The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20131230062422/http://australianpolitics.com:80/tag/christine-milne

MYEFO: Greens Say Focus Should Be On How To Raise Revenue, Call For End To Panic On Debt

Dec 17, 2013 Leave a Comment

The Australian Greens have reacted to the release of the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) by calling for an end to the panic about debt in favour of a new focus on how to raise revenue to fund services and jobs.

Milne

“Now is not the time to be talking about spending restraint because of a panic on debt,” said Greens leader Senator Christine Milne.

“The old parties wasted the resources boom,” Milne said. “A serious look at raising revenue is necessary to address subdued unemployment, an ageing workforce and increased demand for services.”

  • Listen to Milne (12m)

    Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Text of media release from the Australian Greens.

End panic on debt and let’s talk about revenue and jobs – Greens

Responding to the release of the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook, Australian Greens Leader Christine Milne has warned against deep budget cuts and says the focus should now be on how we can raise revenue to spend on public services and the infrastructure of the future. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Audio2013, Budget, Greens Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Greens On Abbott: 100 Days, 40 Failures; Secretive, Cruel And Chaotic

Dec 16, 2013 Leave a Comment

The Abbott government’s first 100 days have been characterised by failure, secrecy, cruelty and chaos, according to the Australian Greens.

Milne

In a media release today, Greens leader Senator Christine Milne said “the Abbott government’s true agenda was hidden behind cheap rhetoric”.

Milne said “the Abbott government has tried to claim a so-called mandate to take Australia back to the last century”. She said “the Australian people didn’t sign up to this and the Greens will stand against it”.

The release provides a list of 40 “failures” of the Abbott government in a variety of policy areas.

  • Listen to Christine Milne’s media conference (18m)

    Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Media release from the Australian Greens:

100 days, 40 failures: a preview of secretive, cruel and chaotic government

Releasing a list of the Abbott government’s top failures, the Australian Greens say the first 100 days have been a secretive, cruel and chaotic preview of what is to come. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Abbott, Audio2013, Greens Tagged With: , , ,

The Long Walk To Freedom Ends With Global Tributes To The Life Of Nelson Mandela

Dec 06, 2013 Leave a Comment

Australian political figures are amongst world leaders who have paid tribute to Nelson Mandela, the revolutionary anti-apartheid campaigner, Nobel Peace Prize recipient and first black President of South Africa, who has died at the age of 95.

Mandela

The most celebrated and respected politician of our times, Mandela’s death marks the passing of a global leader noted for his courage, humanity, humility and grace.

Imprisoned by the white South African apartheid regime in 1962, Mandela spent most of the next 27 years in the Robben Island prison. He was released in February 1990 in the aftermath of the fall of the Berlin Wall at the instigation of then President F.W. de Klerk.

At free and democratic elections in 1994, Mandela was elected the first black President of South Africa. His administration dismantled the apartheid system but he saw his principal task as promoting national reconciliation.

Mandela retired in 1999 but soon “retired from retirement” and devoted his final years to speaking out on a wide range of issues.

In a moving tribute, Barack Obama, the first black President of the United States, said of Mandela: “For now, let us pause and give thanks for the fact that Nelson Mandela lived — a man who took history in his hands, and bent the arc of the moral universe toward justice.”

“He no longer belongs to us – he belongs to the ages,” Obama said.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott described Mandela as a “truly great man”. He said Mandela was one of the great figures of the last century, the father of modern South Africa who built a “multicultural, pluralist democracy”.

Former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, who visited Mandela in prison and worked to dismantle apartheid, described Mandela as the greatest person he had ever met. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Abbott, Obama, Video Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Greens Strike Deal With Abbott Government To Abolish Debt Ceiling

Dec 04, 2013 Leave a Comment

With just days to spare before the debt limit needed to be increased, the Australian Greens have struck a deal with the government to abolish the ceiling.

Once labelled “economic fringe-dwellers” by the Coalition, the Greens have stolen a march on the ALP by negotiating a deal that reshapes the debt debate and sidelines the Opposition.

Greens leader Senator Christine Milne told a media conference that the agreement allows for increased parliamentary scrutiny of government debt. An automatic ministerial statement and parliamentary debate will take place whenever a $50 billion increase in debt is undertaken. There is no provision for the parliament to disallow a debt increase.

Milne

The Greens are selling the deal as an agreement that ensures that debt will be justified and the public “will now be able to see whether the government is incurring good debt to invest in our future, or bad debt to cover up a shortfall in revenue”. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Abbott, Audio2013, Economy, Greens Tagged With: , , ,

Greens And Palmer Back GrainCorp Decision; ALP Says Hockey Acts In The Nationals Interest

Nov 29, 2013 Leave a Comment

Treasurer Joe Hockey’s decision to block the ADM takeover of GrainCorp has met with approval from the Greens and Clive Palmer but has been criticised by the ALP as an attack on foreign investment and a capitulation to The Nationals.

Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen said Hockey had failed his first big test of credibility as Treasurer. He said Hockey had acted not in the national interest but in the interests of The Nationals. “Hockey can be bullied afterall,” Bowen said.

Bowen

Greens leader Senator Christine Milne said her party was “very pleased” GrainCorp is not to be sold. “Owning our essential infrastructure is critical,” she said.

The Palmer United Party’s Clive Palmer said he would now withdraw his private member’s bill which proposed to legislatively block the ADM takeover.

Palmer

  • Listen to Chris Bowen (7m)

    Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

  • Listen to Clive Palmer (11m)

    Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

  • Listen to Christine Milne (13m)

    Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Filed Under: A.L.P., Audio2013, Economy, Greens, Palmer United Party Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Christine Milne And Adam Bandt Re-Elected To Lead Greens

Sep 23, 2013

Senator Christine Milne has been re-elected unopposed as leader of the Australian Greens in the federal parliament.

At a party-room meeting this morning, the first since the federal election, Adam Bandt was also returned unopposed as deputy leader of the party.

Milne

On current figures, not yet finalised, the Greens polled 1,108,612 votes in the House of Representatives, or 8.63% of the primary vote, a loss of 3.13% from 2010.

In the Senate, the Greens polled 1,065,205 votes, or 8.50% of the primary vote, a loss of 4.61% from 2010.

Despite the decline in the Greens vote, Senators Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania), Sarah Hanson-Young (South Australia) and Scott Ludlam (Western Australia) have all been re-elected, although Ludlam’s position has not yet been finally confirmed. [Read more...]

Filed Under: 2013 Federal Election, Audio2013, Greens, Refugees Tagged With: , , , , ,

Searching For The Nation’s Soul: Greens Launch Campaign For Federal Election

Aug 24, 2013

The Australian Greens have launched their campaign for the federal election at a rally in Canberra today.

The party’s leader, Senator Christine Milne, was introduced by the deputy leader and member for Melbourne, Adam Bandt.

Milne

Milne told the gathering: “There are moments in history when people are so troubled that they search for their nation’s soul… One such moment is now. At this election, we as a people have to choose between the best in us and the worst in us.”

She said the election was a “choice between the past, the conflict and greed for absolute power from the old parties, and the Greens”. She said the Greens is a party that “stands for the future, for a caring Australia and a liveable planet”.

  • Listen to Adam Bandt’s introduction (7m)

    Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

  • Listen to Christine Milne’s speech (30m)

    Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

  • Watch Milne’s speech (28m)
  • Listen to Milne and Bandt following the campaign launch (20m)

    Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Text of the campaign launch speech by the leader of the Australian Greens, Senator Christine Milne.

Well thank you everyone, that’s a bit overwhelming! What a fantastic Green crowd you are here today. I want to thank Adam particularly, he is such an outstanding Deputy Leader for the Australian Greens and I’m confident that Melbourne’s going to bring him back!

I acknowledge that we meet here on the land of the Ngunnawal people, and pay my respects to their elders past and present. The Greens will continue to work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people around the nation until our first peoples are acknowledged in the Constitution and until racial discrimination is erased from that Constitution once and for all. [Read more...]

Filed Under: 2013 Federal Election, Audio2013, Greens Tagged With: , , ,
Next Page»