Today Senator Christine Milne has resigned her position as Leader of the Australian Greens.

Senator Milne informed the Party Room this morning in Canberra and a ballot for the new leader will occur today at 11.30am followed by a Press Conference at 1.30pm in the Mural Hall.

The Tasmanian Greens preselection process for the 2016 election opens shortly. Senator Milne told the Party Room that having decided not to contest the election for another six year Senate term, she resigned as Leader.

Tonight the “Minister for the Environment” Greg Hunt, and shadow Minister Mark Butler will be on Q&A.
Will you ask the two old parties to explain how they can claim that they’re taking action on global warming while tearing down the RET and digging up more coal?

By Senator Christine Milne

Everywhere I go across Australia people can't stop telling me how much they loved their trip to Tasmania, how beautiful our state is and how delicious our food and beverages are.

While we should all be proud of our outstanding producers, a couple of important reasons to support local food get lost in all the enthusiasm about the highest end products.

We locals know most Tasmanian produce is sold interstate or overseas - that's why it's often hard to find locally grown fruit, vegetables and meat in the supermarkets.

Greens Leader Christine Milne says it's about time federal funds started flowing for deradicalisation programs in Australian communities.

"It has been almost eight months since Australians were first sent off to another unwinnable war in the Middle East, but only now is the Abbott government starting to act on countering violent extremism at home," said Senator Milne.

Greens Leader Christine Milne says Nepal is still in crisis, almost a week after the earthquake hit, and Australia must do more to help.

"There's a huge amount of concern around our country right now. People are worried, they want to help. We all want to see more stories of survival," said Senator Milne.

"Australia can send more money, and I'm pleased the Foreign Minister has announced a further $5 million in aid funding . We should also send more military personnel and search and rescue capacity, as this is a role which the ADF is well equipped and experienced in.

Greens Leader Christine Milne has proposed further actions in response to the Bali Nine executions and says the Australian Parliament must demonstrate its cross-party opposition to the death penalty with better safeguards to protect Australian citizens from state-sanctioned execution overseas.

"What happened to Myuran Sukumaran, Andrew Chan and other Australians before them must not happen again. We have a responsibility to do all we can to oppose the death penalty and protect people from it, wherever it exists," said Senator Milne.

On behalf of the Australian Greens I express my deepest sympathies to the families and friends of Andrew Chan, Myuran Sukumaran, and the six other people who have been executed in Indonesia overnight.

Myuran and Andrew will be remembered for overcoming their past to live meaningful lives, even from prison, not just for the way they died.

Their actions over the past ten years were testament to their remorse, and have given many of their fellow prisoners an opportunity to live better lives.

It is a tragedy Andrew and Myuran were denied their own second chance.

If the Liberal Party were serious about revenue, they'd stop the free-ride for their big business mates in five easy steps --

1. Make multinationals open up the books

Because you can't tax what you can't see.

2. Actually resource the Tax Office properly, so they can do their jobs

In a speech to the Sydney Environment Institute at Sydney University last night, Greens Leader Christine Milne has announced the party's new post-2020 targets for pollution reduction, saying much greater ambition is required to tackle global warming and help transition the economy.

"The big polluters are polluting for free, and the rest of us are paying the price. It doesn't have to be that way," Greens Leader Christine Milne said.