Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I bet Australians don't know that the big mining companies—once again, some of the biggest and most profitable corporations on the planet—get nearly $20 billion, on forward estimates, in diesel fuel rebates from the Australian taxpayer. We've never come at taking that away from farmers, Senator Williams, but we do have a problem with the big miners who earn billions of dollars in profit getting taxpayer subsidies. There are so many different things we could do, if we just had the courage and conviction to tackle them, and that's what it takes in this place. If we're actually going to have a functioning, healthy economy and a social safety net that's meaningful, then we've got to start passing a lot more legislation and doing a lot more policy work in this place. It's going to take courage and conviction to fix inequality in this place and make a difference. It is people like my colleague Senator Siewert, who's been in the Senate for many, many years, who every single day comes in as a champion not only for youth allowance and increases to Newstart but for payments to single parents and to first Australians. Senator Siewert deserves a huge pat on the back for the work she's done, and I hope that she succeeds and that this is supported by the next government. I hope that the next government is the Labor Party and not the current Liberal government, and I hope that they do increase Newstart when they get into parliament.

Why aren't we having a mature debate in this country about how we can raise revenue? I understand that there's got to be a balance in the incentives that are needed for businesses to function and stay profitable. If we didn't have businesses making profits, we wouldn't necessarily have the jobs to pay our workers, so I accept that we need both. But I can tell you: my party and I feel very strongly that there is a much bigger role for government to play in our lives.

We had a very interesting matter of public interest on Tuesday this week—only a couple of days ago—about how we could get the economy working for Australians. If we're talking about increasing Newstart, why aren't we also having the bigger discussion about the disruption that's coming to our economy in the form of automation and artificial intelligence and the potential massive retrenchment and unemployment that we're going to see in the future? I watched a Catalyst episode just the other night, and it's not just blue-collar jobs that are being threatened by artificial intelligence and automation; it's white-collar jobs too—paralegals, for example. Someone's just written a computer program, which is being used now by lawyers, that is going to essentially replace paralegals. All you need to do is type in a search and it can achieve the most amazing results. These are the trends that we're going to face in the future if we don't think about a universal basic income and other radical ideas that Senator Siewert and others are saying won't be so radical in the future.

We're going to have to look at a lot more than just paying unemployed Australians Newstart in the future if we're going to see entire industries and potentially millions of people put out of work by the changing nature of our economy. These are the sorts of big questions that we are going to have to tackle and think about. An increase of $110 a fortnight in Newstart payments isn't going to seem like much at all, especially when we consider some of the universal basic income trials that are occurring overseas. These are the big questions that I'm proud to say my party are happy to lead on. We're happy to speak in parliament on these challenges that face our nation, our workers, our companies and our communities. We're not asking for much here at all.

This is particularly a big issue in my home state of Tasmania—a state, may I say, that receives its fair share of GST. Unfortunately, there are no Western Australian senators in the chamber right now. The way the GST is distributed around the country is designed to help the states that are going through harder times. Although, I am proud to say, our economy in Tasmania has been on the mend, we unfortunately do have many Tasmanians who are on the poverty line and are receiving Newstart. When Mr Tony Abbott's cruel, zombie budget came in in 2014, I was handing out brochures in the mall in Launceston, where I live and where my office is. I can tell you that Tasmanians were furious with Mr Tony Abbott for his budget—trying to cut pensions, cutting Newstart, cutting medical payments to the most vulnerable; the list goes on and on and on—because they had trusted his government to look after them.

This brings us back to the point that government must play a very important role in our life if we're going to tackle the economic challenges of our time. Senator Milne, in her time here, for many years worked with Senator Siewert and always stood up in this place and said that inequality is the great challenge of our time. I am glad that it took Mr Shorten one speech to get it on the short-term political radar, and I hope it stays on the political radar for some time, because it absolutely is something that this parliament needs to debate. But if we're not going to tackle giving the most vulnerable Australians a very, very small increase in their Newstart allowance, and we're not going to tackle executive pay rorts in this country or even our Public Service salaries, then we're always going to have income inequality.

We are not asking for much—especially when we know that, if we had some political courage in the Senate, in this place, and next door, we could actually raise the revenue that we need to have a fairer and more equal society. And what is the problem with inequality? I can tell you that, when you look all around the world at the political backlash that we're seeing in America, in Europe and in Brexit in the UK, what they all have in common is inequality. People have given up on trusting their parliamentarians and their institutions to tackle these big issues. We're not asking much here today. This is not a stunt. This is a long, long road that Senator Siewert and the Greens have been walking down, making sure that this issue stays on the political agenda, is heard by the decision-makers and is tackled by parliamentarians, who have a unique opportunity to make a difference to low-income Australians.