The Australian Greens today condemned US President Donald Trump’s blatantly unfair “peace” proposal for Israel and Palestine, which would instead further entrench injustice and conflict in the Middle East.
 
“This proposal is not worth the paper it’s written on. It fails to provide the minimum requirement for a Palestinian State and rewards breaches of international law like the Israeli Government’s flagrant settlement building,” said Leader of the Australian Greens Dr Richard Di Natale.
 

The bushfires devastating communities across regional New South Wales and Victoria require an emergency response from the Government that not only addresses the fires currently burning but also tackles the root cause of those fires and the fires yet to come - the climate crisis, driven by the burning of fossil fuels like coal - said Leader of the Australian Greens Dr Richard Di Natale.

Australia is in the midst of an unprecedented heatwave and bushfire emergency, but the Prime Minister has been missing in action. Scott Morrison must show some leadership and immediately convene emergency meetings with fire chiefs, peak medical bodies and cross-party political leadership to craft a response to this crisis, said Leader of the Australian Greens Dr Richard Di Natale.

”The country is in crisis and the Australian people are crying out for leadership, but Scott Morrison has been missing in action," said Di Natale.

It’s time that the fossil fuel companies whose products are responsible for the climate crisis start footing some of the bill for cleaning it up. A $1 levy per tonne of carbon pollution from the country’s biggest polluters, proposed today by the Australia Institute, is the very least that these companies can do, said Leader of the Australian Greens Dr Richard Di Natale.

The Australian Greens have responded to Scott Morrison’s appalling decision to allow Minister Angus Taylor to continue serving in his role while under active police investigation, saying that it shows the Prime Minister is deep in denial.

Quote attributable to Greens spokesperson for the climate crisis and energy, Adam Bandt MP:

“Scott Morrison is deep in denial.

“The PM has thrown integrity overboard to hang on to a 1 seat majority on the floor of Parliament.

Leader of the Australian Greens Dr Richard Di Natale has once again called upon the Australian Government to intervene to ensure that Julian Assange is not extradited to the United States, following comments from the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture that Assange is showing acute signs of exposure to psychological torture.

“We have all seen the serious deterioration in Julian Assange’s health at his recent court appearances, and now the UN Special Rapporteur has warned that his life is at risk. This situation cannot be allowed to continue," Di Natale said.

Scott Morrison needs to stop listening to his big donors in the fossil fuel industry and pay attention to the 11,000 scientists who have jointly declared that we are in a climate emergency and must act urgently in order to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, said Leader of the Australian Greens Dr Richard Di Natale.

“We are now in a climate emergency and that is a fact. The scientists know it and the community knows it, but Scott Morrison and the Liberal Party still have their heads buried firmly in the sand,” said Di Natale.

The Australian Greens support the Kashmiri community on 27 October as they commemorate Black Day.  Kashmir is a disputed territory and it is now almost three months since the Indian Government decided to revoke its special status and further erode Kashmiris’ right to self-determination.

The Australian public will never forgive the Labor Party if it abandons any commitment to taking genuine action on the climate crisis as Joel Fitzgibbon is now arguing, said Leader of the Australian Greens Dr Richard Di Natale.

The Australian Government must use every diplomatic means at its disposal to insure that Turkey does not invade Kurdish-controlled Rojava in Syria following President Donald Trump's latest erratic and dangerous foreign policy decision, said Leader of the Australian Greens Dr Richard Di Natale.  

"Any invasion of Kurdish-controlled areas by Turkish forces could displace hundreds of thousands of people and would almost certainly trigger a humanitarian crisis in one of the most stable and secure parts of Syria. Syrians have suffered enough," Di Natale said.