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Education
The Greens believe a responsible government should foster a strong, vibrant, top-quality public education system that is fee free from preschool to university. This is the kind of vision that the Greens bring to the debate. It is an affordable vision and it is a responsible vision. For less money than this government spends each year on the diesel fuel rebate the government could make this a reality.
The previous Howard government continually refused to invest real money in the higher education sector. Will the Rudd government address the shortfall?
The Greens believe in access to university based on merit, not your ability to pay.
The Greens vision is to abolish all course fees for domestic students. That means no upfront fees and no more HECS.
All of us have a right to a high quality, fair education system, and the first step is to make it free.
Helping students focus on study
Financial hardship should not be a barrier to academic success. Yet the cost of education has gone up and there are more students today living in poverty or working long hours on top of their studies.
The Greens recognise the student financial support system needs an overhaul. As a first step we would give all students an allowance for software and books, extend rent assistance to Austudy recipients and return Abstudy to its 1996 levels.
Education - Latest Media Releases
Mass extinction crisis demands climate change action around the globe - Greens
The mass of extinctions now underway (see IUCN red list report today) underscores the urgent need for the global community to tackle human-induced climate change, Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown said today.
"Unlike when the dinosaurs went to extinction 65 million years ago, this onrush of mass extinctions of species is preventable. It will take coordinated international action, but action must begin at home," Senator Brown said.
"Environment Minister Peter Garrett should be leading this campaign. The most obvious first action is to stop the clear-felling and burning of native forests and woodlands, which are the habitat of scores of rare and endangered species, and which hold back megatonnes of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
2009 students stuck with VSU
Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young has called on the Federal Government to amend voluntary student unionism legislation promptly in order to fast-track the restoration of student services for those enrolled at university in 2009.
A motion moved today by Senator Hanson-Young to scrap the current VSU system was supported only by the five Greens Senators.
Greens ‘New Century’ Australia Senate Agenda
The Australian Greens today outlined their vision for Australia in the new century ahead of the opening of the Balance-of-Power Senate.
Australian Greens Leader, Senator Bob Brown, said a record 1.17 million people voted Greens at the last election, and the five Greens Senators were ready to work constructively with all parties to respond to the challenges of the new century.
"Pollution, poverty, discrimination and the destruction of Australia's forests and precious environments are the legacy of the last century and decades of greed and inaction."
"The Greens' role, beginning with this new Parliament, is to begin delivering an Australia that was cleaner, fairer and saner."
Cannington trial - wrong-headed: Greens
The punitive Cannington welfare trial, which involves suspending welfare payments to parents whose children play truant, and quarantining the income of those deemed 'at risk', is an old fashioned and wrong-headed approach to dealing with a serious problem according to the Australian Greens.
