Parliament

Last week I thought I'd woken up in the 1950s. The Ruddock review into religious freedom recommended that the ability for religious schools to legally discriminate against LGBTQI students and teachers be entrenched in federal law. We already know the horrific consequences that such laws have for people in our community. Young people in all schools are receiving the very public message that they are not accepted. LGBTQI students feel they have to live their teenage years in silence and hide their identity for fear of being expelled.

Senator FARUQI (New South Wales) (12:38): I seek leave to make a short statement.

The PRESIDENT: Leave is granted for one minute.

Rhinos are in crisis. There are just 67 Javan rhinos, less than 80 Sumatran rhinos and less than 6,000 black rhinos left. We humans have a lot to answer for. The Greens are proud of our role in combating the illegal ivory trade and of being a loud voice for animals across Australian parliaments. Seventy-seven per cent of Australians believe that trading elephant ivory and rhino horn is already illegal in Australia, so it is really disappointing that our laws lag behind community expectations. The ivory trade is not the only threat facing rhinoceros populations.

I've stood as an engineer and a sustainability academic at the front of lecture theatres more often than I've stood up to speak in parliaments. When you're teaching you spend an awful lot of time looking your students in the eye, as you might imagine. Now that I'm spending less time in the classroom and more time in parliament, I often wonder whether many members in this place wouldn't benefit from having to look some students in the eye every so often.

Today we have seen the release of mortality statistics from the Australian Meat and Live-stock Industry Act 1997 Livestock mortalities during export by sea report for the period 1 January to 30 June 2018, and they make for grim reading. Thousands of sheep are dying as these live export ships ply the seas in their trade of misery. We are still in the northern summer period for the Middle East, where oppressive heat conditions mean temperatures are reaching above 40 degrees.

In my state of New South Wales, two people tragically died and 15 others were hospitalised from suspected overdoses at the Defqon 1 festival over the weekend. My heart goes out to their families. As a mother of two young people, I can't imagine a more heartbreaking situation. I can't help but think that maybe the situation could have been quite different if pill testing or checking was available at the venue. My blood really does boil that we will never know, because the only thing stopping the harm minimisation approach to pills is a stubborn New South Wales Liberal-National government.

Koalas in New South Wales face extinction by 2050. This is the harsh reality that we are grappling with today. This is no accident. It is due to the continued, insistent effort of the New South Wales Liberal-National government in pushing these species to the brink through badly planned infrastructure, through logging of native forests and through their ecocidal land-clearing laws. This is a matter of public importance because we are losing an iconic species, and we know exactly why that is happening.

It is absolutely shameful that in my home state of New South Wales and in the state of Queensland abortion still sits in the Crimes Act. As a woman, as a mother of a young woman, and as someone who has campaigned for years to decriminalise abortion in New South Wales, I cannot and I will not accept this situation. Mr President, the existence of these laws actually exposes the misogyny and the influence of the religious far Right on our politics. Neither my religion nor yours should be allowed to deny women their rights and choices. You cannot impose your beliefs on others.

Senator FARUQI (New South Wales) (12:00): I, and also on behalf of Senator Hinch, move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes:

(i) that tens of millions of dollars in public money is handed over to the greyhound racing and gambling industry each year by states and territories in prize money, for building new tracks and in tax breaks,

(ii) Greyhounds Australasia estimates that the industry is responsible for the unnecessary deaths of anywhere between 13 000 and 17 000 healthy greyhounds a year, and

I am so sick of this rubbish. I am so sick of people who will never experience racism telling us that it doesn't exist. Senator Bernardi will never be told that you have no place in public life because of the colour of your skin. I hope that one day Australia will not need a Race Discrimination Commissioner, but that day is definitely not today, because racism is a reality and millions of people are harmed by it. Sudanese Australians are demonised by the media. Aboriginal Australians are dying in custody. Muslim Australians have been demonised and demeaned in this very parliament.