Max Chandler-Mather (Griffith, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

If you feel hopeless and powerless about the state of politics, I do not blame you. If you feel like it's not possible to make any change and your only experience of politics is watching it play out on your phone or on the TV, I do not blame you. But let me tell you: there are changes happening right now in this country that are happening as a direct result of your effort and collective power. The political establishment will always go out of their way to try and make you feel like you had nothing to do with the changes that they make in response to our collective effort.

Let's take a look at Queensland and what's happening there right now. The Queensland Greens went to the state election in 2020 on a platform of free public transport, raising mining royalties to pay for cheaper power bills and a universal free breakfast and school lunch scheme in every single state school. When we announced those policies, we were ridiculed. We were told by both major parties that public transport was already affordable enough. We were told there was going to be a mining royalty freeze, not even an increase. We were told that, even though people were doing it tough, the government weren't going to make big corporations pay more, despite the fact that they were getting away with record profits. What changed between then and now? The Greens movement got bigger. You fought. You knocked on doors. You helped build a movement that got two state MPs and five federal members from the Greens elected in Queensland. In fact, all of metropolitan Brisbane is now represented by the Greens.

Now we face a state election where the Greens can win up to 10 seats. As a result of that effort, your effort to build this movement—not me standing here but people like you at home watching this—we are starting to see shifts. We saw the state government recently announce 50c public transport fares entirely because they are terrified of the Greens threat in Brisbane. They'll announce that, and it's going to be a six-month trial. It should be free. But the only reason that 50c public transport fare is happening—the only change between 2020, when the state government and Labor refused to do that, and now—is your effort.

You can hear Labor members opposite kicking up a stink. They're doing that because they are terrified of what happens when you realise you have power. They are terrified of what happens when you realise your collective effort can win things like that. There will be people right now whose lives will be significantly improved as a result of that pressure.

We also saw them talk about not wanting to increase mining royalties. Then they relented on that as well. The $1,000 off on energy bills and all of that are an attempt to stop the Greens winning more seats. That is what power looks like. There will come a time in this country when a government will get up and announce caps on rent increases. They'll pretend like it had nothing to do with our campaign. They'll get up and announce including dental care in Medicare, and again they'll pretend like it had nothing to do with you—but you will know it did. You know it's your collective effort, and only your collective effort, that will get real change in this country.

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