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

This is the biggest injection of funds into the stock market from the government that I've seen for some time. I make the point that if you'd made the investment that you're proposing to make last year, then you'd be $120 million down on your investment. The idea that bunging money into the stock market is a good platform on which to build more public housing and more social housing just goes to show how far into the minds of the Labor Party the neoliberal brain worms have eaten. I know this is a radical thought, but perhaps, if you want to build more public or social housing, just build more public or social housing. This is not rocket science.

I can say that far too many Australians are living in poverty at the moment, and far too many Australians don't have a home. Both of those massive social problems are the result of political choices that have been made in this country. Over the last 10 years or so those political choices were made by the Liberal-National coalition, but now we have the same—or very similar—political choices and very similar political priorities being expressed by the new Labor government.

Of those Australians who are living in poverty and who are homeless, women are disproportionately represented. We know that it is single mums and kids who are particularly vulnerable to things like poverty and homelessness and who pay some of the highest price for poverty and homelessness of any Australians. When this government is proposing to spend a quarter of a trillion dollars on the stage 3 tax cuts, under which 80 per cent of the benefits will go to the top 20 per cent of income earners, and when it is proposing to spend $368 billion on nuclear submarines that will make this country a more dangerous place to live, that's when we see the stark reality of the political choices that the Australian Labor Party is making.

I say to Labor members: How are you going to ever again look in the eye of an Australian who needs government help and tell them you can't afford to help them? How are you ever going to be able to do that again? Of course, you won't be able to do it again, because you can afford to help them, but it's just that your choices won't allow you to help them. You are more interested in tax cuts for billionaires and more interested in spending $368 billion on nuclear submarines that not only do we not need but will make this country a more dangerous place to live.

The light on the hill has been flickering for some time. It is guttering away, blowing in the breeze of neoliberalism, and arguably has either gone out or is about to go out. How is it possible that we are talking about stage 3 tax cuts for the top end when the Labor Party refuses to raise income support for people who are starving while on JobSeeker? How is it possible that we are living in this country? It is possible because that's the choice that the current government has made. People voted for change. They are not getting it. (Time expired)