Blow the Truth

Australia’s commitment to support the health and wellbeing of our Pacific Island neighbours remains steadfast, with four new research projects totalling more than $8.3 million to tackle the threat of drug resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the Pacific region. DR-TB and AMR are major emerging health threats to Pacific Island countries. Part of the funding is a $4.25 million Australian research project that will specifically address antibiotic resistant tuberculosis in the Pacific. This research will be led by Professor Barend Marais of the University of Sydney, and include trialling bold new strategies to reduce and eventually eliminate DR-TB in the Pacific. Professor Marais’ research will focus on the DR-TB hotspot of Kiribati. Every person aged three or older with TB disease or infection in the capital Tarawa will be treated to prevent the emergence and spread of DR-TB. Patients will be identified by tuberculin skin testing, chest X-ray and/or sputum

Senator Richard Di Natale (Victoria) ( Medically Supervised Injecting Rooms ): I wish to inform the chamber that Senator Keneally will also sponsor the motion. I, and also on behalf of Senator Keneally, move: That the Senate— (a) welcomes the announcement from the Victorian government that a life-saving medically supervised injecting facility will be opened in the Melbourne CBD; only the second in Victoria and third in Australia; (b) further welcomes the continuation of the trial of the Medically Supervised Injecting Room (MSIR) in North Richmond for another three years; (c) notes that the MSIR trial review, released last week, found that: (i) since its commencement in June 2018, the North Richmond MSIR has been one of the busiest supervised injecting facilities in the world, with 119,223 visits in the first 18 months, (ii) despite 271 serious overdose incidents, no overdose deaths have occurred in the MSIR, and at least 21 lives have been saved, (iii) there has been a reduction in lo

Senator Sarah Hanson-Young : ( Environmental Laws Speech ): I move that the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment (Senator Birmingham) to a question without notice asked by Senator Hanson-Young today relating to environmental protection. Of course this government has always had it in for the environment. This government has always wanted to find a way to weaken environmental protections—and we really have to question how much weaker they can get. We have the situation where one million hectares of koala habitat in this country have been destroyed. We have koalas in this country, in some parts, that are endangered. We have mines that are given approval, only then to contaminate water catchment areas. And, of course, we have the devastating and shocking destruction of 46,000- year-old ancient Aboriginal heritage. And this has happened under this government's watch. This has happened under the laws that are currently in place. What we&#

Senator HANSON: The Export Control Legislation Amendment (Certification of Narcotic Exports) Bill 17/06/2020 is another example of the commitment One Nation and I made to the Australian people that we would pursue changes in our laws to unwind the stranglehold on the cannabis industry. Facebook Video https://www.facebook.com/PaulineHansonAu/videos/740344736766047/ I need to pay respect to Senators Cormann and Kitching for their combined efforts to assist me in making this bill pass the parliament. My office reached out to the minister for agriculture, who is also the Deputy Leader of the National Party, David Littleproud. Minister Littleproud originally had no interest in making this bill come before the parliament, even though market standards predict global industry hemp demand is projected to grow from $4.6 billion to $26.6 billion over the next five years. I was listening to Senator Davey's comment that they're really interested in growing the agricultural industry in Austr

Sarah Hanson Young: Some months ago, late in the evening, when we were debating the rescue packages being put forward by the government, I stood in this place and argued that there needed to be an arts-and-entertainment-industry-specific package before more jobs were lost and before more businesses went to the wall. Sadly, that didn't happen. Some people, of course, have been able to access JobKeeper, but many within the industry have been left out in the cold. But the big question will come in September when JobKeeper ends. The arts and entertainment industry will not be in a position come September to resume and to snap back as the government continues to insist. It just won't be. So several months on I'm now pleading with the government again and for all in this place to insist that the Minister for Finance, who has the ability on rules that have already been agreed to by this place and the other, fund a specific package for arts and entertainment. I understand that this

Pauline Hanson motion all lives matter failed in the Senate, Pauline says the gutless government voted against Senator PAULINE HANSON  (Queensland): I ask that general business notice of motion No. 612 standing in my name today relating to all lives matter be taken as a formal motion. The PRESIDENT: Is there any objection to this motion being taken as formal? There is. Formality is denied, Senator Hanson. Senator HANSON:  Pursuant to contingent notice, I move: That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent the motion being moved immediately and determined without amendment or debate. The PRESIDENT: As senators know, we now put those motions without the traditional debate in this section of the day. The question is to suspend standing orders to deal with matter No. 612. Hide Division Data  Division: NOES 51 (49 majority) AYES 2 PAIRS 0

Senator Rachel Stewart Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (Western Australia—Australian Greens Whip) : I move:  That the Senate take note of the answer by the Minister representing the Minister for Indigenous Australians (Senator Ruston) to a question without notice asked by Senator Siewert today relating to deaths in custody of First Nations peoples. I asked: is the government ashamed of the fact that 437 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have died in custody since the 1991 royal commission report? Australia has the highest rate of incarceration of First Nations peoples per capita in the world. Is the government ashamed of that? Apparently not. I asked whether that is recorded in a centralised process across Australia. No, it isn't. There was no answer to that either, and that is symptomatic of the problem that exists in this country: a failure of governments to address the causes of First Nations peoples ending up incarcerated. They aren't changing the record. They aren

Senator HANSON (Queensland) : The matter of public importance I have raised today is based on our state governments, in particular the weak leadership of Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, allowing activists to breach COVID-19 restrictions without punishment even as these same restrictions are devastating jobs, businesses and lives. It's a grave insult to all law-abiding Australians. Last weekend we saw tens of thousands of Australians pack city centres across the nation protesting for Black Lives Matter. This protest started in the United States with the unnecessary death of a black American at the hands of police officers. No-one could possibly condone the way in which George Floyd died, but what upsets me is the attitude of many people, black and white, that his death matters more because he is black, and yet when a white 40-year-old Australian-American woman by the name of Justine Damond was shot, there was no protest. No-one really cared, because she was white. George F

Senator Mehreen Faruqi (New South Wales) (BILLS - Official Development Assistance Multilateral Replenishment Obligations (Special Appropriation) Bill 2019 - Second Reading:  Faruqi: I rise to speak to the Official Development Assistance Multilateral Replenishment Obligations (Special Appropriation) Bill 2019. The bill provides funds to existing and future official development assistance multilateral replenishment obligations. The Greens support this bill, but the government needs to do much more. We are living through a global pandemic with the entire world impacted. We are set to face, as a global community, social and economic consequences at a massive scale which will be felt ever more deeply in the global south. Wealthy nations like ours have a responsibility to share capacity, information and resources so that other countries have a fighting chance of withstanding this crisis and recovering from it. Sadly, the recent repurposing of our already shrinking aid budget is a signal the

Senator Pauline Hanson (Queensland) : One Nation submitted today's matter of public importance: (Migration May 2020) When Australia restarts our migration program, we do not want migrants to return to Australia in the same numbers and in the same composition as before the crisis. I have to admit that they are not my words; they are Senator Keneally's words, which she used in her article. It's quite interesting. I've always said there should be a debate on this, and I'm pleased that we actually got to call on this debate. Forcing debate about immigration and foreign workers is often a thankless task. No-one knows this more than me. When you bring up facts such as more than half of the nation's population growth since 2005 has come from overseas migration, you get called a racist. When you explain that instead of flooding Australia with migrants to drive economic growth we should be increasing productivity or investing in skills and training, people call you xenop

Senator Mehreen Faruqi (New South Wales): Matters of Public Importance Migration I did ponder a bit whether speaking on this matter of public importance was worth it, because it clearly seeks to divide us. But, to be honest, I have had it up to here with One Nation, so I will have my say. This MPI is just another way for them to define who should be in Australia, who is deemed as 'one of us' and who is deemed as the 'other' because of what they look like or where they come from. Let me make one thing crystal clear: when One Nation talk about changing the composition of our migration program, we know what you mean. It's not simply a technical or abstract debate about temporary versus permanent migration, or skilled workers versus family reunion. For One Nation, the party of the Muslim ban and decades of overt racism, it is about something else entirely. Just two years ago, former Senator Anning, who was elected as a One Nation senator, said the quiet part aloud in hi

Senator Sarah Hanson-Young (South Australia) 13/05/2020 Covid -19 Arts and Entertainment Industry: I rise today to speak about the impact that COVID-19 has had on hundreds of thousands of artists and entertainers right across Australia. We know that this has been a tough time for all Australians. From having to stay away from loved ones and find new ways to celebrate birthdays and have coffee catch-ups, to those who have lost jobs and livelihoods, with no idea of what awaits them in the future, or those who have tragically lost a family member or friend due to the health crisis of COVID-19, we have all felt these impacts in one way or another. There have been few things that have brought us together during these isolated times, but there has been one thing that we have all been able to turn to and take comfort from, and that's our arts and our entertainment industry. A good book, our favourite TV show or film, musicians doing gigs via social media, and virtual exhibitions have all

Senator Larissa Waters: The Greens support the aim of the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Amendment (Cross-boundary Greenhouse Gas Titles and Other Measures) Bill 2019 to strengthen and clarify the monitoring, inspection and enforcement powers of NOPSEMA during an oil pollution emergency. Earlier this year we celebrated Equinor pulling out of the Great Australian Bight. It was a huge win for environmentalists, coastal communities and the surfing community. For those who love our pristine beaches, the risk of an oil pollution emergency was not something to be monitored or managed; it was to be avoided at all costs. Thousands of people stood up, and Equinor stood down. My colleague Senator Hanson-Young will be moving amendments in the committee stage of this bill to secure the ongoing protection of the bight from the sorts of emergencies that this bill is designed to manage. But what of the ongoing climate emergency? We've just experienced one of the hottest summers on

Senator Larissa Waters (Queensland—Leader of the Australian Greens in the Senate) (8 April 2020) Coronavirus Economic Response Package (Payments and Benefits) Bill 2020, Senator Waters: I rise to speak to the package of coronavirus bills that have come before us today. This is not an easy time for anyone. I'd again like to acknowledge and commend the immense efforts of our nurses, our doctors, our paramedics, our cleaners, our pharmacists, our aged-care workers and our supermarket staff—all of those who are helping us get through this most challenging time. We recognise the immense risk that healthcare workers, in particular, are taking to save others, and we will be pushing to make sure that they've got the personal protective equipment and the ICU beds that they need to tackle this crisis. We'll be proposing changes to allow healthcare workers to access workers compensation if they test positive for coronavirus, without having to prove that they contracted it at work. Our