Parliament

Last week I travelled to Gamilaraay land to hear from community members in Coonabarabran and Gunnedah living on the front line of coal seam gas expansion in the central west of New South Wales. These communities have been fighting against dirty coal seam gas drilling for years now. It was a privilege to reconnect with locals and activists who have had their lives upturned by coal seam gas.

My heart goes out to the people of India, who are basically experiencing immeasurable suffering at this moment. We are thinking of you. We are trying to do everything we can to support you and are pushing the Australian government to meet its moral obligations. The government's disregard for the lives and the health of people overseas has become striking over the past couple of weeks. The Morrison government's threat of jail time for stranded Australians trying to return home from India is absolutely horrific, it's discriminatory and it is racist.

Senator FARUQI (New South Wales) (14:19): My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, Senator Cash. Globally, thousands are dying from COVID-19 each day because they don't have treatment or vaccines. At the same time, majority-white Western countries like ours are hoarding vaccines and ordering more than they will ever need.

COVID-19 has exposed many structural inequities in Australia and internationally, from economic insecurity to wildly unequal access to health services. In 2021, the global vaccine rollout has come sharply into focus. Australia has the means to acquire and distribute a life-saving vaccine amongst our population. Make no mistake: this is a privilege. But what we are seeing on an international level is rich nations making strides towards full immunity while poorer nations are left behind. Australia is complicit in this.

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) on 15 March 2019 an Australian man walked into two mosques in Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand, and killed 51 innocent Muslims,

(ii) the New Zealand Royal Commission inquiry into the attacks confirmed that the massacre was driven by an 'extreme right-wing Islamophobic ideology',

(iii) two years on, Australia has grappled neither with being the country that raised the Christchurch killer, nor with the resurgent threat of far- right extremism and neo-fascism,

Senator FARUQI (New South Wales) (14:16): My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Birmingham. Yesterday marked the two-year anniversary of the far-right terrorist attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, when an Australian man killed 51 innocent Muslims. On 9 December 2020, following the publication of the New Zealand royal commission report, I asked you, Minister, whether the Prime Minister had read the report and how the government intended to respond to it.

I rise on behalf of the Greens to speak to the Fair Work Amendment (Supporting Australia's Jobs and Economic Recovery) Bill 2020. I can tell you that, unlike the title of it, there is absolutely nothing fair about this bill. This bill seeks to suppress wages and erode working conditions for all workers, especially those who are the lowest paid, through a suite of measures designed to further shift the balance of power from workers to business.

Include the Commonwealth government in the legislation

The Greens support this amendment. The freedom to express opinions with respect to the Commonwealth government is really important. Staff and students should be free to criticise the government without fear of repercussions or adverse action.

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.

 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.