Elizabeth Watson-Brown
Ryan · Australian Greens · Australia
“We terrified the major parties because they knew it was popular and they were going to lose votes if they didn't do something. So they caved. Both Labor and the Liberals committed to 50 cent fares permanently. In 2022, we won bigger taxes on coal corporations in Queensland with the same method. We announced our policy.”
“Labor MPs were sitting around a table with Sportsbet at the Midwinter Ball last night, and this morning they introduced gambling reform designed to appease the gambling lobby. Gambling is a multibillion-dollar industry built off the losses of everyday people. People are losing their livelihoods and their lives over this.”
“This is the motion that Labor just tried to stop me talking about: the need for essential public services to return to public ownership. Instead, Labor replaced it with their own topic. I've never seen this happen before in the entire time I've been here.”
“It's no wonder that they want to stop me talking about it. They don't have the solutions. The real solution is staring us in the face. We have to end 40 years of privatisation and corporate rule. If you're out there in the real world listening to this, I just want to say something.”
“on indulgence I also acknowledge that it's a very good idea that we do have a conversation about this because it's a critical thing. We here on the crossbench are representing our constituents, and we are giving them a voice here in this parliament. Any potential suppression of that is a suppression of the voices of our constituents.”
“That's why I reckon we can win a gas tax, but only if we organise. We know the people in Labor and the major parties are still too close to big corporations to really put everyday people first, so we'll have to replace them. But you know how we replace them? By getting organised.”
The complete record
Every one of 365 lines we hold for Elizabeth Watson-Brown, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 2 of 8.
“Here are some people the government should be listening to about a 25 per cent tax on gas exports instead of the gas lobbyists. Jakub asks: How is it possible that the government of Japan collects more taxes from reselling Australian gas than the government of Australia? Great question, Jakub. Alan says: both sides of politics have been compromised by the GAS and MINERALS industries. Money is changing hands constantly … TAX GAS. Jason says: stop the donations, gifts, sponsorships, whatever you wanna call it, from these big corporations. Major conflict of interest and having an influence on a decision. Julia says: by not taxing gas corporations they are alienating the very people who voted for them, which was the majority of us. Tax the gas! Dean says: Tax the gas Niyazi says: Tax the gas Robert says: Tax the gas Chris says: Tax the gas.”
“At the end of the day, it's clear that disabled people will be significantly worse off. For this reason, the Greens and I will be strongly opposing this bill.”
“The proposed changes we are debating give me absolutely no confidence that they will target those who are genuinely exploiting the NDIS. Rather, it's clear the government is using this as cover to unceremoniously and radically reduce the size of the scheme in an attempt to avoid political blowback. One of the survey respondents summed it up really well: I am disgusted and horrified that the media narratives and political agenda continues to attack marginalised people, in this case some of the most vulnerable people in our rich country, to save a few bucks. Meanwhile multinational corporations get away with making billion dollar profits and paying no tax, our natural resources are taken by foreign investors and the citizens of our country don't benefit at all.”
“The participants and carers from whom I've heard are also well aware that some level of fraud and exploitation is happening within the scheme. Many of them responded to my survey unprompted about how to actually address these issues. Notably, their suggestions don't include kicking people off the scheme. One person pointed out the huge amounts of money wasted by the NDIA on legal fees because participants are forced to go to the ART to get the care they need. They rightly point out that, if participants were given appropriate supports in the first place, there would be less need for costly review processes. Another simply said: Don't target the participants, target the unscrupulous service providers and fraudsters.”
“The social and community support that has been one of the main targets for the government's cuts means so much to participants because it allows them to participate in society. It's crucial for mental and physical health. One participant who responded to my survey is blind and relies on support workers to get out and about. That has allowed them to get involved in competitive sport—which is great—which has in turn improved their health and resulted in fewer falls and hospitalisations. Of the changes, they said: They will reverse the good and the feeling that I am an important part of society—at the moment I feel that only gas and coal bosses are important, and they all wish we'd just shut up and die.”
“I sent out a survey about these cuts to my electorate, to people on the NDIS and those supporting someone on the NDIS who my office has directly helped with advocacy. Every single respondent said they were concerned about the effects of these cuts, about either being kicked off the scheme or having absolutely essential supports cut. One person supporting someone on the scheme said that they both—that's the person supporting and the person on the scheme—would not be able to work, contribute or live without the NDIS. Another said: We barely survived before, I am absolutely terrified of going back. Many others also said their participation in the workforce was contingent on the support they receive as well as the ability to stay out of hospital and to stay in stable housing.”
“Large providers who monopolise the system are the cause of so much fraud and abuse of disabled participants, in part because the NDIA does not require them to implement checks, balances or strong anti-fraud safeguards. No-one cares more about fraud than disabled people and their families, because they're the ones that suffer at the hands of fraudulent providers. But we don't tackle those issues with the NDIS, and we don't solve those problems, by kicking people off the scheme or making disabled people worse off by removing the support they so desperately need. When there's fraud in Medicare, we don't just kick people off it or reduce people's support because we recognise that as an essential service.”
“So if you can't afford to pursue all treatment options, too bad, you can't access the NDIS. They are going to reassess all participants and remove 160,000 people from the scheme, and it's still unclear what alternative supports will be available for that cohort. It's no wonder that people are rightly very, very scared. This bill gives the minister the ability to make broad reductions to entire groups of supports, which will enable a 50 per cent funding cut to every participant's social and community participation supports and a 10 per cent cut to their capacity-building supports, with absolutely no regard to what people actually need. It's very clear to me that there are some problems with the way the NDIS operates, which have allowed the scheme to be exploited.”
“The Greens and I are opposing the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026. The sheer volume of amendments being moved to this bill demonstrates that this bill just should not pass in its current form. We'll be supporting most of the amendments, despite them not sufficiently addressing the scale of harm in the government's bill. The Greens will be moving our own amendments in the Senate. The largest saving in this budget is $37.8 billion in cuts to the NDIS to be implemented via the changes in this bill. Here's what those changes will actually mean. They're changing the definition of permanent disability. Under this new provision, NDIS access won't be granted until all other medical treatment options have been exhausted and have failed to reduce people's disability.”
“Does the Australian government, Labor or LNP, have a vision for how our economy prospers into the future, or are we just an unproductive resource economy? Our R&D investment in Australia is miserably low—1.7 per cent of GDP. The OECD average is around 2.7 per cent. Here's a proposal: tax our gas while we can, use a bunch of that money to fund an explosion of R&D and drive an innovative economy that tackles climate change and generates wealth from other sectors, not just resources and property.”
“CSIRO, our peak research body, with a large presence in Ryan, has just cut another 92 jobs. This is after cutting 800 jobs over the last two years. Many of these latest jobs were crucial roles in climate research, crucial jobs helping continue the development of our climate modelling system, the Australian Community Climate and Earth System Simulator. Roughly a third of climate modelling jobs have been cut. This Labor government likes to talk as though it's a champion of climate action, but moments like this indicate that they just don't get it. Where is the funding for this crucial research? Why are Labor continuing to approve new coal and gas mines? Why did they cut $4 billion from the renewables transition in this latest budget? This goes beyond climate.”
“No; Labor have instead done a token set of reforms purely so they can say they've done something. It's pretty clear that's what they were going for. Some restrictions on specific time slots and types of broadcasts, which will just shift more ads into other unrestricted slots. The government's own modelling says these reforms will only reduce gambling by 0.8 per cent. I'm sure the gambling companies are okay with that. It's shameful, isn't it, that this is the state of our democracy, but I do have hope because the government clearly do feel like they need to respond to pressure. That's why they are doing things that they think sound good, even if they don't actually fix anything. That means that if all of our voices are collectively louder than the gas lobby, than the gambling lobby, then we can get real change.”
“It was the government response to a key gambling report, which they had been sitting on literally for years, that recommended banning online gambling advertising. I'd be embarrassed too if I completely capitulated to the gambling lobby on an issue that costs Australians $32 billion a year and countless lives and livelihoods. I'd be embarrassed too if I completely capitulated on an issue that unites almost all Australians. We are sick of gambling ads, and we are sick of the effect that they are having on our society. The almost $3 million in donations to the major parties over the last decade from the gambling lobby, has really paid off for them, hasn't it? Including to Labor in government setting the very regulations the industry is subject to. Who are they governing for again? For the Australian people or the gambling lobby?”
“This is who we are up against, and that's why I'm so proud of every Australian who signed the petition, sent an email to their MP, shared this campaign online. It's only through people power that we can be louder than the gas industry. But the gas industry isn't the only powerful corporate lobby influencing the government. The gambling industry, backed in by media moguls afraid of losing advertising revenue, has quietly exerted a huge amount of influence to counter community anger against gambling advertising and the terrible effects of gambling harm on the Australian people. And here's something the government don't want you to know. They are so embarrassed by it they released it on the afternoon of the budget, right when all the journalists couldn't access their phones in the budget lock-up.”
“Prior to the budget, the Prime Minister flew to Perth specifically to reassure gas companies that he would not implement the 25 per cent tax on gas exports that the Australian people are demanding. Who is he really governing for? The major gas companies each gave $1 million to an advertising campaign that wasn't for the Australian people; it was to remind politicians who they really work for. And it clearly worked on the PM—of course it would. The gas companies and the lobby groups of full of former Labor staff, and vice versa. Queensland Labor Senator Anthony Chisholm worked as a lobbyist for gas company Santos—and this is a fact—before he entered parliament. They are all actually mates, aren't they? And we wouldn't want to do anything to hurt the profits of our good mates in the gas industry.”
“This motion is about corporate control of politics, and there is no better illustration of that control than what happened on budget night. The Treasurer delivers the budget speech and then heads to a fundraising event. That event is not open to the public; it's exclusive. Tickets cost thousands of dollars. Big corporations and the ultra-wealthy get to cosy up to senior government MPs right after the budget is delivered. Not to be left out, the coalition has its own version of this fundraiser, with tickets also well into the four figures, after the budget reply speech, so it begs the question: Who really runs this country? Is it the gas corporations or the Australian people? The government has chosen the gas corporations.”
“I move: That this House: (1) notes that: (a) despite the overwhelming support of the Australian people for gas corporations to pay their fair share for our resources, the Government has instead listened to the gas lobby and refused to implement a 25 per cent tax on gas exports; (b) despite the overwhelming support of the Australian people for a ban on gambling advertising, the Government has instead listened to the gambling lobby and refused to implement a full ban; and (c) prior to the 2025 federal election, the major parties received millions in donations from fossil fuel corporations and the gambling industry; and (2) calls on the Government to: (a) implement a minimum 25 per cent tax on gas exports; (b) implement a total ban on gambling advertising; and (c) commit to addressing corporate control over our political system.”
“I'm imploring members of this House to not put their party's political line ahead of what their voters are clearly calling on them to do. Their party's political line has been set by the gas lobby, not even by their party's membership or even their caucus. There are Labor voters, Liberal voters, One Nation voters all out there wanting members of this House to step up and stop gas corporations from ripping us all off. Imagine being able to go to the Australian people and say, 'We're raising $17 billion extra a year; what would you like to spend it on?' There's nothing stopping members of this chamber, only the entrenched power of the corporate lobbying machine over your parties. So I'm calling on members in this chamber to cross the floor and show Australian people, their voters, that they're not just cogs in a political machine.”
“What better way to demonstrate a willingness to break with the status quo than to back this amendment to the budget, to implement a tax on gas corporations? What better way to show a willingness to not follow politics as usual than to break with party lines and support this eminently sensible and positive reform that people are demanding? So I'm imploring, cross the floor! Come on, just cross the floor and vote for a gas tax. I want to urge members of the Labor Party, the Liberal Party, the Nats and One Nation to all cross the floor. Their voters will reward them for it. I want members in this chamber to know that their voters actually want a gas tax. Their voters want to see them side with the people, not with vested interests. I'm being completely serious.”
“There needs to be a break with this unrepresentative, pro-corporate, out-of-touch status quo to turn the page really decisively on decades of deregulation, privatisation and corporate tax avoidance. When people are feeling ignored by the political system, when they're feeling the squeeze, while they see the wealth of the top 1 per cent soar, you don't rush to defend that status quo. You don't just tinker around the edges. You say, 'Yes, it is time for real change. It's time to make the one per cent and the big corporations pay their fair share and build a society where everyone can get ahead.' That's the only way to bring people together on a different politics, other than nation's politics of division and of hate. What's to be done? We could start right now.”
“I prefer to call it democracy, but it seems our political class finds democracy a suspicious concept. The failure goes deeper. The failure to listen to everyday people accelerates the decline in trust in government. This failure is a gift to One Nation. If Labor keeps failing like this, they will deliver One Nation into government. Do you think One Nation's rise will just go away? Even if they collapse tomorrow, something else will rise in its place because the conditions for One Nation's rise continue to be created by our out-of-touch political establishment. The status quo currently defended by the Albanese Labor Party is not working for everyday people. People are starting to reject it. People are right to reject it. They are not being listened to. They are finding their lives getting tougher and tougher year on year.”
“I move: That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words: "whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House calls on the Government to implement a 25 per cent gas export tax". This budget fails the Australian people in many ways. I'm not saying there's no good in it. What I'm saying is it fails to meet the scale of people's needs, the needs of the moment and the boldness required to get Australia back on track. The biggest symbol of this failure is the government's decision to not include a tax on gas exports. This failure is not just significant economically; it's a failure because of what it represents. It's a failure because it shows a clear disdain from our political class towards people's clearly expressed wishes. Some people call this campaign for a gas tax populism.”
“This Labor government was supposed to act with more integrity than the Morrison government. It's more of the same. Well, I think it's time for a change.”
“What kind of democracy is it where these same lobbyists can literally buy access to these ministers—something a normal person could never do, could never afford—and where senior staff, ministers and even state premiers go on to work for the gas lobby as soon as they finish their political career? Some current representatives even worked in senior positions in these corporations right up until being elected. It is a revolving door. What kind of democracy is it where our resources and our wealth are practically given away for free to these corporations? Ordinary people are paying more tax than these corporations. In fact, many of these corporations pay no tax at all. This is our government. This is our wealth. But both are being captured by these massive corporations.”
“Imagine how many public and affordable homes we could build with that. Imagine fully funding our health services, like putting dental and mental cover into Medicare. Imagine using it to wipe student debt. It's not like the alternative is any better. Not just Labor but both major parties have repeatedly chosen the gas industry over Australian people. What kind of democracy is this? I'm serious. What kind of democracy is it where two-thirds of Australians can support a policy and the government reject it, where massive gas corporations can legally shovel millions of dollars into the coffers of the major parties and buy influence, and where lobbyists for gas corporations can run their talking points with senior ministers and staffers to the point where the government starts parroting them like they're gospel?”
“Last night, the Labor government chose the gas industry. More than three in five Australians support a 25 per cent tax on gas exports. They know we're being ripped off and they want gas corporations to pay their fair share. Only one in 20 Australians oppose it—two-thirds support it—and yet here we are, the morning after the budget, and there's no tax on gas exports. We live in a democracy, and yet it's clear that the will of the people can be superseded by large, powerful corporations and their billionaire owners. Their interests simply matter more to the government than the interests of the majority of Australians. With the $17 billion that this tax would raise per year, we could make a real difference in people's lives. $17 billion is almost double the entire federal budget for housing.”
“Instead, let's work together to fix these things, to make a better Australia for everyone and a better future for all of the children and grandchildren. I call it active, practical hope. There's real hope in knowing that there are more of us than there are of them. There are more everyday people than them—those corporations, the billionaire class and their political allies. There's hope in knowing that the majority of Australians want to address wealth inequality. They want a fairer return on our resources. They want action on climate. They want a government with integrity. They don't want us to go to war. I'll keep pushing forward with that active, practical hope.”
“Katy Perry was the headline act. Pratt, by the way, was Labor's biggest individual donor, giving them $2 million last election season. In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis and a fuel crisis resulting from a war that the Labor government has supported, if you're an ordinary citizen struggling to get a meeting with the Prime Minister, it's simple: just get an international pop star to headline your party and invite him along! It's easy—it's very easy—to feel disheartened by all this. It's very easy to feel disheartened that this is who the leaders in our government are spending their time with. It's challenging, but let's not give up hope. Let us be clear-eyed about what is actually happening. Let us all resist being gaslit—resist being told that it's just how it is and it's impossible to make change.”
“Labor approved an extension to the Southern Hemisphere's largest fossil-fuel project, the North West Shelf, among dozens of other approvals of fossil-fuel projects. Why aren't these things happening? They should and they could—all of those promises could be met. But I'm afraid this government is nobbled by their relationship with their masters. And that's not you, but the big end of town—the big corporations and their billionaire owners. They don't just donate to the major parties; they party together; they exchange staff; they line up their post-politics jobs. That's the only explanation for why—in a wealthy country, with all of our amazing natural assets and our resources—you are suffering and you are paying. Just a few weeks ago, the Prime Minister was partying with Australia's third-richest person, billionaire Anthony Pratt.”
“I thought we could work together for fairness and integrity and honesty and transparency with the Australian people. So I just thought I'd check in with you and see how you feel things are going. How do you feel about it all? Let's have a look at some of the things that were promised—some of the things we hoped for; some of the things we all deserve in a wealthy, democratic nation like Australia. Take 'no-one left behind'. Well, they're certainly not tackling the rising wealth inequality in this country. That's further separating the haves and the have nots. Ordinary people's living standards are going backwards, while corporate profits and billionaires' wealth are soaring. 'Action on climate change'—what a joke! What a tragedy.”
“And the complexion of parliament had changed, with far more representation of Greens and Independents on the crossbench and with more women, and the parliament had a much more representative cross-section of the Australian population than ever before. I really thought we'd be able to achieve good things together—that we'd be able to work well together to make advances towards a better, fairer life for all Australians; that we could hope for a better Australia together. I thought we could work together for every Australian to have a roof over their head, in good housing, accessible to all. I thought we could work together to address the climate crisis; to provide high-quality free education for all, at every level; and to provide high-quality, free health care to all.”
“Good evening, everyone. How are you? There's a lot going on, isn't there—lots of challenges. I thought I'd check in with you just to see how you're going. Here we are, about a third of the way through this government's second term and my second term as the member for Ryan. I thought it might be good to just catch up and have a chat about things—about where we are, where we'd like to be, where we're going and what's been happening. When I won the seat of Ryan in 2022, I had really big hopes, as did many. Labor had made so many promises: promises to look after us—to look after Australians—and to make Australia a better and fairer place.”
“A 25 per cent tax on gas exports would raise $17 billion every year, and it would raise it from the companies making billions in profit. So why don't they tax them? Because Labor and the LNP are on the take. They accept millions of dollars in corporate donations from these same gas companies, and they don't want to stop the gravy train.”
“If yes, then you paid more in income tax than Santos, Chevron, Australia Pacific LNG, PETRONAS, TotalEnergies and Shell combined. Are you an electrician or a plumber? Then you paid more in tax. Are you a barista, grad student, hospitality worker, doctor, chippie, public servant or small-business owner? Then you paid more in tax than gas corporations in Australia. Beer drinkers pay more in beer excise than gas exporters pay in Petroleum Resource Rent Tax. Students pay more in HECS repayments than gas exporters pay in tax. We are being ripped off. In just four years, multinational corporations have made $149 billion exporting gas from Australia totally royalty free. Labor and the LNP often tell the public that we can't afford to do this or that in the budget.”
“When overseas buyers can onsell Australian gas for a massive profit—and they're paying almost no tax—something is fundamentally and seriously wrong. We extract the gas and we export the vast majority of it overseas without any guarantee of domestic supply, and gas companies make record profits while paying almost nothing in tax. Since gas exports began in 2015, they've led to the tripling of wholesale gas prices on the east coast and a doubling of electricity prices. We are paying to ship our gas overseas. Who benefits from Australian gas? Certainly not everyday Australians. It's the massive gas companies who pay no tax, the politicians who receive huge donations from the gas industry and the ultra-wealthy shareholders. Did you pay more tax last year than a massive gas corporation? Let's find out. Are you a nurse or a teacher?”
“One of the easiest ways to avoid an export tax would be to sell it domestically, increasing supply and lowering the price for everyday Australians. Your cheeky Friday beer generates more tax than Australia's gas industry, and that's a credit to how good we are at enjoying a few cold ones! Despite Australia being one of the largest exporters of gas in the world, we make more from taxing beer than taxing gas. Why? Because the government represents the interests of massive gas companies over those of everyday Australians. Did you know that, despite producing absolutely zero gas themselves, Japan has become one of the largest traders in the global gas industry, entirely off the back of Australian gas exports?”
“I thank the member for Mackellar for raising this very important matter of public importance. An overwhelming number of Australians support a gas export tax to fund essential services in Australia. In a national poll conducted by YouGov, 61 per cent of voters agreed that gas export companies should pay a 25 per cent gas export tax. Only five per cent disagreed. It's not a secret anymore; Australians have cottoned on to the fact that we're being taken for a ride by massive gas corporations, and they're demanding that the government do something about it. They're demanding a 25 per cent tax on gas exports. Not only would this raise much-needed revenue for essential services; it would also incentivise gas companies to divert gas to Australians.”
“My question is to the Treasurer. Can you confirm that oil and gas giant Shell has for years paid no Petroleum Resource Rent Tax and, even with your recent changes and war prices for LNG, Shell will now at best only pay a few cents per dollar of revenue? Isn't it time for a 25 per cent tax on gas export revenue so gas corporations like Shell pay their fair share?”
“This one per cent just take the wealth produced by this country and use it to buy more wealth. They take our natural resources, they buy up the housing, they buy up our public services and infrastructure and they get rewarded with tax breaks. Meanwhile, things get harder for the rest of us. It is time to tax that top one per cent and bring fairness back.”
“Who should your politicians serve—the young nurse who just wants to be able to buy a home and raise a family one day or the CEO of the massive gas corporation whose company pays no tax, the immigrant barber who's hustling for their small business to succeed so they can look after their parents or the owner of 50 investment properties who makes money driving up house prices, the plumber who's just saving up for a decent holiday with his mates or the billionaire head of a fund management company who makes millions in his sleep? The major parties struggle to answer this question. I don't. Ninety-nine per cent of us are doing our very best just trying to get ahead to live a decent life. That's who our politicians should serve. That's who they're supposed to serve. But, instead, they're serving the wealthiest one per cent.”
“The CGT discount was supposedly introduced to help productivity, but it's having the opposite effect, acting as just a huge government subsidy for the wealthy. It overwhelmingly goes to capital gains on existing housing stock, and business investment has proportionately gone down since it was introduced. The CGT discount is an overwhelming failure that needs to be wound back urgently.”
“We shouldn't tax workers more than asset owners, but that's what the capital gains tax discount enables, quite literally dividing our society between the haves and the have-nots. When the Howard government brought in the capital gains tax discount, a house cost six times the average wage. Now it costs 11 times the average wage. In just 25 years, the cost of buying a house relative to your income has almost doubled. So, at auctions around the country, first home buyers are being constantly outbid by property investors that have more cash to play around with due to the CGT discount. Eighty-three per cent of the benefit of the CGT discount goes to the top 10 per cent of income earners—83 per cent!—and around 60 per cent to the top one per cent alone. Let's be clear: that is literal transfer of wealth from ordinary people to the ultrawealthy.”
“A big reason for that is our tax settings, particularly negative gearing and the 50 per cent CGT, capital gains tax, discount. The Greens-led Senate inquiry into the operation of the CGT discount recently released their report that confirmed the extent to which it contributes to inequality in this country. It also heard from a wealth of economists, who agreed that winding back the CGT discount is absolutely vital for tackling inequality and reining in house price growth. A teacher earning $100,000 a year should not pay more tax than someone earning $100,000 from their investment properties. A retail worker earning $70,000 a year shouldn't pay more tax than someone earning $70,000 from shares.”
“But the people making the decision to hike interest rates, to support these wars and to let corporations price gouge us are completely exempt from the consequences. Politicians aren't the ones who'll be choosing between buying groceries and paying their mortgage. They make the decisions and are immune to their effects. They don't care about everyday people anymore. They only seem to care about the ultrawealthy and massive corporations. The RBA has only one lever it can use—interest rates. When you only have a hammer, everything looks like a nail, but the government can do a lot more to tackle inflation and tackle rising inequality. The value of housing has gone up astronomically over the past couple of decades, a hugely strong contributor to inflation.”
“'The unemployment rate will probably have to rise,' says Michele Bullock, the head of the RBA, who herself settled on a $2 million luxury holiday home on the coast on the same day that she hiked interest rates. That's hundreds of thousands more people unemployed. If Bullock gets her way and keeps on hiking interest rates, that's millions more people struggling to pay their mortgage and forgoing a holiday, a present for their kids or a health check-up. For people like Michele Bullock, who has a $1.2 million salary a year, that's just numbers. It's just what the economy needs. But you're not a number. People are not numbers, and the economy doesn't need it. Corporate greed demands it. You didn't cause this latest round of inflation. Trump's war with Albanese's support and corporate profiteering did. Yet we're told we have to pay for it.”
“I rise to speak on the member for Maribyrnong's motion on housing this morning. I just heard the member mention renters. Are these better protections for renters in the room with us? It's like this government is allergic to doing anything to help renters, consistently refusing calls to coordinate with the states to stop unlimited rent increases or provide some semblance of security through mechanisms like long-term leases and stopping no-cause evictions. Renting is as insecure as ever. Rents in Brisbane have risen 50 per cent over the last five years while wages have only increased 19 per cent, and renters get punished by rate rises too.”
“The Greens will be supporting the Treasury Laws Amendment (Doubling Penalties for ACCC Enforcement) Bill 2026 in the House and reserving our position in the Senate. We also intend to support the passage of the Fair Work Amendment (Fairer Fuel) Bill 2026 in the House and reserve our position in the Senate. Labor's actually lying to you that they're tackling price gouging. All this ACCC bill does is increase penalties on existing offences—offences which have never in their history been used to crack down on fuel.”
“I move: That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words: "whilst not declining to give the Treasury Laws Amendment (Doubling Penalties for ACCC Enforcement) Bill 2026 a second reading, the House: (1) notes that: (a) price gouging is not banned under Australian law except in relation to supermarkets; (b) this Bill will do nothing to stop fuel corporations from price gouging because it only increases penalties on existing offences; and (c) claims that this Bill will stop fuel corporations price gouging are misleading the Australian public; and (2) calls on the government to: (a) stop backing President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu's illegal war on Iran, which is a key driver of skyrocketing fuel prices; and (b) extend the supermarket price gouging ban across the whole economy including fuel corporations".”
“The Greens and I will continue to hold the government to account for the damage they have caused to so many people and their families.”
“They said, and I quote: 'It seems to us that the government is trying to manage costs by agreeing people need and are entitled to a package but then withholding the money in a sneaky and non-transparent way.' One in three big corporations in Australia are getting away with paying no tax, but instead of going after them, Labor and the coalition are going after older people who've worked hard and paid their taxes all their lives—older people just trying to get the care that they need to survive. The Greens forced the government to release 20,000 home-care packages early, but that is not enough. We've won two Senate inquiries into the changes, one of which is still accepting submissions until July. So, if you've been affected by these changes, consider making a submission so that your story can actually be heard.”