Greens Leader Adam Bandt, Greens Education spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi and Greens Health spokesperson Jordon Steele-John have joined teachers and parents calling for a national COVID Safe Schools action plan as students return to schools in NSW, Victoria and the ACT and public health restrictions are eased across the country.

Greens Leader Adam Bandt says the Morrison Manufacturing ‘plan’ is being used as a cover for a raft of failed neoliberal ideas, from union bashing to corporate welfare to weakening environmental protections.

Greens Education spokesperson Mehreen Faruqi pointed out a massive contradiction in spending on manufacturing while cutting TAFE, higher education funding and research and development - critical to any country’s efforts to innovate in manufacturing. 

Greens Leader, Adam Bandt, says a return to free childcare is needed in Victoria immediately and that the success of the initial COVID-19 childcare package has shown Australian families that it is possible and desirable to pursue free childcare for good.

“Even though the restrictions in Victoria are now harsher, the childcare support from the Federal government is now weaker,” Bandt said.

“In the middle of a pandemic, the government has tried to reinvent the wheel and thrown parents, workers and the industry into unnecessary confusion.”

The Greens have said that the federal government must urgently support early learning and immediately provide relief for early childhood education and care (ECEC) in Victoria.

Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Australian Greens Education spokesperson, said:

“The current situation is untenable. The federal government should immediately extend JobKeeper for all early learning workers and provide free childcare with a guaranteed relief payment for services.

As Melbourne goes back into stage 3 lockdowns, the Federal government is pulling the major childcare supports which played a positive role in the initial outbreak response. 

Dan Tehan’s announcement of a new semi-subsidy will risk the viability of many centres who will neither be able to return to normal operations, nor collect full income if parents keep their kids at home.

“The Government is tying itself up in knots. It would be far simpler and fairer to extend free childcare after 12 July,” Greens Leader, Adam Bandt said.

The Greens have said that the Coalition government can’t be trusted to rebuild our vocational education system or create jobs, ahead of the Prime Minister’s address to the National Press Club today.

Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Australian Greens spokesperson for Education, said:

“Free TAFE and uni for all and new investment to rebuild publicly-delivered training in our TAFEs are the crucial first steps needed for any skills overhaul. That's the benchmark for the Prime Minister today.

The Greens have today welcomed a call from former Labor Premier, Jay Weatherill, for a rethink of how childcare is run, which aligns with Greens calls for free childcare run on a not-for-profit basis.

While saying that his ideas required more discussion, and while not backing his call for the Commonwealth to vacate the field and hand childcare over to the states, Greens Leader Adam Bandt and Greens education spokesperson Dr Mehreen Faruqi said that it was time to start treating childcare as an essential public service.

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: