Fatima Payman (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australians are in the midst of many crises. We're being extorted by supermarkets, while the memory of the Australian dream of homeownership is increasingly distant. We have two major parties that have focus-grouped themselves into a state of legislative fear. We have a Prime Minister who uses disability to mock his opponents in the chamber while passing laws to cut the NDIS. Simply put, years of the Labor and Liberal duopoly have, like Coles and Woolworths, made the political environment less competitive, meaning consumers—the Australian people—are left with two mediocre options. This is not to last, however.

Over the past 15 years, the combined major-party vote has fallen nearly 20 per cent. Almost a third of Australians acknowledged at the last election that preferential voting allows them to offer their vote to minor parties and Independents who represent them better than the majors do, without the danger of wasting their vote. But who will speak for these Australians? Who will stand up to the duopoly and push the government of the day to remember that they aren't here for themselves and are here for Australians? They need a voice, and Australia's Voice will be that voice. We will speak up for everyday Australians so they can get a better deal on changes for things like housing affordability, through adjustments to negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount. These changes and many more are what Australians are crying out for, but, as usual with the major parties, politics comes before people.

Conversely, in my travels around WA, I haven't met anyone who has told me how glad they are that hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars are being sent overseas to build hypothetical submarines in the decades to come. It's time for Australia's voice to be heard. (Time expired)