Greens Spokesperson for the Environment Senator Hanson-Young responded to the PM's comments today on changes environmental laws:

“The Prime Minster has today belled the cat on the Government’s plans to weaken environmental protections, making it easier for big miners and developers to get the green-light on projects that damage the environment. 

“At a press conference today speaking on plans to amend federal Environment Laws (the EPBC Act) the Prime Minister said: 

The Greens have slammed the Morrison Government‘s decision today to give another $10million of public money to Fox Sports, taking the total amount of corporate welfare under this program to the Murdoch company to $40million.

Greens Spokesperson for Media and Communications Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said:

“Another day, another public hand-out to the Morrison Government’s Murdoch mates.

“Giving tens of millions to Fox Sports while cutting funding to the ABC really is the height of arrogance.

The Prime Minister must drop his plans to green light major developments and new mines at the expense of the environment, after the devastating assessment of Australia’s environmental trajectory in the just-released interim report into Australia’s federal environment laws, the Greens say.

Greens Spokesperson for the Environment Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said:

“Our environment is in crisis and our native wildlife is facing extinction. Unless we change business-as-usual our environment is destined for more destruction. Our wildlife, our beaches, our forests will be gone.

Today’s $400m tax incentive for bringing international productions to be filmed in Australia must be backed up with government commitment to support locally, Australian-made stories, the Greens say.
“Having Johnny Depp and his Pirates entourage in Australia is great, but we need to back Australian owned and made stories too,” Greens Arts & Communications spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.

It’s untenable to leave the National Party in charge of water and a Royal Commission is needed more than ever, after today’s Auditor-General’s report into ‘Watergate’ found the government didn’t even try to achieve value for money of water entitlements and didn’t appropriately manage conflicts of interest, the Greens say.

The announcement by Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley today of funding for tourism and infrastructure at five natural attractions shows there are jobs in a green recovery and much more must be done to look after our environment, the Australian Greens say.

Greens Spokesperson for the Environment Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said:

"Any funding from the Federal Government that goes to improving and protecting our natural world is welcome. This announcement shows there are jobs and economic stimulus in a Green Recovery.

The Morrison Government must significantly increase the arts and entertainment industry recovery package following a return to lockdown measures in Melbourne, the Greens say.

Greens Spokesperson for the Arts Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said:

The Greens are calling on Environment Minister Sussan Ley to immediately release the interim report into Australia's environment laws handed to her a week ago by the independent reviewer.

Greens Spokesperson for the Environment Senator Sarah Hanson-Young who successfully moved an order in the Senate for the interim report to be released by today at the latest, said:

The Greens are calling on the Morrison Government to rule out killing more Australian jobs by permanently abolishing local content rules and to get on with requiring streaming giants to produce Australian-made shows.

Greens Spokesperson for Communication and the Arts Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said now the consultation period for the local content options paper had closed, Minister Fletcher needed to get on with the job.

ABS stats released today show the arts and recreation industry has lost four times as many payroll jobs as the construction industry but has received a third of the support, highlighting just how inadequate the Morrison Government’s arts and entertainment industry package is, the Greens say.

Greens Spokesperson for the Arts Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said:

“The construction industry is receiving a package worth three times as much as the arts and entertainment industry despite only losing 5.3 per cent of payroll jobs compared to 24% per cent.