The Federal Government and Coalition have united to ensure that homebirth in Australia will be further marginalised by rejecting amendments to provide midwives with access to indemnity insurance irrespective of the location or venue of the births that they attend, the Australian Greens say.

In addition the government chose to reject Greens amendments that would have taken away the power of doctors to veto aspects of midwifery practice, such as homebirth, that they are philosophically opposed to, despite the near universal evidence that safe low risk homebirth has positive outcomes for mother and child.

"We have consistently said that the Government amendments to their Midwives legislation give doctors too much control over midwives practice," said Greens health spokesperson Senator Rachel Siewert.

The Senate has backed an Australian Greens motion calling on the Government to ensure there is no reduction in occupational health and safety standards anywhere in the nation in implementing their new laws.

"Workers, unions and the community are concerned that the Government's OHS harmonisation agenda will mean lower safety standards rather than the highest possible we should be pursuing", said Senator Siewert.

The Australian Greens have renewed their call for the Federal Government to fulfil its election promise to abolish the Australian Building and Construction Commissioner and bring Australia's workplace laws in line with international standards.

It comes as a recent International Labour Organisation report heavily criticised the Labor Government for not doing more to ensure our workplace laws comply with international legal obligations.

"As the Australian Greens predicted during the debate on the Fair Work Act, the ILO has found the Act to be non-compliant with ILO conventions relating to freedom of association and collective bargaining," said Rachel Siewert, Greens spokesperson on workplace relations.

The Australian Greens today welcomed the release of a report on the economics of marine protected areas - saying that it showed that protected areas provide a win-win for the economy and the environment.

"Marine protected areas play a vital role in protecting our marine life, but as this report shows, they also play a key role in local economies as well," said Australian Greens Marine Spokesperson Senator Rachel Siewert in Perth today.

"I've been a long-term advocate for marine protected areas in Western Australia and am pleased to see greater evidence and public understanding emerging of the crucial role they play in protecting our fisheries, building our tourism industries, and supporting Australia's unmatched coastal lifestyle."