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

It feels like a running joke. Every time that Labor make a promise it's only a matter of time before they break it. At this point, the list of Labor's broken promises feels longer than the wait for new Rihanna album. It feels longer than the line for a coffee at a Melbourne cafe on a Monday morning. It feels longer than the awkward silence after admitting to a film bro that you haven't seen The Godfather. If walking backwards were an Olympic sport, Labor would take the gold.

Since coming to power in 2022, they've walked back from banning gambling ads, making our environment laws stronger, protecting queer students and teachers from discrimination in schools, preventing cuts to the NDIS, recognising Palestine as a state—and the list goes on. They were even going to walk back plans to include gender and sexuality in the next census but folded after pressure from the community. It feels like a running joke, but the joke isn't on Labor; it's on the people who are now suffering thanks to Labor's cowardice. What's the point in governing if you walk back from everything that matters?

Australians deserve better than a government that will promise one thing and then, when push comes to shove, go to water. At the next election, we can't keep voting for the same two parties and expecting a different result. Nothing changes if nothing changes. If you want change, you have to vote for it.

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