MEDIA ALERT

WHAT: Australian Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon will be speaking at the two day long solidarity action with Macquarie University Postgraduate Association (MUPRA) student representatives.

Seven MUPRA representatives have been taken to court by Macquarie University in a bid to dissolve its postgraduate student association.

WHEN: 1pm TOMORROW Friday 8 may 2015

WHERE: Supreme Court of NSW, 184 Phillip St Sydney

Senator Rhiannon said:

This blog post is a reponse to Anthony Albanese's article in The Australian (05/05) Sydney without an airport - welcome to the fantasy world of the Greens. 

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Let's get real.

Anthony Albanese's diatribe about the Greens transport policy is not really about the Greens transport policy.

It is about his seat of Grayndler, which after the recent state election has taken one step closer to becoming a Greens seat.

Commenting on a Sydney Morning Herald report (http://tinyurl.com/p4fvyt5) that suggests the Greens are split on the question of Senate voting reform and would back a "minimum vote threshold", Greens democracy spokesperson Senator Lee Rhiannon said:

"The only thing made clear in yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald story is the fact that Mr Aston's unnamed source is wildly disconnected from Greens members and MPs.

Commenting on reports that the Abbott government will bank $3 billion in higher-education cuts in next week's budget, despite the relevant legislation being defeated, (The Aust: http://bit.ly/1R3fQEs), Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon said:

"The Group of Eight Vice Chancellors who were the Abbott government's most vocal supporters of deregulation, need to start speaking out against this latest attack on universities which will strip away $3 billion dollars, despite these cuts being rejected by Parliament.

The Australian Greens say fresh data released by the Australian Taxation Office (SMH: http://bit.ly/1EWH5gQ) shows student debt is increasing while wage growth remains flat, resulting in students graduating with greater debt and taking longer to pay it off.

"Newly release ATO data shows that student debt more than doubled from $12 billion in 2005-06 to $29 billion in 2012-13," Greens spokesperson for higher education Senator Lee Rhiannon said.

• Fresh calls to cap VC pay April 1, Campus Review, 
• New coalition forms against carcinogenic WestConnex April 2, City Hub

Australian Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon has called on the University of Sydney's Vice-Chancellor to end his threat of disciplinary action against Associate Professor Jake Lynch.

Senator Rhiannon today joined students, academics and unions to protest against the University of Sydney's attempts to suppress peaceful dissent and their threat to take disciplinary action against Associate Professor Lynch.

"Associate Professor Lynch did nothing more than verbally defend the right to peacefully protest at a talk last month given by Colonel Richard Kemp.

Australian Greens spokesperson for higher education Senator Lee Rhiannon is calling on the federal government to immediately review the COAG agreement on vocational education and training funding that has seen hundreds of millions of dollars flow to private, for-profit providers.

"Yesterday the NSW Coalition government expressed its scepticism towards the current model of funding contestability, joining a raft of state governments across Australia in criticising the current approach," Senator Rhiannon said.

Australian Greens spokesperson for democracy Senator Lee Rhiannon has today reaffirmed her party’s support for Senate voting reform and criticised Senator David Leyonhjelm’s self-interested opposition to giving voters greater control of their preferences.

“Reforming the Senate voting system to take power out of the hands of political parties and backroom preference negotiators and give voters control over their vote is a fundamentally important and necessary democratic reform,” Senator Rhiannon said.

The Greens will oppose a push by Liberal and National MPs to introduce changes that would make it harder for some people to vote. 

Coalition members of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters have recommended imposing restrictions on updating the electoral roll and adopting identification requirements on voters in federal elections.

Greens democracy spokesperson Senator Lee Rhiannon, a member of the Committee, has said: