is the crisis the government refuses to take seriously.