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

S (—) (): I move:

That the Senate agrees that corporate super profits taxes could offset the cost of providing cost-of-living relief, including the provision of free childcare, truly free public education, abolishing student debt and putting dental and mental health into Medicare.

I rise on behalf of the Greens to speak to this really important question of choices. We have a government that's crying poor and that's warning us of impending cuts and an austerity budget come October, and yet it is refusing to raise much-needed revenue that could be used to address the cost-of-living crisis. It is persisting with Mr Morrison's stage 3 tax cuts for the very wealthy, which would of course benefit men more than women and would deliver an approximately $9,000 tax cut to the likes of Mr Clive Palmer, who doesn't need the help in that regard, although he certainly needs help in other ways. This government is persisting in wasting money in giving tax cuts to people who don't need the help, at the same time saying to Australians: 'No, we can't afford to increase JobSeeker. No, we can't afford to make child care free. No, we can't afford to put dental or mental health care into Medicare.'

Well, it's bollocks. It's nonsense. People expect better from this new government. We are in a cost crisis on top of the climate crisis that we are in, and people expect the government, rather than throwing its hands up and pointing its finger at the RBA, seemingly not able to do anything about it, to take action and deliver cost-of-living relief for them, not tax cuts to the very wealthy, who don't need it.

So that's our first bone of contention: $244 billion over a decade for the stage 3 tax cuts. That could be used to make child care genuinely free. Never mind the CCR and CCB rebates that currently exist and that are incredibly complicated and a disincentive for people to work them out in the first place. We could actually make it free. That's what we had in the pandemic. People know it can be done. It really helped. Yet this government isn't proposing to do that. They should be, and they're not. While they're at it, they should be paying early childhood educators a decent wage, for that matter, and that's something we'll keep pushing for as well. Those stage 3 tax cuts could fund free child care.

Those tax cuts could also fund putting dental care and mental health care into Medicare. We have a universal healthcare system, yet it doesn't cover your teeth or your brain. The last time I checked, your teeth and your brain are part of your body. You should be able to go to a dentist. You should be able to go to a mental health care specialist and get the help you need when you need it, using your Medicare card. That's what universal healthcare provision is about. I think that's why we pay taxes—so we can have those services provided to us as citizens of this wealthy nation.

We took many of these proposals to the election, so of course as a budget integrity measure we asked the Parliamentary Budget Office to cost them. We think it's important than when you make a promise as to how you can improve people's lives you show how you can raise the revenue to pay for it. So we've done that, and we have all the figures, and I'll bedazzle you with them now. Free child care, which I mentioned, is about $9 billion a year. It's quite a big spend. But it enables women to return to the workforce, which pays economic dividends beyond the amount it costs and which is the right thing to do. If you want women's workforce participation to increase and if you want real equality in the workplace as well as in the home—which is something we're also pushing for—then make child care free. It is good for the kids. They get fantastic-quality early childhood education, and we know that at that stage of their development that early input is crucial and really sets kids up to be good learners as they go through the schooling system. And it's good for the parents. It's good for our economy. It's good for gender equality. Let's make child care free and let's pay early childhood workers the wage they deserve for the crucial role they play in educating the next generation.

We campaigned on free public education and making university and TAFE free like it used to be, like many of the people in this chamber received. And I'm making sure that public schools could be fully funded. That would cost about $5½ billion every year. Again, these are quite substantial figures. But, importantly, we can pay for them by axing those stage 3 tax cuts for the very wealthy, who don't need the help. We could pay for them in myriad other ways. A corporate superprofits tax is another excellent revenue-raising measure. And the proposal we put to the election that the Parliamentary Budget Office costed would raise $286 billion over 10 years. That's what the Parliamentary Budget Office has costed for our corporate superprofits tax. That could fund the provision of dental care and mental health care through Medicare, which would cost only about a third of that, and that could cover the cost of making child care free.

These are the decisions governments make. It's very interesting to see who this government is making wait for help and who it's prepared to hand out money to, hand over fist, without any questions asked. They're making people wait for free child care. It's not their policy, although it's something they have said they might consider in future terms if they're re-elected. Why wait? It should be a principal commitment, and you could actually fund it if you raised the revenue by axing those stage 3 tax cuts and by placing a corporate superprofits tax on some of our very wealthy corporations, who are increasing their wealth—during a pandemic—at record rates. In fact, figures released earlier this week show that the share of corporate profits is the largest it's been in 70 years. Corporate profits are at a 70-year record high, while we're in a cost-of-living crisis! The inequity of that and the widening gap between ordinary citizens and big corporations and billionaires is obscene. It cannot stand. So let's raise that revenue by making those big corporations and billionaires pay their fair share so that we can provide the services that people need and rely on, the services that should be provided in a wealthy nation like ours.

We have a few other suggestions for revenue raising. We're in a climate crisis as well as a cost-of-living crisis, and yet this government—and the last, for that matter—paid out $11 billion every year in cheap fuel and accelerated depreciation to fossil fuel companies. We call them fossil fuel subsidies: freebies and perks that other people don't get. That's $11 billion a year; in fact, over the decade, it's $117 billion. These companies are making record profits and paying zero tax. One in three of them pays no tax. So they're not only getting $117 billion in free public money; they're also doing us the lovely favour of cooking our climate even more. This government, in our name, is paying these fossil fuel companies to pollute and make the climate crisis worse as the inequality crisis is worsening. It makes no sense.

The Treasurer and the Minister for Finance have said they'll look for savings. Cut those fossil fuel subsidies. There's $117 billion over 10 years going to big companies who don't need the help. Their bottom lines are very healthy indeed. They shouldn't be getting help to pollute this beautiful planet when we are in a climate crisis; when we should be transitioning to clean, renewable energy that will create jobs and not make the problem worse. Cancel those fossil fuel subsidies. Have a corporate superprofits tax. Axe those stage 3 tax cuts. These revenue-raising measures could allow government to address the cost-of-living crisis within our budgetary means. Increase JobSeeker so that people below the poverty line don't have to choose between paying their rent and getting their kids a school uniform, between paying the rent and having some fresh vegetables on the plate at dinner time. These are the choices that people are making because this government, and the last, wasted so much money by giving it to fossil fuel companies and proposing to give it to the very wealthy with those stage 3 tax cuts that kick in in a year or so. Yet the government is crying poor and saying how broke it is. Adopt these revenue-raising proposals that can achieve multiple objectives by actually servicing the community and not making the climate crisis worse.

We don't stand alone in these suggestions. In fact, just yesterday the UN Secretary-General, Mr Guterres, said that governments should be taxing excessive oil and gas profits. That was music to our ears because that's what we've proposed for many a year. These concepts are becoming normalised and socialised, and many, many countries and leaders are calling for it. Mr Guterres says:

It is immoral for oil and gas companies to be making record profits from this energy crisis on the backs of the poorest people and communities and at a massive cost to the climate …

He also says:

… this grotesque greed is punishing the poorest and most vulnerable people, while destroying our only common home …

So Mr Guterres's proposal—one that the Greens took to the last election—is that we tax the superprofits of oil and gas and coal companies. It is obscene that those companies are making record profits when we're in an inequality crisis; it is obscene that public money is being used to fuel their profits, which are worsening the climate crisis; and it is obscene that this government says it's broke and can't do anything about it. That is not at all what people voted for, and they expect this parliament to deliver for them.

I want to mention housing as one of the other things that is contributing to a real squeeze in people's cost of living and skyrocketing rates of homelessness. We know now that almost 450,000 women over the age of 45 are on the brink of homelessness. Women in that age bracket are the fastest growing cohort of people without a home. We know that young people have given up on the idea of ever buying their own home. They're now facing a rental increase that they can't cope with either. This is a serious problem. Rather than raise the revenue in the ways I just outlined, by making big businesses and billionaires pay their fair share, the government is crying poor and proposing only a scintilla of new build social homes. I think they're proposing 30,000 homes. Of course that's better than nothing, but it is nowhere near what the scale of the problem requires. We took to the election a plan to build a million homes over 20 years. That would wipe the social housing waiting list, which is 50,000 people in my home state of Queensland, and, of course, far greater across the whole nation. We could wipe that homelessness list, and we could build beautifully designed and climatically appropriate homes that are accessible for people of all sorts of different abilities, and that are cheap to run because they're powered by renewable energy. That would mean that no-one in this country would go without a roof over their head.

The government can't cry poor when it's giving away $224 billion to people that don't need the help, when it's giving away $117 billion to big coal and gas companies to make the climate crisis worse. It can't say that it doesn't have enough money to fix homelessness and the housing crisis—and that's not even to mention changing those negative-gearing and capital gains tax settings, which Labor used to have the guts to talk about. Sadly, it seems to have lost all spine in the last election and didn't dare mention it. We're proudly saying we think those perks should be phased out. They are worsening the housing crisis. They are inflating the bubble. They are making it harder for people to own their first home. How dare taxpayer money be used to subsidise the profits of people who are accumulating more homes than they will ever need when some people don't have any at all! How dare our taxpayer money be used for that!

So we could address homelessness. We could make child care free. We could put dental and mental health care into Medicare. We could make university and TAFE free again. We could do these things if we raised the revenue by making those big corporations pay their fair share; by not giving those free billions to fossil fuel companies, which are cooking the planet anyway and not paying tax; and by cancelling those stage 3 tax cuts, which are going to the wealthy, who don't need the help. The budget is about choices, and governing is about delivering for the community. It's not about delivering for the people that make political donations to your re-election campaigns. And I will be urging the government, as will all of my party members, to think about these choices as the first budget gets closer and closer.