Elizabeth Watson-Brown (Ryan, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Mamdani proves people can demand more and win. Freezing the rent—this idea just won in New York. Fast, free buses—this idea just won in New York. Cheaper groceries with government owned stores—this idea just won in New York. Universal free child care, giving everyone a living wage and taxing big corporations and the wealthiest one per cent—these ideas just won in New York when Zohran Mamdani won the NYC mayoral democratic primaries. And you know what? They'll win here in Australia too, because these ideas will benefit the overwhelming majority of people. They would make everyone's lives better.

The political establishment and big corporations will do everything they can to stop this. They'll tell you it's impossible; they'll tell you that it's reckless. They will mobilise their millions of corporate dollars to distract you with fear campaigns and smear campaigns. They tried all of this with Mamdani, but when people get together and organise, when they stand up for what is right and when they realise that they can demand more of their government, they can beat all of that. That is what 'Mamdani' means.

This last election, in Australia, we stopped Dutton. People rejected Trumpian politics, but the Labor government is banking on people thinking we can't demand more. Mamdani shows that we can, because the stakes are high. Economic inequality is out of control and getting worse. Have I gone mad? When did we decide that billionaires' wealth should surge while millions of people can't pay their rent or buy a house? The world's billionaires increased their wealth by $6.5 trillion over the last decade—enough to end world poverty several times over. Here, in Australia, we have the glory of doubling the number of billionaires in the country over the last decade. It doesn't seem to matter who is in government; the absolutely mega rich just get richer.

Over the past decade, under Labor and the coalition, the total wealth of Australia's richest 200 people has more than doubled; it's now at $667.8 billion. Under Labor and the coalition, the average rich-lister now has 116,000 times the wealth of someone in the bottom 50 per cent. The wealth of that bottom 50 per cent of Australians has flatlined over the last decade. Since I started speaking, billionaires in this country have increased their wealth by about $95,000. People can't buy a house; people cannot get ahead. Millions of people struggle to pay their bills and feed their families. It's past time for a tax on billionaires in this country. Put that wealth to good use. Use it to build enough genuinely affordable homes for everyone who needs them, not to buy another luxury yacht.

Let me just point out the startling hypocrisy of some of Australia's wealthiest people lecturing Australians about productivity. Australians, the business establishment says you are not being productive enough. I say they're making you work too much. It's time for a four-day week with no loss of pay. Life is for living, not just working. Over the past decade, profits have gone up 97 per cent and wages have gone up 50 per cent. Big corporations are having a great time—a bonanza. Everyone else is working their guts out just to get by and to pay their mortgages or rents, their grocery and electricity bills, their child care and school fees, for a music lesson for the kids or for club sport. We're all working longer hours and more overtime with more commute time. Then you're exhausted by the weekend. You can't enjoy the precious time you have with your family and friends, and then the Labor government convenes an economic roundtable with CEOs telling us that we need to be more productive. It's an insult, frankly. Give us a four-day week with no loss of pay.

Study after study shows people will be happier, stay in their job longer and have fewer mental health issues. They'll be more productive and take fewer sick days. Study after study shows people get trapped in fewer pointless meetings and businesses invest more in genuine labour-saving technologies. But we don't really need those studies; it's just the right thing to do.

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