Stephen Bates (Brisbane, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I present a petition that has been considered by the Petitions Committee and found to be in order. This petition urges the Minister for Defence to terminate the US-Australia Force Posture Agreement and has been signed by 3,916 people.

The federal government recently announced that $7 billion worth of infrastructure projects are facing the cut. As the population of this country continues to rise, infrastructure and development are nowhere near keeping up. This comes on the back of news this month that Brisbane City Council has cut more than $400 million from its budget. That is a 10 per cent cut—massive. This leaves multiple council projects on the chopping block, including suburban work such as active transport; road corridor updates; intersections and crossings; pedestrian upgrades and bikeways; community facilities such as sporting fields; park acquisitions and tree planting; and drainage, and there are job losses for up to 700 casual and contracted council workers.

The LNP council, with the full support of Labor's five councillors, voted to give big developers a tax cut by cutting infrastructure charges that are specifically meant to support essential public services and infrastructure. There is so much opportunity for good quality local development in Brisbane, but all the council can offer is short-sighted cuts. We cannot just leave things to the private sector entirely. We've seen time and again, from the ABC studios in Toowong to Queens Wharf and Bulimba Barracks, that we get these promises for great social outcomes, but all too often they end up getting whittled down and eventually disappear altogether once private developers get the land.

One potential development area in Brisbane that I'd like to highlight is the Petrie Terrace and Caxton Street precinct. This precinct has serious potential, but to realise that potential we need to move beyond making decisions site by site and start thinking about what our whole neighbourhood could look like in 10 years time. Victoria Barracks, for instance, is a prime spot for renewal. It's right next to the CBD, Roma Street and Barrambin. It's got public transport access and shops. Victoria Barracks could be reinvented as a thriving community precinct. But we cannot leave this redevelopment to the private sector. Once private developers have control of the Victoria Barracks site, it becomes a lot more expensive to build community infrastructure or social housing there, and neither the community, council nor the state government will have adequate leverage to deliver socially beneficial outcomes, including things like green space, connectivity, art space and affordable housing.

We've seen what happens over time when the government leaves the supply of affordable housing to the private sector. Government reduces the amount of social and public housing they provide, and we end up where we are now, with housing affordability at its worst level in at least three decades. But it doesn't have to be this way. The Queensland government spent $448 million in assistance to the fossil fuel industry last financial year, and the federal government's stage 3 tax cuts for Australia's wealthiest will cost $20.4 billion in the first year alone, rising every year to $42.9 billion a year within the next decade. It's no wonder there's a growing public disconnection with politics when these are the government's priorities.

Relentless cost-of-living pressure, rising interest rates, uncertainty about the direction of the economy and growing concern about inequality have undermined Australia's sense of social cohesion—that's the conclusion of the social cohesion index's latest research, which was released earlier this month.

Each year the Mapping social cohesion report, compiled by the Scanlon Foundation, provides a barometer of social wellbeing. It measures belonging, worth, participation, acceptance, rejection, social inclusion and justice. In the last 12 months, the index has fallen four points to now be at its lowest level since the report began 16 years ago. Sustained financial pressure has had a massive impact on social cohesion in Australia. Now, this will come as a surprise to no-one, but the report revealed that we are overwhelmingly worried about our household budgets, about housing affordability and about the state of the economy. Thirty-six per cent of people said the government could be trusted to do the right thing, and the number of people saying they feel socially isolated has increased. So why is this?

Over the last few decades we have witnessed the government retreat from the economy, with everything sold off to the highest bidder. At the same time, we have lived through a period of immense atomisation. Communities have fallen away and been replaced with a society built solely on the principles of the market. With those principles, life becomes a zero sum. Our society suffers and our economy suffers. We must undo this. It is not sustainable—not for our planet and not for one another. We must undo the decades of government policies that have created a society where inequality is rampant, isolation is encouraged and loneliness is expected. We know that a vast plurality of inflation is being driven by corporate superprofits—coal and gas, Coles and Woolies, all making off with huge profits while Australians are struggling to keep a roof over their heads.

We need to build a society and economy that works for all of us, not just those at the top. We do this by putting people before profit, by building a universal support system—scrapping the stage 3 tax cuts that immensely benefit the wealthiest people in this country at the expense of everyone else. Instead, we need to create free uni and TAFE. We need to wipe student debt. We need to bring dental and mental health into Medicare and make sure our state schools are fully funded and the envy of the world. We need to raise the rate of JobSeeker, youth allowance and all other income support payments to above the poverty line, because all of us deserve a life of dignity and respect. We need a direct build of public housing in Australia, a cap on rent increases and limits to negative gearing to fix our broken housing system. A house should be a home; it should not be a speculative commodity. And, of course, we must tackle climate change with the urgency that is required. That means no new coal and gas, an end to fossil fuel subsidies, and 100 per cent publicly owned renewable energy. And we can get there. The government cannot and will not get away with telling people that they've taken appropriate measures to tackle the cost-of-living crisis while everyone feels materially worse off. People are crying out for systemic change that genuinely improves their lives, and it is well beyond time that we delivered that.

All of my adult life, until being elected into this place, I have worked in retail and hospitality jobs, both here in Australia and overseas. I know what it's like to watch your super creep up so very slowly that you start to wonder what is even the point. Some people in retail, hospitality and many other industries never even receive super payments, and this is akin to wage theft. The Greens have secured important amendments to the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Bill that will improve the government's proposed changes to our industrial relations system. These come in addition to provisions which seek to address and remedy wage theft and labour hire loopholes and ensure minimum standards for gig economy workers.

Australian workers are currently robbed of at least $3.3 billion in superannuation each year. Super is not an optional extra; it is a workplace entitlement that protects a decent life in retirement for millions of Australians. Victims of super theft are disproportionately young, low-paid or migrant workers. They are most commonly workers in accommodation and food services, retail and construction. Many of these workers don't have the resources or the time to hire a lawyer and fight in the courts for their basic legal entitlements across various pieces of obscure legislation. The Greens have secured an important amendment so that stealing super can be criminalised in workplace law. This amendment will reduce super theft and deliver justice for millions of workers.

Another area the Greens are pushing for progress in is the right for workers to switch off. Over recent years, there has been an incessant creep of availability, where we feel the need to respond to messages outside of work hours, driven partly by technology which has put the office in our pockets 24/7.

The pressure on workers to be available at all hours, particularly when working remotely, has serious implications for mental and physical health and increases work related stress. Australian workers do an excessive amount of unpaid overtime, in large part because we're always contactable. In fact, the average Australian worker performs six weeks of unpaid overtime per year. Workers should have the right to turn off their phones, block their boss's calls and switch off their emails when they have finished work for the day.