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

We are living in dangerous times. Fascism is building right before our eyes, and it is no accident. In the United States, a country built on violence and exploitation, state violence is moving out of the shadows and becoming normalised as explicit policy. We have seen ICE agents kill with impunity, children forcibly removed from their families, and protests met with escalating police brutality rather than accountability. What once would have been unimaginable is now ordinary, daily news. Trump now deploys military power with no regard for due process or for human dignity. The chaos and horror are relentless. Yet the Albanese government embraces this terrifying regime.

By cosying up to Trump, Prime Minister Albanese signals the type of leader he is willing to align with, one who thrives on cruelty and domination. The government clings to this myth that giving in to power makes us safer, stronger and more prosperous. It does not. Just yesterday it was revealed that the Albanese government may be quietly preparing to hand US authorities, including ICE, direct access to Australians' biometric and identity data. We found out only through the media.

This government just keeps bowing to billionaires, to energy giants, to weapons manufacturers, to corporate lobbyists and to the endless demands of the United States. We cannot pretend that these patterns are confined to distant shores. The disease of fascism is taking root here too. Governments crack down on political protest and criticism of policy is treated as subversive. Every measure, every law, that limits dissent—every instance of ignoring injustice—is a warning sign of democracy is being hollowed out.

Here at home we face real consequences as well. Cost-of-living pressures are rising, housing insecurity is worsening, climate chaos is intensifying and inequality is growing. Racism is thriving and fear is spreading, and the Albanese government is leaning into it. Laws have been rushed through that validate false narratives about Muslims, excluding them from protections. Neo-Nazi rallies are met with near silence, and First Nations communities are attacked while the state offers little accountability. The racism and scapegoating are not fringe; they are mainstream. This is why we cannot rely on billionaires, war profiteers or authoritarian leaders to save us. We cannot rely on governments that kneel before power while ordinary people struggle.

We must reject alliances built on cruelty, greed and domination. Australia can and must choose a different path, one grounded in human dignity, in global justice and in environmental survival. We must demand leadership that stands with those fighting oppression and not with those profiting from it—leadership that protects communities rather than punishes them, leadership that speaks truth to power, even when it is inconvenient and dangerous. That is the courage that our times demand.

So the choice is clear. We can continue to follow fear and submission and watch a democracy continue to be dismantled by those that sow division and hatred, or we can stand together, insisting that morality, justice and human dignity guide this country's decisions.