Stephen Bates (Brisbane, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Over decades, well-funded far-right groups in the United States have been on a mission to destroy progressive politics and reshape the Republican Party to be one of division, destruction and delusion. Now we have a second Trump presidency that promises to be even worse than the first.

Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Hear, hear!

Stephen Bates (Brisbane, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That tells you all you need to know about the Liberals—that they cheer at that. Trump and these backers want to reshape the United States and now the world into a place where the only thing that matters is profit and the bottom line. Now similar groups have appeared in Australia. Groups like Advance and Australians for Prosperity want to do to this country what their counterparts have done to the United States—divide us, carve us up and sell our society to the highest bidder. They will not be happy until our country is a hollowed-out shell, where everything is pay-to-play. Now we see the LNP begin to back them in and follow down the same path as the Republicans—making cuts that we will only find the details of after the election, slashing the Public Service and banning investment in renewables. What will help this country to stave off far-right groups and the undue influence of giant corporations in politics? It's policies that actually improve people's lives and protect the environmental—dental into Medicare, mental health into Medicare, 100 per cent renewable energy, tripling the bulk-billing incentive for everyone so everyone can see the GP for free again and making these giant multinationals and fossil fuel companies finally pay their fair share of tax. That is what I'm in this place fighting for, and that is how we stave off the far-right and corporate takeover of our democracy.