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.

I was interviewed by the ABC in this report about threats to the Lake Eyre basin.

The original report aired on 30/05/11.

Last week the federal government's budget revealed the Education Department would spend another $222 million over four years on the national school chaplaincy program.

In light of revelations that the Victoria-based Access Ministries is reportedly using the program to ''make disciples'' of students, the Australian Greens question whether that's money well-spent.

It's time the two main parties told us what they really stand for.

The idea of a carbon tax has Tony Abbott's speedos in a knot. The Opposition Leader has been rabidly calling for a people's revolution to bring down the Government.

But as the flop of Mr Abbott's dismal 200-person-strong "People's Revolt" in Melbourne on Saturday starkly demonstrated (when compared with the 8000 people rallying on the other side of town in support of the tax), hysteria and mouth-frothing doesn't always muster the troops.

As we begin the parliamentary year this week, there are a lot of issues in the mix, from natural disasters to budget considerations, debate over a carbon price and the future of hospital reform.

But as difficult and sensitive as some of those debates may be, there is another issue that the federal government has been trying very hard to avoid - that is the case of Julian Assange, the founder of the WikiLeaks website.