2026-10-29
YEAR IN REVIEW: HOPE NOT HATE
By Mehreen Faruqi
Senator for New South Wales
This year has been one of massive political upheaval, uncertainty and fear. But it has also been one of hope.
Across Australia and around the world, we have seen the far right become louder and more powerful. Anti-migrant, anti-Muslim, anti-First Nations and other racist rhetoric has escalated in our parliaments, across the media, on the streets, and online. Pauline Hanson and One Nation have been handed extraordinary amounts of airtime by mainstream and social media, helping fuel a terrifying rise in their support.
It would be easy to look at this political moment and feel nothing but despair.
But everywhere I look, I see people refusing to give in to hate.
I see people marching and protesting together week after week. I see students refusing to back down in their fight against racism and against genocide. I see communities rallying around those targeted by racism, ableism, and transphobia. I see people packing out town halls to talk about how we fight the far right.
That is why the theme of my work this year has been simple: hope, not hate.
Over the past year, so much of our work has focused on building that hope and solidarity at protests, rallies, town halls, university campuses and small community gatherings, and then taking the voices of those people and the movement into Parliament and into the halls of power.
Because more than ever before, it is clear to me that the frightening rise of groups like One Nation cannot be separated from the failures of successive Labor and Liberal governments.
For decades, people have watched governments put corporations, billionaires and vested interests before them. It is no wonder people are angry.
Our job is to turn that anger into solidarity, hope and action to build a better world for everyone.
There have been some incredibly dark moments this year.
The Labor Government has continued to refuse to recognise Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people. It welcomed President Herzog to Australia despite enormous community opposition, and then the NSW Labor Government brutally punished those who stood against the visit. Labor has orchestrated one of the cruelest attacks against the NDIS and people with disability. It continued to green light more and more coal and gas projects and climate bombs. It has escalated its dogwhistling on migrants and international students while refusing to take any action that would actually help those suffering under the cost-of-living crisis.
And despite racism becoming even more normalised, more visible and more dangerous, Labor has continued to fail to fund and implement the National Anti-Racism Framework.
But there have also been extraordinary moments of hope. When President Herzog came to Australia, thousands took to the streets to protest. When Australians onboard the flotilla were abducted, tortured and assaulted, the community rallied around them and demanded Government action.
I have stood alongside students and academics refusing to be silent about Israel’s genocide, and have fought against attempts by universities and governments to silence and punish Palestinian solidarity.
In July, we launched our Hope not Hate town hall meetings, bringing communities across the country together to talk honestly about the rise of One Nation and how we organise to defeat the politics of hate and division. And we have kept up the pressure for the full implementation and funding of the National Anti-Racism Framework.
This year we also launched our Tax the 1% campaign because one of the most important things we can do to defeat the far right is tell the truth about who is actually making people's lives harder. It isn't Muslims, migrants or international students. It is the billionaires hoarding obscene wealth, the corporations making record profits, the fossil fuel companies cooking our planet, and the politicians who protect their wealth and power while telling ordinary people to blame each other.
The Greens are offering a fundamentally different vision.
Public ownership of essential services. Massive investment in public schools and hospitals. An end to privatised care. Taxes on the gas corporations. Mass public housing. Free university education. A properly funded NDIS. Justice for First Nations people. An end to racism. A safe climate. A free Palestine.
Every rally, every packed town hall, every student protest, every community meeting, every person who speaks out against racism and injustice reminds me that another future is possible.
Hope, not hate. That is the movement we are building, and that is the work we will carry into the year ahead.
INTERNATIONAL AID AND JUSTICE
This past year, the international aid and global justice portfolio has been dominated by two horrible realities: a world devastated by war, genocide and climate catastrophe, and an Australian Labor Government increasingly unwilling to meet its humanitarian and international obligations.
Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people has continued for three years, after decades of occupation, apartheid and violence. War and militarism continue to destroy lives and communities across the world, while humanitarian workers themselves are increasingly under attack. In 2025, 350 aid workers were killed. Gaza was by far the deadliest place for aid workers, with 186 killed by Israel.
The humanitarian crises extend far beyond Gaza. Sudan is suffering through war, hunger, displacement and drought. Toxic wildfire smoke has choked communities in Indonesia and Malaysia, while catastrophic landslides devastated communities in Nepal and Tibet. Again and again, people who contributed the least to climate change are losing their homes, livelihoods and loved ones, while wealthy countries like Australia expand their fossil fuel projects and fall desperately short on climate finance, reparations and international aid.
Australia should be stepping up. Instead, Labor still refuses to recognise Israel’s genocide. More than 1,300 Palestinians, including hundreds of children, have been killed since the supposed “ceasefire”.
We have fought hard against that indifference.
In Parliament, I have repeatedly called out the Government’s complicity in Israel’s genocide in speeches and questions. I tabled the names and photographs of hundreds of Palestinian journalists and media workers killed in Gaza because we refuse to allow Israel’s victims to become anonymous statistics.
I have continued fighting for justice for Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom and her six World Central Kitchen colleagues, murdered in an Israeli strike in April 2024. Last month, when Israel announced it would pursue no further action against those responsible, I again called for Australia to pursue ICC accountability, expel the Israeli ambassador and end the two-way arms trade.
We have challenged the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) over tax-deductible donations going to organisations supporting the Israeli military and illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. Earlier this year, I joined thousands protesting Israeli President Herzog’s visit, and the Greens have been a consistent voice against the illegal and immoral US-Israeli war against Iran.
We stood alongside Australians who joined international flotillas attempting to deliver aid to Gaza. After flotilla participants were abused, tortured and sexually assaulted while detained by Israel, I confronted Foreign Minister Penny Wong in Senate Estimates and demanded accountability, leading to a Federal Police inquiry.
We have also pressed the Government over aid blocked from Gaza, including more than 800 wheelchairs for Palestinian children that were donated by Australians and are stranded in Jordan, while continuing to demand increased international aid and climate finance.
This month, we helped the Perth Doctors Medical Aid for Palestine bring Phil Buehler’s Wall of Tears art installation to Parliament House, bearing the names of more than 18,000 Palestinian children murdered by Israel. These children were not numbers. They had names, dreams and futures.
I was also incredibly proud to co-sponsor the Red Lines legislative package to prevent Australian governments and businesses from enabling or benefiting from war crimes, genocide and illegal occupation. We will keep fighting for Labor to pass this important bill.
Recently, I stood alongside a coalition of aid organisations and the Nepalese and Tibet community to call for no new coal and gas, an end to fossil fuel subsidies, and an increase in Australia’s climate finance commitments, in the wake of devastating climate-driven flooding in Nepal and Tibet.
Outside Parliament, I have stood alongside students, academics, aid workers, activists and communities demanding justice for Palestine, including acting as patron for the People’s Inquiry into Campus Free Speech on Palestine.
In a world where war, genocide and climate catastrophe are met too often with silence and indifference, we will keep standing with people resisting oppression everywhere.
ANTI-RACISM
This year has seen a terrifying rise and normalisation of racism in Australia, in our media, in our Parliament, online and on our streets.
Muslims, First Nations people, migrants and people of colour have faced violence, threats and abuse. Visibly Muslim women have been attacked, spat at and had their hijabs ripped from their heads. White supremacists have plotted attacks on mosques and against First Nations gatherings. Senator Pauline Hanson went on national television and declared there were “no good Muslims”, while migrants continue to be harassed and told to go back where they came from.
At the same time, the so-called “migration problem” has become the centrepiece of mainstream political debate. Too often, this is simply a coded conversation about who is seen to ‘belong’ in this country and who is not. Labor has joined the Coalition and One Nation in treating migration as a problem to be solved. The Government has pushed through policies that make it harder for migrants and international students to build full and secure lives here.
People are frightened. But we are fighting back.
Ahead of the 2026–27 Budget, we launched a campaign demanding the Government fully fund and implement the National Anti-Racism Framework. More than 3,000 people signed our open letter to the Prime Minister. We used parliamentary orders for documents to uncover what the Government had actually been doing on the framework (not a lot) and continued forcing the issue onto the Senate agenda.
In Parliament, we have refused to stay silent about racism within the institution itself. Senators Lidia Thorpe, Fatima Payman and I came together as three women of colour to write to Senate President Sue Lines to demand action to make Parliament safer for people of colour. I have continued calling for anti-racism training for politicians and their staff. In March, I moved for the Senate to recognise the International Day Against Islamophobia and the anniversary of the Christchurch mosque massacre.
I have also continued the fight against racism in the courts. In 2024, a court found that Pauline Hanson breached the Racial Discrimination Act when she told me to “piss off back to Pakistan”. Hanson appealed. In July this year, the Full Court of the Federal Court unanimously dismissed her appeal and upheld Justice Stewart’s initial ruling that she engaged in racist and Islamophobic behaviour. It was a powerful victory for every migrant and person of colour who has ever been told to go back where they came from.
But our most important work has happened outside Parliament, in community, building a movement of hope, not hate.
We held a joyful “eat the rich” picnic in the park and an uplifting anti-racism community iftar. We hosted our annual International Women’s Day Iftar joined by the incredible Miss Kaninna and Winnie Dunn, bringing women together to celebrate community and resistance. We have joined anti-racism rallies, supported student strikes against racism and joined First Nations communities demanding justice in the Walk for Truth.
In July, we launched our Hope Not Hate town halls, bringing communities together across the country to confront the rise of One Nation and the far right and, crucially, to organise around how we defeat their politics of racism, fear and division. We have already held town halls in Perth, Western Sydney, and Lutruwita/Tasmania, with more to come in Naarm and across the country.
The far right wants ordinary people frightened of each other while billionaires and big corporations continue hoarding wealth and power. We will not let them win.
TERTIARY EDUCATION
It has been another huge year in tertiary education. The crisis of university governance continues with course cuts, wage theft, staff cuts, and persistent scandals litter the news with exorbitant consultant use and executive salaries on the rise. Now AI is being thrown into that mix of challenges and threats to tertiary education in Australia. While the Albanese Government continues to stand with the corporate university, the Greens stood with students, staff and unions, fighting for the rights of university staff and for desperately needed fee and cost-of-living relief for students.
In June, I introduced a Private Senator’s Bill, the Higher Education Support Act (End 50k Degrees) Bill 2025. This Bill would have repealed the punitive fee hikes that have saddled hundreds of thousands of students with higher debts for simply studying what they love. It would have halved the cost of an Arts degree. These fee hikes were brought in by the Morrison Coalition government almost six years ago and have been kept in place by the Albanese Labor government for the past four years. I successfully referred the Bill to an Inquiry where we heard unanimously from students, staff and universities that these fee hikes must be urgently removed. A final report was handed down and a vote held in the Senate. It was no surprise to see Labor, the Coalition and One Nation team up to oppose a Bill that would lower university fees and deliver immediate relief to students who are being overwhelmed with ever-increasing debts and the cost of living crisis.
The new steward and Commission for Australia’s tertiary education system was unveiled by the government - the Australian Tertiary Education Commission. We successfully amended and improved the Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) Bill 2025 by guaranteeing ATEC’s independence, recognising the importance of the public mission of higher education, and widening ATEC’s scope to recognise research and research training as integral to their remit. These amendments were welcomed by the sector.
With the introduction of the Universities Accord (Opening the Doors of Opportunity) Bill 2026, we saw yet again the Prime Minister’s refusal to fully fund universities and support students. The importance of having Greens in the Parliament was demonstrated by my office securing 12 amendments to the Bil; we expect the amended bill to pass in the October sitting weeks. Without the Greens in the Senate, this Bill would have handed the Minister of the day diabolical interventionist powers into higher education, placed unacceptable limits on student choice, and failed to deliver equity. We will keep working to improve every Bill that comes before us and demand more of the Albanese Government than the scraps it offers until universities are fee-free and fully funded.
The Albanese Government has continued, and even ramped up, its scapegoating and targeting of international students in a race to the bottom with One Nation. International student visa fees have now been increased three times since 2024 to be the highest in the world. The latest migration announcements to keep international students from their families if they wish to study here is absolutely despicable. The Prime Minister has made clear he does not care about international students being collateral damage, or our higher education system suffering.
Students have been at the forefront of advocating for justice for Palestine and the end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza, perservering despite the crack downs from universities to try to limit academic and free speech. The People’s Inquiry into Campus Free Speech on Palestine, supported by myself, the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) and the National Union of Students, released its final final report in June this year. It revealed the horrific systemic and targeted silencing of students for speaking up for Palestine across Australian universities. It detailed serious cases of discrimination, silencing, surveilling and disciplining of staff and students engaged in pro-Palestine activism. I have since introduced a motion in the Senate, alongside APAN, calling for a Senate inquiry into anti-Palestinian racism and restrictions on Palestine-related expression in Australian universities.
Students have always been on the right side of history, and we see this time and time again in Australia, with our students at all levels striking against Pauline Hanson’s racism and bigotry, protesting against data centres, protesting against Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and speaking up for better working conditions and better universities. These students fill me with hope for our future and are the moral compass that this Labor Government should be listening to.
ANIMAL WELFARE
Animals continue to find no allies among Labor, the Coalition and One Nation. But animal welfare will always be a priority for myself and the Greens.
Following on from a powerful protest at Wentworth Park in October last year at the million dollar race, the NSW Government announced on 09 December 2025 that greyhound racing at Wentworth Park will end in 2027! The park will be returned to the community and redeveloped into community parklands and sporting grounds. This is a relief to so many of us who have campaigned for years to shut down this death track where greyhounds are killed, maimed and injured at the altar of gambling and racing. This is what can be achieved with people power.
In another win for animals, the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) finally announced this March after a four year review into rodenticides, its recommendation that second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGARs) be declared restricted chemical products and banned from public sale. Public pressure from the Greens, Birdlife, and animal and environmental experts alike led the APVMA to backflip on its highly unpopular December draft decision that only sought to make changes to labelling and instruction requirements. If implemented, this would mean that consumers can no longer subject our birds and mammals, reptiles and companion animals to slow and agonising deaths from internal bleeding by SGARs. It is now with the Minister for Agriculture to sign off on this recommendation, and we will continue to pressure her to do so as a matter of urgency.
In the past year of Senate Estimates, I have raised and questioned officials on the cruel and invasive testing on non-human primates in Australia, crocodile farming, greyhound imports from New Zealand, animal fur imports and exports, and trophy hunting.
I moved an amendment in March to the Treasury Laws Amendment (Supporting Choice in Superannuation and Other Measures) Bill 2025, and again in September, that would broaden the eligibility for animal welfare organisations to receive Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) status. Currently, most activities of animal welfare charities are not eligible for DGR status. Excluded from DGR status are organisations that work on preventing animal cruelty, providing community education, disaster and crisis emergency response, advocating for improved animal welfare standards, and providing expertise and advice to governments and industry stakeholders. Independent reviews by the Productivity Commission and the Department of Social Services have recommended expanding tax-deductible gift recipient status to include animal welfare advocacy charities. Labor said they would consider these recommendations from the Productivity Commission, but that was over two years ago and still there has been no action
This has long been called for by animal welfare advocates, but the Albanese Government, the Coalition and One Nation all teamed up to vote it down, not just once, but twice.
COMMITTEES (IN THE 48th PARLIAMENT)
-
Education and Employment Committee
- Mehreen