The Australian Greens are renewing calls for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to keep the keys to the Water Ministry out of the hands of Barnaby Joyce and the Nationals.

“Just because Barnaby Joyce has settled his citizenship blunder and has been returned to Parliament, does not mean we can forget the stuff up after stuff up at the helm of the Water Ministry,” Greens Murray Darling Basin spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.

The Greens have secured an inquiry into the mining and fossil fuel industry’s water use, and how the mining and fossil fuel industry have ever been allowed to take unlimited amounts of ground water.

I’m gutted by Larissa’s announcement, coming just days after Scott’s. Larissa has been an outstanding Senator and Deputy Leader. Her departure is deeply saddening.

This is unprecedented and deeply disappointing – personally for Larissa, for her family and for the Greens federally and in Queensland.

The Parliament and the nation are worse off as a result of the resignation of two leaders of such integrity and ability as Larissa and Scott.

It is with great shock and sadness that I have discovered that I hold dual citizenship of Australia and Canada. As people would know after the recent departure of my dear friend and former colleague Scott Ludlam, section 44 of the Australian constitution means I cannot hold office in the federal Parliament.

Prime Minister Turnbull needs to take far stronger action to protect Australia’s territorial waters from illegal whaling, Greens Senator for Tasmania Nick McKim says.

"Mr Turnbull should stop sitting on his hands and immediately send Border Force vessels to the Southern Ocean to restore the integrity of the our territorial waters including the Australian Whale Sanctuary," Senator McKim said.

“They should be prepared to run Japan’s illegal whalers out of the Whale Sanctuary, and gather evidence for further international legal actions."

Greens spokesperson for Healthy Oceans, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson welcomes the news that the factory-freezer vessel Geelong Star has left Australian water.

Senator Whish-Wilson said, “This situation is bizarre. The fisheries authority has posted a mysterious statement on their website about the Geelong Star no longer being in Australian waters. They haven’t said when it left, where it is has gone and if it is coming back.