Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Acting Deputy President. Now, it doesn't matter what the name of the suburb is, because this is repeated across the country in every city. Our government are happy to let it happen because they want those donations to keep pouring in and they want those well-paid lobbying jobs once they leave politics.

When it comes to investing in the things that we need to make our suburbs and our towns livable, to make sure that everyone has what they need to live a good life—like effective and reliable public transport, social housing close to public services and amenities, green spaces, community gardens and public pools—we get told that the budget is too tight and that we've got to rein in spending. But when the big end of town reckons that they need a tax break they're given one, to the tune of $65 billion. The big end of town is throwing money at the Labor and the Liberal parties hand over fist, but it is our communities that are paying the price.

Right now, there are over 190,000 people on the social housing waiting list. One in two domestic violence victims are turned away from refuges because of a lack of beds. The rate of Newstart hasn't been raised since 1994. The NBN is in a shambles and the big banks are ripping Australians off while the banking execs and CEOs pocket millions in bonuses. The gap between the very rich and the rest of us just keeps widening—wages are flatlining and many of us are working longer for less pay, while others can't find enough work. And, all the while, the costs for electricity, health and public transport keep going up and up—and privatisation has only made that worse.

But it doesn't have to be this way. We can create a future where all of us have what we need to live a good life. This means building world-class public schools, affordable housing, better access to quality health care and social services for everyone, regardless of our postcode, our parents or our bank balance. It means stopping the Liberal and Labor governments from further privatising our essential services, like electricity, banking and the internet, and providing publicly owned providers to reduce prices and run reliable services that everyone can rely on. It means transitioning rapidly to renewable energy to protect our planet from the threat of climate change and providing good, steady well-paying jobs in the future.

We can build this future if we make corporations and the very wealthy pay their fair share of tax, but we won't be able to until we can get the influence of big money and vested interests off our parliament and out of our politics. We need to ban the donations from the big end of town that have bought such policy influence over this parliament. It's time for that era of buying political influence and policy outcomes to come to an end. No more is our community willing to be left with peanuts while politicians and their corporate sector mates line their own pockets. The Greens refuse donations from corporations who want to buy influence. We fight for the needs of our community, not the interests of corporate donors. This parliament should do the same. Together we can, and must, do better. All of our future depends on it.