Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) | Hansard source

I rise to take note of the answer to my question to the Minister representing the Prime Minister about the cost of living, the rise of the far right and taxing the one per cent. Politics should work for people but right now it doesn't. Ninety-six per cent of Australian rentals aren't affordable for essential workers. Just last week I was listening to a story about a couple on the Sunshine Coast, a nurse and an electrician, who've had so much trouble finding a rental that they've started their own community organisation to help other young people find housing. We need to be better than this. We need to demand better than this or we'll end up like the US, where inequality is rife, where services are underfunded or non-existent and where billionaires run politics. We're not there yet but we're on the same path. The one per cent are accumulating wealth and buying political power here in Australia too. In the face of this clear and rising inequality, Labor simply refused to take the bold action that would actually fix the housing crisis, the cost-of-living crisis and the climate crisis. This unwillingness to act is how Labor has created the conditions for One Nation to rise.

Senator Hanson wants an Australia that is angry and divided. She wants us scared of our neighbours and blaming each other for the cost-of-living problems that the major parties caused and that her billionaire backers benefit from. That's not the Australia that I want, and I don't believe that it's one that many people want either. But One Nation will not change the system any more than the Labor or Liberal parties will. They all do the bidding of the same billionaires and big corporations who donate to their political parties.

The major parties are in decline, and we have an opportunity for real change, so what I would say to those people looking for a change, looking for a fair go in Australia, is that you can start by changing your vote. You can vote for a party that puts people ahead of profits, and that's the Greens. The Greens don't accept that tinkering around the edges is the best that we can hope for, and neither should the Australian people. Better is possible if we're willing to fight for it. Change isn't something that we can just wait for to land in our laps; it's something that we have to make together. It starts with reminding ourselves that, while the system is stacked in favour of the one per cent now, people are not powerless. The billionaires and the big corporations out-lobby and out-donate, buying out politicians like just another asset in their portfolio. Just ask Gina Rinehart. They fund fake grassroots campaigns to make it look like their support is bigger than it is. They set up industry groups to use their megaphone to argue that their interests should come first.

By ourselves, it feels like there's little that we can do, but, luckily, we're not by ourselves; we have each other. That solidarity is how we challenge the divisive politics of the one per cent. It's how we build a movement that welcomes everyone and a community that is safe for everyone. The one per cent want us to blame one another so that we don't come together and realise that it's the big corporations and the billionaires making life harder for everyone, just to boost their own profits. But around the world we're seeing people-powered progressive movements for change that are growing and winning. The many are powerful. We can have that here too.

It feels like people are so used to the system not working for them that they've given up hope that it ever can. They don't have hope that change can happen. They've been told too many times that their basic asks are too much, that a system that works for them is unrealistic. Well, I don't accept the powers that be telling Australians that we can't have nice things or that the system can't be changed, or that a nurse or an electrician have to start their own community organisation to find affordable housing. It's time to take our power back. It's time to take on the one per cent.

Question agreed to.