Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I was born on 14 October 1994, and that year, 24 years ago, was the last time that the payment currently called Newstart was actually increased. In that same time, I can't even imagine how much the rate of pay for those of us in this place has gone up. In that time, the cost of living has soared. The cost of power has soared. The cost of simply existing has shot through the roof. And vulnerable people across this nation have cried out and looked to this place to do something about it, to help people who need it. And, for 24 years, this place has done nothing. It has left the most vulnerable people in this country below the poverty line, to the point at which that community is screaming for assistance. And yet this government's first order of business has been to tip $158 billion worth of taxpayers' money into the pockets of some of the richest people in our society.

In my time in this place, I've learnt that politics is ultimately about choices. It is about the decisions that you make. This bill is about choices. This government is choosing to give over hundreds of billions of dollars of public funds to an economic project with no academic basis. There is not a shred of evidence that these tax projects will have a singular beneficial effect upon the Australian economy—or upon our society. It is policy done via a wing and a prayer, and it is so much less than what the Australian people deserve from this place.

People tonight are looking to this chamber, to their Senate, and they are deeply frustrated that, as our first act, we have chosen to act in this way. To give the chamber some idea of the colossal size of these measures, for the same amount of money, we could give dental care to all. We could create thousands of new aged-care places. We could raise Newstart and fund public education. For God's sake—for the same price, we could make university free again. And, yet, we are choosing tonight to take this money and throw it to the wind. It is a complete sham.

As a young person who didn't spend their entire political life crawling up somebody's neck to end up in this place, I have often found what happens in this chamber to be somewhere between perplexing and more than a little bit sickening—and I have said so on many occasions. But I've got to say: this is the polished turd to rule them all. There is not a single economist in this country, nor a credible one in the world, who would tell you that, in the current economic context, it is a wise thing to spend this money in this way. And what really gets me is that so many people during the course of this debate have used the vulnerability of our community members as an excuse for their support of this legislation. Well, tonight, I call crap on that.