2015-06-19
Senator Richard Di Natale
Parliament is in full swing and I have a lot to report back on.
Thanks to the work of Scott Ludlam and his team, the Greens have put the need to dump negative gearing firmly on the national agenda, as a simple and effective way to improve housing affordability. Joe Hockey suggested we all just go out and get good jobs that pay good money — well, thanks Mr Hockey, but I reckon most people had probably thought of that already.
What the Greens have come up with, and what we'd expect of any decent Treasurer of this country, is a change of policy that will stop disadvantaging people who don't own homes, for the sake of those who already do.
Peter Martin in the Sydney Morning Herald said it straight: “One of the safest ways to deflate the bubble would be adopt the Greens' proposal of denying negative gearing tax deductions to new investors. Existing investors wouldn't stampede for the doors and sell, but new investors would become more scarce, giving genuine residents a chance to get a foot in the door.”
The Greens have got our foot in the door when it comes to fixing superannuation tax concessions. The Abbott government is stubbornly saying they won't change anything to do with super — “nope, nope, nope” — but that's no surprise. We all know Abbott's mates at the big end of town are the ones benefiting most from using their super accounts as tax havens. But it's got to stop. That's why Rachel Siewert and I have got the government to agree to including retirement incomes in their Tax Review. We're laying the groundwork for when this mob is gone and we can change the super system to make sure it works the way it was intended — to help hardworking Australians prepare for their retirements.
The government is pushing ahead with its cruel budget, which preserves the lurks and perks for the big end of town while cutting from those who can least afford it. We're standing strong against brutal cuts to health, education and the Family Tax Benefit. We don't believe mothers are double-dipping by accessing paid parental leave. We've rejected the indexation of the pension, but we've taken the opportunity to undo a Howard government change to the asset test.
When it happened back in 2007, Bob Brown said: “The Howard government is focused on giving the aged pension to more wealthy retirees when it should be focused on raising the income of those currently struggling on the aged pension.” The Greens opposed that change, but it passed with Labor's support. Now we're undoing that change because the principle stands. Greens supporters are a compassionate bunch. We want to reduce inequality, not expand it, with policy that enables a caring society.
We've had a slight shuffle of responsibilities around the Greens parliamentary team, to make sure we're ready and rolling when Christine Milne, and her depth of knowledge and experience, leaves the building. Larissa Waters has taken on the climate change portfolio, while her fellow deputy leader Scott is now responsible for Foreign Affairs. Adam Bandt has added Treasury to his portfolio list, while Finance and Defence has gone to Peter Whish-Wilson. Janet Rice is our new LGBTI spokesperson and is doing excellent work to push marriage equality through the parliament with Sarah Hanson-Young.
Former NSW Greens MLC Cate Faehrmann has come on board as my Chief of Staff and I'm so proud of the way our entire team has swung into action to make the most of these final weeks of parliament before the winter break. There's a lot of work to be done. While Labor keeps siding with the government on asylum seeker policy, metadata, citizenship laws and more, we Greens need to stand up as an effective opposition to protect our democracy, people, and the safe climate we all depend on.