NSW Greens MPs Jenny Leong and Abigail Boyd are urgently calling on the Premier to reinstate the Minister for the Prevention of Sexual Assault.

In the NSW Cabinet reshuffle of March 2019, the Premier removed ‘Prevention of Sexual Assault’ from any portfolio responsibility despite widespread community demand for meaningful action on sexual assault. When questioned about this in Budget Estimates last week, the Premier failed to provide an adequate response.

Jenny Leong MP, Greens NSW spokesperson for Women’s Rights said:

“Removing the ministerial responsibility for actually making changes to how we deal with everything from education to legal protections for survivors of sexual assault means that the government has largely dropped the ball on this crucial issue.

 “Back in 2018, the former Minister for the Prevention of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault said that reforms to the NSW Crimes Act were the first priority of the NSW Government Sexual Assault Strategy. That strategy is set to conclude this year and we still haven’t seen any action on real protections for women.

“Where is the NSW Government Sexual Assault Strategy up to? Has it delivered anything in the prevention of sexual assault or for survivors of sexual assault since the abolition of the Minister for the Prevention of Sexual Assault? It seems the main focus has been on the development of a black and white video and a hashtag. 

“The Premier must urgently reinstate the Minister for Prevention of Sexual Assault so that someone is responsible and accountable for delivering the much needed reforms.”

Abigail Boyd MLC, Greens NSW spokesperson for Women’s Equity and Economic Justice, said:

“When I questioned the Premier in Budget Estimates last week, she would not commit to reinstating Ministerial responsibility for prevention of sexual assault and could not provide any concrete government commitments to meet previous commitments to reform consent laws. It’s just not good enough.

“When a government removes ministerial responsibility for prevention of sexual assault and then drops the ball on something as important as sexual consent law reform, you know they’ve made the wrong call.

“Ending sexual violence must be a priority of this Government and it must be backed up by concrete action, not platitudes.”

More information: 0499 550 996

Backed by NSW women MPs from across the political spectrum, Chanel Contos has launched a NSW epetition on International Women’s Day. The petition, sponsored by Jenny Leong MP, requires 20,000 signatures to trigger a debate in the Legislative Assembly on the need for holistic consent education in our schools, from earlier on. 

Jenny Leong MP, Greens spokesperson for Women’s Rights is urgently calling on the Premier to reinstate the Minister for the Prevention of Sexual Assault and for consent laws to be strengthened in NSW.

In the NSW Cabinet reshuffle of March 2019, the Premier chose to allocate the ‘Prevention of Domestic Violence’ responsibilities to the Attorney General, while the ‘Prevention of Sexual Assault’ element of this previous portfolio was abandoned and is no longer a named portfolio.

The government’s announcement of two social housing redevelopments in Glebe and Eveleigh are designed to open up valuable public land to private development rather than to maximize the development of new social and affordable housing says NSW Greens MPs, Jenny Leong and Jamie Parker.

The Redfern Waterloo Alliance launched their campaign today seeking action from the NSW government on the provision of and clear targets for Aboriginal affordable housing in the Redfern Waterloo area. Greens Member for Newtown and Housing and Homelessness spokesperson, Jenny Leong MP, and Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Australian Greens spokesperson on Housing, welcomed the launch – and offered their commitment to the demands of the campaign.

Jenny Leong MP, Member for Newtown and NSW Greens spokesperson on Housing and Homelessness says,

“I fully support this important campaign calling for real action and the delivery of affordable housing for Aboriginal people living in the Redfern and Waterloo area.

“Redfern and Waterloo sit on Gadigal land, it is land that was never ceded – and it is long overdue that the NSW Government gave priority to ensuring that Aboriginal housing sits at the heart of our inner city community – we will be doing everything we can to ensure this campaign succeeds.”

Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Australian Greens spokesperson on Housing says, 

“Aboriginal communities have longstanding roots in Redfern and Waterloo, and the right to self-determination. It is critical that Aboriginal people and their organisations lead efforts to improve and expand housing in these communities.

“For too long, social housing that meets the needs of communities simply hasn’t been sufficiently provided. It’s time to change that.

“The Greens give our full and enthusiastic support to the Redfern Waterloo Alliance of Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations and Allies for this important campaign,” she said.

Jenny Leong MP, Greens Member for Newtown and spokesperson for Multiculturalism today gave notice of a Private Member’s Bill in the NSW Legislative Assembly to support international students by giving them concessions on public transport.

In response to today’s announcement by the NSW Government outlining an eviction moratorium for NSW renters and other measures, Jenny Leong MP, NSW Greens spokesperson on Housing welcomed the much needed protection put in place through an eviction moratorium and increased funding for tenant support, but questioned whether the money allocated to the package will actually assist in reducing rents at this time.

Jenny Leong MP said:

“This moratorium on evictions in NSW, including protection from being blacklisted, will provide crucial protection for those who have been living with the stress of being evicted into homelessness because they can’t pay their rent.

The NSW Planning Minister has used powers under the COVID-19 Emergency Measures Act to extend the hours developers and construction companies are able to work - clearing the way for 7-days of work on construction sites for existing projects. 

These extended hours have come into force this week causing much concern to residents who will be severely impacted.

At a time when health advice is directing people to maintain social distancing, work from home and stay at home - it is understandable that many are worried about these extended construction hours.

There will no doubt be additional stress put on people living near construction sites who, under these changes, will have to tolerate unbroken days of construction impacts.

Many of our local communities are currently already impacted badly by WestConnex construction - and this will only exacerbate the problem.

Jamie Parker MP, NSW Greens spokesperson on Planning released this statement and continues to advocate for communities impacted by these changes. You can see him on a recent interview on Nine News here.

It is clear that the Government must:

• Stop all night work
• Provide effective noise and dust mitigation
• Install noise and vibration monitors in impacted homes
• Provide a strict noise timetable. 

[UPDATE 19 May 2020]

The Sydney Alliance are calling on the NSW Government to provide urgent financial support for those people in NSW not covered by JobKeeper and JobSeeker. I responded to their letter on behalf of the NSW Greens as the Greens Spokesperson for Multiculturalism and you can find our response here.

[UPDATE 15 April 2020]

We are pleased to support the #unityoverfear campaign - please take a minute to do the same. The anti-chinese and anti-asian narratives and actions are causing many people, including myself, real harm at this time. Racism is NEVER okay.

[UPDATE 31 MARCH, 2020]

Today I wrote to the NSW Premier on behalf of a large cohort of people who live in the electorate of Newtown, our city and NSW, who are currently facing extremely difficult circumstances and have become very vulnerable as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

You can download the full letter here.

Our office has been contacted by a significant number of non-citizens who do not have any resources to support themselves and are not able to access the measures put in place for citizens or those offered yesterday by the federal government to category 444 visa holders.

As the NSW Greens Multicultural spokesperson, I feel very strongly that to ensure a cohesive society where everyone is treated equally and is able to live free from discrimination and racism, we need to ensure that wherever possible all people are able to access basic needs, services and supports without regard to their citizenship status. This is particularly important during times of crisis, and even more so during this current pandemic.

Jenny Leong MP, NSW Greens spokesperson on Housing and Homelessness is urging the Premier to put an immediate moratorium on evictions for people unable to pay rent during the Corona virus pandemic, as well as recommending a number of urgent measures to assist people who are homeless and those living in public and social housing.