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

There's been a bit of discussion about Labor's stage 3.1 tax cuts. Labor claims that they'll tackle the cost of living by giving a $4,500-a-year tax cut to every politician in this place and to billionaires, while only an extra $15 a week to middle-income earners. This whole debate is completely divorced from reality.

We're living in a country where a block of Bega tasty cheese is $20 a kilo at Coles and petrol is $2.20 a litre and where, waiting for you in your inbox, there is an email from the landlord telling you the rent has gone up $200 a month or more. We're seeing people living in tents, kids skipping meals and people unable to afford to see a doctor, let alone a dentist or a psychologist, yet, in this place, Labor and the Liberals have been arguing about whether politicians should get a $4,500-a-year tax cut or a $9,000-a-year tax cut. And you wonder why people are fed up with politics.

The Greens' view is straightforward: Labor should not be giving billionaires and politicians a tax cut while people are struggling to put food on the table or keep a roof over their heads. But this point seems to be missing from the debate. So listen up. We are in a full-blown cost-of-living crisis. People are really struggling to keep their heads above water, and the water is rising. Young people's lives are being delayed and constrained. The fastest growing group in our society who are becoming homeless are children. Some young people are stuck living with their parents well into their 20s and 30s, as they struggle to afford to move out of home. Others are forced to sleep on couches, to skip meals and medication, to travel further to and from work and study, and to do less with what they earn. This used to be a country which looked after people. Now, Labor looks after property moguls and gives billions to big corporations and the billionaires, while everyday people suffer.

This week, Nadine got in touch with my office for advice about her mum. She was living in a home under the NRAS, which provides affordable accommodation for people who need it. But Labor have cruelly, in the middle of a housing crisis, decided to defund this scheme, and in January her rent went from $300 to over $500 a week. We're talking about a 65-year-old woman who has to take out of her superannuation and sell her car to afford the basics. Now she's homeless, bouncing from motel to motel, and neither she nor her daughter know what to do.

I want everyone in this place to imagine that she's your mum—unhoused and living out of a suitcase, with no security and, sometimes, no safety. Too many people in this place have lost the plot and are in denial about what it's like for everyday people out there trying to get by. Our tax system is stacked against Nadine's mum; just like it's stacked against every renter and every first home buyer. Our tax system makes it easier to buy your seventh property than your first. Everyone deserves a home. Everyone should be able to afford to eat. These are really the basics of a dignified life. Nadine says they feel powerless and lost, and that her mum is a beautiful and empathetic person who loves helping others but is now being left behind.

Labor could get Nadine's mum a house, but they're choosing not to. Labor could stop out-of-control rent increases, but they're choosing not to. Labor could build the public housing that we need, instead of defunding the ones that people like Nadine rely on. Labor could change the tax system so that first home buyers aren't losing out to cashed-up property moguls at auctions around the country every weekend. Labor could raise the income support rate and end poverty and homelessness in this country. But they're not doing that. They're choosing not to do that. Until Labor stops tinkering around the edges and fronts up to the challenges of our time, more and more people like Nadine's mum will be left behind.

People have had enough. They've had enough of letting big corporations drive-up costs and make massive profits while getting huge handouts from Labor. The big corporations and the big, wealthy property moguls need to pay their fair share of tax. Enough of the rivers of gold of public money going to property moguls. We need to freeze and cap rents to stop people being kicked out of their homes. Enough of letting people on income support become homeless and hungry. This year, things need to change.

See this speech in context