In Britain, the phone-hacking scandal has put Rupert Murdoch's media empire under unprecedented scrutiny. 

Questions are being asked about News Corporation's influence over British democracy - its capacity to make and break prime ministers and to set the policy agenda of the day.

In Australia, similar questions must also be asked. News Limited controls 70 per cent of our nation's print media, representing the greatest concentration of media ownership in the democratic world.

The Senate has this afternoon agreed to send the Malaysia deal to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee for inquiry and report back by September 22, 2011.

"The Greens have welcomed the Senate's decision to refer the inhumane Malaysian people swap deal to an inquiry because it will finally give the parliament the chance to scrutinise an arrangement which the government has refused to table," Greens' immigration spokesperson, Sen. Sarah Hanson-Young, said today.

The Greens have welcomed the SA government's environmental water requirements study, which has been peer-reviewed by the Goyder Institute, to demonstrate what is needed to keep the Murray mouth open and ensure a healthy river system.

"We've always maintained that the protections the river needs must be based on scientific evidence," SA Greens senator and spokesperson for water and the Murray Darling Basin, Sarah Hanson-Young, said today.

Yesterday was a great day for the Greens. Our team in the Federal Parliament went from six to 10 with Governor-General Quentin Bryce presiding over the swearing-in of 12 senators from around the country who were elected in August last year.

The Australian Greens are calling on the federal government to alter the powers of the Foreign Investment Review Board to include water licences.

It comes amid an overwhelming response from everyday Australians toward the acquisition of prime farming land by foreign companies and shows the Federal government must act to ensure water allocation licences in the Murray Darling Basin and other part of the country are protected.

Sen. Sarah Hanson-Young and Senator-elect, Penny Wright, talk to the SA media on the SA Greens' numbers doubling in the Senate from July 1 as part of the Greens holding the balance of power in the new senate.

The Greens are pleased with the release of the House of Representative committee’s report into the Murray Darling basin, but have questioned some of its recommendations.

“We join with environmental groups in expressing our concern with the report’s call for a reassessment of the voluntary water buy-back of certain allocations,” Greens’ spokesperson on the Murray Darling, Sen. Sarah Hanson-Young, said.