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

Soon, people around the country will be going to the polls to vote in our federal election. The Greens think that in a wealthy country like ours everyone should have a liveable climate and be able to afford the basics: a home, food, and world-class health and education. We think that parliament should be helping renters and stressed-out mortgage holders, funding universal health care and education, and taking real action on the climate and environment crisis, not backing more coal and gas. Right now, hardworking people are paying way too much for the basics, while one in three big corporations pays no tax at all.

The major parties are tinkering around the edges of the problems that people face. In the middle of a housing crisis, both big political parties agree on giving $176 billion in taxpayer funded handouts, negative gearing and capital gains tax discounts to wealthy property investors. Renters and first home buyers don't stand a chance. In the middle of a climate crisis, the Labor government has approved 32 coal and gas projects, and the opposition leader is proposing expensive, dangerous nuclear that will just prop up coal and gas for decades longer. We can't keep voting for the same two parties and expecting a different result.

There is another choice. The Greens will keep Dutton's Liberals out and push Labor to act to make the big corporations and billionaires pay their fair share to fund the things that we all need: dental care and mental health care into Medicare; a cap on rent increases; offering low-rate mortgages; seeing the GP for free; and real climate action, not more coal and gas. More Greens in parliament will deliver better outcomes for the planet and for ordinary people.

In this parliament, the Greens have achieved $3 billion for social housing; $1.7 billion for household electrification; and energy upgrades for 50,000 social homes around the country, saving residents $1,800 a year in power bills. We've achieved the legal right to disconnect from work; the adding of superannuation to paid parental leave, significant changes to the climate safeguard mechanism to stop many of the new coal and gas projects that were in the pipeline; and the freezing of low-integrity offsets projects, and the putting in place of a declining hard cap on the scheme to make sure that Australia's actual pollution goes down. We excluded fossil fuels from the manufacturing package Future Made in Australia. We inserted a water trigger into our federal environmental laws to force gas fracking projects to actually assess their impact on water. We got protection for the Murray-Darling Basin. Our sustained pressure forced the government to modify Scott Morrison's deeply unfair stage 3 tax cuts. And we pushed for better access to reproductive health care and better federal policy on perimenopause and menopause for women—and we're just getting started.

With more Greens MPs and senators than ever before, we've helped people get better outcomes on housing, domestic violence, immigration and disability services. Just recently, intervention by my staff team escalated a social housing application for a single mum of three young kids who had been waiting over eight months for any progress at all. They were living in mould riddled emergency hotel accommodation, and they were getting sicker by the day. Just one day after we intervened on her behalf the mother was contacted with a social housing offer.

We regularly support survivors of domestic and family violence by successfully advocating to have their family tax benefit debts wiped. We secure them social housing and we link them to support services. To quote a survivor of violence that my office helped secure housing for:

I was in a dire situation and didn't know where to go for help, until a friend suggested I contact your office. Everything your office has done to support me is beyond what I thought was possible. I am so grateful to have a politician like you representing me.

It's my absolute pleasure.

Australia's immigration system keeps families unnecessarily separated for years, sometimes decades, causing immeasurable heartbreak for families whose overseas relatives end up missing significant events like weddings, funerals or the birth of their first grandchild. My office has escalated countless delayed visa applications and successfully reunited families in time for those milestone moments. Every week, we hear from NDIS participants struggling to access crucial services that they cannot live without. Without the Greens escalating their cases, these participants could lose access to essential support workers or the mobility equipment they need to be safe. Each one of these stories is a testament not only to my wonderful staff team but to the core principles of the Greens and our grassroots movement—a movement powered by persistence, compassion and community.

The Greens are fighting for solutions to genuinely solve the big issues—the climate and environment crisis, the housing crisis and the cost-of-living crisis—not just tinker around the edges. We're working to bring down the cost of groceries and to make sure that everyone has a place to call home. We're working to stop new coal and gas projects and to reduce energy bills and create jobs by transitioning to 100 per cent renewable energy. As always, we're working to protect the environment and wildlife, to end native forest logging and to protect critical habitat. We want to prioritise our public health services, bringing dental and mental health into Medicare and making sure that everyone can see the GP for free. We're working to wipe all student debt and make education genuinely free, from child care right through to TAFE and university—like it used to be. We're fighting for better rights and for higher and equal pay for workers. We want to restore the billions that Labor has cut from the NDIS and lift income support to make sure that no-one in this wealthy country is living below the poverty line. We're fighting for truth, treaty and justice in allyship with First Nations communities, for a country free from discrimination and for a genuinely antiracist Australia. We're deeply committed to peace and global justice and will continue to call for an end to Israel's illegal occupation in Gaza and for freedom for Palestine. We know these solutions work and would make life better for millions of people. Change doesn't happen overnight, but the first step is to vote for someone who is working for it.

The Greens will always fight to deliver better outcomes for ordinary people because we don't take donations from big corporations. Instead of working for the public, Labor and the Liberals have taken over $260 million in corporate donations from those big corporates over the last 10 years, including from coal and gas companies and property developers. That's what the annual donations data, released this week, confirmed. It's those same big corporations that are making donations that are buying influence for their own private profits. They donate because it gets them results.

Fossil fuel donations to both big parties continue, and it's no surprise that, in return, the government of the day continues to approve new coal and gas projects and continues to give $11 billion of public money, every year, in subsidies to fossil fuel companies, turbocharging climate destruction. The Greens will continue to push for a ban on donations from dirty industries seeking to influence government policy, like coal and gas, the banks, big pharma, the pokies and alcohol lobbies, tobacco and property developers. Democracy should not be for sale. We need to get big corporations and billionaires out of politics.

Housing is a human right, but the big parties don't seem to think so. Property developers make huge donations to political parties, and, in return, Labor and the Liberals are giving $176 billion in taxpayer handouts, including negative gearing, to wealthy property investors. Renters and first home buyers do not stand a chance. The Greens are fighting for renters and for people trying to buy a home. Our plan will actually tackle the housing crisis, not just tinker around the edges. We would make unlimited rent increases illegal. We would require the banks to deliver low-rate mortgages. We would scrap the tax handouts, negative gearing and capital gains tax discounts for property investors with more than one property, and we would fund a government build of good-quality homes, sold and rented at a price that people can actually afford. Thanks to the Greens' negotiations, people in 50,000 public and community homes will receive life-changing energy upgrades, which will save them approximately $1,800 a year on their power bills. We secured $500 million to electrify Australian homes, starting with those most in need, cutting power bills and pollution at the same time.

Now, if you're worried about the climate and environment crisis, you're not alone. North Queensland has just faced yet another devastating flood, and it's a scary indication of the extreme weather events that will become more frequent and more dangerous as the climate crisis is turbocharged by the big parties' addiction to coal and gas. Coal and gas are the major causes of the crisis, but both big parties are backing more. We've had 32 more coal and gas projects approved, and the opposition is proposing expensive nuclear, which would just prop up fossil fuels longer. We can't keep voting for the same two parties and expecting a different result. If you want strong climate action and protection for nature, vote Green.