Greens Support Pre-School for All Children

Greens MP and education spokesperson, Lee Rhiannon today pledged the Greens' support for the call by welfare groups to provide at least two days a week of free preschool to NSW families, saying that the Greens policy would give NSW children two years of universal, free pre-school education.

"The Greens strongly support the call for at least two days per week of free preschool for every child in NSW," said Ms Rhiannon.

"In fact, the Greens policy calls for every child in NSW to receive two years of universal, free public pre-school education."

"The dollars NSW is putting into preschools is declining. We now invest less than any other jurisdiction in Australia and we have the lowest participation rates."

"This means preschools are becoming less and less affordable and harder to get into."

"Increasing numbers of preschool-aged children are being forced to use child care centres, yet the majority of these are privately owned and run for profit, pricing them out of the reach of many families. Childcare centres should not serve as a substitute for a universal pre-school system."

"Last year the Greens called on Premier Iemma to integrate pre-schools with public school kindergarten programs, in line with the recommendations of Professor Tony Vinson."

"Children from disadvantaged backgrounds tend to attend pre-schools less often, especially families living in rural and remote communities where there is poor transport access to preschools."

"Quality free pre-schools integrated with local public schools would ensure that all children are able to attend pre-school."

"Pre-school education brings benefits to our whole society and that is why it is worth the investment," said Ms Rhiannon.

Greens Candidates Tour Hunter Hotspots

Yesterday I joined Greens candidates and supporters from across the Hunter and Greens MP Lee Rhiannon on an extensive bus tour of the worst affected coal communities in the Hunter, including the site of the proposed Anvil Hill coalmine.

Our tour group and a local message - Anvill Hill

We met up with local coal community campaigners to inspect the ongoing and planned mining projects destroying the communities, rivers and land of the Hunter Valley.

The tour provided a great opportunity for all of us to connect with the reality of mining in the valley, and to see and hear first hand the impact of the mines on people, communities and the environment.

Despite growing up in the shadow of the mines in Singleton, I was staggered by the view from Mt Arthur (outside Muswellbrook).

Jane and the view from Mt Arthur

Join the People's Occupation of the World's Biggest Coal Port

With plans afoot to double coal exports, Newcastle Port is at the coalface of global ecological disaster.

Any expansion of the world's already largest coal port would be directly opposite to the changes we must make to achieve a positive future for the planet, the people of the world, and the people of NSW.

On Saturday 10th February at 1pm Newcastle Harbour will see a peaceful vigil and press conference at Horseshoe Beach, accompanying a colourful floating community demonstration against NSW coal expansion.

Let's send a clear message to the parties campaigning for the NSW election in March:

No New Coal Loaders, No new Coal Mines and A Just Transition to a Sustainable Future.

So, bring down your placards, banners, rubber duckies, kayaks, canoes, yachts, surfboards, rafts, floating banners, pontoons, peddle boats, row boats, water bikes, sail boats and we'll show we're united for a sustainable future.

Establish a Hunter Transport Authority

Greens candidates from across the Hunter have called for the establishment of a locally-controlled Hunter Regional Integrated Transport Authority to develop an Integrated Transport Plan for the Hunter.

Councillor Michael Osborne, Greens candidate for Newcastle said: “Too often decisions about the transport in our region are made in Sydney, whether it is about changing bus timetables or the future of our rail line. We still don’t have integrated timetabling between buses, trains and ferries and we still don’t have proper integrated ticketing.”

Jane Smith, Greens candidate for Charlestown said: “It’s time that the profits from local public transport were not siphoned off by the Sydney-centred State Government to prop up Sydney’s crumbling transport system, and instead were used in innovative ways to improve our own.”

Councillor Keith Parsons, Greens candidate for Wallsend said: “Transport in the Hunter is backward and arguably the worst in Australia. It is bedevilled by low service standards, multiple operators, lack of planning, coordination and integration, poor infrastructure and a lack of recognition of local government. The Hunter has the highest bus fares in Australia.”

Charmian Eckersley, Greens candidate for Port Stephens said: “There should be an Integrated Transport Plan developed by local expertise and encompassing the whole of the Hunter. With a population of 500,000, the Hunter is a genuinely self contained regional area. The Plan needs to include public transport to the airport from Newcastle and Port Stephens.”

Councillor James Ryan, Greens candidate for Cessnock said: “It is scandalous that the Lower Hunter Regional Strategy recently released by Sydney Labor did not include a transport plan. Most areas designated for new residential opportunities in the Strategy are not near areas identified for employment. This guarantees that the distance travelled by cars and the number of people travelling by car will increase. There is no provision made for public transport.”

Jan Davis, Greens candidate for Maitland said: “The State Government seems incapable of making sensible decisions for the future. If the budgets of the Roads and Traffic Authority, State Rail and the Buses and Ferries were combined into a single authority then we could truly get integrated decision-making.”

The Greens candidates from across the region met at a regional meeting in Newcastle at the weekend and were addressed by Hunter transport planner, Len Regan.

The Law and Order Debate - No Safety in Numbers

Both the Governenment and the Opposition seem determined to outbid each other, announcing increased police numbers in the leadup to the March election.

To get some balance into the law and order debate, here are the principles and goals of The Greens Criminal Justice Policy:

Principles

The Greens NSW believe:

A just and effective criminal justice system is in the interests of community safety and crime reduction;

Crime and criminal behaviour often has serious social impacts, particularly upon the victims of crime;

A just and effective criminal justice system must protect individual freedoms and rights;

It is important to reduce crime through policies including early intervention, alleviating poverty, education and training, rehabilitation and drug law reform;

The failed and simplistic politics of ‘law-and-order’ which seeks electoral advantage through exploitation of community fears and insecurities should be rejected;

Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (OH&S) crimes are under-investigated and under-prosecuted compared to other forms of crime, and that more resources should be devoted to the prosecution of these crimes; and

The expansion of the custodial industry in NSW is a drain on public funds that has a negligible impact on the reduction of crime.

Goals

The Greens NSW will work towards:

A pro-active role for the NSW Government in delivering programs to alleviate the causes of crime such as unemployment, poverty, child abuse, lack of education and training and drug and alcohol abuse;

Maintaining the ongoing independence of the office of Director of Public Prosecutions;
Effective civilian oversight of NSW Police with adequate accountability mechanisms;
A judiciary that is independent of political interference and able to exercise discretion in sentencing;

A criminal justice system that deals effectively and humanely with serious offenders;
The imposition, wherever possible, of non-custodial penalties for those convicted of relatively minor, non-violent crimes in order to maximise the likelihood of successful rehabilitation and reduce recidivism;

The more humane treatment of prisoners, especially the disproportionately high numbers of those with mental illness and/or intellectual disability;

Effective programs to rehabilitate incarcerated offenders and reduce recidivism, including education, training schemes, employment opportunities, post release social support and other social and vocational services;

Ongoing education of the magistracy, the judiciary and the police to overcome prejudice and discrimination and to raise awareness about the impact of their decisions, particularly in relation to victims of sexual violence, Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander People, those from other ethnic backgrounds; and other disadvantaged groups; and

Ensure prisons are owned and operated by the public sector.