Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

In any war, it is ordinary people who always pay the price. Already, thousands of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced, while Trump threatens to obliterate Iran and Israel's violence marches on in Lebanon, Palestine and Syria.

People here were already struggling, and now their lives are getting even harder because this prime minister dragged us into a war that no-one wants, except warmongers Trump and Netanyahu and weapons, oil and gas barons, who are raking in profits, dripping in blood. Not only is this a moral failing that exposes the rot of the imperial war machine; it has destabilised the entire economy. While people pay more for everything—for fuel, for food, for rent and for mortgages—corporations make record profits. These corporations make a motza from the killing of innocent people in war, but they also make massive profits from the killing of the environment, our planet and our climate. They make a profit from ecocide and omnicide at the same time. What we need at the end of the day is to break the system that is rigged for the rich, that is rigged for the billionaires and that is rigged for the warmongers.

We can start today. We can start today by imposing a gas export levy of at least 25 per cent on the companies that profit from human misery, and then we can use this revenue to support Australians, who are being smashed left, right and centre by the cost-of-living crisis.