Parliament

I rise to speak on the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Amendment Bill 2019. This bill implements recommendations of the Braithwaite and Joyce reviews of vocational education and training and makes additional amendments to the act. The Greens will not be opposing this legislation. We note, however, that this bill does nothing at all to reverse the government's malicious underfunding and undermining of public vocational education and training through our public TAFE system.

The Greens were the first party to call for a national anticorruption body and have long advocated for a national integrity commission. In fact, the Greens' bills to establish a national integrity commission passed the Senate last September, and this government has stopped the bill from getting a vote in the House. We also led the way to the royal commissions into banking and aged care. We are absolutely opposed to this so-called ensuring integrity bill, which is nothing but an attack on workers and their unions. There is no integrity in this bill.

I move:

That there be laid on the table by the Minister representing the Minister for Health, by 12 pm on 11 February 2020, any emails or any other form of written correspondence between the former Minister, Senator McKenzie, or the former Minister's office, in any of her former capacities, and the Department of Health, or any person working for the Department of Health, concerning either of the following matters surrounding the report 'Economic and social impacts of recreational hunting and shooting', released in September 2019:

(a) the funding of the report; or

Crisis can bring about the best in people, and indeed it has brought out the best in our communities this summer. But sadly it has also brought out the worst in the Prime Minister of Australia. What we needed during this bushfire and climate disaster was courageous, truthful and wise leadership. What we got from the Prime Minister and this government was the exact opposite. They have been cowardly, dishonest and incompetent. Full of science deniers, they have behaved like a bunch of climate criminals, with 'Scotty from marketing' at their head.

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that in New South Wales (NSW):

(i) the bushfire crisis has wrought havoc and destruction, with the Bush Fire Danger Period starting early and winter fires plaguing the state's north as early as August,

(ii) since last winter, fires have burnt at least 5 million hectares,

(iii) 25 people have lost their lives to bushfires and hundreds of homes have been reduced to ash,

(iv) more than 800 million animals, birds and reptiles have been killed, pushing some species to the brink of extinction,

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) the number of children using early learning services has risen over the past 10 years, from just below 35% in 2009 to nearly 45% in 2018,

(ii) there is inequity in access to early learning services–children living in remote areas, children who live in economically disadvantaged areas, children from Indigenous backgrounds, children from non-English speaking backgrounds, and those with disability are under-represented in early learning services,

I rise today to make an urgent plea for change. There are many things that these horrific bushfires have forced a rethink on—on this government's appalling, destructive and selfish lack of ambition to tackle the climate emergency; on how this government was warned of the bushfire crisis we just saw and did nothing. But tonight I want to highlight the need for Australia to draw a line in the sand and say that we will do everything in our power to save our wildlife.

The bushfire crisis has wrought havoc and destruction on our communities and on our country. People have been lost, homes have been lost, livelihoods have been lost, and millions upon millions of animals have died and masses of their habitat destroyed. It has been a tragic and devastating time for us and, of course, for people across the globe who have been watching.

I rise to speak on behalf of the Greens on the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Building on the Child Care Package) Bill 2019. This bill can probably best be described as fixing some, but definitely not all, of the problems with the government's childcare package.

I move: That the Senate—

(a) notes with deep concern that:

   (i) over a hundred fires continue to burn across New South Wales,

   (ii) data from the New South Wales Department of Environment shows harmful pollutants in Sydney's air are already over three times worse than at any moment in the past five years during bushfire season,

   (iii) the toxicity of the air in some parts of Sydney is the equivalent of smoking between four and ten cigarettes a day,

   (iv) particle pollution can trigger heart attacks, strokes, lung cancer and asthma attacks,