The Senate has supported an Australian Greens motion that recognises the significance of the 42,000 year old remains of Mungo Man being returned to country.

“Mungo Man was excavated and taken off country over 40 years ago by a young geologist. This month he was finally returned to his original resting place, and the significance of that has now been acknowledged in the Senate.

“The senate not only acknowledges this significance, but pays respects to Aboriginal communities that have fought so hard over the years to bring Mungo Man back to country.

The Senate has today supported a Greens motion calling on the Government to show leadership to ensure Aboriginal led decision making to urgently address the extraordinary number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out of home care.

“The number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children in out of home care keeps rising, year on year and it’s just heartbreaking, Australian Greens Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander spokesperson Senator Rachel Siewert said today.

The Australian Greens welcome triple j moving the date of Australia’s Hottest 100 from January 26 to the final weekend in January.

“Triple j have done substantial polling and spoken comprehensively to the community about when they want to celebrate the 100 best Aussie songs for the year, and Australia has spoken. I welcome triple j’s subsequent decision to change the date”, Australian Greens spokesperson on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues, Senator Rachel Siewert said today.

The Australian Greens are strongly backing the Change the Record Coalition calls on the Federal Government to adopt their 8-point National Plan of Action Free to be Kids to end the abuse and over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in prison.

“In light of the Royal Commission report into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory, Mr Turnbull must act urgently to get kids out of prison, Senator Rachel Siewert said today.

A data breach in the Department of Social Services demonstrates the risks of outsourcing work on sensitive material to private contractors, Australian Greens Senator Rachel Siewert says today. 

“The Federal Government is continually looking to outsource and privatise Department and Centrelink services and here is another example of the associated risks. 8,500 employees past and present have now been warned their personal data has been breached. 

The Government finding money for an additional 1000 staff from private contractors to prop-up the robo-debt program shows a further deterioration of the Centrelink system, Australian Greens Senator Rachel Siewert said today.

The claim by Government of success in reducing the number of young parents relying on income support has been immediately questioned by the social services sector and should not be hailed as a win by the Government, particularly when parents could actually be worse off, Australian Greens Senator Rachel Siewert said today.

While we are all overjoyed about the postal survey result yesterday, this survey should never have happened in the first place and it was a huge waste of tax payer money.

“There are reports that the marriage equality postal survey came in $20 million under budget, said Senator Janet Rice, the Australian Greens LGBTIQ spokesperson.

“Many LGBTIQ people will remain scarred by the traumatic ordeal the Government has put them through. Mr Turnbull could start making amends by investing this $20 million into mental health services for LGBTIQ people.

The Australian Greens have deep concerns regarding the NSW Government’s decision to cut funding for disability advocacy from July 2018.

The news that a young man with disability had been kept in jail because of a failure to find him appropriate accommodation is absolutely heartbreaking and exposes the failure of our systems to address this issue, Senator Rachel Siewert said today.

“It’s another example of how far we have to go in getting the NDIS right and the urgency of addressing indefinite detention of people with cognitive impairments. It’s absolutely unacceptable to have situations like this occurring.