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

There is no doubt that Australians are being smashed by a cost-of-living crisis, whether it's power bills through the roof, getting price-gouged by Coles and Woolworths, the supermarket duopoly or mortgages and rents breaking the household budget. While people are struggling so severely, the billionaires, the super wealthy and the big corporations—the banks, the energy giants and the supermarket duopoly—are raking in billions of dollars in profit. The big corporations and the super wealthy have never had it so good in Australia's history.

Here is the truth of the matter: those same interests, many of them, are now seeking to sow division in our community. They are doing that because they want Australians to blame migrants and refugees for the problems of the day, instead of calling out the corporate profiteers who are bleeding people dry and their agents in this place—the Labor and Liberal parties—who are allowing them to get away with it. Too many people who sit in this Senate are doing the dirty work for big corporations and the super wealthy. We saw it on the weekend; those racist, white supremacist, Neo-Nazi rallies were literally being cheered on by some senators who sit in this place. It is a deliberate strategy to pit neighbour against neighbour so that the rich and the big corporations can keep making off like bandits.

I'll tell you one thing: when politicians scapegoat migrants and refugees, they are giving cover to a rigged economy that works for the wealthy few and the big corporations and that punishes everybody else. Many of those people who came to those rallies are being punished by this economy. It's not migrants and refugees that should be the object of their anger and ire; it is people in this place who are allowing big corporations to make off like bandits. They are protecting the powerful and the profits of the powerful by stoking hate, fear and division and causing harm to those who are being targeted. The Australian Greens stand with the communities who are targeted by racists, racism and Neo-Nazis, and we also stand with the people who have been ripped off and left behind by an economy that is rigged against them.