In the midst of the most challenging year many of us have ever had, what we do next matters. Greens are fighting in the parliament for a future where no one is left behind.
By Senator Janet Rice
This year has been like no other. This pandemic has presented so many new challenges, changing how we work and how we live, in ways big and small. It’s been a tough year for all of us.
My son John is one of the thousands of Victorians who caught coronavirus. He is still dealing with the longer-term effects and now lives with me so I can help him recover. We’re lucky that I still have a job and can work from home while caring for him – that’s not an option for a lot of people.
Especially in my home state of Victoria (we’re still in lockdown as I write this), so many people are still struggling – struggling to make ends meet, struggling with their physical and mental health, and with the uncertainty of the future.
So I’m proud of what the Greens have been doing to help people during this pandemic. We’ve been supporting our local constituents, helping Australians stranded overseas get home, and fighting in the parliament for more people to get the financial support they need and for a recovery and a future where no one is left behind.
Farewell Richard, welcome Lidia
A big event this year was of course Richard Di Natale stepping down as the Leader of the Australian Greens. Richard is a person of great integrity and he helped to build the party into the strong organisation and movement we are now. We all miss him dearly.
But this end of an era led to the excitement of Lidia Thorpe joining our federal Party Room team as the first Aboriginal senator for Victoria.
Lidia’s voice is one we desperately need in parliament, and I’m thrilled and proud to work alongside her as part of our federal Greens team.
Fighting for airline workers
It’s been a devastating year for airline workers and their families. The Morrison government’s inaction has seen one of our two major airlines collapse and thousands of jobs lost from both Virgin and Qantas.
We’ve also seen a thousand redundancies announced at Dnata, an airport service provider, because the Morrison government locked these workers out of JobKeeper.
The Greens will continue to call for more support for all workers and for public ownership of Qantas should it receive more financial support from the government.
If public money is going to be spent, we should be getting public ownership. Public ownership is the only way to ensure the airline prioritises essential workers and commits to shifting to net zero carbon operations.
Real progress on forests
This year, we’ve seen some big wins in our campaign to end native forest logging. The Federal Court ruled that existing logging laws and operations are sending threatened species in Victoria to the brink of extinction. This decision has halted logging in areas of significant habitat for the Leadbeater’s Possum and the Greater Glider.
Because of this ruling, Bunnings has stopped selling timber logged by VicForests, which is a huge step forward.
Federal and state governments have been put on notice. Business as usual is not tenable.
VicForests, the state government owned logging agency, have decided to appeal the decision, so our work is not done yet. We will continue the fight in the year ahead to end all native forest logging in Australia.
Of course this progress has been made in the context of the tragedy of having over a fifth of Australia's mainland forest burning in the summer’s catastrophic fires, which killed over three billion animals. We have worked since the fires on building public understanding about how much our climate crisis contributed to these fires and the need to completely rethink fire management in order to protect lives, livelihoods and our forests from increasingly more intense and more extensive fires.
LGBTIQ+ rights
As a queer woman, I am proud to continue to stand up for the rights of the LGBTIQ+ community.
Discrimination harms everyone and all Australians should have protection under the law. I’m so pleased that the government’s Religious Discrimination Bill has gone into hibernation – hopefully never to return. But if it does, you can be assured that the Greens will fight tooth and nail to protect the rights of LGBTIQ+ people, women, and people with disabilities that would all be harmed if this bill ever becomes law.
Looking ahead with hope
This year has not turned out the way any of us wanted. It can be hard not to feel despair and frustration. We are living through a historically significant, tough time, but this too we will overcome.
In this next year, I look forward to continuing to work hand in (socially distanced) hand with the community and my colleagues to help Australia recover from this pandemic and to tackle the dual economic and climate crises we face.
This pandemic has shown us how quickly things can be turned around if there’s the will to make it happen. We’ve seen a meaningful increase to income support payments, thousands lifted out of poverty, free childcare, a reduction in global carbon pollution – and dear to my heart – an increase in bike riding!
Imagine how quickly we can bring about a better future for our people and our planet, ensuring no one is left behind. Let’s do this.