Stephen Bates (Brisbane, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

It is a privilege to represent my electorate of Brisbane. It extends from the suburbs of Paddington in the west, through the CBD, New Farm and Lutwyche, and out to Hamilton in the east. We are a diverse electorate that large populations of people from across the world have decided to call home. I'm proud of our large multicultural population and our huge diversity of families, young professionals and students. We are a young electorate, with the second-largest population of under-35s of any electorate in Australia.

All of us across the Brisbane electorate hear a lot about a cost-of-living crisis, and none of us have to look too far to see the impacts of it. We talk to our friends, our families and our communities, and it is hard to deny the simple fact that the economy is just not working for everyone. Whether it's petrol prices, rent rises, mortgage repayment hikes or spending more on food and essentials, everyone is feeling the pinch. Stories are emerging of people seeing their rents increased by 60 per cent. In the building I call home, my neighbours have experienced hikes of $280 per week for their rent. I've been told stories of community members seeing increases of as much as $400 per week. People are so afraid of their leases expiring, because of the almost guaranteed exorbitant increases to their rents which will either force them to try and find a home in an already tight housing market or, in some cases, force them into homelessness. We've had Brisbane locals come to us for help in the most dire of situations because they felt like they had nowhere else to turn. These are people who have been living in their carports, couch surfing or even living in their cars with their service animals.

This budget tells my home community of Brisbane that the government knows we are in a cost-of-living crisis but that my electorate just has to wait. But this budget does not tell everyone they have to wait, because the fossil fuel companies receiving $40 billion in subsidies don't have to wait; the one in three large companies who don't pay any tax don't have to wait; and the government MPs giving themselves a $9,000-a-year tax cut don't have to wait. This budget tells us that the needs of gas companies to rake in enormous and excessive profits are more important than the needs of struggling families. That is why this matter is of such public importance.

If we are to address the cost-of-living crisis, we must change the rules of the game that led us here. We must understand that the same thinking that got us into this mess is not going to get us out. We need to create an economy and a society that put people ahead of profit. What is going to get us out of this cost-of-living crisis is investing in essential public services and making them universally accessible. Getting dental into Medicare, making child care universal, wiping student debt and investing in 100-per-cent publicly owned renewable energy and green jobs—these are all policies that would dramatically and tangibly improve people's lives, and that is what government should be about.

Make no mistake: the reason we don't have these services is because the government would rather give handouts to the same companies that contributed to the climate-change-induced floods that devastated my electorate. We don't have these services because the government is committed to giving $254 billion in tax cuts to the wealthiest people in our country, with 65 per cent of that money going to the top one per cent of earners. This budget's priorities are wrong. If we are to truly address the cost-of-living crisis and the structural inequalities that we face in this country, we need bold action. Bandaid solutions and tinkering around the edges are not going to cut it. People in our communities will continue to hurt until governments start writing budgets that finally value people over profits.

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