I must say, it boggles my mind there are people sitting in this parliament who want to repeal a law that allows sick and injured people to receive the medical attention they need. How full of hatred must your heart be to say someone should be denied the medical treatment that they desperately need, simply because they are a refugee or an asylum seeker? Australia has imprisoned these people, there is no other way around this, and providing them with medical care is our obligation.

Motion passed.

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

   (i) the Australian Government has committed to the public release of summary reports from independent observers on live export ships,

More than one million Uygurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities are detained in Xinjiang by the Chinese government in what the UN calls re-education camps. This mass detention of Uygurs against their will in internment camps is a total abuse of human rights. This systemic oppression includes the erosion of ethnic identity of the Uygur people and imposition of religious restrictions in a region that has transformed into a surveillance state.

Freedom of press and freedom to protest are fundamental tenets of our democracy. But they are being increasingly trampled on and squeezed by this government. If Senator Stoker is actually interested in facts, these are the facts that you should be really concerned about: that our democratic rights are being trampled on by your government.

Students are struggling to get by. This government has abandoned students to face the high cost of living and the extreme stress just by themselves. As a former academic I have firsthand experience of the sacrifices that students make to study, including working up to four jobs just to make ends meet. It is deeply distressing that one in four students experiences food insecurity, and it is outrageous that they regularly go without food and other necessities.

We should be ashamed of the cruelty that is allowed to go on in animal agriculture. Many farms do not use cruel practices, but many do—especially industrial factory farms. Dehorning and castration of cattle and debeaking of chooks goes on without any pain relief. Chickens are locked up in cages for all their lives; they can't even flap their wings. Pigs are in pens where they can't even turn. Australian people love animals; they want animals to be treated with kindness.

I rise to speak to the National Rental Affordability Scheme Amendment Bill 2019 on behalf of the Greens. While the Greens will be supporting this bill, I want to make it very clear that this bill does not address the real issues of rental affordability and housing stress that the community is facing more and more every single day. We know that our housing system is completely broken. There are no ifs and buts about that whatsoever. For many years now we have gone from one news headline to another about the housing crisis, only to be met with lukewarm policy responses by this government.

Australian Greens Senator and Spokesperson for Education, Dr Mehreen Faruqi, has said that new TAFE data released today shows the continued decline of TAFE and must be a wake up call to save TAFE.

A new report by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research has shown that for government funded vocational education: student numbers have dropped 1.9%, subject enrolments have dropped 5.7%, and training hours have dropped 6.4%.

Australian Greens Senator and Spokesperson for International Development, Dr Mehreen Faruqi, has said that climate justice must be central to Australia’s development assistance program following reports that the Foreign Minister, Senator Marise Payne, received the climate change strategy six months ago but is yet to release it.

Senator Faruqi said:

Australian Greens Senator and Spokesperson for Housing, Dr Mehreen Faruqi, has responded to today’s Australian Institute of Health and Research report which shows Australia has lost 20,000 public housing units in the last decade. She welcomed the increase in community housing, but said public housing must be a bigger part of the housing mix.

Senator Faruqi said:

“It is time for the Federal Government to step in and show leadership on the housing crisis. We know that social housing in general has not kept pace with demand.