Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

It may be that Labor has never had better policies on inequality, but, as Senator Cameron well knows, that's because they've pinched them all from us and then watered them down. I agree with senior political commentators in this country who say that, if you want know to know what Labor's policy is going to be in five or 10 years time, have a look at what the Australian Greens' policy is now. I'm actually quite fond of Senator Cameron—and that's a dangerous thing to say on the public record—but it's fair to say that that was one of the worst contributions I've heard him make in this place. At the top of that contribution, Senator Cameron attacked the Australian Greens for fixating on the Australian Labor Party and for having a crack at the ALP, and then he spent 95 per cent of the rest of his speech having a crack at the Australian Greens. So, tick one in the box for hypocrisy, Senator Cameron.

The second point I would make to Senator Cameron and his colleagues is: aren't they a bit touchy on the TPP? Of course, the reason Senator Cameron is touchy on the TPP is that he was comprehensively rolled inside Labor's caucus. He personally doesn't support the TPP, but do you know what he's going to do?

He's going do what Labor people always do, put aside their principles in a convenient place to pick up later when they've ended up their political careers, and he's going come in here and vote for it. Every single time that's what he's going do: vote for the TPP, just like he voted to lock up refugees on Manus Island and Nauru. Just like Labor, last time they were in government, slashed the single parenting pension. Do you remember that one, Senator Cameron? If you want to play these silly games, I can play them all day. The fact of the matter is that one of the only true and reasonable things you said in your contribution was that the enemy are sitting over there. The enemy are sitting over there. They are a rabble of a government. They deserve to be kicked out of office at the first available opportunity and, as far as the Australian Greens are concerned, that opportunity cannot come around quickly enough.

I want to talk about tax cuts, because I think the Australian people understand that the TPP cedes our sovereignty and hands over matters that should be left under the sovereign auspices of this parliament to foreign multinational corporations. There's another reason, by the way, that the Labor Party should be ashamed that they've rolled over and abandoned their principles on the TPP. On tax cuts, again, one of the absolute foundations of neoliberalism is trickle-down economics, and trickle-down economics does not work. It has never worked and it never will work. There are people in this country who were told many, many years ago that, if we cut taxes for the well-off and big business, the wealth would trickle down to them. Well, they are still waiting at the bottom of the pile, with their hands outstretched, for the first drops. Do you know what? They're not going to arrive, because trickle-down economics is a demonstrated policy failure. It is actually about reverse income redistribution. It's about making the well-off even more wealthy and the big corporations even more wealthy and powerful. It has terrible impacts on the lives of far too many people and on the environment that ultimately sustains us all.

The big narrative arc of recent decades is parliaments handing over power to the big corporations. That has resulted in environmental degradation—trashing that beautiful environment—and, in fact, in the wealth of this country being concentrated in the hands of far too few while far too many have missed out. In my home state of Tasmania we have a wilderness World Heritage area of incredible beauty and diversity, with habitats including rainforests, alpine meadows, ancient pines, saltwater lagoons and glacial lakes. The rich, vibrant cultural heritage of the Tasmanian Aboriginal people, and their awe-inspiring survival through the last ice age, is represented in the Tasmanian wilderness World Heritage area, with shell middens, stone tools and petroglyphs dating back over 20,000 years. In fact, the Tasmanian wilderness World Heritage area is one of only two properties on earth to meet seven of the 10 World Heritage criteria. It's critical to understand the essence and value of wilderness, which is a decreasing commodity on earth, in large part because governments and corporations have handed over too much power to the great profiteers—the rent seekers, the rapers of our commons.

People have spent decades in Tasmania defending our wilderness from logging, mining and dam construction, but right now we face a new threat: the selling of our wilderness to tourism developers, to private sector profiteers. It's all happening behind closed doors in the Coordinator-General's office run by the Tasmanian Liberal government. That government said in 2014 that it would open up our reserves to commercial tourism and invited the private sector to make submissions. We have seen submissions for inside our pristine wilderness areas, inside our World Heritage area and inside national parks around lodges, tracks, bike trails, helicopter pads, roads, boats and cable cars. I'll tell you what: many Tasmanians are appalled. Enough is enough.

Attracting high-end tourism in our wilderness areas is a focus for the rich. It necessitates helicopter access, plane access and boat access. The World Heritage Committee has recommended strict restrictions on tourism developments, which the Tasmanian and federal governments have given lip service to and agreed to but failed to carry out. The state government has approved intrusive developments after confidential environmental assessments and lease arrangements, with taxpayers' money. We've got to stop the handover of our wilderness to the private sector and protect it for the beautiful values that it has.