Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I rise on behalf of the Australian Greens, and I thank the Minister for Finance for the economic update on what would have been budget day were we not all in this global health crisis.

The spread of the global COVID-19 pandemic has turned our lives upside down and has driven us into an economic crisis. Thankfully, our governments have largely listened to the scientists and medical experts, and, so far, with the support of the absolute heroes on the frontline of our health system, we've avoided a health disaster like that in the US, the UK and many other countries. But our economy has been shattered, and, for many people, things haven't been easy for a long time. The inequality crisis fuelled by the neoliberal policies of, sadly, both the Liberal and Labor parties has been supercharged by the current health and economic disaster. While we're rightly focused on responding to the COVID-19 crisis, the climate crisis that drove the devastating bushfires earlier in the year has not gone away. What we do next matters.

Right now, we have a chance to map our way out of the jobs and economic crisis and to set up a fairer and more sustainable future. We're facing the worst youth unemployment in history. Unless we put a recovery plan in place now that addresses the challenges faced by young people specifically, the effects will linger for a decade and impact young people for a lifetime. Right up until the very moment that the coronavirus pandemic hit, the government had convinced many people that any increase in funding for public services was impossible, unaffordable or something only the market could deliver, but now everything has changed. Governments around the world have taken drastic and very necessary action to respond to the COVID-19 threat by focusing on saving lives and bolstering our public health systems, but also have been unlocking funding and directing money to where it matters: services for the public, directly to households and people. The big corporations and government are desperate to go back to business as usual, with more cuts and attacks on public services which will just leave us more exposed to the next looming crisis and place an even bigger burden on next generations. But we can't cut our way out of this crisis. We have to invest for the future.

Instead of going back to normal, we can build a better normal. We can tackle this economic crisis as well as the jobs, inequality and climate crises so that everyone can live a good life. If we can remake our society to protect us from a virus, then we can remake it to look after people, our environment and our climate. A plan to do this isn't just possible; it is necessary. Before the COVID crisis, we were staring down the interrelated threats of climate and environment breakdown, supercharged economic inequality and chronic job insecurity. These crises were being left unaddressed by a government that prioritised tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy instead of investing in its people and the community.

What this pandemic and the response to the economic crisis has shown is that the government is able to respond to any big problems that we face, so long as they choose to put people before the private profit of their donors and so long as they listen to the scientists and experts and we mobilise the resources of society for the common good. Australia's COVID recovery plan must renew the economy by putting the community ahead of those big corporations. The Greens would like to see us retain the rate. The rate of jobseeker simply cannot go back to below the poverty line of $40 a day. We need to raise the rate for good and leave no-one behind.

The Greens want to see a special package for the arts to keep the creative industries which sustain us alive. We want to see massive government investment in social housing, in health, in education, in manufacturing and in renewable infrastructure—the building blocks of a fair, clean economy. Of course, we want to see early childhood education also remain free as an essential service that begins a child's education and enables workforce participation for parents.

We need to borrow to invest to recover. Together we can lay the foundations for a better future for all of us by fighting for a clearer, cleaner, fairer future through a green new deal. Together we can build a better normal and a better future for all of us.