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

People are worried. They're worried about how they're going to pay the rent or the mortgage. Of those on low incomes, 42 per cent are in rental stress and in danger of being pushed into homelessness. They're worried about whether they can afford a jar of Vegemite or fresh fruit and vegetables. According to Foodbank, 3.7 million households across the country ran out of food last year. Millions of people across the country are doing their best to keep their head above water, but, thanks to this cost-of-living crisis, they are drowning in rising costs. People are working harder than ever before, but they still can't get ahead. Almost a million people are working a second job, and over half of all gen Zs say they would need to look for a second job to make ends meet. At the same time big corporations are making record profits.

In the last 12 months Coles and Woolworths have made over a billion dollars in profits, which is nothing, really, when you compare it to the $105 billion in profits oil and gas corporations made exporting oil and gas in 2022-23. Even though they made billions, your bills keep going up. Food prices, power prices, rents and mortgages all keep going up while these big corporations make massive profits.

While millions are cutting back and making sacrifices, one in three big corporations pays no tax at all, and some of these corporations, such as News Corp, Exxon, Santos, Whitehaven and Woodside, are also making donations to Labor and the Liberals. No wonder so many people say that it is getting harder and harder to tell the Liberals and Labor apart.

See this speech in context