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

by leave—A one-in-100-year event is also referred to as a black swan event—an economic and financial metaphor for an exogenous shock to our economy that is difficult to predict, is dangerous and has extreme consequences. The two words 'black swan' are guaranteed to strike fear into the heart of any capitalist. Let me explain why that is the case. Our capitalist system, which I will just refer to as 'capital', doesn't like risk. Anyone, from a first-year student of finance and economics up, understands that capital doesn't like risk. If capital takes on risk, it does so because it expects a high return. The risk-return trade-off is also well understood by students of economics and finance.

That's why in times of extreme risk, during black swan events, the only institution that can carry the day is the government. That's why the government has stepped in to provide living wages for workers through JobKeeper. That's why government has injected money into the system through a whole range of different measures that we've heard Senator Cormann outline today. That's why it's government's job to provide confidence and the psychological underpinnings to get our communities and economies back on track at times of extreme risk, because governments don't expect a high return. They expect a different kind of return: a social return to their citizens. A government's No. 1 job is to protect its citizens.

The idea that somehow the economy's going to snap back in coming months and somehow the risk of this pandemic is going to disappear is ludicrous. Whether a global pandemic is indeed a black swan event may be debatable, but I can tell you we've been talking about pandemics for some time. I asked questions of Treasury and the Future Fund just in February about what risk assessments they were doing for exactly the kind of scenario we are in now. You can go back and have a look at Hansard, but there's no way in the world that they were predicting we were going to be in this situation we're in now. We are in uncharted territory, a one-in-100 year event.

But we also are confronting another great crisis in our time: a crisis of climate change. We just lived through a couple of the worst months in our country's history this summer, with loss of property and life and damage to our community, our economy and our environment, and we're going to see a lot more of that. While we've been bunkered down in self-isolation, we've got the very sad data out from our scientists about the third mass coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef in five years, the sad decline of one of the world's greatest living organisms, at the same time.

I would argue that while this is unparalleled, in many ways—and there are so many risks we need to confront as a parliament, as a nation, as a global community—while there are so many risks we need to confront, it is also a significant opportunity to reform and rebuild and tackle not just the COVID crisis, getting confidence back into our economy and looking after the health needs of our citizens, but at the same time that we inject that confidence back into the system we can tackle the twin crisis of climate change by investing in renewable energy and a blueprint for a different future, a future that saves the planet and looks after people at the same time.

This is exactly what the Greens raised in 2009, when we were the first in the world to talk about a green new deal, which has been heavily debated in the US and in US political circles and will be so in this country as well. This is a green new deal, a way forward to create jobs, invest in the industries of the future and invest in solving the environmental crisis, the climate crisis, the catastrophe that's unfolding right around the planet and that is going to require a strong role for government in our lives.

I would argue, senators, if you look at other periods in our history where we've faced great crises, that governments and government spending is the only thing that's going to get us out of this quagmire. I have heard in this place, especially in the last parliamentary sitting, many speeches talking about post World War II, about the Curtin and Chifley years, about the recovery, a decade of economic reform, a decade of reshaping of Australian society and community and economy. Back then, our net debt to GDP exceeded 120 per cent, and a decade of growth paid that back. A decade of growth paid back that debt.

At the moment, Australia is sitting on a net debt to GDP of less than 30 per cent, if you include all states, likely to go over 30 per cent, including all states and federal spending, compared to a global average of advanced nations of 90 per cent, three times what Australia's net debt position is. Debt is not a dirty word. At times of record low interest rates, where the price of money is close to zero, we have an unprecedented economic opportunity to spend and invest in our community. The Treasurer has said there is no money tree. Yes, there is. Our economy is a money tree and, if you water it, it will grow. Invest in people, invest in infrastructure, invest in communities, invest in clean energy, in transitioning our economies to a better future.

The best thing we can do when we leave parliament this week is give the Australian people hope, hope that we've got their back, that we can take everyone with us and that we all have a plan for the future. What is this government's plan? I ask you to consider that before I finish my contribution today. Somehow, they think things are going to snap back, after a one-in-100-year event, when we face so many other risks to our economy. It's not going to happen. It's up to us as government to put in place a proper plan that looks after people and looks after the planet, and the Greens have that plan. We will be releasing our green new deal soon and Australians will understand it and they will get it. It does provide for a future and it provides for a strong role of government in our lives.