2022-11-25
I’m looking back on the past 12 months feeling even more humbled and grateful to represent our movement and the state of WA in this truly incredible role.
By Senator Jordon Steele-John
Federal election years are always a little more frenzied than usual – even when you’re not directly up for re-election yourself – and 2022 has been no exception. This year has also marked the first change in government I’ve experienced as a senator, which has given the second half of the year a bit of a different flavour.
Between all the politicking on the campaign trail and in Parliament, it’s been both a really tough year as well as a deeply rewarding one. I’m looking back on the past 12 months feeling even more humbled and grateful to represent our movement and the state of WA in this truly incredible role.
An election to remember (for the right reasons)
After the Coalition’s shock win in 2019, I was slightly terrified they would somehow again thunder to victory in this federal election. So I can’t quite express how satisfying it is to now attach the word ‘former’ to the words ‘Prime Minister Scott Morrison’, and more broadly to see the Liberals decimated at the polls as the Australian public overwhelmingly rejected their divisive platform.
That satisfaction is tempered with some disappointment, though, as the Albanese Government has thus far failed to show the meaningful leadership this country so desperately needs to navigate the concurrent crises we face.
I was 100 percent confident in the amazing, inclusive campaign the Greens rolled out this federal election, but I’m still pinching myself at just how emphatically voters embraced it. Pinching myself at the growth of our party room from 10 on May 20 to a massive 16 just a day later. Pinching myself at having no fewer than three new Greens MPs – the fabulous Elizabeth Watson-Brown, Stephen Bates and Max Chandler-Mather – join Adam Bandt in the Lower House. Pinching myself at the historic win of my colleague Senator Dorinda Cox here in WA, and of our other fantastic senators around the country.
This election really brought home what we can achieve when we put the needs of the community first, and just how powerful we are as a movement. I couldn’t be prouder to be a part of it alongside every single one of you, and I’m excited to get my re-election campaign rolling!
Disability
My work in the disability space always seems to get busier with each year – a double-edged sword, because I love engaging with our passionate community but I’m exasperated by the constant challenges we face.
In an attempt to meaningfully address these systemic barriers, one of my big campaigns ahead of the election was launching the bid to make the next disability minister a disabled person. There is a physically disabled person present in Parliament (*raises hand*), which means we could actually work across party lines to make sure disabled people are represented by someone with lived experience. Unsurprisingly, the major parties chose to ignore the pleas of the community and the new NDIS minister is, once again, a non-disabled person who simply doesn’t get it.
As a result, we have yet to see even the beginnings of the systemic change we so urgently need to make the NDIS work for everyone. I’ve gone from being cautiously hopeful that the new Labor Government would shift the management of the NDIS into a new era – one that actually seeks to realise the vision of the scheme – to accepting that change will only happen with the staunch advocacy of the Greens alongside our passionate community.
In the first week of the new Parliament, the major parties again worked together to deny the disability community the opportunity to be led by someone with lived experience: they blocked the Greens’ motion to have a disabled person chair the Joint Standing Committee on the NDIS. It was a very clear and easy opportunity for them to do what’s right for disabled people, and yet again they actively chose against it.
But despite their attempts to lock us out, the Greens managed to persuade the committee to launch a parliamentary inquiry into the capability and culture of the NDIS – a massive win that comes in the wake of huge breaches of participants’ trust. It also shows just how important it is to have the Greens in this space to unapologetically champion the rights of disabled folks around the country.
As we always do, this past year my team and I met with scores of disability organisations to learn about their key issues and how we can help. We’ve supported countless members of the community through everything from flood support to NDIS matters, including playing a critical role in the instatement of millions of dollars of NDIS funding. We’ve waved a happy goodbye to former NDIA CEO Martin Hoffman, who consistently broke trust with the disability community. And the Disability Royal Commission has continued its work this year ahead of its final report to be delivered next year, which I keenly await.
Health
This year my team and I really ramped up our work in the Health portfolio. Unfortunately, much of that was born of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the government’s ongoing mismanagement of it. We campaigned tirelessly for better community protections like free RATs and, more recently, reinstating the mandatory isolation period, and we worked to hold the government to account on their failures using every lever available to us.
We also continued our campaign to bring mental and dental into Medicare. It remains utterly ridiculous that our teeth and brains are not considered part of the body when it comes to the funding of their care, and this policy formed a key plank of our election platform. More broadly, we’ve also put a lot of work into the Mental Health portfolio, including making a commitment to permanently extending telehealth services and drafting a new mental health policy. It’s a really exciting, important and quickly evolving space that my team and I are really enjoying learning about and working in.
In the wake of the US Supreme Court striking down the Roe vs Wade decision, the conversation around abortion and reproductive rights has grown louder in Australia. It’s a particularly pertinent topic here in WA, which has the most restrictive abortion legislation in the country. Abortion must be free, legal and accessible, and I’ve been very grateful to have the opportunity to speak about this critical issue both in the community at rallies and in the chamber at Parliament House.
I’m also so proud that in September the Greens established a Senate inquiry into reproductive health; it’s a critical initiative that will champion every single person’s human right to accessing the services and care they need in a timely, accurate and culturally appropriate manner.
Peace and Nuclear Disarmament
2022 has shown us that, now more than ever, we must not ease up in our pursuit of non-violent solutions to conflict de-escalation, and that it is incumbent on all of us to work towards a world free of nuclear weapons. Peace must always be the goal. It is simply non-negotiable.
In line with that principle, this year we pushed even harder on our campaign to scrap the AUKUS pact announced by the Morrison Government in 2021. AUKUS is plainly provocative and poses a grave risk to both community safety and global non-proliferation, and yet the new Albanese Government has simply picked up where the Coalition left off. Over the past year I attended and spoke at a number of anti-AUKUS events, and in the Senate tabled an anti-AUKUS petition with around 26,700 signatures. We cannot allow this terrible deal to go ahead, and I will not stop speaking out in support of our concerned community.
AUKUS is also totally incompatible with the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which I’ve ramped up my calls on the government to sign and ratify. While in opposition, the new PM explicitly and emphatically committed the Labor Party to doing so – but now that he has the top job, he’s been totally silent. It’s an embarrassment for Australia on the world stage, especially because this year the first meeting of the state parties that have signed the TPNW took place and we were nowhere to be seen. I will continue to agitate on this, particularly through my co-chair position on the Parliamentary Friends of the TPNW.
Foreign Affairs
After the election I was thrilled to take up the mantle of the Greens’ Foreign Affairs spokesperson (while handing off Youth and Drugs to the very capable Stephen Bates and David Shoebridge respectively).
As a discipline, foreign policy is traditionally governed by paternalistic and masculine frameworks, and the way we approach it in this country is outdated and in many cases actively harmful. While that’s a dreadful starting point, it does give us the meaningful opportunity to change direction: to dismantle the traditional ideas of how we frame, prioritise and deal with foreign policy issues; and to instead view it through progressive feminist and decolonialist lenses.
Since taking on the portfolio I’ve worked across issues as diverse as Israel’s occupation of Palestine, Julian Assange’s ongoing detention, and the opening of Myanmar’s historic National Unity Government representative office in Canberra.
I’m really grateful to my colleague Senator Janet Rice for the work she and her team have done in this portfolio before it came to me. I couldn’t be prouder of how quickly and passionately my team has launched into this space, which dovetails neatly with our peace and disarmament work.
Thank you!
In what has proven to be a remarkably tough year in many ways, I simply cannot express just how powerful and valued the contributions of all of our members, supporters and volunteers are to our ability to do this work. This movement is nothing if not for all of you, so from the bottom of my heart: thank you for all you have given and continue to give. It does not go unnoticed, nor do you go unappreciated. Thank you, thank you, thank you.