Penny Allman-Payne (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

One in six children in Australia live in poverty. As a teacher, I saw the burden of this time and time again: kids going hungry at school; parents who didn't have the time to engage with their child's teachers because they were working two or three jobs to make ends meet; kids being taken out of school because their family had housing insecurity and they had to move on to keep a roof over their head; families without a roof over their head who were sleeping in cars, living in tents or couch surfing; parents and carers having to decide if they put food on the table that week or they pay for their young child's excursion; families in desperate need of mental health care and support who couldn't afford it; and senior students in my classes struggling to stay awake because they're working three or four nights a week. The government have all of the levers at their disposal to end this tomorrow.

The year before COVID, suicide rates for people on income support payments were three times the Australian average. That rate fell by 37.4 per cent when payments were increased during the pandemic. The levers to end poverty are at the disposal of the Labor government, and every day that they decide not to use them is a national shame. A government sets its priorities. It shows us who it cares about and who it doesn't. The Labor government pouring billions of dollars into the fossil fuel industry, into wasteful nuclear submarines and into tax cuts for the rich tell us exactly who they care about.

More heartbreaking than this, though, is that they're telling us who they don't care about. They don't care about the one in six children living in poverty in Australia. They don't care about the people who are punished over and over again by the failed mutual obligations system. They don't care about the thousands of people who rely on income support that is still woefully below the poverty line.

The government has more choices to make as well, by choosing to dish out millions of dollars to the toxic petrochemical Middle Arm project. This coming Saturday is election day in the Northern Territory. Territorians will have the opportunity to send a message to the Labor and Liberal parties that they don't want the NT sacrificed for the expansion of fossil fuels. The Middle Arm project is an export hub for gas. It will be a petrochemical hub mere kilometres from where people in Darwin live. Instead of investing in health and education or supporting the community, the Labor government is blowing $1.5 billion of public money on propping up the fossil fuel industry.

This weekend, Territorians can send a strong message to the old major parties that they, the people of the NT, deserve better. They can vote for candidates like Suki Dorras-Walker, a school teacher and a law student, who's running in Fannie Bay; or Asta Hill, a parent of two young children, who's a lawyer and a community advocate in Braitling. Whilst I know that it's incredibly hard to break through into a parliament that only has one house, as a Queenslander, I know we've shown that it can be done. The Greens in the NT are on the cusp of making that happen.

This weekend, Territorians can send a strong message to the old major parties that the people of the NT deserve better, that they don't want their health and their community to be sold out to the gas cartels, that they want a government that fights for them and that they're sick of being ignored by the Labor and Liberal parties. The NT Greens are running an incredible campaign to ban fracking, stop the disastrous Middle Arm project, implement a rent freeze and get dirty money out of politics. We've seen in Queensland what a people-powered movement can do, and I have no doubt that we're going to see that in the NT.

Every day, the Greens fight in this place for a better world. Since the beginning of the genocide in Gaza, nearly 90 per cent of schools have been damaged and destroyed. The last remaining university in Gaza was destroyed by Israel earlier this year. At least 625,000 students are currently denied their right to education and are learning in tents, in inhumane conditions, whilst Israel's attacks intensify and our government continues to take no meaningful action. We need to consider the consequences of this government's inaction. Once hostilities cease, Palestinian children will have no schools to return to. They are already falling behind, and the longer they spend out of school the greater the likelihood that they will not return to school. We know that the consequences of children being out of school are grave. They risk their mental and physical health, they risk both their own and their family's prospects in the longer term, and they are at greater risk of violence and abuse. We need meaningful work and action towards an immediate and lasting ceasefire to protect Palestinian children and their right to education. We must immediately end the two-way arms trade with the State of Israel, including the F-35 parts manufactured in Australia and used in the State of Israel's fighter jets. We need a ceasefire now. Free Palestine.

It should come as a shock to no-one that the Leader of the Opposition has sunk to new depths of racism, aided and abetted by his colleagues in this place. To call for a blanket ban on the immigration of people who are fleeing for their lives from the genocide unfolding in Gaza is disgraceful. It is a complete and utter disgrace. They should hang their heads in shame. When they're asked what they did to stand up for the Palestinian people, who are fleeing a genocide, they can stand up and proudly say that they kicked the door in their face. Racism is in the blood of the opposition, from dog whistling on African migrants to saying that welcoming refugees was a mistake. It is who they are. We must call this out for what it is, which is a pathetic attempt to sow division and demonise a people who are fleeing a genocide. Labor must stand up and call this out for what it is. When we waffle our words on what they're doing on the dog whistling, we're giving ground to a racist politic. The Leader of the Opposition thrives on campaigning for cruelty, and his recent comments are more of the same. Labor must stop this race to the bottom on refugees and immigration policy.