New Greens Senator for South Australia Penny Wright will deliver her first speech in the Australian Parliament tomorrow evening.

In the speech Senator Wright will lament a society of “have-lots” and “have-littles”, describing the need to value “each person fully, irrespective of their income or status, dismantling barriers and creating conditions that enable people to participate fully in the life of the community”.

“Universal quality public education is crucial for a fair and thriving society and I have witnessed the increasing fracturing of schooling and the exodus of parents from the public system with regret,” Senator Wright says.

“In Australia today an unemployed person with rent assistance gets $294 a week. At the same time the average CEO of one of the top 50 companies gets $123,000 a week.”

“In Australia today there are estimated to be 105,000 people who are homeless.

“How have these things come to pass in the land of the ‘fair go’?”

Reflecting on her upbringing and country roots in a family of seven children, Senator Wright will describe how her passion for current affairs and events of the day including the Vietnam War, feminism and Aboriginal rights were discussed around the dinner table, before highlighting a legal career that she risked at the Franklin Dam blockade.

“It wasn’t just the beauty of the site and the spurious case for the dam which motivated me to take this step, but the cynical decision by the Tasmanian Premier to stop a peaceful protest by making it a crime to trespass on what had been publically-owned land,” Senator Wright says.

“Down at the Franklin I saw the strength that comes from people standing together for a shared belief in what is right.”

Referring to climate change, the environment and water security, Senator Wright also will describe how population growth coupled with massive industrialisation has led to pollution and an overuse of the earth’s resources.

“Some promote a perception that the environment is some kind of ‘optional extra’ which we can choose to factor in or negotiate away,” Senator Wright says.

“In the 21st century we risk seeing the Cree Indian prophesy applied on a global scale – ‘only after the last tree has been cut down, only after the last river has been poisoned, only after the last fish has been caught, only then will you find that money cannot be eaten’.”

Senator Wright signalled her commitment to working both inside and outside the Parliament in fostering a “kinder, fairer, more sustainable” Australia for the future.

Senator Wright joined the Senate on July 1 and takes up the portfolios of Attorney-General, Native Title, Mental Health, Social Inclusion, Heritage and Veterans’ Affairs.

She will deliver her speech tomorrow (Wednesday) evening at an estimated time of 5.30pm.

To arrange comment contact Lauren Zwaans ph: 08 8205 1065