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

Whether it's the cost of food and groceries, rents, mortgages, transport costs, energy costs, health care or insurance, people are getting smashed. It'll be cold comfort to the millions of Australians who are really struggling to make ends meet to learn that, while they are going through all that pain, the big corporations are raking in record profits. The share of our national economy that is going to profits has never been higher than it is today, and the share of the economy going to wages has never been lower than it is today. The corporations are making off like bandits, and they're doing it off the back of the community pain and the pain of millions of Australians.

The latest Australian Taxation Office corporate tax transparency report makes it clear that one-third of the top 100 earning corporations in this country pay no tax at all. If you want a word to describe a system where a teacher, a nurse, a carpenter, a cleaner or a plumber pay more tax than a third of the top 100 earning corporations in this country paid, look no further than the word 'broken'. This is a broken system, where teachers, nurses, carpenters, plumbers and cleaners are paying more tax than a third of the top 100 earning corporations in Australia are. That is a cooked system, and this is a direct result of successive Labor and Liberal governments refusing to stand up and fight the big corporations.

Well, there is some good news for people, because more and more people are learning that, if you vote Green and you put Greens into this place, we will come in here and fight for people. We will fight against the big corporations, and we have the backs of the millions of Australians who are getting smashed by a cost-of-living crisis. If we make corporations pay their fair share of tax, we can put dental into Medicare. We can ensure that people can see a GP for free. We can wipe student debt, and we can raise income support. We can freeze and cap rent increases. We can make price gouging by the big supermarkets illegal.

People know that it's harder and harder to tell the major parties apart. They know that, if they vote Green, we will come in here and we will fight for them. More and more people are understanding that, if they want change, they have to vote for it.