Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) | Hansard source

Budgets are all about political choices and priorities, so let's have a look at what the recent Albanese Labor government's priorities were in the recent budget. There was $368 billion on nuclear submarines, and I bet it ends up being a lot more than that—if those submarines are ever delivered; $313 billion for stage 3 tax cuts for billionaires and for politicians like us; $10 billion a year to the fossil fuel cartel to keep boiling the planet; and $7 billion a year to property moguls in subsidies, supercharging inequality and the housing crisis.

Let's talk a little bit more about priorities and tough choices. Labor says that they have to make tough choices in government. Any government does. But, when we look at their priorities and what they are spending the money on, what they are doing is forcing the rest of us to make tough choices. Poverty is a political choice. With the Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (Strengthening the Safety Net) Bill 2023, Labor are saying that people on JobSeeker should be grateful for a $40 a fortnight increase in payment and a $16 a fortnight increase due to regular indexation. As my excellent colleagues have said in here today, that equates to $2.85 per day, and, if you add the indexation, to around $4 a day. How many of us seriously think that would make an improvement to our lives? It is not even the price of a coffee from your local barista.

This still leaves people on payments well below the poverty line. Labor's own expert committee said this was seriously inadequate. According to the ACOSS 2023 poverty report, 3.3 million people in Australia, or one in eight people, live in poverty. More than one in six Australian children live in poverty. A survey of 449 people living on Centrelink payments found that 62 per cent of people are eating less than they should be or are being forced to skip meals. Is $2.85 a day really going to help someone eat healthy food and keep them safe? With these budget changes, Labor is making the choice to keep hundreds of thousands of Australians living in poverty. These are the choices we are about to vote on in this bill.

Nowhere is more affected by growing inequality and poverty than my home state of Tasmania. It's no secret that battlers in Tasmania are doing it tough in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis. Inflation has been supercharged by corporate profiteering, and it is our most vulnerable who are paying the biggest price. In Tasmania, 47,000 households are currently experiencing energy poverty and 120,000 Tasmanians are living below the poverty line. That's nearly 20 per cent. Rents in Tasmania have exploded, and Tasmanians who rely on our government to help them just can't keep up. Anglicare data released in April this year showed that rents in Tasmania are rising up to ten times faster than income support payments. The same report showed that single Tasmanians on the age pension can only afford a room in a share house. This is no way for any Australian, especially older Australians, to be living. Living alone without flatmates is not possible for people in Tasmania, unless they go into rental stress. Single people on JobSeeker or youth allowance cannot afford to rent any property in Tasmania and must consider shared living. This is not acceptable in a country like Australia, the so-called lucky country.

Taking a national perspective, an analysis of over 45,000 rental listings in 2023 found that zero per cent of rentals—no rentals—were affordable for a single person on JobSeeker. Poverty in Australia is not inevitable; governments choose to make it so by their policy and budget decisions, and that is exactly what we will be doing today.

Labor promised in opposition that no-one would be left behind, but the budget delivered in May leaves young people, students, renters, disabled people and people relying on income support behind. The government just announced last week the expected surplus was bigger than expected—$20 billion. This could do so much good at a time when people are hurting and being pushed to the brink but, instead, our Treasurer decided to bank it—and gave himself a pat on the back. Instead of using that surplus for good, we have a parade of Labor MPs in here today and in press conferences in recent days lining up to tell us that a $2.85-a-day JobSeeker and $1.12 rent assistance increase will make a difference to people's lives. Who are you trying to kid? We need to lift JobSeeker and all income support payments above the poverty line—absolutely black and white. The Greens won't stand in the way of this increase today.

I would also like to acknowledge my colleague former Senator Rachel Siewert for all the work she did for many years before she handed over to Senator Rice, who has continued her Herculean efforts to continue to push all governments to take a reasonable and humanitarian stand for those most in need. We know there is money in the federal budget for all the things we need to do to lift people out of poverty. But what will the most vulnerable people in this country get? Scraps, not enough to lift them out of poverty. The people who need our government to step up and help them as they suffer in the midst of an unprecedented cost-of-living crisis are being at best offered a cup of coffee a day by the Labor Party.

Economic inequality is at a 70-year high. Almost half the private wealth of this country—to remind senators in here today—is held by the top 10 per cent of Australians. One per cent of taxpayers own nearly one-quarter of all property investments in this country, and that hasn't happened by accident. That has happened because of structural shifts in policies over many decades giving unfair subsidies to the wealthiest Australians to keep buying investment properties at the expense of young and low-income Australians who would dearly love to own their own homes. We know the cost-of-living crisis has hit those on JobSeeker hardest, and rent hikes are at record highs, which is why it is so critical we raise the rate to $88 a day and implement a freeze and cap on rent increases.

In the year in which will be voting on a historic referendum to enshrine a First Nations Voice to Parliament in our Constitution, it is critical we also highlight the unacceptable reality that right now 31 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people live in poverty, and poverty amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is twice as high in very remote communities as it is in major cities. If Labor are serious about helping people on JobSeeker and ending poverty, they should back the Greens' demands and the amendment to lift the base rate to $88 a day. We need a strong social safety net for everyone who needs it and we can afford it. Unlimited rent increases should be illegal, and Centrelink payments should be above the poverty line.

I want to finish with one point today reflecting the cost-of-living crisis that so many Australians are facing. We heard Mr Albanese last week talk about a potential double dissolution if the Greens don't pass his very inadequate Housing Australia Future Fund bill, saying that he can't control the states or dissolve the states or tell the states what to do. But we know that this parliament was recalled in December last year—many of us were brought back—to legislate the energy crisis relief plan, which essentially capped power prices for many vulnerable Australians. That was leadership by the government, and will I recognise that—good on them. They worked across party lines to do this. They worked with the National Cabinet and the states, and they achieved that. It wasn't perfect, but it was something. How is it that the Prime Minister can do that to energy and power prices to help struggling Australians but can't do it for rents? It just doesn't make sense. What we need from the Prime Minister is, again, for him to show leadership and for the Labor Party to show leadership. With the exception of Tasmania, all the states have Labor premiers. We know that the Victorian Labor government was talking about rent freezes. We know we did it during COVID, with the states and the National Cabinet working under the previous COAG system so that the nation was federated and working together on these issues. The Prime Minister simply needs to show the same level of leadership. Listen to the Australian people—the one in three Australians who are renters and are suffering terrible rent hikes. Do something for them. We can do it. I'm sure the Prime Minister can do it if he puts his mind to it. Stop playing political games and grinding your axe against the Greens, which you've done now for many decades. Actually work with us, and let's get on with helping struggling Australians by capping rent hikes, putting in place rent freezes and making a serious commitment to invest in public housing in this country.