Senator Christine Milne’s Address To The National Press Club

Feb 19, 2013 Leave a Comment

The leader of the Australian Greens, Senator Christine Milne, has addressed the National Press Club and announced that the party’s agreement with the Gillard minority government is at end end.

Milne

  • Listen to Milne’s speech (31m)

    Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

  • Listen to Milne’s responses to questions (31m)

    Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

  • Watch Milne (61m)

Text of Senator Christine Milne’s Address to the National Press Club.

Australian Democracy at the Crossroads: The mining industry and the quarry past versus the people and the innovative future.

Parliamentary colleagues, distinguished guests and friends.

Australian democracy is at the crossroads. Our future as a nation, our sense of who we are and what we want for our society and local community is now being determined by mining billionaires in boardrooms for themselves and their overseas shareholders, and what they want, is being delivered through our state and federal parliaments.

The mining industry has become so powerful that the lines between business and politics have become blurred to the detriment of people and the well being of our society. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Audio2013, Climate Change, Greens, Indigenous, Mining, Video Tagged With: , , , ,

Greens End Agreement With Gillard Government

Feb 19, 2013 Leave a Comment

The leader of the Australian Greens, Senator Christine Milne, has ended the party’s agreement with the Gillard minority government.

Speaking at the National Press Club today, Milne said the ALP had walked away from the agreement and “into the arms of the big miners”.

Milne

Milne said: “The Labor government is making it clear to all that it no longer has the courage or the will to work with the Greens on a shared agenda in the national interest.”

The Greens will continue to support the government on confidence motions and budget Supply, ensuring that the parliamentary status quo will remain through until the election.

Milne’s announcement is a clear sign of differentiation as the 7-month election campaign grinds on. The announcement has also been greeted approvingly by senior figures in the ALP.

  • Sep 1, 2010: Greens Signs Agreement To Support Gillard
  • Watch Milne:
  • Listen to Milne (3m)

    Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Extract of Senator Christine Milne’s speech to the National Press Club.

What has become manifestly clear is that Labor by its actions has walked away from its agreement with the Greens and into the arms of the big miners.

Let’s call a spade a spade.

By choosing the big miners, the Labor government is making it clear to all that it no longer has the courage or the will to work with the Greens on a shared agenda in the national interest.

By choosing the big miners, the Labor government is no longer honouring our agreement to work together to promote transparent and accountable government and the public interest or to address climate change.

Labor has effectively ended its agreement with the Greens. So be it. But, we will not allow Labor’s failure to uphold the spirit of our agreement to advance the interest of Tony Abbott.

We will not walk away from the undertakings we gave to the government in the Agreement and the people of Australia to deliver confidence and supply until the Parliament rises. We will see this parliament through to its full term.

The Greens will not add to the instability that Labor creates for itself every day. We are moving beyond the agreement as the key debates and outcomes left in this 43rd parliament fall outside it. We will continue to vigorously pursue the rapid transition to a clean green and clever country, reforms to the mining tax, a $50 a week increase to Newstart, increased funding to public schools through the Gonski reforms, implementation of the NDIS, and protection of Australia’s precious environment.

Filed Under: 2013 Federal Election, Audio2013, Gillard, Greens, House of Reps, Video Tagged With: , ,

Gillard Government Moves Yet Closer To Howard On Asylum Seekers

Nov 21, 2012 Leave a Comment

The Immigration Minister, Chris Bowen, has announced a new policy of ‘bridging visas’ for asylum seekers who will be released into the community.

Chris Bowen

 

Bowen said: “Consistent with ‘no advantage’, people from this cohort going onto bridging visas will have no work rights and will receive only basic accommodation assistance, and limited financial support.”

The change of approach is a tacit acknowledgement that the government’s refugee policies are now in tatters. Bowen said, “given the number of people who had arrived by boat since 13 August, it would not be possible to transfer them all to Nauru or Manus Island in the immediate future”.

Condemnation of the government came swiftly from the Opposition and the Greens, but for different reasons.

  • Listen to Chris Bowen’s press conference (26m)

    Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

  • Listen to Shadow Immigration Minister Scott Morrison (11m)

    Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

  • Listen to Greens Senators Christine Milne and Sarah Hanson-Young (21m)

    Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

  • Listen to Tony Abbott and Julie Bishop speak to the media today (15m)

    Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

 

Media releases from Immigration Minister Chris Bowen.

No advantage onshore for boat arrivals

People who arrived by boat post-13 August and all future arrivals will have the ‘no advantage’ principle applied to their cases onshore, even if they are not transferred offshore for regional processing, the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Chris Bowen MP, announced today.

Mr Bowen said given the number of people who had arrived by boat since 13 August, it would not be possible to transfer them all to Nauru or Manus Island in the immediate future.

‘Accordingly, some of these people will be processed in the Australian community. They will not however be issued with a permanent Protection visa if found to be a refugee, until such time that they would have been resettled in Australia after being processed in our region,’ Mr Bowen said.

‘People arriving by boat are subject to this ‘no advantage’ principle, whether that means being transferred offshore to have their claims processed, remaining in detention, or being placed in the community.

‘Transfers to Nauru and Manus Island will continue, however in the coming weeks and months my department will begin releasing some people who arrived by boat on or after August 13 into the community on bridging visas.

‘Consistent with ‘no advantage’, people from this cohort going onto bridging visas will have no work rights and will receive only basic accommodation assistance, and limited financial support.’ [Read more...]

Filed Under: A.L.P., Audio, Audio2012, Gillard, Greens, Liberal Party, Refugees, Video Tagged With: , , , , ,

Current Federal Parliamentary Party Leaders

Nov 01, 2012 Leave a Comment

Each political party represented in the Federal Parliament elects leaders in each house.

Just as the government is decided in the House of Representatives, so the parties elect their leaders and deputy leaders from amongst their representatives in the House. If the party is not represented in the lower house, its leader will be chosen from amongst its members in the Senate.

House of Representatives
Party Leader Deputy Leader
Australian Labor Party Julia Gillard
Member for Lalor (Vic)		 Wayne Swan
Member for Lilley (Qld)
Liberal Party Tony Abbott
Member for Warringah (NSW)		 Julie Bishop
Member for Curtin (WA)
National Party Warren Truss
Member for Wide Bay (Qld)		 Senator Nigel Scullion
Northern Territory
Australian Greens - Adam Bandt
Member for Melbourne (Vic)



The major parties also elect leaders and deputy leaders in the Senate. These people form part of the leadership group and act as the focal point for their parties in the upper house.

For example, the current ALP leader in the Senate, Chris Evans, is referred to as the Government Leader in the Senate. Senator Eric Abetz is referred to as the Opposition Leader in the Senate.

Senate
Party Leader Deputy Leader
Australian Labor Party Senator Chris Evans
(Western Australia)		 Senator Stephen Conroy
(Victoria)
Liberal Party Senator Eric Abetz
(Tasmania)		 Senator George Brandis
(Queensland)
National Party Senator Barnaby Joyce
(Queensland)		 Senator Fiona Nash
(New South Wales)
Australian Greens Senator Christine Milne
(Tasmania)
-



Footnote: Convention dictates that the official leader of the main parties will be a member of the House of Representatives. In 1968, following the death of its Prime Minister, Harold Holt, the Liberal Party chose its upper house leader, Senator John Gorton, as the new prime minister. Gorton immediately resigned his Senate seat and contested the by-election for Holt’s lower house electorate, Higgins. Thus, Australia had a prime minister for several weeks who was not a member of either house. This is allowed for in Section 64 of the Constitution.

Filed Under: A.L.P., General Information, Greens, Liberal Party, Parliamentary People, The Nationals Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Bob Brown Resigns; Christine Milne New Greens Leader

Apr 13, 2012

Senator Bob Brown has resigned as leader of the Australian Greens.

Brown’s surprise decision was announced at a party meeting in Canberra. Senator Christine Milne was immediately elected as the new leader.

Later in the day, Melbourne MP Adam Bandt was elected deputy leader.

Brown said he would leave the Senate later in the year when the Tasmanian Greens division has finalised pre-selections. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Audio, Audio2012, Greens, Senate, Video Tagged With: , , ,
«Older Posts