Community Legal Centres across the country are in crisis, forced to turn away thousands of people in desperate need of legal assistance, after more than a decade of Coalition cuts. 

The Greens are today calling on the new Labor government to urgently distribute the funds they promised the sector in the election to meet immediate needs. 

We need the urgent rollout of Labor’s election promises. This can’t wait months and months because every day it’s delayed means hundreds more people being denied the most basic justice. 

Australia must walk the talk on climate commitments in the Pacific this week by stopping new coal and gas projects, the Greens have warned, after details of a Communique agreed to by Australia indicate commitments that are undermined by Australia’s actions.

Lines attributable to Greens Leader Adam Bandt MP:

“Australia must walk the talk on climate in the Pacific this week by stopping new coal and gas projects.

“If we don’t change course on coal and gas, big talk will mean nothing to our regional neighbours.

Greens Leader Adam Bandt has called on the government to promise Pacific Leaders that Australia will stop opening coal and gas projects, ahead of the Quad energy meeting with Pacific regional powers in Sydney on Tuesday and the PM’s diplomatic trip to Suva on Wednesday.

Lines attributable to Greens Leader Adam Bandt MP:

“Coal and gas will be the real test for Australia in Pacific diplomacy this week.

“Pacific leaders have been explicit: climate action is key to our nations’ relationship, and climate action means no new coal and gas projects.

The Federal Environment Minister must rule out approving the 27 new coal projects set to come across her desk according to analysis by the Sunrise Project, the Greens say.

Greens Environment Spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said:

“Approving new coal and gas mines that pollute the environment and make climate change worse is a climate crime.

"The Environment Minister needs to stare down the fossil fuel lobby and take a stand for our environment. 

The appalling state of WA’s prisons should be fully investigated, following news overnight that children as young as 14 will be transferred from the Banksia Hill Youth Detention Facility to Casuarina Prison today, the Greens said today.

The Greens remain profoundly concerned for the safety and wellbeing for these children.

Deputy Greens Leader and International Aid & Global Justice spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has today written to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese encouraging the Australian Government to support Vanuatu’s bid to seek an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the rights of present and future generations to be protected from climate change.

Vanuatu’s initiative will reportedly be considered at the Pacific Islands Forum, which Prime Minister Albanese is attending, next week.

Senator Faruqi said:

The Greens today today vowed to push the mining sector to undertake systemic reform to prevent violence against women on mining sites, as a landmark WA inquiry finds that the industry has failed to protect women.

The report finds that women in the industry “frequently have to deal with sexual harassment and sexual assault”, with many incidents “ignored or overlooked by employers”, and includes 24 recommendations.

Comments attributable to Senator Dorinda Cox, Australian Greens spokesperson for Resources:

Yesterday, the Western Australian Governement pardoned and apologised to the Yamatji family of a baby who was brutally murdered in 2013. After domestic violence left Tamica Mullaley naked and bleeding in a Broome street, police were called and she was arrested.

Police left baby Mullaley’s 10-month-old baby, Charlie, at the crime scene. The man who assaulted Mullaley returned to the scene and kidnapped the child. Police were told several times that he had threatened to kill the baby, but took nine hours to act on the information.

The Greens Leader Adam Bandt says a windfall tax on gas corporations profiteering from the current crisis could be imposed simply by closing loopholes in the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT) in the government’s first budget in October.

The PRRT was designed to tax super-profits, but gas corporations figured out how to avoid paying it by building up a backlog of tax credits to the tune of a jaw-dropping $282 billion. This means that gas companies have to burn through $282 billion in profits until they start paying tax.

The Federal Court bid by the Australian Conservation Foundation to stop Woodside Energy’s Scarborough gas project until its impact on the Great Barrier Reef is assessed, highlights the need for a climate trigger to assess the impact of polluting projects, the Greens say.

Greens Environment Spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said:

"We must stop making climate change worse and that means we stop making pollution worse. Yet environmental approvals don't even consider the impact of a polluting mine or development on the climate.