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

The political consensus that is responsible for planetary breakdown, deep and entrenched economic inequalities and the roll-back of civil rights is breaking down. The status quo is dead. That much is clear. People are hungry for more than the traditional political system that time and time again lets ordinary people down. Here, for people in Australia, that choice has too often meant get stabbed in the front by the Liberals or get stabbed in the back by Labor. The paucity of ideas—and, importantly, the paucity of action, particularly from Labor, for decades—has created a moral vacuum in a party that is riddled with contradictions. Worse, their brand of so-called pragmatic politics has deeply eroded people's trust in politics and politicians. In the most recent Essential poll, more than a third of respondents said they did not trust the federal government at all. Even worse, 75 per cent of respondents said Prime Minister Albanese plays politics, 64 per cent think he changes his opinion depending on who he thinks is listening, 61 per cent said he is out of touch with ordinary people, and 53 per cent think he's narrow-minded. That's a pretty scathing assessment.

Then there's Labor's move to the right, which has, in turn, had a knock-on effect on the Liberal Party, which has reinvented itself as an ultra-conservative, right-wing outfit, embracing racism as a political strategy. People have sometimes said that we Greens are uncharitable towards Labor and that we should not equate the two big parties. But that, too, has changed, as communities feel completely betrayed by Labor, from climate to housing to Palestine. Don't get me wrong: the Liberal Party is the worst option for Australia, on every issue. Their dangerous push for nuclear and their unhinged opposition to ending live sheep export are just two cases in point. But honestly, it is getting harder and harder to tell the two parties apart. They both back Israel's invasion of Gaza and are complicit in the genocide. And Labor's proposal for Trump-style travel bans is in fact far worse than anything the Liberals dreamt up in their cruel treatment of refugees.

Basically, people are sick of being told that they should vote for the least-worst option. Again and again we see the Labor Party promise one thing and deliver almost nothing, and often worse than nothing. The political carcass of Labor that we see before us is a cautionary tale for any political party to not embrace the status quo but to dismantle it. The trappings of power and privilege that are offered when one stays within the accepted boundaries of political discourse are seductive: positive media in the Murdoch press, opportunities to sit on exclusive committees, study tours to the United States or Israel, or perhaps jobs for the boys after your term ends.

But we Greens dream bigger than this. We know we cannot continue along the terrible path that is destroying people and the planet. We demand a truly fair, equitable, environmentally sustainable and just present and future. And we fight for it, in parliament and on the ground, with communities. A world without radical change is one where corporations will continue to make megaprofits while people are barely surviving in a cost-of-living crisis. A world without pushing boundaries is a world where we continue to run down the clock on the unfolding climate crisis while oil, coal and gas companies peddle their planet-killing products. It is an upside-down world where there is more political outrage over a broken window than over the slaughter of 40,000 Palestinians.

So, is change even possible? Yes, it is possible, but only if we are willing to smash the chains that hold us back. It may be easier to convince ourselves that we have to stay within the boundaries set by the political discourse or by the media. But the reality is that we get transformative change only when we are bold, when we dream big and when we let only our imagination be the limit.

The Right has certainly used a well-worn model of getting into power and undermining the things we hold dear, rebuilding them in their image. And when the centrists and even the apparent Left get in power, they just paper over the cracks. John Howard went out of his way to break institutions and push neo-liberalism full throttle. He passed so-called Work Choices to break the unions. He created the ongoing bipartisan commitment to cruelty when dealing with people seeking asylum and took us to the forever wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Yet, when Labor is in power, do they smash those legacies and build their own? No. They co-opt them and bring them into their narrative, and they have become hollow and empty in that process. Major political parties might be holding on to archaic and old-world systems, fooling themselves or perhaps trying to fool others that incrementalism will be enough, but people are hungry for more, and our numbers are growing. The last few years have convinced me that the Greens have been central to smashing the status quo and pushing the debate. Building new public housing protection for renters and free education are just some longstanding Greens ideals that are becoming mainstream and hitting a chord, particularly with young people, who are being screwed over by the system.

It doesn't take much analysis to show that the forces that destroy our natural environment are the same forces that keep people poor, that deny roofs over their heads and that drive an extractive economy that is measured only in profits, not in the quality of people's lives. The causes of the climate crisis are the same as those of the cost-of-living crisis, the housing crisis, the biodiversity crisis and the crisis of gendered violence and racism. The old structures of power—the corporations, the billionaires, the patriarchy and white supremacy—are holding onto them with a death grip.

The good news is, while status quo politics is breaking down, grassroots democracy and engagement is not. This is being led by young people. They see straight through the games being played by politicians and refuse to accept injustice. For months, people have been hitting the streets for Palestinian freedom in what is probably the longest running and largest weekly protest this country has ever seen. University encampments sprang up, directly challenging corporate universities that partner with arms dealers. Climate activists are taking direct action outside the establishment to break its stranglehold.

The absurdity of the system is obvious to everyone but those trapped in it. Take Senator Wong's and Senator Pratt's comments recently criticising Senator Payman for crossing the floor to vote for our motion to recognise Palestine. Just because they had to vote against marriage equality for years doesn't mean that she should have voted against her values as well. This is exactly what people are railing against—old, outdated ideas of loyalty and discipline. The world has moved on, but some are still stuck in old ideas of punishing integrity.

We must recognise, however, that the breaking down of the status quo goes both ways, so we must be cautious. It is undeniable that we see the growth of extreme right-wing politics that seek to trick and bamboozle people into blaming their circumstances not on the root causes but on the most vulnerable. This is deeply racist, homophobic and transphobic populism. The rise of the far right is our red line, and we cannot allow it to continue. We are up against a lot: politicians desperate to save their trappings of power, the billionaires that control the media, and extremely wealthy and out-of-touch corporations determined to profiteer from the earth's destruction. But we must win. There is no other choice.