Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

There should be no greater priority for legislation being brought to this Senate than legislation which is going to help lift people out of poverty, which is what Senator Faruqi's bill, the Education and Other Legislation Amendment (Abolishing Indexation and Raising the Minimum Repayment Income for Education and Training Loans) Bill 2022, would do. That's why it is urgent. That's why we should be debating it now, on budget day, particularly given that, on budget day, we have heard all the rumours that there are going to be so many people left behind—students, young people, people with disabilities, people who deserve to be not living in poverty. They are going to be left behind by the budget that the Labor government will bring down tonight. This government is not going to take the action that is needed to allow people to live a dignified life with the income that they need in order to not live in poverty.

I am absolutely proud to be here as part of a Greens team that wants to prioritise debating a bill that is going to freeze and abolish indexation on student debt rather than a piece of housing legislation that is totally inadequate to tackle the scale of the crisis. It is totally inappropriate that we should be debating the government's pathetic housing bill today, because it is just not up to the job. We have a housing crisis in Australia. We have a rent crisis. We have skyrocketing rents. The very same young people whose financial circumstances Senator Faruqi is trying address with her bill are looking at a future of never being able to afford to buy a home, of actually not even being able to afford to rent a home. We have young people who are living on the streets, young people who are couch surfing, young people who are living in cars, young people who are having to abandon their studies so that they can work in low-income jobs to be able to pay the rent, having decided that they cannot afford to keep studying. We are absolutely destroying the lives of the young people whose circumstances Senator Faruqi, with her bill, is trying to do something to improve.

The housing legislation that the government is trying to bring on for debate today is absolutely inadequate. It's not going to guarantee that any money gets spent. It's basically gambling that $10 billion of money on the stock market, if we had had the same conditions last year going forward. The only guarantee that the government has given is that there are going to be at least 1,200 homes that will be built. That means that 240 houses will be built in Victoria—1,200 homes over the forwards and 240 houses a year. In New South Wales all that we would be guaranteed is 240 houses a year. Think of the tens of thousands of people. Look at the public housing waiting lists that are decades long. Yet this is what the government thinks is adequate.

The Greens want the government to come back to the negotiating table and get serious, to propose legislation that actually tackles the scale of the crisis. Meanwhile, if they are not willing to do that, we will continue to ramp up the pressure to get them to come back to the negotiating table so that they can deliver some legislation that is actually going to tackle the scale of the housing crisis.

Meanwhile, we think that Senator Faruqi's bill is a much more appropriate bill to be debating today because Senator Faruqi has introduced a bill that would make a meaningful difference to students' lives. We are very disappointed that the Labor Party don't see that they can support the bill. It would help alleviate the financial stress and the hardship that is being faced by those people living below the poverty line. The students who are in the gallery today know what I'm talking about. They would have listened to Senator Wong's contribution and asked: Why does Senator Wong, why does the Labor Party, hate young people, hate students? It is time for the government to take some responsibility for the student debt crisis and support students in their education for a brighter future.

As Greens, we are committed to supporting young people for a fairer, better future. Student debt is a significant problem in Australia that affects the lives of millions of people, particularly those living on income support. Those living in poverty, way below the poverty line, are always trying to cope with the threat of being evicted from their houses. They are the people who absolutely need to have measures taken to improve their lives. That is what the Greens are trying to do, and we will defend our right to try to bring on legislation to do that.