David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

So-called Advance Australia is just the Liberal Party's most extreme faction. ADVANCE is a front group for the most conservative and divisive elements inside the coalition. It was started by people who were literally Tony Abbott's faction allies and mates. They want Prime Minister Dutton so the grift can continue. We hear from them that it's all grassroots and common sense, but it's literally billionaire climate change deniers trying to overturn our democracy to line their pockets. They are lining up against the Greens, and to that I say good. If this lot don't like you, then you're doing the right thing by the planet and you're doing the right thing by ordinary folks.

ADVANCE claims to be powered by grassroots donations; that's their social media spin, but AEC donations data shows this is far from the case. Some of the wealthiest Australians are recorded as being ADVANCE's big backers, having funnelled hundreds of thousands of dollars through shady holding companies to keep ADVANCE's campaigns to destroy climate action, to defeat progressive social policy and to stop justice for First Nations. They are the richest people in Australia drawing their battlelines to protect their wealth and their privilege. They hated the Voice because it could have challenged their pillage of natural resources of this country. And they're attacking the Greens because we don't just roll over and have our bellies tickled by billionaires. In fact, we want to tax them back to Earth.

ADVANCE was, in part, founded by Dr Maurice Newman, a Liberal Party insider and climate science denier, who, bafflingly, is apparently holding out for global cooling to chill his drinks. How Liberal is this block? Well, John Howard appointed him as chair of the ABC. He remains a close friend of John Howard, and he was chairman of Tony Abbott's Business Advisory Council. You might have heard about him in 2023, when Mr Newman wrote an article where he attributed the loss of the Australian cricket team in India that year to Australian cricketers being 'too woke'. Unfortunately for him the Australian cricket team then turned around and won the Cricket World Cup that year, beating India in the finals and, in fact, won the Ashes. It turns out his takes on cricket are about as good as his takes on politics and climate.

Even more tellingly, the Liberal Cormack Foundation has given ADVANCE half a million dollars. It's an investment, they see, in the Liberal Party's political future. But they keep trying to hide it and pretend it's an independent group. What? An independent group of billionaires spruiking Liberal policies? That's what it is.

ADVANCE wants to bring Trumpian far-right politics here so that billionaires profit while communities and the planet suffer. It's no coincidence that ADVANCE and its Liberal Party backers are sounding distinctly Trumpian right now. In fact, the people who set up and funded ADVANCE also set up and funded a bunch of other think tanks and astroturf groups around the world that are members of the US based Atlas Network. In fact, Atlas has hundreds of these organisations active around the world, many here in Australia and including one you might have heard of recently: the Heritage Foundation, which literally wrote Project 2025 for Donald Trump. It is the same playbook everywhere these billionaire funded junk tanks and their astroturf groups operate. ADVANCE and these other groups want to pit people in our community against one another. They want to misinform and divide and conquer for their own interests, and we reject their division.

The first ever federal inquiry into youth justice and incarceration held its hearing yesterday, and it was a powerful moment of advocacy for those working hard to reduce the harm of what is often a racist and criminogenic so-called criminal justice system for young people in this country. I want to thank the chair, Senator Scarr, for his work, his time and his devotion yesterday in the inquiry; I want to thank the secretariat for their incredible work in pulling together an extraordinary number of witnesses; and I particularly want to thank those witnesses who came and gave their evidence to the inquiry. But it was deeply unedifying to see the failure of leadership by the federal government and the Attorney-General's Department being exposed as it was yesterday.

Again and again, witnesses came and told us how broken the system was—how it's failing children and routinely abusing their rights. We heard from SNAICC about a young Aboriginal boy so seriously mauled by police dogs that he required multiple surgeons. We heard from the National Justice Project that 90 per cent of children in WA's Banksia Hill children's prison had a neuropsychological disorder. We heard from the South Australian children's commissioner that in her jurisdiction 90 per cent of the kids in detention—nine out of 10 of the kids in detention—had a disability, and the Northern Territory Children's Commissioner was literally in tears as she spoke about what was happening in the NT, where up to 100 per cent of the kids in jail every night are Aboriginal. Shine for Kids, who work with kids and families, trying to connect them in jail, told us that when kids get out of prison they often get no access to programs—nothing at all. In fact, the National Children's Commissioner told us one of the most tragic stories, about kids being sent out of prison in Queensland and given a tent because they had no home to go to.

Again and again, witnesses told us that it's actually getting worse and becoming more brutal and that states and territories are increasingly abusing kids' rights. In fact, there are more protections when you buy a toaster in this country than there are for kids who are being put in jail cells. Think about that: there are more protections for us when we buy a toaster than there are for kids who are thrown in jail cells and, in Queensland, thrown in watch houses, sometimes for weeks and weeks on end, with nothing—no services, no access, nothing. This is cruelty at its most extreme. The Queensland children's commissioner told us that children in Queensland now have even fewer legal protections than adults, and the Queensland government has admitted this multiple times. We heard from the New South Wales children's commissioner that these children who are trapped in the system in New South Wales have been let down from birth. Witnesses came to the Senate and literally said that they are yelling and screaming on behalf of the kids who don't seem to have a voice.

What did we hear from the federal government? Well, when the government came and gave their evidence, we moved away from the evidence based policy that we had from the NGOs and the commissioners, we moved away from the understanding that something had to change, and we moved away from those who were obviously sitting with children and bringing their voices to parliament, and it descended into farce. The officials told us that they had road maps and plans for raising the age and for bail reform, but they said they were explicitly not intended to change anything. They create these road maps, but they never intended to change anything. They told us that it's fine that the Northern Territory, Queensland and Victoria have gone backwards and kids are less safe in those jurisdictions. They said that's all fine; it's not their business. That's not leadership; it's a farce.

We heard again and again from these bureaucrats about justice policy partnerships, implementation road maps, strategic frameworks, criminal responsibility working groups, sub-working groups and bail and remand working groups that are ignored by the states and territories—just ignored and treated as verbiage and rubbish.

None of this stuff, none of this pretend activity at a federal level, is keeping a single child out of prison for a single day. It's worse than a farce. What is the point of it if it keeps producing documents and working groups and meetings that never change anything for the better and are never intended to? I'll finish with the words of the Western Australian children's commissioner, in the hope they're heard in this place: 'The things these kids in detention need are the same things that your kids need'—support, love and education. 'We need to stop blaming them for the circumstances they were born into.'

Last year I visited Papua New Guinea, and while I was there I met with the West Papuan diaspora. In a meeting with West Papuan refugees they told me that even as we were speaking there were people fleeing across the border into PNG and the homes of West Papuans were being destroyed, often to pave the way for illegal logging and mining. One of the region's most catastrophic human crises is occurring literally on Australia's doorstep, and our government is not doing a thing, not lifting a finger. West Papuan refugees told me that because of the legal limbo they're often subjected to in PNG their kids can't even complete an education and often can't work if they haven't got the right paperwork. What shocked me was that what the West Papuan diaspora were asking the Australian government to do was so little—just offer some support: at least a few pathways for people to seek asylum in Australia.

In a letter that one West Papuan sent me afterwards, they said: 'Most of us spoke on behalf of our people, our families and loved ones, even those who have long departed from us. We just want to be treated fairly and equally as normal human beings.' I was lucky enough to also meet with journalists, intellectuals, business leaders and even a few of my PNG Greens comrades as part of the West Papuan think tank MeLAWAN. And I've got to tell you that the depth and breadth of their knowledge was genuinely inspiring—seeing West Papuans advocating so clearly for their right to self-determination based on peace and justice. This place needs to hear a lot more of that.