While Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) is tipped to survive a move by the Australian Beef Association to abolish the body at MLA's AGM today, the MLA has effectively lost the confidence of the industry, and the Agriculture Minister Jo Ludwig should recognise that industry self-regulation has failed when it comes to live exports, says Greens Senator and animal welfare spokesperson Lee Rhiannon ("Producers call for MLA to be wound up".)

"Continuing to give the MLA the $5 a head cattle slaughter levy is like giving milk money to a child who'd rather spend it on lollies," Senator Rhiannon said.

Today’s reports that Santos will abandon plans to drill exploratory coal seam gas wells at Spring Ridge near Gunnedah until the Namoi water catchment study has been released is a massive win for the local community, said Greens Senator for NSW Lee Rhiannon.

“The local community deserves congratulations for staring down coal seam gas operator Santos and putting a stop to exploratory drilling until more is known about its impact on the precious Namoi water catchment,” said Senator Rhiannon.

Greens candidate for the Clarence by-election, Janet Cavanaugh, and Greens NSW Senator Lee Rhiannon today confirmed the Greens support for safety upgrades of the Pacific Highway and town by-passes. 

Ms Cavanaugh said: “As a regular user of the Pacific Highway, I am as concerned as the rest of our community that the upgrade to dual carriageway, recommended by the NSW coroner more than twenty years ago, is yet to be implemented.

Restoring rural rail branch lines in NSW should be a transport funding priority for the federal government, said Greens Senator for NSW Lee Rhiannon in the Senate this week.

“Federal funding is desperately needed to restore NSW rural branch lines that were closed down by the NSW government” said Senator Rhiannon.

"The long term benefits to the state from re-opening grain rail lines are enormous, from protecting rural communities from rising petrol prices, improving road safety, reducing road maintenance costs on regional councils and securing the future food security of NSW.

Blog post by Senator Lee Rhiannon

It’s a good day for low paid workers in the social and community sector, the majority of whom are women, as we inch closer to bridging the pay gap.  

Today, after a long negotiation with the ASU, Prime Minister Julia Gillard finally came on board today with support for the Equal Pay for Equal Work campaign. The Gillard government will fund its share of pay increases and will make a joint submission with the ASU to Fair Work Australia.