Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I'll take that interjection from Senator Gallagher, because that shows it was all about winning the election and nothing at all about good public policy. I say to the Australian Labor Party: you need to have a good look in the mirror and try and return to the values that led to your establishment all those decades ago. You've got to face that you're no longer the party of the working people first and foremost; you're now joining the Tories as a party of the landowners first and foremost. I encourage progressively minded people to understand this.

When progressively minded people hear the Albanese government say that they won't get rid of negative gearing or the capital gains tax concessions, that they can't afford to build the amount of social housing we actually need, that they're going to proceed with the stage 3 tax cuts for the super wealthy, that they won't introduce a rent freeze, that they're going to proceed with the provisions in this bill for yet another public superannuation subsidy for those at the top end of town, what people are hearing is the Australian Labor Party confirming that they represent the interests of the landowning class over and above the interests of working Australians. That's what the Labor Party is saying, and that's what people should hear when they hear the Labor Party talk about those things and when they see the Labor Party introduce legislation such as this.

I give notice of my intention to move the amendment on sheet 1632, circulated in my name, which would strike out schedule 5 from this bill. I commend that amendment to the chamber but I hold out no hope it will succeed, because the duopoly in this place is going to once again work together, to collude, to ensure that the interests of the landed class in this country have primacy and that the interests of those who are less well-off are once again ignored.