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

One hundred million dollars is the amount of corporate donations that the Labor, Liberal and National parties have taken since 2012—$100 million from industries like the banks, big mining, property developers, alcohol, pharma and gambling. They're just some of the industries that have paid the Liberal, National and Labor parties to put their private profits ahead of the needs of our community. One hundred million dollars isn't even the full picture. It doesn't include money paid to attend so-called business forums or cash for access meetings, and it doesn't include money that's funnelled through fundraising bodies.

We actually don't know just how much money corporations pay into the Labor, Liberal and National parties each year, because our political system lacks the transparency it needs, but we can see what those donations are buying. They're buying influence in political decisions and policies. Big mining, the big banks, developers, and alcohol, property development and gambling companies donate tens of millions of dollars to the big political parties because it gets results, not because they believe in the institution of strong democracy. Labor, the Liberals and the Nationals are collecting hundreds of millions of dollars for their election campaign coffers while big corporations get the access and the policy outcomes they need to boost their profits. And the politicians themselves? Well, they get wined and dined and, when they step out of politics to 'spend more time with their families', they walk into cushy lobbyist jobs in the very industries they were supposed to regulate.

The cosy relationship between the Liberals, the Nationals, Labor and their corporate donors impacts all of us. Since 2012, the fossil fuel and resources industries have donated over $7½ million to both of the major parties. They get $6 billion a year in fossil fuel subsidies. That's cheap fuel and accelerated depreciation that the rest of us don't get. That's a pretty good return on investment. It's about $2,000 in subsidies for every dollar they donate—a very sound investment on their part indeed. Those generous donations have also bought them a Liberal government that is completely paralysed by the words 'climate change'. We've got half the government ready to tear up the Paris Agreement and lock Australia into a future of more extreme bushfires, crippling droughts and floods and the other half of the Liberal government able to admit that we should do something about it only once they've left the party. So now we have a Liberal-National government with no climate policy at all, which is of course not surprising when you remember those $7½ million in donations and, of course, the time our Prime Minister brandished a lump of coal in parliament and gleefully told us all: 'Don't be scared. It won't hurt you.' I reckon the folks in New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania who've suffered through some of the worst droughts, bushfires and, now, floods that their states have ever seen would beg to differ.

Labor are not much better, sadly. They're taking the Liberals' energy policy to the election—the very same energy policy that the Libs binned and turfed former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull over. Let's also not forget that no coalmine or coal seam gas project has ever been rejected federally by this government or by the opposition when they were in government. Thanks to the cosy relationship the Labor, Liberal and National parties have with the fossil fuel industry, the only plan they've got for my home state of Queensland is more coalmines—and at a time when the rest of the world is turning its back on coal. It is negligent to lock our state into an industry that destroys other industries, destroys nature, destroys our very safety, won't be profitable in years to come and won't deliver on the promises that it makes. Labor and the Liberals are both backing dirty great coalmines and the pollution that they bring. They're backing a boom-and-bust cycle that cripples communities while wilfully turning a blind eye to the coal industry's rapid move to full automation, which will leave Queensland workers in the lurch, unable to pay their mortgages.

Another major donor to the major parties has been the banking and financial sector. It's given about $60 million since 2012 to both sides of politics. It's been obvious for years that the banking sector was ripping customers off and acting like it was above the law. Of course, essentially, it was, and comfortable with the fact that the major parties were too addicted to their donors and their donations to pull them up. Both of the major parties had to be dragged to the banking royal commission, following scandal after scandal and the public backlash over their inaction. Labor caved earlier, it must be said, but the Greens first started campaigning for the banking royal commission in August 2014. It took two years after that for Labor to come on board and it took another year and a half after that for the Liberals to come on board. Of course, they voted against it 26 times. You have to wonder how much faster it would have happened if the Liberal, National and Labor parties weren't on the payroll of the banks, with those corporate donations.

The fossil fuel and banking industries are far from the only sectors that have bought the government. There is a suburb not too far from where I live in Brisbane. The population of this suburb has doubled in the last few decades. High-rises have popped up. It's a suburb fairly close to the city and it's a very convenient place to live. But the issue is that, while the number of people choosing to make this suburb their home has gone up, the amount of public space has halved, sold off to private developers. There has been no increase in public transport services to the area, there are no new schools, the existing local schools are bursting at the seams and the roads just get more and more congested. So the time that we all get to spend with our families doing the things we love is shrinking.

The winners in this scenario are the property developers who build the apartments, the construction industry, the real estate sector and the banks. And, wouldn't you know it? Developers and construction companies have donated over $20 million to both sides of politics since 2012.

Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Senator Gallacher on a point of order.

Alex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Standing order 196: tedious repetition and irrelevance. I'd like you to rule on that, Mr Acting Deputy President.

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

Be my guest!

Sue Lines (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think we will continue with senators' statements, Senator Gallacher, and let Senator Waters continue.

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

Thank you, Mr Acting Deputy President. Now, it doesn't matter what the name of the suburb is, because this is repeated across the country in every city. Our government are happy to let it happen because they want those donations to keep pouring in and they want those well-paid lobbying jobs once they leave politics.

When it comes to investing in the things that we need to make our suburbs and our towns livable, to make sure that everyone has what they need to live a good life—like effective and reliable public transport, social housing close to public services and amenities, green spaces, community gardens and public pools—we get told that the budget is too tight and that we've got to rein in spending. But when the big end of town reckons that they need a tax break they're given one, to the tune of $65 billion. The big end of town is throwing money at the Labor and the Liberal parties hand over fist, but it is our communities that are paying the price.

Right now, there are over 190,000 people on the social housing waiting list. One in two domestic violence victims are turned away from refuges because of a lack of beds. The rate of Newstart hasn't been raised since 1994. The NBN is in a shambles and the big banks are ripping Australians off while the banking execs and CEOs pocket millions in bonuses. The gap between the very rich and the rest of us just keeps widening—wages are flatlining and many of us are working longer for less pay, while others can't find enough work. And, all the while, the costs for electricity, health and public transport keep going up and up—and privatisation has only made that worse.

But it doesn't have to be this way. We can create a future where all of us have what we need to live a good life. This means building world-class public schools, affordable housing, better access to quality health care and social services for everyone, regardless of our postcode, our parents or our bank balance. It means stopping the Liberal and Labor governments from further privatising our essential services, like electricity, banking and the internet, and providing publicly owned providers to reduce prices and run reliable services that everyone can rely on. It means transitioning rapidly to renewable energy to protect our planet from the threat of climate change and providing good, steady well-paying jobs in the future.

We can build this future if we make corporations and the very wealthy pay their fair share of tax, but we won't be able to until we can get the influence of big money and vested interests off our parliament and out of our politics. We need to ban the donations from the big end of town that have bought such policy influence over this parliament. It's time for that era of buying political influence and policy outcomes to come to an end. No more is our community willing to be left with peanuts while politicians and their corporate sector mates line their own pockets. The Greens refuse donations from corporations who want to buy influence. We fight for the needs of our community, not the interests of corporate donors. This parliament should do the same. Together we can, and must, do better. All of our future depends on it.