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

Labor's utter capitulation on tax policy is so saddening and so devastating for the millions of Australians who believe in progressive taxation and economic fairness. By backing in the stage 3 income tax cuts, negative gearing and capital gains tax discount, Labor has ensured that, no matter who wins the next election, economic inequality will keep spiralling, the rich will keep getting richer and, for everyone else, the hope that they can enjoy their fair share of prosperity will ebb away even more quickly than it already is. We'll see cuts to spending on essential services, houses prices reaching even more ridiculous heights, more people forced into homelessness and young people, whether they be renters or aspiring home owners, having to spend even more to have a home.

This Labor capitulation follows exactly the same pattern as what they've done on climate change, public subsidies for burning fossil fuels, the war on nature, the torture of refugees and the descent into a surveillance state. It allows the LNP and Australia to lurch even further to the right and further into neoliberalism. The only way we can break this cycle, and break this cycle we must, is to put the Greens into the balance of power in the House and in the Senate. Turf the current government out and allow the Greens, in the balance of power, to be in a position to force a new Labor government to be more progressive and force them to act more strongly and more quickly on climate and economic inequality. That is what we must do to save our country from the neoliberals.