2025-10-21
By Sarah-Hanson Young
Manager of Greens Business in the Senate & Senator for South Australia
I am so proud of the enormous year we’ve had and the huge effort by our staff and volunteers. The story of the Greens in 2024-25 is one of hope, teamwork, and principled action in the face of ever-mounting challenges for people and the planet.
During the election campaign, I had the pleasure of visiting every key seat around the country. The passion and energy I encountered in each state was inspiring. Every doorknock, every phonebank, every conversation was a powerful reminder of the strength of our movement and a testament to our members, volunteers, candidates, organisers, and staff.
Here in South Australia, the Greens received their best ever result with the highest swing in the country in both the upper and lower houses. I was thrilled to be re-elected for my fourth term as Senator for my beautiful state and, with the Greens holding sole balance of power in the Senate, our voices will have weight and influence in every major debate. This has only been possible thanks to our people powered movement.
AUSTRALIA NEEDS NEW ENVIRONMENT LAWS
The Albanese Government came to power promising climate action, but ended their first term with continued approvals of new coal and gas projects and a failed attempt at environmental law reform. The Greens’ negotiations had us close to an agreement on Labor’s Nature Positive bill late last year until the Prime Minister, at the behest of the fossil fuel lobby and the WA Government, overruled his own Environment Minister at the 11th hour and the legislation was scrapped.
The captain's calls from the PM kept on coming, when Labor ignored local communities and rushed through laws that protected destructive salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour instead of protecting our environment. When I brought a dead salmon into the Senate, it wasn’t for drama; it was to show the stark cost of the government’s reckless enabling of an industry that is poisoning our waterways and driving ancient wildlife to extinction.
I won’t let Labor continue to make up their own rules when it comes to protecting our environment, which is why I introduced our Climate Trigger bill as soon as we returned for the 48th Parliament. It would require all major developments to pass a climate impact assessment, stopping high-polluting projects before they start and aligning national laws with our commitment to limiting global heating to 1.5°C. With reforming our environment laws squarely back on the table, the Labor Government is forced to make a decision on either taking positive climate action, or showing Australians that they prefer to take the side of the big industries and polluters.
ARTS & COMMUNICATIONS PORTFOLIOS
Over the past year, I’ve continued fighting for media diversity, public interest journalism, and support for our creative communities at a time when our artists really needed support.
Like many in the arts community, I was shocked by the blatant political interference that led Creative Australia to overturn their decision to select artists Khaled Sabsabi and Michael Dagostino as Australia’s representatives at the prestigious Venice Biennale. This knee-jerk censorship undermines artistic expression and democracy. As angry as I was, I also wanted Aussie artists to know that we were with them, and that the Greens would support them. After much public outcry and a late night grilling during Senate Estimates, the original decision was thankfully reinstated, but the whole saga made it clear that the leadership of Creative Australia needs a clean out to restore integrity and show the artistic community that they will not capitulate to the lobbying from the right wing media or conservative politicians in future.
Although most of us agree that social media can have unhealthy and negative impacts, the Government’s push for a blanket ban on access for under 16s was never the right solution. As Deputy Chair of a Joint Select Committee on Social Media and Australian Society, I heard clear evidence from experts that we needed regulation, a duty of care on digital platforms, and greater control measures. Labor ignored the key recommendations in this report and instead rushed through their under-developed and poorly written laws banning everyone under the age of 16 from accessing social media. Instead of kicking kids off the platforms, the Government should be holding tech giants accountable for their harmful algorithms and data harvesting. The Albanese Government previously backed a Digital Duty of Care, and as the Greens spokesperson for Communications, I will keep pushing the Government to implement this measure and make social media safer for everyone. We cannot rely on the goodwill or social responsibility of these tech companies - we need stronger regulations and accountability.
Another of the Government’s own reports that they chose to ignore was the late Labor MP Peta Murphy’s inquiry into gambling harm. The recommendations from this report were the basis of the Greens’ Ban Gambling Ads Bill which I introduced to parliament calling for a ban on gambling advertising on TV, radio, online and in print. Australians lose more per capita to gambling than anywhere else in the world, and people are sick of having gambling ads rammed down their throats during family time when watching the footy. Despite repeated offers from the Greens to facilitate passage of this legislation, the Albanese Government continued to kick the can down the road. Despite their unwillingness to act in their last term of parliament, the Greens will continue to put this issue front and centre to create better protections for all Australians. Just as we banned tobacco ads, we must end the constant promotion of this harmful industry.
During a routine Senate Estimates hearing, I put the CEO of the Australian Communications and Media Authority in the awkward position of highlighting just how lax their regulation is and how far media standards have slipped. Radio shock jock Kyle Sandilands is paid millions of dollars every year to broadcast his disgusting, sexist, misogynist, racist remarks on a daily basis while radio stations broadcast his show during school drop-off and pick-up times. This material is so vile that the head of ACMA was too embarrassed to read a sample of it aloud - yet, she would not commit to investigating and penalising the Kyle & Jackie O show. The public needs a watchdog with teeth, not a corporate lapdog and ACMA is overdue for a thorough overhaul to stop it from being too cosy with the corporations it is tasked with regulating. Shortly after my intervention, ACMA launched an investigation and found the Kyle & Jackie O show breached broadcasting decency standards. This shows the power of scrutiny and holding our regulators to account, and the Greens will continue pushing for greater transparency from government agencies.
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
My home state is close to being announced as the host of COP31 in 2026, and we couldn’t be more excited! This will mean a BIG year ahead in Adelaide as we work with state and national stakeholders to plan for the world’s premier climate conference to come right to our doorstep. A successful COP31 in Adelaide will be a defining moment for climate justice in Australia and the world, but Australia cannot lecture the world on climate action if it won’t stop fuelling the fire. That means no new coal and gas projects and ending the $12 billion of taxpayer funds being handed to the fossil fuel industry every year. It is also an opportunity for Australia to listen to our Pacific neighbours’ calls for climate action.
While we look forward to being on the global climate stage at COP31, we’re also living with the consequences of climate inaction. The toxic algal bloom that has wreaked havoc along SA’s beautiful coastline over the past few months has delivered death and destruction right in front of us every single day. It has hurt our communities, our industries, and is wiping our our precious marine life. I spent the parliamentary winter break bringing attention to this disaster, while state and federal governments sat back and claimed there was nothing that could be done. In the face of climate change, we need strong leadership to fund our scientists, inform our community and provide pathways for restoration. There is no doubt that if this disaster were playing out on the shoreline of Bondi Beach, the Prime Minister would have been in his high vis on the beach within weeks - not six months. Better yet, we know exactly who caused this disaster: the fossil fuel industry, and they should be the ones to pay for the damage. When we returned to parliament, I led the charge to establish a Parliamentary inquiry into the Algal Blooms in South Australia. This inquiry will be critical in hearing from the experts, Government representatives and our community as to how this algal bloom has played out and what needs to happen next. I look forward to hearing from our community as the committee travels to four different locations across South Australia, learning from the experts and developing better solutions to deal with future climate disasters.
We have a lot of work to do this parliamentary term as we continue to face new challenges, and Labor will try to use their majority to block progress. But I have seen what we can achieve, and I am confident that the Greens will deliver real outcomes as we continue pushing for real climate action, media accountability, protection for our environment, and a fairer future for all Australians.
- Sarah