Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

[by video link] This budget is shaping up to a trickle-down con job that spends big but spends badly. The government has actively chosen high unemployment, low wages and tax cuts for those who least need them over full employment and a green recovery. It's chosen to go into debt to pay for tax cuts rather than focus on creating new jobs. It puts millionaires ahead of the million unemployed. It's chosen to lock in coal and gas, the leading causes of climate change, and it's chosen to actively engineer a worst future for our children. Tax cuts for those earning over $150,000 a year look set to be baked in forever, while all minimum wage apprentices can hope for is one year of support. JobSeeker and JobKeeper were cut last week. This simply isn't fair.

Don't be fooled. This government might look like it's making huge ideological concessions, but today's spending is a drop in the ocean compared with the decades of cuts to everything that we've needed to fight the pandemic, from science to aged care. The vast majority of concessions continue to flow to those who are already wealthy and the choice to back fossil fuels over renewables accelerates us towards a climate emergency. This budget should be an opportunity to pivot Australia to a green recovery. We need a green new deal to get to full employment while also tackling the climate crisis. There are no limits on what is possible right now, if we just had the vision and the courage to stand up against those vested interests and those who are lining their pockets, but clearly this government lacks the guts and is lacking— (Time expired)

See this speech in context