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

I present this petition, which has been considered by the petitions committee and found to be in order to the House.

The petition read as follows—

To the Honourable the Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives:

This petition of the Refugee Action Collective—Victoria draws to the attention of the House that: More than 13,000 refugees have been trapped in Indonesia-in some cases for over a decade--as a direct result of Australia's inhumane policies. The pathway to resettlement out of Indonesia has been totally blocked since November 2014, when Immigration minister Scott Morrison announced that refugees who registered with the UNHCR after 1 July 2014 were no longer eligible for resettlement. It's time to put an end to this protracted limbo and immediately lift the resettlement ban.

We therefore ask the House to urgently and unequivocally end Morrison's ban on resettlement of refugees recognised by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

from 706 citizens (Petition No. PN0613)

Petition received.

I want to thank the Refugee Action Collective in Victoria for asking me to table this petition. It draws attention to the 13,000 refugees who have been trapped in Indonesia—for over a decade in some cases—as a direct result of Australia's inhumane policies.

The pathway to resettlement out of Indonesia has been totally blocked since 24 November under Scott Morrison. Even though it's Labor's policy to reverse it, they've done nothing since taking office. The Refugee Action Collective has spent decades advocating for the rights of refugees. They know the community does not want the bipartisan cruelty to continue. Labor should listen, do what they said they'd do and, finally, reverse this Morrison-era resettlement ban.

Australian banks are some of the most profitable in the world, but, with almost everyone doing it tough right now, are the banks struggling too? Suncorp Bank have just posted a $1.2 billion yearly profit. I wouldn't exactly call that struggling. Westpac have bagged a $1.8 billion profit in the last three months alone, which has their shares at a six-year high—what cost-of-living crisis? And then there's the Commonwealth Bank. They have managed to post a $9.7 billion yearly profit.

You might be wondering: where does the lion's share of these billions in profits come from? Property lending. Just to spell that out, these banks are raking it in off out-of-control interest rates for mortgage holders, which then leads to out-of-control rent increases for renters, fuelling the cost-of-living and housing crisis—all in a day's work for the big banks. This is happening while 3.7 million households experience food insecurity, battling with where their next meal will come from. If that makes your blood boil, you are right to be angry because this is a national disgrace. The big banks have far too much power.

The Greens are fighting tooth and nail to try and get it back for the people. In fact, at the start of this term of government, the Greens had secured million-dollar fines for dodgy bankers after the banking royal commission exposed widespread cases of misconduct in the sector. But, after the executives of the big banks called the Treasurer to complain, the deal was off—how convenient! I guess that the political donations that these banks make to the major parties—which we are assured aren't for buying influence—really do come in handy.

Don't get me started on the salaries of these banking executives. In the 2022-23 financial year, the Westpac CEO took home $5.7 million in pay and bonuses. The NAB and ANZ CEOs both took home $6.2 million. The Commonwealth Bank CEO made a tidy $7.3 million. This is the same year that the big four banks made a record $32 billion in profits. Is this the sort of country that we want to live in, where families can't afford the basics but banking CEOs can make millions of dollars a year profiting off a crisis that they are fuelling, where homeownership is completely out of reach for most common professionals in Australia?

If a nurse started saving for a house today, it would take them 11 years to save a 20 per cent housing deposit. A primary school teacher would have to save for 12 years, and, unbelievably, a childcare or early education worker would have to save until 2055—that's 31 years—to be able to put down a deposit. And, even if that childcare or early education worker somehow managed to do the impossible, they would then have to spend 92 per cent of their earnings on their mortgage repayments. This is the impossible task laid before everyday people, caused by a political class that puts corporate interests before the communities that they represent.

The system is rigged, and we need to unrig it. We can't keep voting for the same two parties and expecting a different result. It's time to rein in the big banks, the cashed-up CEOs, the property developers and every Liberal and Labor politician that enables them. It's time to ban the dirty donations that run our politics, buying the favour of the major parties in order to get their way. It's time to give the power back to the people who are struggling and to fix this system so that it works for the many, not the few.