A number of questions at the forum were tabled for a response from the candidates. We will be publishing the responses as they come to hand.
The Greens’ response to the tabled questions from the Forum
27 April 2025
What is your party doing to address a transition away from animal agriculture towards plant-based agriculture that affects all our planetary boundaries?
Sonya has signed the Plant Based Treaty and loved the smoothie challenge Sheena brought to our office! We wholeheartedly agree that sustainable agriculture is fundamental to living within planetary boundaries and also ensuring a healthy, sustainable, secure and fair food system.
What will you do about the Petroleum Resource Rent tax to ensure that those people are paying their fair share?
The Greens want to make the gas cartel contribute more tax to pay for the things that we all need to lead a good life. Right now, Labor is still raising more from student debt increases than they are from gas giants. The Greens have proposed a comprehensive overhaul of the PRRT that would collect almost ten times as much additional revenue than Labor’s fiddling at the margins. By introducing a baseline 10% royalty, wiping out accumulated deductions and applying a conventional depreciation schedule to PRRT expenses, the Greens plans would net an additional $29B over the next four years and an additional $94B over the decade.
Violence against women is quite high and no one spoken about, it just wondering in this specific electorate what you guys going to do?
Thank you so much for this important question. It’s time to take violence against women and gender inequality seriously. On average, 1 woman dies every single week due to domestic and family violence in Australia. We have a responsibility to act. Men’s violence against women is a national crisis. That’s why the Greens have launched a $15 billion comprehensive plan to address the national crisis of family, domestic and sexual violence.
We are ready to lead the way on ensuring women and children have fully funded support services to turn to, and deep prevention work to enable lives free from violence and fear.
The Labor Government has said it wants to end violence against women, but it’s not stumping up the funds to deliver that. Current federal funding is only three quarters of what the sector says it needs to meet existing demand. In effect, this is condemning 1-in-4 women seeking help to being turned away back to violence. The Greens will always be committed to ensuring that victim-survivors receive the resources and support they need. Sonya has sat on the board of two organisations to prevent violence against women and will continue to speak loudly in support of women’s safety and
A question for the Greens representative, do you condemn the decision but the green not to condemn the destruction of the memorials and not condemn people who say the Jews have tentacles?
The Greens have been consistent in their condemnation of all forms of antisemitism and discrimination. NSW state Greens MP Jenny Leong has apologised after referencing an offensive ‘tentacles’ trope. Adam Bandt and the Greens condemned this comment, as we should all condemn any form of tropes that related to discriminatory stigma about any minority group. Not only did Leong apologise, as she should but she also toured Sydney Jewish Museum and donate $4,000 funds to multiple Jewish groups as a form of reconciliation. The Greens will always take this seriously within and outside of our party.
As for the “No war” graffiti on the Australian War Memorial last July, the Greens strongly support the right to protest and free speech, but we do not condone violence or the desecration of memorials. Protests must be peaceful and respectful. We may have differences of opinion with the major parties about Australia’s involvement in war, but we always honour and respect those who have served and lost their lives.
We’re in a housing crisis we need more homes, and you all acknowledge that in your opening comments. I’m just curious, not about how or by who, but how many homes and where specifically in McNamara do you want to see the extra housing supply?
At a time when so many people are struggling to find decent, affordable housing, we can’t just leave the housing market in the hands of private developers who prioritise profits over people. The Greens’ plan will create a public developer that builds good-quality homes for people to rent and buy at genuinely affordable prices – just like the government did after WW2 leading to high levels of home ownership.
- Deliver 610,000 affordable homes over the next decade by establishing a federally owned public property developer to rent and sell homes below market prices.
- Provide 70% of the homes as rentals capped at 25% of household income or 70% of market rent, whichever is lower, saving renters up to $16,600 annually.
- Sell 30% of the homes at just over the cost of construction, allowing first-home buyers to save up to $249,000 compared to private market prices.
- Prioritise local connections by allocating homes to families with ties to the area, key service workers, and First Nations community members.
Locally, the Greens want to stop the selling off of our 7 Public housing towers land across Macnamara to ensure that public land and houses stay in public hands. We want to ensure that new apartments are built in consultation with the community, and that we are building high quality homes that prioritise people not profit.
There are many refugees on bridging visas who have been here after 10 years and not allowed to work. What will the parties do to assist these people?
Thank you for this important question. The Greens believe everyone deserves dignity, safety, and a chance to thrive—no matter how they arrived here. People on bridging visas have been left in limbo for years, often without the right to work, study, or access basic support. Everyone deserves fairness, compassion, and the opportunity to thrive, regardless of where they come from. Yet, under the policies of the Liberals and Labor, our immigration system has become cruel and dysfunctional, prioritising borders and economics over people and communities. Australia has humanitarian and legal obligations to accept refugees and reunite families. Australian society benefits from immigration. The Greens want to provide pathways to permanency for people on Temporary Protection Visas and Safe Haven Enterprise Visas and support those failed by the Fast Track system.
The Greens will:
- Provide clear pathways to permanency for people on bridging, TPVs and SHEVs
- Guarantee work, study, Medicare and support rights on bridging visas
- Restore the 90-day rule for timely refugee assessments into the Migration Act 1958 to ensure that refugee status determinations are concluded within 90 days.
- Fund legal support for people seeking asylum
- It’s time for a fair, humane system that upholds Australia’s human rights obligations and gives people certainty.
Bulldozing trees that are koala and Glider habitat in Queensland that is going to generate 0.47% of electricity generation for Queensland, what does Labor in the Greens have to say about this?
Thank you for raising this.
The NSW Government’s own Glider Observations in the Mid North Coast Assessment Area report, published in March 2025, confirms that the proposed Great Koala National Park is critical habitat for the endangered Greater Glider and the vulnerable Yellow-bellied Glider. It states clearly that both species need large, connected, high-quality forests to persist in the wild. Yet instead of protecting these forests, the Government is letting them be destroyed.
Every week of delay makes the Great Koala National Park weaker, smaller, more fragmented and less great. The Premier must act now to end this extinction logging, protect Orara East, and deliver the Park the community was promised.
We need climate solutions that protect biodiversity, respect First Nations land rights, and genuinely serve communities, not big corporations.
