Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I note for the record again that this is not my first speech. I would like to also speak about the imminent state election happening in my home state of Queensland, a state election that offers the greatest chance Queenslanders have had in decades to fundamentally change politics for the better. Pre-poll voting is already open around the state for people in Queensland to be able to vote any day between now and the final official polling day on Saturday week, 25 October. There are Greens candidates standing in every single seat around the state. Every Queenslander has the opportunity to put the number 1 beside a Greens candidate and voice support for the vision and the policies that the Greens are putting forward.

I would like to particularly focus on three seats that I have been campaigning in where, amongst a number of others, the Greens are poised to break through and be directly elected for the first time into Queensland parliament. Queensland is sometimes mistakenly perceived and portrayed as being a conservative state, even sometimes a reactionary state. Certainly it has had that strand of politics as part of its history. But it also has a proud history of being a radical state, a state that has been at the forefront of defending social justice, of putting forward a radical new vision that has delivered positive change for the people of Queensland on many occasions over the years. Many, many Queenslanders recognise that our current political system is badly broken. It needs a complete reworking and this is one of those times when it needs a strong new vision to really fix our broken political system.

There are three seats I want to particularly focus on. Our candidates in those areas, all of whom I know very well and would personally vouch for, would be excellent representatives in the Queensland parliament to really shift the political direction of that state in a progressive direction. There is Michael Berkman for the seat of Maiwar, which is a new seat. The incumbent of that is an LNP former minister, Scott Emerson, who, as Senator Ketter has just mentioned, is on board, as his party is on board, with giving a massive leg up to the One Nation party to get back into Queensland parliament and create once again, no doubt, the shambles that my state experienced the last time they were in that parliament. The Liberal incumbent in the seat of Maiwar is on board with trying to get his party a hold on power by giving a leg up to One Nation. The only way that the Liberal National Party in Queensland can possibly hope to get anywhere near governing that state is by being beholden to One Nation and its agenda and values. By contrast, Michael Berkman has been a defender for the environment and for the interests of the community. He's been a public interest lawyer working pro bono in community legal centres to ensure that the community have a say in defending their environment, their values and their future. Maiwar is a new seat. Part of it was in the old Mount Coot-tha electorate where the current Labor environment minister was the incumbent. By contrast, he was so committed to his local community that, as soon as the new boundaries were announced, he departed for electorates far away which he thought would be a safer bet!

The Greens are committed to winning that seat off the LNP and really ensuring a strong antidote to any One Nation presence in the state parliament.

I would also like to mention Kirsten Lovejoy, the candidate for the seat of McConnel, a local community activist of long standing who has been fighting against overdevelopment in that area, fighting against the massive increased pressure on local schools and transport because of the lack of investment in infrastructure in that area and the massive influence that developer donations have bought in that area, and fighting against the impact of the lockout laws in our CBD and our entertainment precincts that are having a really negative impact on the small venues, the small businesses and the artistic communities in Fortitude Valley and other areas. It is also an electorate where the state government has given over 10 per cent of public land to the massive development of Queen's Wharf casino—again, not coincidentally at all, to casino developers that have been major donors to both of the establishment political parties.

I would also like to mention the seat of South Brisbane, where Amy McMahon is challenging and, as people would have seen in the media this week, running neck and neck with the Deputy Premier. It is a seat that is also notorious for appalling overdevelopment and development that has ignored the needs of community. There has not been adequate investment in local schools and in infrastructure to ensure that the community amenity is properly protected and community say in the future of their own communities is taken into account. We all know it's not taken into account, because of the pressure of developers. Developer donations are a key part of it, but it is not only developers; it is the resource lobby and the gambling lobby.

The corporate dollars flowing into the coffers of the two parties of the establishment are a key part of why our political system is so broken. That is the key message that I've heard from doorknocking and calling people on the phone in all of those seats and, indeed, other parts of the state where I've also been supporting some of the other fabulous Greens candidates. I was in Ipswich last weekend and Toowoomba the weekend before that. In places such as Rockhampton, the Sunshine Coast and Cairns, the message is the same. The local issues may have a different twist to them sometimes, but the core message is that our political system is broken. We are at a crossroads, a time when we need to make that choice about how we fix that broken system. We can either pick the approach of the politics of division and fear that, as we've seen, people pick in other parts of the world or follow the approach that people like Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn have put forward, of changing our politics so that it puts people first and makes politics work for everybody rather than just for the corporations.

When people say our political system is broken, what does that broken system actually look like? A broken system is where overdevelopment ignores the community, puts massive pressure on schools and on our infrastructure, and public investment is not provided, because the corporations and the mining companies are not paying their fair share. A broken system looks like big, wealthy for-profit property developers whose pursuit of profit has created a situation which has laid waste to the fundamental rights of Queenslanders to have a safe, secure and dignified home. It has property developers and investors who allow apartments and homes to sit idle, vacant and uninhabited, while right now 20,000 Queenslanders are homeless and 29,000 people are on the waiting list for housing. There are more vacant houses just in the city of Brisbane at this moment than there are homeless people across the whole state of Queensland looking for a home—somewhere to live, somewhere safe and affordable.

A broken political system looks like our government lining the back pockets of mining companies, who enjoy ridiculous royalty holidays, tax breaks and free access to water that should be made available to our farming communities, with zero accountability when they pack up, ship out and leave families and communities behind with the clean-up. A broken political system looks like electricity companies, who would rather pocket $7.2 billion in profits—that is up to 40 per cent of our current electricity bills in the last year—while 21,000 families across Queensland had their lights shut off because they couldn't afford to pay their power bill, the second highest rate of disconnections in Australia. Why is this? Why do we see people suffering at the hands of corporate greed? Because those corporations are buying influence from the two parties of the establishment and from the far Right parties, who all find it easier to ignore those they're elected to represent so that they can enjoy their positions of power and influence—the self-interest of the few, of the absolute elite and the political establishment, at the expense of the many.

The Greens say politics does not have to be this way. Indeed, the Greens say it is urgent that we put an end to politics as usual, and Queenslanders have an opportunity to put an end to politics as usual and really, seriously change politics for the better at this coming state election. The Greens say politics does not have to be held captive by the wealth of the few. Instead of reacting to this crisis by succumbing to false, doomed non-solutions of fear and division, which will only make things worse, it is clear there is a better way. Fear and greed do not stop corporations and politicians from being in bed together at the expense of the people they are meant to represent. The way to fix a broken system is to bring people together and put people back at the centre of politics.

The Greens have created a bold new vision for the people of Queensland with a range of policy initiatives that will effectively address the problems that are facing everyday Queenslanders today. They are fully costed and will be funded by simply taxing those who are currently not paying their fair share. The Greens say that, by fairly taxing the big end of town, all people can have a right to affordable, secure housing; to food; to affordable, reliable electricity; to upgraded schools and hospitals; and to better public transport and other social infrastructure. It is time to put people at the heart of politics and political decision-making and to put people before profits.