*Full statement on the NZ Royal Commission Report*

The Aotearoa New Zealand Royal Commission report into the Christchurch terrorist attack makes for disturbing reading. While there is still much to digest, a few things are clear at this point: This was a terrorist attack committed by an Australian man who the report says was “driven by an extreme right-wing Islamophobic ideology”. Any denial or obfuscation of this simple fact is an insult to the victims.

There is absolutely no case for drilling dirty fossil fuels off the beautiful coastline of New South Wales.

It was fantastic to be on a unity ticket with MPs from all sides of politics calling for federal Minister Pitt and NSW Minister Barilaro to reject PEP-11. Huge thanks to Save Our Coast, the Surfrider Foundation everyone in the community who has been campaigning courageously to protect their coast, oceans and climate.

The gambling-fuelled racing industry cannot be trusted or fixed. It’s time is up. We have to shut it down. Over the years we’ve had assurances from racing authorities that they would take animal welfare seriously. More investigations, more commitments. There is no evidence that they have learned a single thing.

theguardian.com/world/2020/oct…

I stand with the Kashmiri community as they commemorate Black Day. Kashmir is a disputed territory and it is now over a year since the Indian Government revoked its special status and further eroded Kashmiris’ right to self-determination.
Kashmir remains in lockdown and access to high speed internet is still blocked by the Indian Government.

Tomorrow the Liberals will push 1.8 million people below the poverty line by slashing the coronavirus supplement. At the same time they're planning more tax cuts for the rich.

Here's a thread of Aus PMs with billionaires and some income support facts. (Gina Rinehart, $15.3b) With the stroke of a pen, ScoMo is more than halving the $550 a fortnight supplement. This cuts Youth Allowance too. And don't forget that Scott Morrison left disabled people and carers entirely out of the COVID stimulus package.

(Harry Triguboff, $9.3b)

To rebuild from 2020, we need a plan for well-funded, fee-free university and TAFE for all, not the Liberals’ unfixable plan for higher education.

JOIN the campaign to block the bill: greens.org.au/unis The message from today's Senate Inquiry into Scott Morrison's plan is clear: the government needs to withdraw the bill and go back to the drawing board.

Australia hasn't yet grappled with being the country that raised the Christchurch killer.

I'm taking on a new anti-racism portfolio for the @Greens to take the fight to the far-right and their cheerleaders, and build a proactively anti-racist movement.

theguardian.com/australia-news… Australia's colonial history and ongoing occupation has to be recognised and addressed head on. I'm looking forward to working with @lidia__thorpe to do just that.

The ethics of this aren’t just between the Bishops and God. The Bishops were fully aware they were ripping off low-SES families to help the wealthy. Private schools rorting their disadvantaged students like this should be illegal.

abc.net.au/news/2020-09-0… This is galling confirmation of the dirty open secret of Australian school funding.

Liberal and Labor governments have been running a protection racket for private schools for years.

Scott Morrison was at uni while it was free, but now he's hiking fees, cutting funding across the board and trying to take Government support away from struggling students!

Find out how to block the bill below 👇🏽 1. Sign the petition: green.org.au/unis

New from my office: the Liberals are denying tens of thousands of students the chance to study and retrain during the recession. #auspol

theguardian.com/australia-news… The government's twisted logic is the cruelty of the cuts & fee hikes in their uni package are justified by creating new government-funded places.

It's clear now their destructive rampage through uni funding won't even do that.

There’s no doubt some students struggle at university, but choosing to punish rather than support them makes no sense. We should be resourcing universities to help struggling students, not denying those students government support to finish their studies.

smh.com.au/politics/feder… I’m really concerned this approach will target and harm disadvantaged students, who are already at greater risk of dropping out.

The Liberals are more concerned about saving money than helping students get through university.

The Federal Government's plan for Victorian early learning is another band-aid on an open wound.

It won't work for families, who may still have to pay fees. It won't work for educators, who don’t have a wage guarantee. It won't work for centres, who don’t get funding they need. The time is up for ad-hoc fixes. We need to extend the wider JobKeeper scheme to all early learning workers and guarantee proper relief payments for centres.

The government must recognise that our early learning system is completely broken.

"We can't access the market and the market can't access us."

Sure, but it's not as simple as that. Int'l students have been treated like cash cows & denied basic gov support during Covid. This is undoubtedly having an impact on Australia's reputation.

theage.com.au/national/quite… They were locked out of basic income & welfare support.

sbs.com.au/news/you-feel-…

It’s downright cruel & shortsighted to scrap free childcare before practically every other Covid-19 support measure.

sbs.com.au/news/childcare… Reverting to expensive, fee-paying childcare now will preclude struggling families from accessing early learning & put centre viability at risk.

This government is failing women who will disproportionately feel the impact of this senseless snap back.

For years, private schools have been the beneficiaries of state and federal public funding programs that have systematically neglected public schools.

smh.com.au/national/nsw/g… Well-funded public education should be the backbone of our education system, but public schools are getting a raw deal.

While 99% of private schools are funded above the national standard, 99% of public schools will be underfunded for the next decade.

Women account for more than two-thirds of students in courses for which fees will more than double under the government’s university fee & funding overhaul.

They will pay billions more in course fees and go further into student debt. Doubling the cost of humanities and communications degrees is not just unfair and illogical, it is an anti-women move. It will push women further into debt and lead to more long-term financial insecurity for them.

I want you to meet the Liberal-National Coalition members who were at uni while it was FREE.

Instead of making corporations pay their tax and making uni and TAFE free for all, they're doubling the cost of humanities degrees. Thread 👇🏽 The Prime Minister went to UNSW from 1986 to 1989. How much did you pay again, @ScottMorrisonMP?

You can phone him on (02) 9523 0339 if you think uni fees shouldn't skyrocket.

These fee hikes are pathetic. The Liberals' juvenile Murdoch-driven loathing of students and the humanities is on clear display today.

Degrees should be free for all students.

abc.net.au/news/2020-06-1… Education isn’t just about getting you a job - it's a public good and it’s certainly shouldn't be about punishing students who wish to study humanities and the law.

BREAKING: The court has just allowed the live export exemption to stand. We need to get the minister to intervene to prevent 50,000 sheep being shipped into the cruel northern summer this week.

Call Minister Littleproud now to demand action! The minister should do his job and enforce the new rules that are designed to protect animal welfare. This whole farce has revealed that the ‘independence’ of the Department as the regulator is a joke.

BREAKING: Greens' disallowance of rules excluding public universities from JobKeeper voted down by just 1 vote in the Senate.

This isn't over. We'll keep fighting for every job in our unis! The Gov could fix this with the stroke of a pen #SaveHigherEdJobs #auspol @NTEUNational The Government are fully aware that 30,000 peoples’ jobs are on the line, but they just don’t care, because this is an opportunity to destabilise and weaken the university sector and lay the groundwork for further marketisation.

Ending free childcare is a huge mistake. Thousands of families that have been hit hard by the COVID-19 crisis will now have to make some very hard choices.

Childcare should be made free permanently.

abc.net.au/news/2020-06-0… We know a significant proportion of families currently accessing childcare will now be forced to reduce their work days or remove their little ones from care.

Let’s be honest: it will mostly be women who are forced out of work now. Ending free childcare is an anti-women move.