Parliament

I rise on behalf of the Greens to make a short statement on the disallowance of the Fair Work Amendment (Casual Loading Offset) Regulations 2018. We all know that casualisation is up. We know that rising job insecurity is stretching people to breaking point. Working people are under attack like never before. They now have less certainty and fewer rights at work than at any time in recent history. Let me be blunt: insecure work is wrecking people's lives, yet this government is only about protecting big business.

I just want to say: let's not make any mistake about what's happening here today. The government is making good its promise of big cash for the private school sector without doing a single thing for public schools. Nothing any of you have said—and you really haven't said much—can paper over the fact that you are voting for widening the divide between the haves and the have-nots of the Australian education system.

I move:

That the Australian Education Amendment (2019 Measures No. 1) Regulations 2019, made under the Australian Education Act 2013, be disallowed [F2019L00558].

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) welcomes the Australian Government's commitment to work with states and territories to end the domestic trade of ivory and rhino horn; and

(b) calls on both levels of government to implement the ban as quickly as practicable.

HANSARD LINK

Senator FARUQI: My question is to the Minister for Agriculture, Senator McKenzie. Minister, the Moss review was highly critical of the Department of Agriculture as the regulator of live exports, and there is immense public concern about the cruelty of live animal exports. Despite this, your department has recently refused a freedom-of-information request from RSPCA Australia for footage taken aboard the 2018 voyage of MW Al Shuwaikh on which 609 sheep died, including many from smothering. Does the minister consider it appropriate for this footage to be hidden from the public?

I, and also on behalf of Senators Siewert, Keneally and Dodson, move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) Traditional Owners have not been given enough time to assess the cultural heritage impact of a plan to raise the wall of Warragamba dam, with just 40 days to respond to a 2000-page report,

(ii) the raised dam would flood world heritage-listed areas of the Blue Mountains and a number of Aboriginal cultural heritage sites, and

I just want to make a short contribution and add my voice to what Senator McKim said about amendment (1) on sheet QL133. The government's amendment is to shield more businesses from scrutiny, and this is exactly the scope creep that the Greens have been warning about. Who knows how many other big businesses will be added to this list? It's going to be an endless list, from what I can see.

I rise to speak on a matter very close to my heart. New South Wales is currently having a really important debate on abortion law reform—reform that has the overwhelming support of the community. The upper house of the New South Wales parliament will vote on the Reproductive Health Care Reform Bill next week, after this bill passed the lower house in August. It is now inevitable that New South Wales' archaic abortion laws will go into the dustbin of history where they well and truly belong.

(15:46):

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) the New South Wales Liberal-National Government has granted amnesty to hundreds of farmers who cleared land illegally before the disastrous new land clearing laws came into effect; figures show land clearing rates more than doubled in the year prior to the introduction of new laws and tripled in the year after,

(ii) the decision comes after big cotton farms used their influence on the NSW Minister for Energy and Environment and the Minister for Agriculture to lobby for prosecutions to be dropped,

I rise to speak on the Criminal Code Amendment (Agricultural Protection) Bill 2019, which should really be called the 'ag gag bill'. Let's have no doubt that this is nothing but an 'ag gag bill'. The Greens will be opposing this bill because it is a terrible and unnecessary piece of legislation. You lot seem to have completely missed the fact that almost every state and territory already has trespass and incitement laws. On first reading, you can tell that this bill is just the government's embarrassing and poorly thought-out kneejerk reaction to a handful of incidents.