Celebrating International Cephalopod Awareness Week

Today Abigail passed a motion in Parliament celebrating International Cephalopod Awareness Week.

Abigail said:

I move:

(1) That this House notes that:

International Cephalopod Awareness Week was marked between 8 October and 12 October 2025 to teach the world about cephalopods, a diverse and highly intelligent class of molluscs that includes octopuses, squids, cuttlefish and nautiluses;
cephalopods are exclusively marine animals characterised by bilateral body symmetry, a prominent head with a distributed brain, highly articulate arms and tentacles and the absence of a backbone;
cephalopods are often referred to as the chameleons of the sea because of their rapid colour changing abilities and fast movement;
cephalopods possess a complex nervous system and well documented intelligence, with emerging research over the last decade finding more evidence of their sentience, including a 2021 United Kingdom government‑commissioned report from London School of Economics and Political Science which found strong scientific evidence cephalopods and decapods are sentient beings and resulted in the United Kingdom Government passing legislation to legally recognise the sentience of cephalopods and decapods in animal welfare and protection law;
in Australia, cephalopods are not included within the legal definition of an animal in New South Wales, Victoria, the Northern Territory and Western Australia, meaning they miss out on the legal protections in existing animal welfare legislation in these jurisdictions;
Wednesday 8 October 2025 was World Octopus Day, which celebrates the octopus, one of the most distinctive marine creatures on the planet;
Thursday 9 October 2025 was Nautilus Night, which raises awareness about the nautilus, a fascinating spiral‑shelled mollusc, and other lesser-known cephalopods like the allonautilus perforatus, which migrate from deep waters to shallower areas to hunt at night;
Friday 10 October 2025 was International Squid and Cuttlefish Day, also known as Squittleday, which recognises squid, which have a flexible, feather-shaped structure inside their bodies called the pen, and cuttlefish, which have a broader internal shell called the cuttlebone; and
Saturday 11 October 2025 was World Kraken Day, which recognises all the fantastical and mythical cephalopods across myth, film, video games, comics, literature and legend.

(2) That this House recognises International Cephalopod Awareness Week and encourages everyone to learn more about these fascinating and highly intelligent creatures.

Motion agreed to.

Read the transcript in Hansard here.

21 October 2025

PUBLIC ENERGY FOR PUBLIC GOOD - SIGN THE PETITION!

Electricity is an essential service. But Labor and Liberal governments have sold off NSW’s energy assets and infrastructure, leaving us at the mercy of the private sector for our energy needs. The result has been soaring energy bills, with more and more people being forced into energy poverty.

A privatised energy system will never deliver a cheap and clean energy network - It’s time to take the power back.

As we transition to 100% renewable energy, we must learn from the mistakes of privatisation, ensure our energy assets are kept in public hands, and rein in the actions of private operators.

Communities across NSW have for too long been at the mercy of privatised power network operators who continue to put profit above people, acting recklessly and cutting corners without regard for community expectations.

Recent catastrophic power outages in regional NSW have made headlines for just this - in Broken Hill, the state’s only 100% privatised transmission network operator has failed to deliver a safe and secure energy network, leaving communities in the dark because of mismanagement and neglect in the pursuit of profit.

To build our case for bringing electricity back into public ownership, the Greens are calling for a public parliamentary inquiry into all NSW power network operators, their operation and corporate decision-making practices.

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Celebrating International Cephalopod Awareness Week

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