David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is not my first speech. A new parliament is a chance for new politics, and voters have told us loud and clear that the old two-party system that delivered for the big end of town, while making everybody else wait, is no longer working. But we are already seeing worrying signs. We are already seeing who the new government plan to work for and who's going to be left behind. They're already working to ram through over $200 billion in stage 3 tax cuts, delivering for the rich at the expense of the many. They're pushing through 114 new coal and gas projects, blatantly ignoring the demands of the millions who voted for climate action. They are already ignoring the 15-month waiting list for public dental care, forcing people to wait until an emergency to get their teeth fixed. They're dismissing exploding inflation and the cost-of-living crisis. They're telling workers—workers!—to wait for a living wage while they hand out billions of public money to fossil fuel corporations and the big end of town. They are ignoring the six million people who access social support payments—a quarter of the country—who are being forced to choose between rent and groceries each week. Those people can't wait. They're abandoning young people, who are being forced into casual work, who won't ever own a home or who are facing decades of debt just to get an education. They're being told to wait by the Albanese government. Millions of people across the country voted for a new parliament, for new hope, and not so they could be told to wait. Today we are here with a record 16 Greens senators and MPs, and we're telling the Albanese government that the only restraint on delivering for good—for delivering now—is the scale of its ambition.