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Senator Hanson-Young, Greens spokesperson on Education, says the current compromise scheme which passed through Federal Parliament earlier this year was far from perfect and has created an unfair system that doles out or denies assistance with no real reference to students' needs.
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"We know many students in regional areas have missed out on access to the full rate of Youth Allowance under the new scheme,'' Senator Hanson-Young said. "For example in Yarram in Victoria, students who go to the same school and live across the road from each other get help or miss out depending on which side of the road they are on."
The week also saw a fundraiser for the Greens Casey and Latrobe campaigns at Earthly Pleasures Organic Cafe in Belgrave.
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Jim and Brendan compare campaign notes.
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Supporters came out to hear from our candidates, Jim Reiher (Latrobe) and Brendan Powell (Casey) who talked about the importance of campaigning to assist Dr Richard di Natale for a seat in the senate.
.Many people expressed concerns about logging in the local Healesville region. .
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I spoke about the lack of emphasis on climate change from Liberal and Labor and that many in my community were telling me this was a key issue for them. Thanks to Brent Lukey for the photo.
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Thursday was also a celebration of the momentous Brown Mountain decision. The Supreme Court upheld the injunction of logging of Brown Mountain where Justice Robert Osborn held that the detection of long-footed potoroos and other endangered species meant that steps must be taken to protect their habitat.
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It was a landmark decision for the environment, I gathered with Environment East Gippsland campaigners on the steps of Parliament to ask Minister for the Environment, Gavin Jennings, to respond to the Supreme Court decision. 
Here I am pictured with Colleen Hartland (Greens MLC for Western Metropolitan), Michael Bond (Greens candidate for Gippsland) and Greg Barber (Greens MLC for Northern Metropolitan). The Brown Mountain decision is a great victory for those endangered species threatened by logging activities in Victoria.
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Greens launch policy in Valley
Latrobe Valley Express
by Ebonnie Lord
12 Aug 2010
It was terrific to join with Victorian Senate candidate Dr Richard Di Natale, out in Gippsland, as he called for the implementation of a Gross National Feed-In Tariff to kick-start the renewable energy sector in regional Victoria.
Research by Access Economics and the Electrical Trades Union has shown that a gross national feed-in tariff would lead to the creation of an additional 5,400 jobs in Victoria, particularly regional Victoria, over the next ten years.
It makes good sense, it's good for the economy, good for the environment, good for regional Victoria.
Pictured left to right: Malcolm McKelvie – candidate for McMillan, Dr Richard di Natale – senate candidate for Victoria, Michael Bond – candidate for Gippsland, Sarah Hanson-Young – Greens Senator and Samantha Dunn – candidate for Eastern Victoria (state), in front of Hazelwood Power Station, the developed world's most polluting power station. Victoria's greenhouse gas emissions from power generation are continuing to grow due to our ongoing reliance on brown coal.
Over 22 thousand jobs could be created in Australia over the next 10 years in the renewables sector if we implemented a gross national feed-in tariff.
For Victoria and in particular regional Victoria, this would translate to around 5,400 extra jobs over the next 10 years.
Renewable energy employs on average 4-6 times as many people than fossil fuel energy and most of these jobs would be in regional areas.
"So far, Federal Government initiatives have failed to stimulate the market and keep solar manufacturers within Australia. Australia's last solar manufacturer left Australian shores in April 2009. There was a time when the majority of our panels were Australian-made but now all our solar panels are imported," said Greens senate candidate, Richard di Natale.
• According to a report produced by Sustainability Victoria for the Victorian Government, a gross feed-in tariff set at 40 cents per kWh with a cap of 200,000 units would lead to $2.1 billion in investment and would generate 3,000 new jobs in Victoria by 2015. This would increase retail electricity prices by just 1%, equating to an increase of 17 cents per week for Victorian electricity consumers.
• At 60 cents per kWh, a gross feed-in tariff would generate 5,400 new jobs within Victoria in the next ten years.
• According to Access Economics, "the cumulative employment in the solar industry in Australia delivered from a gross national feed-in tariff from 2010 to 2020 is just under 40,300, compared with a cumulative 17,750 under the existing set of feed-in tariff policies. This amounts to an increase of 22,550 jobs for the forecast period."
• For Victoria, employment peaks at just below 500 per annum under existing policies, whereas under a gross state feed-in tariff, employment would peak at just under 1,200 per annum. When aggregated across the period 2010 to 2020, the existing feed-in tariff and solar credits will create around 4,200 jobs in Victoria, compared with 9,600 created by the joint operation of a gross state feed-in tariff and the solar credits scheme.
Dr Richard Di Natale VICTORIAN GREENS
Voters looking for strong leadership are moving to The Greens after the major parties continue to play politics with climate change, says Dr Richard Di Natale, Greens Senate Candidate for Victoria.
"The Greens are the only party with the courage to take real action on climate change," says Dr Di Natale.
"Last night's debate exposed the monumental failure of leadership from both the old parties on an issue that Australians are deeply concerned about.
"This talk of citizens assemblies and green armies are just distractions from the real action this country needs on climate change – The Greens' carbon tax, which Labor's own advisor Ross Garnaut supports.
"The real winner of the leaders debate last night was long term Greens leader Bob Brown – both the new leaders, Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott, had their chance to show leadership on climate change, but chose instead to spout empty clichés."
Dr Di Natale's comments come after today's Galaxy Poll shows The Greens are on 15%, almost double what they polled in the 2007 election.
"Polls come and go, but I do feel a groundswell moving towards The Greens because voters wants leadership, and The Greens are the only party to provide it in this time of poll driven politics," says Dr Di Natale.
Pictured left to right: Robert Brown - federal candidate for Flinders, Samantha Dunn - state candidate for Eastern Victoria, Anton Vigenser - state candidate for Nepean and Richard di Natale - federal senate candidate for Victoria.
It was a terrific turn out with community members from around the district keen to hear about Greens policies and talk about the things that mattered most to them.
It was a good opportunity to introduce candidates to the local community and shed some light on our background and why we're members of the Greens. Candidates used the question and answer time to highlight Greens policies which set forward a positive plan for Victoria and Australia.
It's a passionate community concerned about the future of their region and generations to come, it was great to be able to have some good in depth conversations with them.
If you'd like to know more about the campaign trail visit
Samantha Dunn for Eastern Victoria (state)
and
Richard di Natale for Victoria (federal) .
Today I joined Richard Di Natale and other Greens candidates in Yarragon to talk about the value of preventative health programs.
Richard, the Greens lead Senate candidate for Victoria, has been touring regional Victoria to highlight the Greens Health Plan.
Both Andrew and Bryce, Grade Sixers at Yarragon Primary School are enjoying a chance to get out of the classroom and into the vegie patch. Here they are pictured with Greens candidates from left to right: Samantha Dunn – Eastern Victoria, Dr Richard Di Natale – Victoria and Dr Malcolm McKelvie – McMillan.
It was terrific to talk about an initiative of the Yarragon Primary School which sees Grade 5 and 6's work outside of the school on various garden projects.
The Community Garden Project, plays a central role in providing the vegie patch and the food for the school program and stems from an initiative by Dr Malcolm McKelvie, Green's Federal Candidate for McMillan.
The program aims to equip students with skills, not only in the garden, but in the kitchen too and matches community mentors with young people to help foster and build connections in the broader community.
Born out of the community and struggling to continue to run unfunded, it is a great example of the sort of preventative program the Greens support as part of a package of initiatives that address long term healthy living.
As part of the Greens Plan the primary care system would become needs-based, so that all Victorians could get better access to health care professionals like GPs, psychologists, even dieticians, before they're sent to hospital and junk food advertising aimed at kids would be banned, and foods would be better labelled to allow shoppers to make informed, health based decisions.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and that's what is happening on the ground in Yarragon.
It was terrific to be part of the candidate's launch for the Greens in the federal seat of McEwen and the state seat of Seymour at Three Stories Artspace in Healesville.
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From left to right: Richard di Natale - for the senate, Samantha Dunn for Eastern Victoria, Steve Meacher for McEwen, Huw Slater for Seymour & David Jones for Northern Victoria.
Candidates who spoke on the night included Richard di Natale- The Greens Senate Candidate, Steve Meacher – Greens candidate for McEwen, David Jones – Greens Upper House Candidate for Northern Victoria and Huw Slater – Greens candidate for Seymour. Community members from near and far came out to support the launch and the Greens campaign.
Richard, a general practitioner and international public health specialist, has a keen understanding of the issues that impact on our health system. David was a councillor and mayor in the City of Greater Bendigo and has a wealth of experience representing community, Steve Meacher is well known to the people of the McEwen electorate and participates in many community based groups across the region, whilst Huw Slater, a local boy from Chum Creek, understands the things that matter to people in the electorate of Seymour.
All spoke with passion about the community and the issues affecting their respective electorates. They are a high calibre group of candidates and the community will be seeing much more of them as the Greens hit the ground running.
Samantha Dunn and Richard Di Natale, Greens Senate Candidate for Victoria, at the launch of the Transition Decade at the Melbourne Town Hall.
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