Australian Greens

Latest News

Attempts to hold young people off income support for four weeks at a time fails in the Senate

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Nick's Inaugural Speech

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Abbott govt record on aid in the Pacific put to shame by New Zealand's $1 billion commitment

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Labor Senators refuse to support Newcastle City Council's push for environmentally responsible investments

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Asylum Seekers Welcome, but We Can Do More

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Health System Needs More Beds

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Pacific Island Forum leaders’ summit: Abbott govt has failed our Pacific islands neighbours on global warming

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Senator Larissa Waters on reports Abbott may be asked to leave the Pacific Islands Forum

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Government backing away from plans to scrap the ACNC welcome: Greens

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Senate must stop Abbott from putting mining companies above the law

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Richard di Natale, Greens Leader with Christine Milne, Larissa Waters and Scott Ludlam

MEET THE TEAM

Read about our Greens team, including leader Richard di Natale and deputy leaders Larissa Waters and Scott Ludlam.

THE AUSTRALIAN GREENS

The Greens are the only party to be powered from the bottom-up, engaging members and supporters every step of the way. We have the courage to stand with you to create a more caring society.

Thanks to our amazing supporters knocking on doors and phoning voters to talk about what matters to them, Adam Bandt was re-elected as the Member for Melbourne with a swing of more than 8% during the 2013 federal election and Senator Scott Ludlam was re-elected at the Senate by-election in Western Australia with a quota in his own right.

Over the course of the last four decades, the Greens have become the third force in Australian politics. Across Australia there are currently Greens representing you at every level of government: not only 10 Greens Senators and one MP in the Federal Parliament, but also 23 Greens Members in State Parliaments and more than 100 Greens councillors (including several Mayors and Deputy Mayors) working in local communities.

Together, we have delivered results — like Denticare and the Clean Energy Act.

Imagine what we could do with more Green voices in Parliament!

The Greens provide a real alternative to the tired, cynical politics of Labor and the Liberal party. Unlike the two old parties, the Greens have a proud history of standing up for what is right, not just what is easy or what polls well.

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Our NATIONAL POLICIES

National Biosecurity

A new national Biosecurity Authority would protect us from pests and diseases in a world facing climate change.

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Denticare for everyone

Millions of Australians are unable to afford proper dental care. The Greens Denticare plan will ensure dental care for all Australians.

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STANDING UP FOR SMALL BUSINESS

People in small businesses are the heart of the economy but disadvantaged compared with big business. Our plan will ease the pressure on small business.

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Build High Speed Rail

Only the Greens have a vision and a plan to build a clean, efficient, transport future with high speed rail.

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Keeping health costs down

The Greens will invest an extra $664 million in Medicare to keep out-of-pocket health costs down for everyone.

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Cut housing waiting lists

We will fund an investment scheme to build 122,000 new social housing dwellings across Australia to care for those in most urgent need of secure affordable housing.

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EQUALITY IS FOR EVERYONE

The Greens care about people – that’s why we want to protect human rights and introduce stronger legal protections for all Australians.

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Our biodiversity crisis

We need to make big changes urgently if our iconic Australian species are to survive.

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Fair Price For Solar

The Greens' independent Energy Savings Agency will fix Australia’s energy network and help you generate your own power.

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Clean energy roadmap

We need to do more to encourage clean energy investment in Australia. The Greens' plan to get to a 100% renewable Australia.

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Uni funding cuts hurt

The Greens oppose the $2.3 billion university funding cuts. Instead we want a 10% increase in per student base funding.

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Resourcing a Caring Society

The Greens will raise revenue from big mining and big banks, not from society's most vulnerable.

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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Global movement of people and cargo and impacts of climate changes mean we need a new approach to diseases and pests that cause problems overseas.
We will create a National Biosecurity Commission, a panel of eminent biosecurity experts charged with making the key decisions to best protect Australia.
A National Biosecurity Authority, a statutory, independent and expertise-based organisation, will be tasked with the day-to-day management of Australia’s national biosecurity system and advising the Biosecurity Commission.

And we will provide the resources necessary to ensure that the new Biosecurity Authority has the technical capability it will require to perform its functions and support the Biosecurity Commission.
We estimate an additional $5-10m a year on top of redirecting resources from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry that are currently being utilised for biosecurity outcomes.

What do you need to know?

Australia's oral health is poor and getting worse. Less than half of Australians have good oral health and dental visiting patterns, largely due to the high cost of dental treatment.
60% of dental care is paid for out-of-pocket by consumers, with the result that a third of people say they can’t afford to go to the dentist or delay going to the dentist because of the expense.
Up to 10% of GP visits are due to poor dental health, and more than 60,000 potentially avoidable hospital visits a year are due to dental issues. This costs the country approximately $500m in direct costs and up to $2 billion in lost productivity every year.

In 2012, the Greens negotiated a new national dental health scheme worth nearly $5 billion over the next 6 years, bringing Medicare-funded dentistry to 3.4 million children. The Greens also secured $1.3 billion for extra public services and hundreds of millions more for new dental infrastructure. This is the biggest boost to dental health Australia has seen.
Our Denticare policy would bring dental health fully in to Medicare and extend benefits to all Australians. Denticare would give all Australians access to dental care under Medicare, and would phase in over 5 years, starting with the most needy. Under Denticare, going to the dentist would be just like going to the doctor.

WHAT DO I NEED TO KNOW?

The Greens will lower taxes by cutting company tax for small businesses from 30 per cent to 28 per cent, a tax relief for around 600,000 Australian small businesses.
The tax cut will take effect from 1 July 2014 and cost $1.75 billion over the forward estimates.
We will raise the instant asset write off from $6,500 to $10,000 to encourage small businesses to purchase productive assets to help them grow.

Competition policy will be strengthened to prevent big business using their market power to gain unfair advantages over small business. View our full our full competition initiative.
The Small Business Commissioner will have legislative backing and double the funding to $10m to act as an effective advocate for small business. This will make it more difficult for an incoming government to abolish the post as happened in Queensland when the Newman Liberal National Party Government came to power.

What do you need to know?

We need to improve the affordability and connectedness between our South-Eastern cities, boost the opportunities of our regional centres, support manufacturing jobs and reduce our transport emissions. The Greens stand ready to deliver high speed rail.
To begin this nation-transforming project, the Greens will fast-track intergovernmental agreements and legislation to get high speed rail moving.

We will establish a dedicated High Speed Rail Authority (HSRA) to develop and manage the project. The Authority would be responsible to prepare a financing and investment plan for the project, survey the best rail corridors & secure the ownership of these routes.
Sustainability is at the core of what we do. That’s why we’ll start a comprehensive environmental impact assessment of the high speed rail route, to make sure it’s built in the most responsible way.

What you need to know

Health care costs are already rising in Australia and we have an obligation to keep our public health system accessible.
While the old parties are willing to make cuts to essential services like Medicare, the Greens are committing to increased spending on health.
The Greens will invest $664m in extra funding for Medicare over the next four years. This is a sorely needed top-up to the health system that reverses cuts to Medicare made by Labor in the last Budget and supported by the Coalition.

We know that cost deters people from seeking medical treatment. We need to invest in Medicare and keep bulk billing rates high — and the costs you pay low — before this problem gets any worse.
Our position is supported by the medical community, including the Australian Medical Association.
The Greens’ election platform will be fully costed by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office and all spending will be balanced by revenue measures.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Australia’s housing system is in crisis; there are currently 225,000 applicants on waiting lists nationally.
People are waiting 2–10 years for a home, with some waiting as long as 18 years and even emergency cases waiting up to 3 years.
Social housing includes public housing, community housing and indigenous housing plus housing provided by non-profit organisations.
More social housing will relieve pressure on the housing market while giving security to the most vulnerable in our community.
No other party has come up with a responsible way to address our growing housing crisis.

The Greens social housing package aims to create 122,000 new social housing homes over ten years, halving the waiting list and taking up to a quarter of a million people out of housing crisis.
Partly funded through Government bonds, our plan will also provide a secure and ethical investment opportunity and create new construction and manufacturing jobs across Australia.
It will also provide a much needed funding boost the not-for-profit community housing sector.

What you need to know

People should not be fired, expelled or bullied because of who they are but Australia’s anti-discrimination laws are horribly out of date.
Fathers and mothers can still lose their jobs because of family responsibilities. A woman can be refused accommodation because she's a victim of domestic violence and schools can also refuse to enrol a child because her parents are gay.
The Greens are the only party committed to fixing these laws so all people here have the same legal protection against discrimination regardless of their personal circumstances.

Australia is also falling behind other nations in protecting human rights for people in detention and people wrongfully convicted of crimes.
The Greens would ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) immediately to prevent the mistreatment of people in detention and introduce compensation for people wrongfully convicted of federal crimes.

What you need to know

Many of Australia's precious plants and animals are under threat like never before, from climate change, habitat destruction, pollution, invasive species and disease, as well as a rapidly expanding resources sector.
We need to protect the iconic Australian species we all know and love, like the koala and the Tasmanian devil

Put a stop to the extinction crisis threatening over 20% of Australian mammals
The Greens have a three year $120m plan to identify and protect important habitat, and increase funding for threatened species management and research.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Our electricity system is in bad shape. Power bills have skyrocketed in recent years, mainly because of unnecessary investment in new poles and wires.
More than one million Australians have invested in solar panels on their homes and businesses, but many of you aren't being paid fairly for the clean power you produce.
Meanwhile, huge opportunities to save energy and reduce ‘peak' electricity demand have been ignored.

The ESA will provide a fair price for the clean energy you produce, for example from rooftop solar systems.
It will bring down power bills by achieving $1 billion in energy savings every year, comprising avoided network investment and customer energy savings.
Plus a National Energy Efficiency Scheme will expand three existing state-based schemes to save energy and money at home and work
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What do I need to know?

The Greens have a plan to make Australia the best place in the world to build renewable energy.
The Greens' Clean Energy Roadmap sets out a framework to build an Australia powered by the wind, sun and waves.
The Roadmap has three pillars:

Power Australia with at least 90% renewable energy by 2030, by increasing the Renewable Energy Target. This will give investors the certainty and stability they need to plan.
Increase Clean Energy Finance to $30 billion, $3 billion per year for ten years, to drive more change and private investment.
Frame a national energy grid to make planning clean energy possible.

What’s in it for you

A well-funded universal education system is vital for fairness and wellbeing in our society.
Labor and Abbott’s Coalition want to cut $2.3 billion from universities and student support.
These cuts will hurt students who are already struggling with the cost of living and make it even harder for students from regional areas and disadvantaged backgrounds to attend university.

Research shows that every public $1 invested in tertiary education grows the economy by $26 and tax revenues by $8. The government’s cuts don’t add up given its own forecasted shortage of 2.8 million higher skilled qualifications needed by industry by 2025.
We will also work to reduce student debt, protect the rights of university workers and increase the student Youth Allowance.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

The old parties balance budgets by cutting funding to vital services. The Greens raise revenue from those who can afford it to invest in education, help Australians out of poverty, bring dental care into Medicare and more.
The Greens will fix the mining tax, so multinational mining corporations pay their fair share. This will raise $20.8 billion over the three years from 1 July 2014.
We'll end tax breaks for fossil fuel companies and assistance to carbon capture and storage programmes, to raise an additional $12 billion over the forward estimates.

We'll introduce a Public Support Levy on the big banks. A levy of just 0.2% on bank assets over $100 billion will raise $7.9 billion over the three years from 1 July 2014.
We'll increase the effective tax rate on incomes over $1 million to 50% from 1 July 2014 will raise $500 million over the forward estimates.
All our policies are costed by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office, and our full election platform complies with the Charter of Budget Honesty.

Our MPs

Scott Ludlam

Senator for WA

Scott Ludlam is an Australian Greens Senator for Western Australia and co-deputy leader of the Australian Greens.

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Rachel Siewert

Senator for WA

Senator Rachel Siewert is a dynamic member of the Australian Greens in Parliament who works hard for people both at home in WA and across the country.

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Mark Parnell MLC

Member of the South Australian Legislative Council

Mark's vision is for all South Australians to enjoy secure and meaningful work in a supportive community with a great quality of life in a clean and healthy environment.

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Peter Whish-Wilson

Senator for Tasmania

Peter Whish-Wilson is an economist, owner and manager of a successful vineyard business in northern Tasmania, and a tireless advocate for Tasmania's stunning natural environment.

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Adam Bandt

MP for Melbourne

I'm standing up for what matters and I helped deliver Denticare and the Clean Energy Act for Australia.

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Sarah Hanson-Young

Senator for South Australia

Sarah is a strong supporter of marriage equality and refugee rights in the Federal Parliament. She has fought to protect SA’s precious water resources and quality early education across the country.

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Larissa Waters

Senator for Queensland

Larissa Waters is Senator for Queensland and co-deputy leader of the Australian Greens. Her portfolios include the Environment and Women.

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Richard di Natale

Senator for Victoria

Leader of the Australian Greens and former GP, Richard's portfolios include Prime Minister & Cabinet, Health, Sport and Multiculturalism.

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Lee Rhiannon

Senator for NSW

I'm committed to improving the education system and I've been involved with the environment and social justice movements for more than four decades.

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Senator Penny Wright

Senator for South Australia

Penny is a voice for those who often go unheard and has always been involved in working for the public good – including supporting public education, transport and broadcasting

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Dr Mehreen Faruqi

MLC for NSW

I am a proud NSW Greens MP and believe our community deserves representatives who advocate open, transparent and participatory democracy, and who have community say in decision-making at the heart of their policy and practice.

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Jamie Parker

MP for Balmain

I am the NSW Greens member for Balmain in the NSW parliament. I have assisted thousands of local residents with a wide range of issues. I am focused on cleaning up politics, a more liveable community and a caring society.

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Greg Barber

Victorian Greens Leader, MLC for Northern Metropolitan

I am the leader of the Victorian Greens. My portfolios include Aboriginal Affairs, Agriculture, Employment, Industrial Relations, Treasury and Finance, Special Minister of State, Industry, Trade, Ports and Regional Development, and I am the Greens spokesperson on Integrity.

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Janet Rice

Senator for Victoria

Janet Rice is a climate scientist, passionate cyclist and a founding member of the Victorian Greens. She is committed to standing up for the environment, sustainable transport and social justice.

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