“Today’s Mid-year Economic Financial Outlook shows that the Coalition is totally out of touch with everyone in our community who is feeling under pressure.

Greens spokesperson for democracy Senator Larissa Waters said 10 years after the Greens first called for a federal anti-corruption body to oversee parliamentarians and the public service, the Morrison Government has finally got on board – but there’s so many catches.

“The Morrison Government’s proposed Commonwealth Integrity Commission is the ICAC you have when you’re not really having an ICAC. It’s the poor cousin of the state ICACs and basically a Clayton’s ICAC,” Senator Waters said.

Australian Greens spokesperson for women, Senator Larissa Waters, on the Morrison Government legislating for 5 days’ unpaid domestic and family violence leave, which unanimously passed the Senate earlier today:

Leader of the Australian Greens Dr Richard Di Natale has congratulated Sen. Larissa Waters on her return to the position of Co-Deputy Leader of the Greens, a position she vacated as a result of her resignation from the Parliament over questions of eligibility under Section 44 of the constitution.
 

The Government’s attempt at winning back female support with its women’s economic statement today will fail for its lack of funding and lack of vision, Greens spokesperson for women, Senator Larissa Waters said.

“The women’s economic security statement by the Women’s Minister today contains only minor reforms and pittance of new funding - it equates to a mere four cents per week for adult Australian women. Four cents a week will not fix anything for Australian women. 

I rise to speak on the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Electoral Funding and Disclosure Reform) Bill 2017. This is a very complicated bill and it has certainly had a very chequered history. It purports to restrict the influence of foreign money over our politics.

The latest scorecard from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency shows an alarming continuation of the gender pay gap that won’t be closed for decades, Greens spokesperson for women, Senator Larissa Waters said.

“We’ve still got a 16.2 per cent gap in what men and women get paid - it’s clearly still far better to be a bloke in this country when it comes to salary,” Senator Waters said. 

“There has been a small, welcome decline overall, but the fact men still earn $25000 more every year on average than women is outrageous.

Calls for mass shark culls by conservative politicians would be an ineffective and irresponsible response to recent attacks in Queensland, according to the Australian Greens.

Queensland Senator Larissa Waters said a calm and sensible approach is needed and welcomed tomorrow’s roundtable on the issue in Airlie Beach.

“Our hearts go out to the families affected by recent shark attacks, but calls for mass shark culls are irresponsible, won’t work, and would not be supported by a majority of Queenslanders,” Senator Waters said.

Greens mining spokesperson Senator Larissa Waters says the Government should be sued for ignoring water laws for Adani’s 12.5 billion litre water pipeline, unless the Environment Minister intervenes today and requires a full environmental impact assessment.

“We learned three weeks ago that this Government had done yet another special deal for Adani, exempting them from water laws despite their plans to suck out almost as much water as all the other users combined, from a drought-stricken region,” Senator Waters said.