Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Our broken economic system has to be fixed. It is a system that protects the wealthy and creates a merry-go-round of money amongst the elite while ordinary people are squeezed further and further. We know that the cost-of-living crisis is not because of wage increases; it is because of greedy corporations squeezing every last cent out of people who are already suffering. Inflation is being driven by corporate profiteering. Coles, Woolworths, Qantas and the Commonwealth Bank have all posted billions of dollars in profits. The rich are getting richer while the poor suffer in a system rigged against them at every step of the way, from skyrocketing inflation to tax regimes that favour the rich. There's a bigger wealth gap than we have ever seen in this country.

People are going without food, and Coles just raked in over $1 billion in profits. People can't buy fresh food, and Woolies just posted over $1.6 billion in profits—the highest margin ever recorded for the groceries division. While people are losing their homes to outrageous interest rate hikes, the Commonwealth Bank raked in $10 billion of profit over the past year. That is what corporate profiteering off the back of people who are doing it tough looks like. Qantas got a $2.7 billion taxpayer funded handout during COVID and still sacked 8,000 people. The CEO has made $15 million. They have raised airfares by 20 per cent.

How is this acceptable to us? It is utterly and absolutely obscene. Corporate profits need to be reined in. Tax the rich, tax the superprofits and put money back into the community, where it belongs.