The Greens say the government should use unallocated discretionary funds set aside for COVID to begin work on a publicly-owned domestic vaccine manufacturer. If the government fails to act, the Greens plan to move in the Senate to demand action on domestic vaccine production when Parliament resumes.

The Australian Greens have lashed the Morrison Government’s vaccine rollout, saying that tonight’s announcement of a health advisory to no longer vaccinate many people under 50 would have been avoidable if Australia had a domestic mRNA manufacturing capacity. 

“The government’s rollout is in shambles. This is precisely why Australia should have built domestic mRNA vaccine manufacturing capacity at the start of the pandemic,” Senator Siewert said. 

The Greens will today announce key election policies, including a ‘billionaires tax’ to help fund genuinely free public schools, dental into Medicare and a job for everyone who wants one. 

With the party considering an election in November of this year still a possibility and a minority parliament the most likely outcome, Mr Bandt will push for a tax on billionaires & corporate super profits as part of dealings with a future shared power government.

The Greens have strongly condemned the lifting of the temporary pause on new income support recipients going on to the Cashless Debit Card program, put in place in response to COVID-19. 
 
"The Government has spent billions pushing this punitive scheme, and millions on flawed evaluations trying to prove that the card works and to justify their punitive approach.

Today the Government gagged the Senate and allowed no time to even debate the first so-called real permanent increase in the Jobseeker Payment since 1994. 

The Greens say that unemployed workers and people living in poverty have been very clear that they want to see their representatives in Parliament supporting and campaigning for them, doing everything they can to increase the rate of JobSeeker above the poverty line. 

“People living in poverty in this cruel punitive income support system feel isolated, they feel abandoned and want people to be vocal in their condemnation of this joke of an increase in the rate of Jobseeker”, Senator Rachel Siewert said. 

The Senate has today recognised that the climate crisis is the greatest threat to our health this century. 
 
“The fact is, the climate crisis is a health emergency”, Greens spokesperson on Health Senator Rachel Siewert said. 
 
“The Government acted on the science when it came to the COVID crisis and yet for decades they have refused to act on the science when it comes to the climate crisis. 
 

The Community Affairs Legislation Committee has tabled its report into the Government's pitiful Bill to increase the JobSeeker payment by $3.57 a day. The Greens have tabled a dissenting report.
 
The Australian Greens are deeply disappointed in the lack of time provided to consider and scrutinise this change to Australia’s social security system. 
 

The Greens have said that Australia must support a World Trade Organization (WTO) proposal that would waive intellectual property provisions to allow Covid-19 vaccine production to be rolled out and made accessible and affordable to everyone in the global community.

The WTO Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Council is meeting this week, with the Covid-19 vaccine on the agenda.

Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Greens spokesperson for International Aid & Development, said:

The Greens have said that Mr Morrison’s continued attacks on people on income support is cruel and demonising of people in our community who are doing it the toughest.

Greens Leader Adam Bandt said that his electorate of Melbourne was one of the hardest hit by every reduction to JobSeeker, and that Scott Morrison's actions demonstrated he didn't care about the genuine causes of unemployment.

Lines from Leader of the Australian Greens and Member for Melbourne Adam Bandt MP: