Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) | Link to this | Hansard source

We are being inundated from overseas by AI slop and bots. It's being used to boost One Nation and spread hate online. Foreign websites are pumping out hundreds of fake posts a week, using deepfake AI to promote One Nation and attack everyone else. They spread racist, hateful messages, and we've seen it lead to real-life violence in the UK and elsewhere after these online campaigns had whipped up hate against migrants. Tsunamis of trash funded by billionaires from overseas are being spewed into comment threads. Remember when they used to tell us that social media would democratise our information? Well, it's not. The point of this torrent of hate is to flood the zone, to crowd out opposing views. It's not organic. It's an orchestrated campaign funded by billionaires for one reason: to distract people from their extreme wealth and the deep inequality that it's causing. It's happening globally. We've seen it in America. We've seen it in the UK. The Greens are calling it out. The time is now to fight back. We can't let billionaires and big corporations keep buying political influence. Australia can't keep sleepwalking into fascism. It's time to wake up.

Do you feel heard? Millions of people around the country are speaking up and demanding a tax on gas, but our prime minister is only listening to one group: the gas industry. He's taking their money, he's saying what they tell him to say, he's backing their projects, but he won't make them pay their fair share. Santos, one of the three biggest gas corporations, pays zero corporate tax. The average nurse, who catches the bus for an hour to get to work, pays more tax than Santos. The cleaners in this building pay more tax than Santos. Your kid's teacher pays more tax than Santos. And none of those workers are destroying the planet. How is that fair? Australians aren't stupid. They know when they're being taken for a ride.

A 25 per cent tax on gas exports could raise $17 billion. That sort of revenue could deliver immediate cost-of-living support. But the big political parties won't do it. Labor, the Liberals and One Nation are compromised. They've been bought off and they've sold out. It's time to break the gas lobby's grip on Canberra and ban their lobbyists from Parliament House and, most importantly, put power back where it belongs: with you. We're fighting for people. The rest of this place seems to be in it for themselves or their corporate donors.

Every political party in this country except the Greens is bleeding votes to One Nation. The major parties are in decline, and we have an opportunity for real change. But the thing is, Labor, the Liberals and One Nation are all the same; they all serve the same vested interests. They take the same billionaire and big corporate donations. They pass the same legislation to protect profits and not people. As a result, we have the worst wealth inequality in history. No wonder people are angry. But blaming migrants won't make big corporations pay their fair share of tax. It won't restore funding to essential services. It won't lift people out of poverty. It won't make housing more affordable. It won't make wages rise.

If people want a fair go in Australia then they need to vote for the only party that puts people ahead of profits, and that's the Greens. We can replace the major parties. We can make big corporations pay their fair share, to invest in the things that people need. We can stop privatisation and bring the essentials back into public hands, to be run for people and not for profit. That's how we stop One Nation. That's how we give people hope for the future. Better is possible, but we've got to fight for it.