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

There are 150 billionaires in Australia. There should be zero. Billionaires should not exist. At the very least, billionaires should be taxed properly, and today the Greens announce an ambitious plan to do just that so ordinary people can have a better life. In a wealthy country like ours, everyone should be able to afford a home, food and world-class health and education. Instead, billionaires are making out like bandits, while everyone else—families, renters, students, young people, migrants, women, retirees—is struggling.

Last year, in a full-blown cost-of-living crisis, billionaires like Clive Palmer and Gina Rinehart made $67,000 every hour. That's more than many people in this country make in an entire year. This staggering inequality is sickening. It is obscene. It doesn't have to be this way, but things won't change if we keep voting for the major parties. Labor and the Liberals would never take on the billionaires because they would be biting the hand that feeds them. Australian billionaires donate millions to the major parties. Only the Greens have a plan to turn the tables. This election, we have a once-in-a-generation chance to secure a minority government with more Greens in parliament. Change is possible, but you have to vote for it. (Time expired).