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

Imagine having the power to lift people out of poverty but not using it, because that's what Labor is doing. We are a wealthy country, where the gas corporations are making record profits, the supermarkets are making huge profits and the banks are making huge profits, all off the back of people's pain. Meanwhile, one in eight people in this country live in poverty, and one in six children in this country live in poverty. That is an absolute shame in a wealthy country like ours—that one in six children are living in poverty.

What that means is that there are people like Abigail, who told the Senate inquiry, 'There were some fortnights where I had to decide whether I was buying myself groceries or paying electricity bills.' Joe told the Senate inquiry, 'I am 58 years old. I have been waiting for a total hip replacement for 14 months. I get $683.40 a fortnight on JobSeeker. It should be more than that, but Centrelink have not recognised my new lease that I have uploaded three times.' He said, 'I'm going to lose this tooth because I can't afford to see a dentist.'

After hearing the stories of people living in poverty, with those one in six children in this country living in poverty, having promised to leave no-one behind, what does this government do? Labor is leaving millions behind, leaving people in poverty, while giving tax cuts to politicians in this place and to billionaires. The best Labor say they can do for people who are struggling to make ends meet is give them $2.85 a day so that they've still got less than $50 a day to live on. Meanwhile, Labor finds $313 billion to give billionaires and politicians $9,000 a year in a tax cut—$2.85 a day that keeps people below the poverty line, for those who are doing it toughest, but $9,000 a year for the very wealthy and for every politician in this place. Billionaires like Clive Palmer, and politicians do not need $9,000 a year while people are skipping meals in order to pay the rent. That is the choice that Labor is making.

We just heard from previous speakers that Labor had to make tough choices in this budget. Labor are not making tough choices; they are making bad choices. Labor are not making tough choices; they're making everyone else make tough choices. There are things that they could do right now—right now—to address the massive cost-of-living crisis that people are facing. We could lift income support payments above the poverty line so that, in a wealthy country like ours, no-one goes without. We could freeze rents, which are growing six times faster than wages. We could get dental and mental health into Medicare so that people like Joe don't have to put off going to the dentist to get their teeth fixed and the problem gets worse and worse and worse. We could do all of those things in a wealthy country like ours, and we could make good choices and not make everyday people make tough choices, if we stop giving $313 billion in tax cuts to politicians and billionaires.

We know that with JobSeeker, an income support payment—and Labor's budget forecasts unemployment to rise; therefore, Labor's banking in a rise in unemployment and the number of people who are going to have to rely on this—in the second half of last year 62 per cent of people on this payment were eating less or skipping meals. And we know that many had difficulty getting medication or medical care because of the increased cost of living; 96 per cent said their inability to cover the cost of living harmed their physical and mental health. That's what it means for people to live below the poverty line.

This increase of $2.85 a day from Labor keeps people below the poverty line. We know that one of the biggest pressures on people who are doing it tough—which is a growing number of people in this country—is housing. I think people accept that Labor, a year into government, have not caused the housing crisis, but they want them to step in, to intervene and take action to fix it. Instead, what do we have from this government? The single-biggest expenditure on housing in this government's budget is tax breaks for wealthy property investors who've already got two, three, four or five homes so they can go and buy their sixth, seventh and eighth. This government is spending $7 billion a year to push house prices up and out of the reach of first-home buyers. How does that happen? Well, a first-home buyer goes to an auction and bids on the basis of the savings they've got, but there's someone standing next to them who's already got three houses and knows that if they keep bidding the price up they can come back to the government—the public purse—and get a tax break for writing it off in the form of negative gearing and capital gains tax deductions. This pushes prices up, out of the reach of first-home buyers.

So, this government's spending $7 billion a year on that. And I'm not talking about people who've got one investment property, because that's what they've got for their retirement. I'm talking about people who've got three or more properties to their name. Why do they need a handout—$7 billion a year? And in n the middle of this housing crisis the government says, 'Oh, well, it's okay, because we're going to lift rent assistance.' Well, for the 1.1 million people who get rent assistance—and they could get as little a $1.12 a day—rents in capital cities have been growing 10 times faster than that. And we know that no places in capital cities are affordable to rent for people who are living on these low incomes. If you're looking for a place for yourself, you just can't afford it. This increase will not help them. A small increase to rent assistance that is outpaced 10 times by the rise in capital cities will leave people behind. Meanwhile, 5½ million renters in this country who don't get rent assistance get nothing.

That is why the government needs to step in, take control and organise a national rent freeze. Otherwise, we are going to see more and more people struggling to keep a roof over their head. Already this government is putting housing prices out of reach of first-home buyers, so that for so many people owning your own home has become completely out of reach, and parents are looking at their kids and thinking, how are my kids ever going to own a home? But now even renting, near where your family is or where you work or where you study, is becoming a dream. And this bill and this budget do nothing for them. Labor is leaving renters behind.

What's worse, Labor come along and say: 'We can find $313 billion for tax cuts for Clive Palmer, Gina Rinehart and every politician in this place, but I'm sorry, we can't afford to lift you out of poverty. And we can find $7 billion a year to give tax breaks to wealthy property moguls, but I'm sorry that you can't afford to pay the rent. There's nothing we can do for you.' Then they turn around to the big gas corporations and say, 'We could be bringing in an extra $9 billion a year from you to do things like fund dental under Medicare, fund a rent freeze and wipe student debt,' but instead they write laws that let them off the hook, and they go out and beg the coalition to say, 'Please come and support our weak gas tax laws, because we'd much rather that everyday people bear the burden of dealing with the inflation crisis than ask the big gas corporations to pay their fair share.'

Tomorrow students and people who have a HECS debt will face a massive increase on their HECS debt because Labor blocked the Greens' bill to freeze the indexation on HECS repayments. Labor said it is okay to make students and former students pay more in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. Where students and recent graduates are finding it hard to get into the housing market, finding it hard to make ends meet, Labor actively says, 'We're going to put students and former students into even more debt.' That is Labor's answer. This will hurt people.

This failure to make the big corporations and billionaires pay their fair share and instead to shift the burden, as Labor is doing, onto everyday people in this country by allowing rents to keep going up and by lifting student debt is going to hurt people. We have a chance to not make the bad choices that this government is making but to make good choices that will tackle rising inequality in this country and stop Australia becoming a US style society where the gap between the haves and have-nots grows.

Labor needs to stop bringing a bucket of water to a house fire. The rental crisis and the housing crisis are now hurting people. They are hurting people to the point where people are having to choose between food and rent. And Labor says their magic silver bullet to it all—

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