Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

():

The hypocrisy in this place reeks—the hypocrisy from that side of politics, that side of the chamber, which has backed this bloody war, this illegal war of Donald Trump's, since day one and is now saying it's actually causing pain to Australians. Well, of course it is! That's what was always going to happen, but you went in blindly, you backed America, you backed your mate Trump, and now Australians are paying the price. Of course, the Labor Party did exactly the same thing. Both sides here, the major-party cartel, backed Donald Trump, and now the pain is really being felt. It doesn't sound like such a good idea now, does it? But, of course, the major cheer squad of Mr Donald Trump is One Nation, and I assume we're about to hear the Leader of One Nation, Pauline Hanson, stand up and wring her hands and give her crocodile tears, meanwhile backing the major supporter of this rubbish, of this pain, of this suffering, of this economic crisis—and that is Donald Trump. There's no bigger cheerleader for Donald Trump in this country than Pauline Hanson and One Nation.

Meanwhile, Australians are copping it really hard, and it's going to get worse, because Donald Trump's war is in no way looking like it's going to end. The government has no plan and the opposition has no plan. They just want to complain. While they're complaining, they want to make it harder for people to actually do the things that are cheaper—get into electric vehicles. The opposition doesn't want anyone buying or driving EVs. The culture war is in overdrive. The hypocrisy is rank.

But let's just take one moment to reflect on what really is happening. There are cracks emerging in the major party cartel. We have Mr Hastie, who's the only person from the coalition who's starting to question whether this war was a good idea at all. He doesn't really like Donald Trump, so he says. So what is it that the opposition actually stands for? On one hand, they're in there, backing the war, backing Donald Trump and backing the pain that Australians are feeling. They're not doing anything about it, just whingeing and whining, while privately clapping their mate Donald Trump back home in America, yet they now have some cracks emerging, because there are some people who are saying that this war should never have been started, this war should never have been backed by Australia and Donald Trump is leading the whole world down a path of ruin.

The question I have to the coalition is: what's your policy? Do you back the war or don't you? For four weeks, you've backed this war that has pushed prices up and is making life hard now for Australians. It's about time you were honest with the Australian people about this. Of course, the only reason we're starting to see cracks emerging within the major party cartel and comments from people like Mr Hastie from the other place is because Australians are saying: 'We don't want anything to do with this war. It's not our war. We don't want anything to do with it. We shouldn't be chasing the US. We shouldn't have our troops over there. We shouldn't be sending our warplanes and we certainly shouldn't be paying the price.' Australians don't want this war. They don't support Donald Trump. And now the major parties have got themselves wedged into some pretty difficult corners.

So what do we do about it? Well, today National Cabinet meets. If the Prime Minister can't deliver free public transport across the country, the meeting's a failure in my opinion. If the government can't deliver proper support for people right now, then it's going to be a failure. We need to be making sure that people can get to work and get to school, and that we free up fuel for the regions. That's what needs to happen, and the Prime Minister needs to at least lead on that.

And, of course, we should be putting a tax on the big gas corporations, who are making massive profits out of this bloody war, pushing up Australians' energy prices. Australians are going to be paying more for power and more for gas because the gas cartel, the big gas companies, are banking big profits while this war continues to erupt. We need to tax them. This week, here in this chamber, we have the power to do it if there's the will.