Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I don't believe in trickle-down, Member for Boothby. Trickle-down is a failed experiment. They've had it in place in America for 40 years. It has absolutely failed. You've got a widening gap of income in America. The once mighty middle class in America that everybody aspired to—the great American middle class; the great American dream—has gone. People are casualised and contracted out. There are low wages. You've got the wealthy getting wealthier, rich beyond comprehension, whereas everybody else is living in their car. There was a woman living in her car doing three jobs at, I think, a doughnut shop and other franchises. She died in her car because she was living in her car between shifts instead of being able to go home. This is the reality of trickle-down economics in America and this is the future that we can expect in Australia if those failed policies gain a bigger foothold here than they have already.

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