The Greens condemn Adani’s attempts to silence Galilee Blockade leader, Ben Pennings, by seeking to  bankrupt his family with legal action and secretly applying to the Supreme Court to raid his home. 
 
Senator for Queensland and Greens spokesperson for mining and resources, Senator Larissa Waters, said:
 
“We live in a broken democracy where big companies will do whatever they can to silence opposition.
 

The Greens are calling on the Prime Minister to stand down Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar while the Department of Finance investigates the misuse of taxpayer-funded positions, and to consider whether Sukkar’s actions are in breach of the Ministerial Standards.
 
“The Prime Minister has asked Australians for their trust over the past few months. But Morrison continues to throw integrity overboard with his failure to act on the ongoing, multiple scandals involving his ministers,” Greens co-Deputy leader, Senator Larissa Waters, said.
 

This Saturday's Northern Territory election has the potential to make history by electing a strong, independent Greens voice to Parliament, Greens Leader Adam Bandt MP has said, urging voters to put the Greens at the top of the ballot paper.

The Northern Territory Greens have run their biggest campaign yet, running nine candidates in an election that has hit boiling point over concerns about fracking.

Despite the conduct of politicians having declined year on year and public confidence in democracy bottoming out, both major parties have rejected the need for binding, independently enforced parliamentary standards proposed by the Greens.
 
Responding to today’s bipartisan recommendation of the Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee to oppose the Greens Parliamentary Standards Bill introduced in October 2019, Greens Leader in the Senate and spokesperson on democracy, Senator Larissa Waters said:
 

The Greens have welcomed the updated Economic Security for Women’s White Paper, and called on the government raise the minimum wage to address women’s financial inequality.

Greens Senate Leader and spokesperson on Women, Senator Larissa Waters, said:

“It’s 2020: women want fair pay, not granite bench tops.

“Raising the minimum wage will help those working some of the lowest paid professions, such as health care, childcare, and aged care.

Senator Larissa Waters will call the Senate to vote on an inquiry into the Coalition’s rorting of government grants, which will include the Shine Energy’s controversially won federal funding to investigate a coal-fired power station at Collinsville, QLD.

Waters said the inquiry has never been so important, following reports today showing links between Shine Energy and multinational mining giant, Glencore.

The Coalition and One Nation have cemented their position as science denialists, having spent Monday badgering some of Australia’s peak scientific bodies over the validity of Great Barrier Reef health findings during a Liberal-called Senate inquiry, the Greens said. 

Co-Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens, Queensland Senator Larissa Waters, said the inquiry is nothing more than a political ploy to attempt to advance the Coalition’s position ahead of the Queensland state election, and further its culture war against science. 

The release of the 2020-2021 workplan for the Reef Trust Partnership once again shows the Reef requires comprehensive, science-based protection by its proper management authority, and government-wide action on the climate crisis, says Greens Leader in the Senate and Queensland Senator Larissa Waters

“The Liberals would privatise their mothers if they could, and the Great Barrier Reef is the latest casualty of this ideology,” Senator Waters said.

The Greens welcome any improvements to deal with Crown of Thorns starfish, but it is a bandaid solution while the big threats to the Reef - climate change and water quality – continue to be ignored.
 
“Funding COTs while ignoring climate and water quality is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic,” said Queensland Senator and Greens Leader in the Senate, Larissa Waters.
 
“The Great Barrier Reef has faced three of the worst coral bleaching episodes in its long history in the last five years, because of coal-driven climate change.
 

The Labor party backroom boys are pressuring Queensland’s Labor Premier to approve stage 3 of the New Acland coal mine, showing fossil fuel donors still call the shots, say the Australian Greens.
 
“Proving how powerful the coal mining lobby and their donations are on federal Labor, there’s now three federal Labor party MPs pushing the Premier to approve the Acland coal mine despite the mine’s approval currently being before the High Court,” said Senator Larissa Waters, Australian Greens Senate Leader and Mining and Resources spokesperson.