Tonight’s crisis National Cabinet meeting should be focused on housing relief to protect renters and tenants, the Australian Greens said today, with the Greens Leader and Housing Spokesperson today writing to heads of Governments to urge compassion through this crisis.

The letter comes following the unprecedented decision of NSW Parliament last night to pass a Greens amendment that enables the Government to ban rental evictions, empower tenants and limit the powers of landlords through the COVID-19 pandemic via regulation alone.

Too many workers don’t have leave entitlements to allow them to economically survive a diagnosis of COVID-19. Frontline staff in people-facing industries are among the most vulnerable, given the required interactions with hundreds of people a day, but often have few legal protections should one of these interactions make them sick.

Greens MPs are moving across the country to extend workers compensation coverage to workers who contract or are suspected to have contracted COVID-19.

The Greens have said that today’s Depression-era job queues follow the Morrison Government’s failure to link its billions in stimulus payments to wage and job subsidies, urging the Government to reconsider its cancelling of Parliament so that the mess can be fixed up.

“The Greens pushed for a jobs and wages guarantee, because we know that every job we save now is a job we don’t need to recreate after this crisis is over,” said Greens Leader Adam Bandt.

More than 250,000 Australians will have an extra $550 a fortnight to get through the Coronavirus crisis, after the Greens pushed the government to extend a crucial supplementary payment that had omitted Australia’s students.

Following questioning from Senator Rachel Siewert and Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Matthias Cormann said the government would now immediately regulate to make Abstudy, Austudy, and Youth Allowance (Student) eligible for the Coronavirus Supplement.

Lines from Adam Bandt MP, Leader of the Australian Greens:

This morning’s decision by the big four banks to do nothing for homeowners risks putting families out on the streets, Leader of the Australian Greens, Adam Bandt MP, and Housing spokesperson, Mehreen Faruqi, said today, calling for the government to get big banks to give vulnerable homeowners a residential ‘mortgage holiday’ to make sure families don’t lose their homes.

As the unfolding COVID-19 crisis continues to impact the Australia arts and creative industries, the Australian Greens have called for urgent government investment to save the industry from collapse and ensure artists keep a roof over their head.

The Greens are demanding an urgent injection of $1 billion to protect the industry from collapse and future-proof the arts, alongside restoring and increasing Australia Council funding to expand access for individuals and organisations to access grants.

The Australian Greens have written to Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, calling for a $2 billion investment in the not-for-profit and community sector as Australia faces the continuing health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 crisis.

Quotes attributable to Senator Rachel Siewert, Greens spokesperson for Family, Ageing and Community Services:

“If not-for-profits and community organisations are forced to close, disabled and vulnerable people will have nowhere to turn. It is critical that they are supported.

Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Australian Greens spokesperson for Housing is demanding emergency measures to support people to keep a roof over their heads during the COVID-19 pandemic. At this difficult time when there are even more workers in precarious work and others needing to take time off we must guarantee there will be no evictions and enough resources for crisis housing.

Greens leader Adam Bandt MP and health spokesperson Dr Richard Di Natale have called on the Morrison government and national cabinet to explain what actions are being taken to double the number of intensive care units and to secure adequate number of ventilators.

Medical experts have warned that the number of intensive care beds need to at least double if we are to have a chance of managing the corona crisis. The Deputy Chief Medical Officer has flagged that Australia is facing up to 150,000 possible deaths in the worst case scenario.

The stimulus package outlined by the Prime Minister this morning falls far short of what the experts say is needed to weather the economic storm caused by the Coronavirus pandemic and does little to stem the crisis facing people on Newstart & Youth Allowance as well as the 3.5 million casual workers in Australia, said Leader of The Australian Greens Adam Bandt, MP.

The Greens will move to expand the package when it reaches the Senate to lift Newstart & Youth Allowance as well as provide 14 days’ paid coronavirus sick leave to all workers, including casual workers.