Achieving LGBTIQA+ equality
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Queer and Asexual (LGBTIQA+) people continue to face discrimination. Many experience a lack of autonomy over their bodies, and difficulty accessing holistic and comprehensive health services and secure housing.
The mental health of LGBTIQA+ young people is among the poorest in Australia.
The Greens plan includes:
- Appoint a Minister for Equality and an LGBTIQA+ Human Rights Commissioner to make achieving equality a priority across government
- Tighten anti-discrimination laws and introduce a Charter of Rights to protect LGBTIQA+ rights in law
- Fund $15 million a year in gender-affirming healthcare - including ensuring trans and gender diverse people have access to surgical procedures, prescribed hormones, products and services to affirm their gender
- Making schools safer – by removing exemptions from anti-discrimination laws, funding inclusion training for teachers, scrapping $61m funding for school chaplains, and investing it to support students through counsellors and anti-bullying initiatives
Ending Violence Against Women
Around 40% of women have experienced workplace harassment. Girls as young as 12 have reported sexual harassment in public. One in three women experience abuse in their lifetime.
Women from First Nations or culturally diverse backgrounds, women in regional areas, older women, LGBTIQA+ women, and women with a disability are even more likely to experience violence.
This is a national crisis, and the Greens will take action towards the elimination of all gendered violence.
The Greens plan includes:
- $12 billion to support the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children and a standalone National Plan for First Nations Women’s Safety
- Doubling funding for women’s legal services and Family Violence Prevention Legal Services
- $477 million to support the national rollout of Our Watch’s Respectful Relationships education in all public schools
- $10,000 Survivor Grants for women escaping abuse
- 10 days paid domestic violence leave
- Improving the family law system
- Trial a national disclosure scheme for women worried about a partner’s history of violence
- Fund the Illawarra Women’s Trauma Recovery Centre to support victim-survivors to rebuild their lives
Rights for people seeking refuge
People seeking asylum have been the subject of cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment for the political benefit of the Liberal and Labor parties.
Both major parties support the cruel practice of indefinite detention for people who seek safety in Australia. Thousands of people currently living in Australia are denied basic rights because they sought a safer life.
The Greens will treat people who seek safety in Australia with the respect and dignity they deserve.
The Greens plan includes:
- Close the camps and end offshore detention on Manus Island and Nauru, bringing refugees to safety and freedom in Australia
- Increase Australia’s humanitarian intake to 50,000 per year
Provide an additional 4,000 humanitarian places for refugees from Afghanistan and protect Afghan citizens already in Australia - Establish a regional solution for people seeking asylum
- Push for a faster, fairer, and more affordable family reunion visa system that actually
reunites families - Introduce a 7 day limit for onshore detention and provide fair support for people seeking asylum
- Abolish Temporary Protection Visas and reintroduce Permanent Protection Visas for refugees so they can rebuild their lives in Australia
Accessible Australia
There are more than four million disabled people in Australia. Just like everyone else, they have a right to be supported to live full and active lives – but significant barriers still remain in our society.
Disabled people continue to fall through the cracks and are often denied the same rights as everyone else.
Successive Liberal and Labor governments have perpetuated the discrimination of disabled people, often denying them access to inclusive education, meaningful employment, adequate services, and the support they need.
The Greens will, remove the barriers, fix the systems, and eliminate the structural discrimination disabled people face.
The Greens plan includes:
- Fully resource the NDIS so it meets the needs of disabled people, their families and carers
- Make disabled people's physical and digital worlds accessible, including by establishing a new $3 billion Accessible Infrastructure Fund
- Champion inclusive education and employment by establishing a 20% quota for full disabled employee representation in the Australian Public Service by 2030
- Create more accessible housing and healthcare through co-designed planning, policies, and implementation of Liveable Housing Australia Silver Standard across the country
- Ensure disabled people are at the centre of decision-making, policy and planning through $30 million increase in Commonwealth funding for disability advocacy organisations over four years
Justice for All
Our legal system fails too many people and it’s always failed First Nations people, and the consequences can be a matter of life or death. The system is too expensive, too hard to access and often, it’s simply racist. First Nations children as young as ten are regularly being imprisoned.
No matter who we are, the legal system must protect all of us equally.
We need to build stronger and better connected communities, not funnel people into the quicksand of the criminal legal system.
The Greens plan includes:
- Raise the age of legal responsibility to at least 14 years
- Introduce independent police and prison oversight mechanisms
- Reform the criminal legal system so we can invest in communities not prisons
- Enact a charter of human and environmental rights
- More than double funding for legal assistance services to $800 million a year so all people have access to legal help when they need it
- Improve the family law system by implementing recommendations the government has allowed to gather dust, like providing wrap-around support
- Contribute $51m to establish a First Nations legal defence fund – so First Nations communities can access independent legal advice to protect their heritage and fight for Country
Income Support
Too many people live in poverty in this country. Poverty is a policy chosen by major parties, so big corporations can make the most profit.
As a result, for a lot of people, it’s too hard to find a secure well paid job, and costs of living are too high to escape the cycle.
The Greens will build a stronger safety net for everyone.
The Greens plan includes:
- Introduce a liveable income guarantee
- Raise the rate to $88 a day: increase all income support payments above the poverty line. This covers: JobSeeker Payment, Parenting Payment, Age Pension, Carer’s Payment, Disability Support Pension, Farmhouse Allowance, ABSTUDY, AUSTUDY, Youth Allowance, and Crisis Payments
- Lower the age pension age back to 65 and raise the rate of the pension
- Abolish punitive measures from our social security system including the Cashless Debit Card, Basics Card, Work for the Dole, Parents Next, and exploitative youth employment programs obligations, saving billions
- Replace the failing privatised Jobactive scheme with a public employment service that is responsive, flexible and tailored to an individual’s circumstances to ensure all unemployed people get the support they need to enter or re-enter the workforce.
Renters Rights
More and more people are locked out of home ownership and at the mercy of the private rental market. Liberal and Labor have given big banks, property developers and the real estate industry too much power, and now rents have gone through the roof. As a result, homelessness is on the rise and the waiting list for public housing is growing.
Over a million Australian households are paying more in rent than they can afford.
The Greens plan includes:
- Building one million new homes – publicly-owned, affordable, high-quality and sustainable homes
- Establishing national standards for renters rights – including capping rent increases, stopping ‘no-grounds’ evictions, and introducing accessibility, energy efficiency, and environmental sustainability standards
- Supporting tenants to make their house a home by allowing minor changes without permission and stopping blanket ‘no pets’ clauses in leases
- Increase funding to tenants advocacy services by $30 million a year
Fully-Funded Frontline Homelessness Services
Australia faces an acute crisis of homelessness, where over 100,000 people are without a roof over their head on any given night. It’s time we tackle homelessness by building one million public and community homes over 20 years and by fully-funding frontline homelessness services so no one seeking shelter and support is turned away.
The numbers of people seeking support from specialist homelessness services are increasing year on year. In 2020–21, this number was almost 278,300 people.
The Greens plan includes:
- Tackle the homelessness crisis through a fivefold increase to funding for homelessness support services, with a boost of $550 million per year and indexed to CPI to ensure it never falls behind again
- Guarantee the increased homelessness funding for ten years so service providers can have certainty
- Develop a National Housing and Homelessness Strategy
Together, we’re powerful.
We have a plan to reduce the cost of living, make housing more affordable, tackle the climate crisis, and make sure everyone is looked after.
We'll take on the big corporations, stop them ripping you off, and and tax them to fund the things that everyone needs. The Greens are fighting for you.