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 6 of 8.
“Today we as a parliament have delivered a significant win for tens of thousands of older people in need of aged-care support at home. The Greens and the crossbench are delivering for our communities, and it shows that, despite Labor's massive majority in this place, we can still encourage them into making real, meaningful change for regular people in the community. After months of pressure from the Greens and the crossbench, the government has announced it'll bring forward the planned 83,000 home-care packages and begin to release them immediately, with 20,000 released prior to 1 November. The government had to be dragged kicking and screaming to this outcome. They had to suffer—”
“Labor approved over 30 new coal and gas projects last term, and they're showing no signs of slowing down. They already approved the extension to Woodside's North West Shelf project within 15 days of winning re-election. That project will produce equivalent emissions to all of Australia's coal-fired power plants. This is criminal. The government keeps talking about believing in science. We know the consequences of climate change. It is not an exaggeration to say that this is endangering lives. Labor knows this; they're well aware of the science, but they continue to approve new coal and gas while being absolutely fully aware of the dangers of the dire consequences. Really, are these the acts of a responsible government that should be looking after all Australians?”
“And I'm sorry to keep bringing bad news stories this evening, but there's another really bad news story for the environment that we just found out about this morning. Labor has just approved another coal mine—a thermal coal mine, the Ulan mine in New South Wales. This is going to allow the extraction of another 18.8 million tonnes of coal. That's around 50 million tonnes of emissions that will result from that. What an absolute joke! What a slap in the face of all Australians for this government to do that while congratulating itself, while patting itself on the back for acting on climate! And, to add further insult to injury, this is also going to clear up to 37 hectares of precious native vegetation, putting threatened species like koalas and swift parrots further at risk.”
“And here's the worst part: the tank is currently sitting empty, but it's about to be used again as part of the huge climate-wrecking Barossa gas project. Even though it's empty, the environmental regulators are just not forcing Santos to replace or even repair it. They're also not forced to measure the actual scale of the leak, because that would be such an inconvenience for poor old Santos. How is this legal? It is absolutely outrageous. The Australian state is completely captured by the gas industry. By the way, Santos also gets away with paying no corporate income tax most years, and they pay no royalties on all of the offshore gas that they export overseas, reaping enormous profits for themselves. No matter how you look at it, ordinary Australians lose from this crazy deal.”
“The report recommends that the government adopt Greens policy to spend one per cent of GDP, which is around $3.4 billion, on protecting nature so that it can still be enjoyed by generations to come. We also got shocking revelations this week about just how much environmental damage big corporations are getting away with under the current laws—yes, legally. Is that a leak I smell? A gas leak? No, sorry; it's Santos again. Their LNG storage facility in Darwin has been leaking methane for 20 years, and they've been covering it up for 20 years with the help of the very regulators who are supposed to stop this from happening. This is an environmental disaster. No-one knows how much methane has leaked from this facility, but conservative estimates say that it's the emissions equivalent of adding 8,000 cars to the road.”
“But, as usual, the Albanese government is kowtowing to vested interests and lobby groups to further trash nature protections. As usual, they're trying to rush a deal through without addressing the deforestation crisis, and it is a very serious crisis in Australia. The Albanese government must strengthen federal environmental protections and close damaging deforestation loopholes that have allowed this terrible destruction to go on for way too long. A report released just today showed that Australia's natural environment contributes half a trillion dollars to our economy annually. That's as much as the mining and finance sectors combined. But this huge contribution to our economy is under threat from climate change, of course, and other environmental damage.”
“Every year, hundreds of thousands of hectares of Australia's unique forests and bushland are bulldozed. In Queensland alone, shamefully, analysis from the Wilderness Society shows that every four minutes threatened species habitat the scale of the Sydney Harbour Bridge area is bulldozed for beef. When allowed to thrive, Australia's precious forests and bushlands provide habitat for threatened species like the koala, the greater glider and the red goshawk and serve as water filters and carbon sinks. My electorate of Ryan is absolutely blessed with large areas of bushland, beautiful creekways and wildlife, and many active volunteer environmental groups working tirelessly, in a volunteering capacity, to preserve, nurture and restore our precious natural environments.”
“We must ensure First Nations communities have autonomy and control over decisions concerning their own heritage by guaranteeing free, prior and informed consent as a fundamental element of all EPBC decisions. The fight for better protection of cultural heritage is one that all Australians can get behind. First Nations cultural heritage is Australian cultural heritage. We need real reforms to the EPBC Act that protect First Nations cultural heritage, our forests, our seas and our animals for future generations. But we have a deforestation crisis on our hands! Congratulations to us! Here in Australia, we are responsible for more deforestation than almost any other country on earth. And the Labor government wants to make it worse. Australia is a major global deforestation—shame, shame, shame—rivalled only by Brazil and Indonesia.”
“Labor committed to strengthening cultural heritage protection laws nationally. Tragically, rather than doing that, they have so far been complicit in the destruction of cultural heritage, by prioritising the profits of the gas cartels and their climate-wrecking projects. This comes at a great cost to traditional owners and is an affront to First Nations people around the country. We are talking here about the destruction of some of the world's oldest rock art, created by members of the world's oldest continuous culture—and our laws allow it! It is legal! Labor must deliver long-overdue cultural heritage reforms that support and empower traditional owners and communities to preserve their connection to their ancestors and to protect their rich, historic and vibrant culture from inappropriate developments.”
“Australian legislation to protect First Nations cultural heritage is failing; it is just not working to support the rights of First Nations people. Many sacred First Nations sites across the country are currently under real and serious threat, like the sacred rock art at Murujuga and in Darwin, sacred forests in the Pilliga, caves along the Great Australian Bight and burial grounds and songlines in the Tiwi Islands. Rather than keeping First Nations cultural heritage safe, our laws are enabling its destruction. Current cultural heritage protection arrangements are creating real uncertainty for First Nations people and for proponents. Cultural heritage is considered way too late in assessment and approval processes, often even after those processes have been basically completed.”
“The appalling destruction of the Juukan Gorge site in 2020 by Rio Tinto was all the more shocking because it was entirely legal and it was not an isolated event. First Nations cultural heritage is being destroyed, damaged, degraded and displaced every day across this country. Rio Tinto was widely condemned after it was legally allowed to blow up the 46,000-year-old caves in May 2020 under WA's outdated Aboriginal Heritage Act. The Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura peoples were left devastated, while Rio Tinto tried to save face by overhauling its executive team and admitting it had breached traditional owners' trust. The inquiry into the destruction of Juukan Gorge recommended stronger overarching heritage legislation, co-designed with Indigenous people, that provides minimum standards for all states and territories.”
“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: (1) notes: (a) in the words of the First Nations Heritage Protection Alliance, the current approach is 'largely focused on regulating the destruction of First Nations Cultural Heritage, rather than its protection'; and (b) that decision makers have prioritised the profits of gas cartels and climate wrecking projects at great cost to the world's oldest continuous culture, including the entirely legal destruction of 46,000-year-old caves at Juukan Gorge by Rio Tinto in May 2020 under outdated laws; and (2) calls on the Government to: (a) deliver on the long overdue cultural heritage reforms that support and empower the traditional owners and communities to preserve their connection to their ancestors and protect their rich, historic and vibrant culture from inappropriate developments; and (b) ensure that First Nations communities have autonomy and control over decisions concerning their own heritage by guaranteeing free, prior, informed consent is a fundamental element of all EPBC decisions".”
“My question is to the Prime Minister. The International Association of Genocide Scholars this week voted overwhelmingly in favour of a motion stating that Israel's actions in Gaza fit the definition of genocide under international law, and it called on states like Australia to uphold our obligations under the Genocide Convention. Will your government finally acknowledge that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza?”
“No wonder we haven't seen the government invest in public housing and no wonder we're seeing the government push for cutting red tape for big developers. It's a basic matter of conflict of interest. It's a basic matter of integrity in government. This isn't about any individual; it's a question of whose interests government decisions actually serve. Do they serve everyday renters and first home buyers, or do they serve the profits of developers and big finance corporations?”
“If it seems like the Labor government's housing policies are written by property developers and finance corporations, that's because they are. I want to give just one example here, but it's a very telling one. Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz was appointed as Chair of the Housing Supply and Affordability Council in 2022. This is the government's major adviser on housing policy. What was Lloyd-Hurwitz doing in the decade before that? She was the CEO of Mirvac, of course, one of Australia's largest property developers, a company with over $20 billion invested in property, where her salary was $4 million. Prior to that, she worked for Lendlease, another major property developer. Lloyd-Hurwitz currently sits on the board of directors of Macquarie Group, a major investment bank with massive investments in property.”
“Now they're cracking down once again on refugees, spending $400 million of taxpayer money to deport a few hundred refugees to Nauru. This is the tragic outcome of a bipartisan 'tough on borders' agenda. Then they scratch their heads and wonder why Nazis feel emboldened to hold rallies in our cities. Labor and the Liberals put out strongly worded statements defending our 'social cohesion'. They should look in the mirror. If you govern for massive corporations, if you let life get harder for everyday people and if you dog whistle at immigrants, you are providing the oxygen for the far right. Shame on you. I guess it's good to know who Labor and the Liberals will target and who they'll protect. Labor and the Liberals will break—”
“It's the oldest trick in the book. Every time there's a crisis, Labor and the Liberals point their fingers at immigrants. Some do it overtly; others just dog whistle. But the intent is the same. The intent is to distract from the fact that it's tax breaks for investors that's driving housing unaffordability; distract from the fact that the major parties are not willing to tax massive multinational corporations to fund the public hospitals, the schools, the housing and the transport that we need; and distract from the fact that it's massive monopoly supermarkets that are driving surging supermarket prices. Just last year, Labor and the Liberals went after international students, scapegoating them for the housing crisis.”
“These are basic rights for procedural fairness that should apply to everyone—no exceptions. Everyone is equal under the law, no matter where they're born. The Nauru president has made it clear that he intends to send people Australia deports there back to the country that they have fled. Make no mistake, this puts these refugees' lives in danger. It is unspeakably cruel. This is Labor with a majority, 94 seats, attacking refugees and depriving them of basic procedural fairness and natural justice. The fact that there is no-one from the government speaking to this bill speaks volumes, doesn't it? It speaks for itself. They should be ashamed because, as long as they keep fanning the flames of anti-migrant and anti-refugee sentiment, they will keep seeing a rise in far-right extremism, and we'll keep seeing what we saw over the weekend.”
“The Home Affairs Legislation Amendment (2025 Measures No. 1) Bill 2025, another cruel attack on refugees and immigrants by the Labor government, removes their basic right to natural justice. Not content with their anti-refugee laws last term, passed through with the coalition, Labor are now doubling down. What does this bill actually do? It is designed to forcibly remove people to Nauru without their having any right to see the application that the government is making. It removes any right to an appeal process, with no opportunity for them to make representations about why their removal would be unsafe or explain to the government of Nauru why they shouldn't be deported there. Labor are making it retrospective as well to cover for previous, illegal breaches of procedural fairness that are being challenged in court.”
“Instead of giving the big developers and mining companies everything they want, here's a thought: commit to making all of Mount Coot-tha a beautiful public asset, a luxury that everyone can access for free.”
“And now we find out—with no community consultation, no transparency, just a few lines buried in a long media release—that Mount Coot-tha quarry 'could continue to operate for another decade due to increasing use of recycled material in road base'. Another decade? This is another shameful broken promise. What is a little puzzling is that the lord mayor is also talking up his vision of a renewed Mount Coot-tha in time for the 2032 Olympics that would involve luxury hotels, pay-for-access zip-lines and night-time light shows. A decade takes us to 2035, Adrian, well after the Olympics. There is something, though, that unites these two seemingly contradictory announcements: the love of private profiteering and a deep disregard for genuine public space.”
“This is the result of policy choices not providing alternatives. We all know that the routes among Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane are some of the busiest air corridors in the world. Instead of doubling the number of flights, along with the carbon emissions and noise pollution they produce, there's no reason we couldn't instead have east coast high-speed rail by 2046. I have a simple message for the LNP Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Adrian Schrinner: Close Mount Coot-tha Quarry and rehabilitate it with a publicly owned and community led vision. It's that simple. For over a decade the community has called for the closure of the outdated, unnecessary quarry on Mount Coot-tha. After much pressure, council committed to its closure by 2025 and its rehabilitation.”
“Why is it easier to imagine doubling the number of flights than building high-speed rail, or to imagine flying cars or drone taxis rather than a properly funded, fast, frequent, connected public transport network? It's because both major parties are completely captured by the aviation industry, with no regard for sensible alternatives to the unchecked growth of aviation. The government's aviation white paper set out the future of Australian aviation to 2050. High-speed rail was mentioned not once in the 240-page report—not once. Extraordinary! Brisbane Airport recently released their draft master plan that's meant to cover the next two decades to 2046. They predict a doubling of the number of flights. Where is this demand coming from? It far outstrips predicted population growth over the same period.”
“Abolishing capital gains discounts makes it much less attractive for wealthy investors to put their money in inert property, where it just drives up property prices, making it harder and harder for first home buyers entering the market. Incentivising good builders to move from large, complex and slow home building to compact, simple and affordable construction would dramatically improve the number of new homes being built. The abolition of capital gains tax discounts would have a real, a tangible, effect on the cost of housing. There are real solutions to the housing crisis—solutions that could be implemented today. But what the government is proposing is no solution. I would argue that it's the opposite of that. What the government is doing is actively exacerbating the problem.”
“The capital gains discount encourages homeowners to build ever-larger, ever more expensive houses and apartments. A significant portion, a huge amount, of the Australian building industry is tied up with these elaborate, top-of-the-market construction projects: trophy homes, luxury apartments and monster renos. They tie up a huge proportion of our most creative builders, skilled tradespeople and expensive materials in Australia. As an architect, I've actually witnessed firsthand the devastating reduction of productivity in the housing sector since 1995. This decline matches exactly the period in which Australia's homes have increased in size to exploit the tax-free capital gains discounts. From 1994 to 2024, newly built detached houses increased in size by 30 per cent, while household size decreased by seven per cent.”
“It turns out you can live in public housing built by the federal government—you just need to sign up to the US military to do that. If you're a teacher or a nurse working hard but you can't afford a house or find a rental, this government is simply not servicing your needs in terms of your access to housing. Doesn't it care about you? It's made its priority clear—serving the US military-industrial complex over the needs of ordinary Australians, who are so desperate for access to housing. The recent productivity roundtable agreed that productivity reform in the housing industry is urgently needed. It's absolutely essential for Australians; it's essential for the economy. Trophy homes and megamansions are what we're actually building in Australia instead of public housing.”
“The first piece of housing legislation for this term of parliament isn't for the government to build public housing that ordinary Australians can live in, and it isn't for winding back unfair tax concessions so that first home buyers don't get outcompeted by property investors. It's to allow the government to spend an unspecified amount of money—totally obfuscated—building housing for the US military on Australian soil as part of the AUKUS agreement. I really wish I was making this up, but—I'm sorry—it's true. For years, the Greens have been trying to get the government to actually build public housing, like governments used to—like governments actually should. But we're told that that's unrealistic; it's not a serious demand.”
“The risk for the banks is minimal, because they know if they issue too many dodgy loans and things go south, the government has their back and will bail them out with taxpayer money—your money. It's a great scheme, if you're the Labor Party trying to look like you're doing something about the housing crisis while keeping your donors—the banks and the property industry—happy. The best way to actually fix the housing crisis—if that's what we're actually here for and if that's what we're trying to do—would be to scrap negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount and invest those enormous sums of money in actually building public housing. Well, the government has finally decided to build some public housing—no, not for ordinary Australians, silly. It's building housing for US military personnel. That's right!”
“It used to be publicly owned, by us, until it was sold off by Labor in the nineties. It's now a massive, private corporation focused on profit for its shareholders. That's what it is. It's certainly not focused on the greater good, is it? It's certainly not part of a solution for access to housing for everyday Australians. The other big banks aren't far off CommBank's big profit figure. They're going to be absolutely ecstatic at this government's latest fix for the housing crisis allowing a five per cent deposit with no mortgage insurance. Why? It's because it allows them—this is why they'll be happy—to extract even bigger interest payments out of even more first home buyers while still turbocharging house prices further, and further, and further up, putting housing out of reach for so many millions of Australians.”
“The Australian public have told the government that they want real action on housing that actually helps them, and who's the government actually listening to? Big property—the property industry and property investors, who will receive this largesse to the tune of $175 billion in tax handouts over the next 10 years through negative gearing and capital gains discounts. What do mortgage holders and renters actually get? Zero. A big fat zero—absolutely nothing. Labor effectively continues gifting money to big investors with dozens or hundreds of properties in their portfolios, turbocharging house prices and pretty much screwing over everyone else in the process. The Commonwealth Bank just posted a $10 billion yearly profit off the back of soaring house prices. The Commonwealth Bank used to be ours.”
“The government is finally taking action on housing. If you're a property investor, hurrah! This policy is for you. You can celebrate this. House prices are going to increase even further. You heard me right. Labor's First Home Guarantee, which allows first home buyers to buy property with a five per cent deposit, is another purported solution that's just going to make the housing crisis worse. In Brisbane, including in my electorate of Ryan, house prices have doubled in the last 10 years. Nationally, home values and home prices have already increased by three per cent since the start of 2025, and respected analysts are saying that this policy could lead to a more than 15 per cent increase in house prices over the next six years. Experts have advised—they've actually told the government—that this policy will just drive up prices further.”
“My question is to the Prime Minister. The Australian Council of Trade Unions recently called on the government to implement a four-day working week. Studies have shown that this improves the health and happiness of workers and significantly boosts businesses' productivity. When will the government commit to a national plan for a four-day working week with no loss of pay?”
“For most people, if you started saving for a house 10 years ago, you are now further from having a home deposit than when you started. Third, your future and the planet's future are being sold to coal and gas corporations. Within 25 days of being re-elected, Labor approved the biggest new fossil fuel project in the Southern Hemisphere. Both Labor and the coalition take millions in donations from coal and gas corporations. Fourth, rents are out of control. In Queensland, rents have risen 3.5 times faster than incomes. In Brisbane, rents have increased by 52 per cent since 2020. Labor and the coalition have created this mess because it makes money for their corporate mates. It's time for change.”
“Adani promised to deliver $22 billion in taxes and royalties to the Australian people but knew it would never have to keep that promise, because Queensland has a two-faction system: Labor and LNP, factions of the Adani party. It's no wonder people—especially young people—are switching off from politics. Here are four ways Labor and LNP have sold out young people. First, most MPs went to university for free. Meanwhile, you are paying more than ever. A social work graduate will now repay the government almost $50,000. Our tax system is so rigged against you that HECS generates four times more revenue than the royalties from giant multinational oil and gas companies. Second, owning a house is totally out of your reach. House prices are growing much faster than wages.”
“It was recently revealed that the LNP has made a new deal with Adani where they'll continue to get our coal for free, by deferring royalty payments, and make billions of dollars exporting it. Labor has cried crocodile tears, calling it a 'secret sweetheart deal'. Do they think we have no memory? When Labor approved Adani's Carmichael mine back in 2019, they struck exactly the same royalties deferment deal. They did this after the ex-Labor state secretary was employed by Adani to lobby his colleague, the Labor Premier, directly. And get this—Adani has paid zero dollars in company tax since they started operations in 2021. I repeat: zero. They've made billions in revenue in this time.”
“It just posted over $10 billion in profits and was found by the banking royal commission to have engaged in irresponsible banking and lending, overcharging interest and fee gouging. Its sell-off means we have no bank acting in the public interest now. These were our assets, and Labor and the Liberals sold them. It's time to take back control of our economy. Essential services should be in public hands and run for the people. One in three large corporations—including Qantas for several years in a row—are not paying corporate tax. And, speaking of avoiding tax, Queensland LNP and Queensland Labor: are they just two factions of the Adani party? No matter who you vote for in Queensland, multinational coal corporation Adani wins.”
“Sold off by Labor in the 90s, they got $2 billion in government subsidies during COVID and turned around and illegally sacked 1,800 workers—for which they were fined $90 million just recently. They didn't have to pay back that free $2 billion to the government though. Case (2) is Telstra. Labor started the sell-off of Telstra in the 90s and the Liberals finished the job. Telstra has just made a $2.2 billion profit after shedding over 3,000 jobs and hiking their fees well above inflation. Case (3) is the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories, a major pharmaceutical corporation sold by Labor in 1994 for $300 million, now worth over $100 billion. They just fired 3,000 workers. Their sale has made us more reliant on the US pharma industry. Case (4) is the Commonwealth Bank, sold by Labor and the coalition for $8 billion.”
“You can't tackle housing affordability if you keep giving tax concessions to property investors. If an investor can use a property as a tax write-off—if they have half the tax on the sale of that property wiped—of course investors will buy more properties and keep driving up the price. Until we wind back these tax concessions, house prices will continue to be out of reach for more and more hardworking Australians. Sadly, the government has given up its role to provide essential services like housing, handing it over to the private sector—obviously for the worse. Who sold off all our assets and made everything worse? Let's investigate. Case (1) is Qantas.”
“You don't yet own a house? You don't have a household income of $200,000 plus? I'm sorry to say, but Labor and the LNP have decided they don't care about you ever getting ahead. They've decided that property prices should continue to just go up and up, and they've decided a small handful of property investors and big banks should make enormous profits at your expense. Want to buy a home in Mitchelton? Back in 2020 the price would have been around $700,000; now it'd be approaching $1.2 million. A monthly repayment that would have been around $2,500 in 2020 is now closer to $6,000 a month. Meanwhile, rent has skyrocketed, so you're less likely to be able to save for a deposit. Labor and the coalition like to pretend they're doing something about this, but they're lying.”
“For instance, there is no information on the Thriving Kids program that provides guidance as to what happens with children who are currently on the early childhood intervention program and who would have transitioned to the NDIS prior to 2027. There is no information about whether critical services such as speech therapy and occupational therapy would be funded under the Thriving Kids program and with the providers who have been working with these children for a significant period of time. There is no information about how children will access these therapies and what the threshold criteria would be. These cost-cutting measures are indescribably cruel and are deliberately targeting vulnerable Australians. That is unconscionable. Australians deserve better than to be treated like a line on a spreadsheet. That applies to housing, too.”
“Since the announcement I've had very many parents of neurodivergent kids reach out to my office in deep distress, terrified that their kids will be left behind. It's clear that the government, in designing this policy, didn't consult with experts in the space or indeed with those who would actually be affected. The design does nothing more than attempt to solve a political problem for the government. Neurodivergent kids and their parents being used as political footballs: that's shameful. The proposal is that these kids will be kicked off the NDIS and shunted to a Thriving Kids program. But, for affected kids and their parents, there is staggeringly little information about this, further exacerbating their worry and their distress.”
“The closure of Centrecare's disability services is going to directly impact 698 people with a disability and approximately 630 staff across South-East Queensland, and in my electorate of Ryan it's 40 clients and 16 staff directly impacted by the gutting of the NDIS. Now the Labor government is gutting it further by removing children who have mild autism from NDIS support, in another cruel and callous move to save money. Autistic Australians deserve support from our government, not the opposite—not having the rug pulled out from under them. Terms like 'mild' and 'moderate' autism have absolutely no clinical basis. The minister has fabricated this. These terms are harmful and further isolate children who are in need of support.”
“NDIS providers and the participants who are using their services in my electorate of Ryan tell me the same thing: these changes mean that the providers are no longer able to provide the services that the participants and our communities desperately need. The providers are being forced to close their doors. Just this month the Archdiocese of Brisbane contacted me to inform me that they have been forced to make the heart-wrenching decision to withdraw from the delivery of NDIS funded disability services through their social services agency, Centrecare, precisely because of the new NDIS funding model.”
“Labor has ripped the heart out of the NDIS, and people in my electorate are paying the price. They tell me that these changes are a betrayal of them by the Labor government. When the government chose to slash so much funding from the NDIS they also, to add insult to injury, made it harder to access the NDIS in the future—a thinly veiled attempt to remove support for people or to remove them from the NDIS altogether, and they've succeeded. And let's be clear here: these services are essential—absolutely critical to keeping people well and in many cases to keeping them alive, to live a meaningful life.”
“They want you to think it's okay not to sanction Israel as we did Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. They want you to think it's acceptable to maintain diplomatic and trade ties with a state committing genocide and to continue to refer to it as a friend and ally. Hundreds of thousands of people sent a message to the government over the weekend: you cannot hide from your complicity in Israel's genocide in Gaza.”
“I want to speak today about the huge rallies we saw over the weekend in support of the Palestinian people. This is what hope looks like—hundreds of thousands of people rallying across the country, calling for an end to the genocide and for the government to sanction Israel and end their arms trade with it. There were 50,000 in Brisbane alone, an incredible cross-section of the community, all united because they see what this government won't: that when a genocide is happening you do everything in your power to stop it. This is a powerful movement that can win. It is part of a powerful global movement that can stop the genocide. But Labor and the Liberals don't want you to think that's possible. They want you to think it's okay to continue exporting crucial parts of F-35 jets that allow Israel to drop bombs on Gaza.”
“Meanwhile, the Minister for the Environment and Water's first act after the election was to fly to Western Australia and clear the way for Woodside's North West Shelf gas extension. That's another $215 billion worth of resources given away for free to a massive gas corporation. These giant corporations are ripping us off. They're wrecking our climate. They're making our future less and less liveable, and they've got both of the major parties happily dancing to their tune.”
“In the last 10 years, $125 billion worth of gas has been shipped out of Gladstone, but nine of the 10 companies involved in exporting that gas paid no tax. These companies reported $330 billion in total revenue to the ATO. So what happened, Origin? Why are you the only company involved in gas exports that has paid a cent of company tax? Fire your accountants. These multinational gas companies are making a killing exporting our gas, and everyday Australian consumers and businesses are paying for it with rising gas bills. Often they don't even have to buy the gas off us in the first place; they just dig it up, sell it overseas and then hide the profits in a tax haven.”
“Why, other than millions in donations and sophisticated lobbying efforts, would Woodside have been approved to extend its completely destructive North West Shelf gas project to 2070, or Chevron be able to force taxpayers to pay $500 million for the clean-up of its oil wells on Barrow Island? This is despite Chevron not paying a cent in corporate taxes for years. This is incredible. It's time to end this corporate stranglehold over our democracy. And there is perhaps no greater example of the corporate influence on politics than corporate tax avoidance. There's no sector more adept at tax avoidance than Australia's gas industry. On that note, Origin Energy, what's wrong with you? You're actually paying tax!”
“Politicians should have to wear logos of the corporations they take donations from, just like rally drivers. Imagine Labor and the coalition politicians walking into parliament sporting the logos of Woodside, Chevron, Westpac and Tabcorp. The jerseys might be different colours, but the logos would be the same. It is truly flabbergasting that, over the last decade, Labor and the LNP have taken over $200 million in donations from corporations. But let's not kid ourselves that it's just the donations; the rot goes much deeper than that. It's the network of lobbyists. It's the cash-for-access meetings, the revolving door between politics and big business. It is a system of corporate influence that corrodes our democracy and means that the interests of multinational corporations are just about always put ahead of those of everyday people.”