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Hi Daniel Welcome back to the Griffith Community Newsletter! This is another big one! Since my last email there has been a huge few weeks of parliament, and we have a bunch of exciting events coming up over the next few weeks. Briefly on media, if you’re interested, the Good Weekend Magazine (in the Sydney Morning Herald) ran a lovely profile of me over the weekend. You can read that here. And I was interviewed by the ABC about the Greens push for Labor to end arms trade with Israel, which you can watch here. Hopefully you also received our bi-annual physical newsletter last week! Just quickly on events: You only have one week to register a team for our free school holidays one-day football tournament for kids between 12 and 17! Scroll down for more details on how to register a team. Amy MacMahon and I are hosting a forum this Wednesday evening on the housing and homelessness crisis (more on that below). We have a big flight noise strategy meeting, and my office is running a Winter Warmth Pantry Drive to help out people in need. In case you don’t know, I have set up a free community pantry out the front of my office. The pantry helps a lot of local people who are struggling with the cost of living and housing crisis - and this winter things are particularly bad. To support them, my office is currently running a Winter Warmth Pantry Drive, hoping to stock the shelves to get through winter. Our pantry empties every day and is used dozens of times each day. If you’re in a position to help out your neighbours, or even help coordinate donations in your network, read on for info on how you can help! Here’s what else in this update (as always feel free to scroll through to the parts that most interest you!)
How we fix the housing and homelessness crisisI want to invite you along to a massive community forum this Wednesday night about How we fix the housing and homelessness crisis. Rents and mortgages are rising at staggering rates, it’s getting near impossible to save for a house deposit, and more and more people are finding themselves having to sleep in our local parks. The housing crisis is having a massive impact on our community.
How
we fix the housing and homelessness crisis
Right now Labor and the LNP keep backing policies that make it harder and harder for everyday people to afford a home, and instead make it easier for banks and big property investors to get rich. With no limit on how much rents can go up by each year, people are also being priced-out of the private rental market and pushed onto the ever-growing social housing waiting list. Our community is now seeing first-hand what decades of government inaction on housing looks like. More and more tents are popping up in our local parks. We’ve been ramping up our advocacy efforts to governments at all levels to get them to urgently act. Last year we forced the federal Government to invest $3 billion into public and community housing, and we’ve also had some success getting the Labor state government to increase its funding to homelessness services which has helped home over fifty local people in temporary accommodation. But we know this is just a temporary solution. Until governments address the systemic issues that are causing the housing crisis, new tents will pop up in our local parks. At the forum we’ll discuss what Queensland should be doing to tackle the housing crisis and how we can make sure everyone in our community has a safe, secure and affordable home I hope to see you there! Winter warmer pantry drive - and support with meals in our communityNothing beats Brisbane in the winter - the beautiful clear blue skies, dry, cool air, and warm sun. But these crisp winter mornings are also a reminder that not everyone has the comfort of waking up in a warm bed at home. Many wake in cold rentals lacking sufficient insulation, unable to afford heating as they face the choice between paying rent or eating three meals a day. Others have no choice at all, waking up in parks or under bridges. As I mentioned above - this week we are kicking off our winter warmer pantry drive to help people in our community putting food on the table. Our free community pantry is located outside of my office at 76 Old Cleveland Rd Stones Corner, and accessible 24/7. The pantry empties every day and is used dozens of times each day. We do our best to keep it stocked - with support from FoodBank and contributions from my salary - but it’s not enough. If you can help with our pantry drive, your contributions will help families in need. Maybe you’ve got some uneaten long life goods at the back of your cupboard? Maybe you could coordinate some donations in your apartment building or sports team? Are you a food business looking to reduce your food waste? My friendly team will be happy to take items from you during our office hours, or if you prefer, you can also donate directly to the pantry 24/7. Updates from Federal ParliamentLabor and Liberals teaming up to undermine our democracy and hide Australia’s role in genocideThe last week in parliament was one of the most remarkable in my short time there. In case you missed it, Labor and the Liberals teamed up, effectively suspending the normal operation of parliament, to launch into an extraordinary attack on the Greens over our call for Australia to end arms trade with Israel. In fact Labor and the Liberals used their joint numbers in parliament to ban Adam Bandt and I from speaking. You can actually watch that happen here if you’re interested. (This is a bit of a longer newsletter section than usual - but this got a lot of media attention in the past couple weeks, a lot of which was much more focussed on the political games than anything else, and I want to help explain what we were actually there to speak about). If you’re wondering, here’s what happened: Greens leader Adam Bandt and I moved to introduce a motion to call for a ban of the export of F-35 fighter jet components to Israel (this is something the Netherlands has already done). We did this because we know that Australian companies produce critical parts to F-35 joint strike fighters, used by Israel to drop bombs on Gaza and kill innocent civilians, and we don’t think Australia should be supplying weapons in support of war crimes. I only got a few seconds into my speech before Labor and the Liberals teamed up to stop us from even speaking. This was after both the Prime Minister and Peter Dutton were allowed to ignore the usual rules of parliament to attack the Greens in Question Time. Rather than allowing a free debate, or using their time to condemn the ongoing genocide in Gaza and take actions to stop it, Labor and the Liberals spent a big part of Question Time that day attacking and spreading lies about the Greens. And look, I’m not fussed by personal attacks, and certainly not going to let them stop me or the Greens from speaking up. But I do think we should all be concerned for our democracy, when the Labor and Liberal establishment show that they are willing to abuse their position and silence debate about something as important as Australia’s role in an ongoing genocide. Labor is lying about Australia’s weapons trade with Israel, when they claim Australia has no hand in producing or exporting arms which are fuelling the genocide. Here’s the truth:
If Labor claims Australia already isn't exporting weapons to Israel, you have to wonder why they won't support the Greens motions to ban all weapons deals with Israel, as Canada, Japan, Spain, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and many others have done. Over 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the 9 months of Israel’s invasion, the majority of them women and children. The International Court of Justice has plausibly found that Israel are engaged in a genocide. Israel is continuing and escalating this, in part because they face no real consequences for their actions from countries like Australia. Here’s what Labor could do to help end the genocide:
Instead, they join with the Liberals to give cover to Israel. The Greens have always stood for peace and non-violence, whether that's here at home or around the world, and we want Australia to do the same. We won’t give up just because Labor and the Liberals want us to stop. Things might feel heavy at the moment, and lots of people here in Griffith have told me of the intense grief and sadness they feel when they see images of what’s happening in Gaza. I feel that way too. When times are tough, I always find it’s best to find comfort and solidarity with the community. Peaceful protests in Brisbane City have shown that there is strong support in our community for an end to the war, and they are open to everyone to come along - you can follow along with Justice for Palestine on Facebook here. Labor’s plan to gut the NDISMy inbox is flooded at the moment with NDIS participants and their support workers who are concerned about Labor’s new NDIS Bill which is threatening the rights and aspirations of disabled people across the country now and in generations to come. In the same budget that dishes out $50 billion in fossil fuel subsidies, $175 billion in tax handouts to property investors and $80 billion in tax cuts for the wealthy, Labor wants to cut $14.4 billion from the NDIS. Not only is Labor ripping the funding out of the NDIS - they’re going to make it harder for anyone to access the NDIS. This Bill will force every NDIS participant to transition from an “old framework plan” to a new plan over the next five years. This means every NDIS participant’s future in the scheme is up for question. These are people's lives. They are not numbers on a spreadsheet. The Greens will keep fighting to improve the Bill and stand up for the rights of disabled people. You can watch the speech I gave in Parliament on the Bill here. Fighting Labor’s deportation billRecently in this newsletter I wrote about Labor’s cruel new bill targeting migrants and refugees. It’s a shocking bill that goes beyond even any of the anti-refugee policies of the previous Liberal government. To recap, if passed this bill will:
This Bill will mean a mother and her children who fled a country like Iran – and went through an already unfair refugee system in Australia – could be ordered to seek a passport from the country they fled or face years in jail. (I spoke against the bill in Parliament when it was first introduced - you can watch that here). When I last wrote about this bill, the Greens had managed to delay its progress in the Senate - but now Labor is preparing to try to force their plan through again next week, they hope with the help of the LNP. If you’re opposed to this plan, as I am, you can join in the rally against the bill in the City next Saturday 22 June (where the Greens’ Senator Larissa Waters will be speaking). And if you can’t make it, you can help build the pressure now by calling your Labor and Liberal Senators offices and telling them to block Labor’s asylum seeker deportations bill when it returns to Parliament. Registrations closing soon for our Free School Holidays Football TournamentGot teenage kids looking for something to do these school holidays? Time is running out to register a football team for our free School Holidays Football Tournament and win glory and prizes! I’m so pleased to be hosting a full day of football, kids activities and food for anyone to come and join on the 5th of July. The football tournament is 5-a-side outdoor and broken down into separate boys and girls comps, with three separate age divisions: 12yr - 13yrs, 14yr - 15yrs & 16yr - 17yrs. To register you will need a team of between 5 and 7 players. There will be a maximum of five teams in each division, so register quickly to avoid missing out! The winners of each division will win some great prizes for the team to do together. Sport brings people together, and communities thrive when they are well connected. But with the cost of everything going up, it’s becoming harder for many families and community clubs to keep up. Team registrations close Monday 24th June! Register your team at maxchandlermather.com/football Join our Flight Noise Strategy ForumAs part of our growing community campaign against harmful flight noise, I’m organising a Flight Noise Community Strategy Meeting next month. The last big sit-down strategy meeting like this we had was not long after the last election. That meeting was a key step towards building the thousand-strong march on Brisbane Airport Corporation supported by the Greens and the Brisbane Flight Path Community Alliance last year. Since then, I’ve helped to introduce our bill to parliament to tackle flight noise, and we secured our first real concession from the Minister - a change to the preferred operating mode at Brisbane Airport which will mean more flights over the water, expected to be implemented later this year. Winning action on flight noise won’t come only from me and the Greens speaking up in Parliament - it’s going to take as many people involved as possible showing up in the community and building pressure, exactly as happened in Sydney in the 1990s when they won a cap and a curfew on flights. Join us for a community strategy meeting at Norman Park Sports Club, 10am on 13th July for an update on our plan and to discuss the next steps in this important campaign. (And to make sure we keep growing this campaign, we’re spreading the word. If you can spare an hour or two to help deliver some flyers for this event in your neighbourhood, sign up to help out here and an organiser will be in touch) Where to catch me over the next few weeksOur free community dinners program continues this week! You can catch me at those and other events around Griffith:
Moonie Ave Park Free Community BBQ (Murarrie) Tuesday 18 June - 4:00-6:00pm Moonie Ave Park - 9 Governor Tce, Murarrie
Forum: How we’ll fix with Housing and Homelessness Crisis (with Amy MacMahon MP) Wednesday 19 June 6:30pm-8:00pm Loft West End (above Archive Beer Boutique) - 100 Boundary St West End
Majestic Park Free Community BBQ (Coorparoo) Saturday 22 June - 3:00pm-5:00pm Majestic Park - 85 Eva St Coorparoo
Max Chandler-Mather’s Free Football Tournament & Family Fun Day! Friday 5 July from 9:30am Cannon Hill YMCA - 18 Lang St Cannon Hill Teams must register by Monday 24th June! More info: https://www.maxchandlermather.com/football_comp
Flight Noise Community Strategy Meeting Saturday 13 July 10am-12pm Norman Park Sports Club - 43 Norman Ave Norman Park RSVP at: https://www.maxchandlermather.com/noiseforum
In hope, Max Chandler-Mather, MP for Griffith |
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