n recent weeks in Parliament, one thing has become quite clear. The Greens are the only party defending social democracy. 

The Greens are the only party who want the wealthy and big corporations to pay more taxes, so people can get the services they need. 

The Liberals are irrelevant. And the ALP is trying to govern from the centre right. 

We’ve just seen Labor hand down their second budget. They promised that no one would be left behind, but instead, people were left in poverty.

Labor claimed they made tough choices, but they just made bad choices. 

They chose stage three tax cuts over freezing rents or building public and affordable homes. 

They chose handouts for coal and gas corporations instead of saying no to new coal and gas. 

They chose a surplus over helping people keep their head above water. 

We’re in the middle of a cost of living crisis, and Labor is persisting with the stage three tax cuts which give $9,000 a year to billionaires and the very wealthy. 

Just this week, we’ve discovered just how much that’s going to cost the budget: $313 billion dollars over the next ten years. It’s a lot of money that won’t be able to go to healthcare, housing or education. 

We’re also in the middle of a housing crisis. People are struggling to pay the rent or the mortgage, and more people are sleeping on couches or in cars with their kids. 

Despite this crisis there was nothing in the Budget for over five million renters. Nothing to build more public and affordable housing. But, there was $16.7 billion in handouts for property moguls who are driving up the costs of housing. 

People are being left behind. Labor gave an extra $2.85 a day to people on income support and $1.12 a day to people who receive rent assistance - but it wasn’t even enough to keep up with spiralling costs. 

Labor might not have caused this crisis, but with wall to wall Labor government’s across the mainland, they are in a position to fix it. 

We understand that the Liberals have left a big mess, but Labor’s solutions are like taking a bucket of water to a forest fire - they’re simply not up to the scale of the challenge we face. 

This budget was for big corporations and the wealthy. After he had finished delivering the budget, the Treasurer Jim Chalmers and other members of the Labor front bench attended fundraisers with their donors. 

eople across the country understand that the cost of living crisis is being driven by excessive corporate profits. The cost of everything is going up, but real wages are going backwards. 

The gas corporations, who as an industry have been described as systemic non-payers of tax by the ATO, are getting away with highway robbery. 

Labor has made a big deal about increasing the PRRT in the budget, but whereas it should be increased by around $90b, they’ve increased by $2b, a price even the industry itself said they were happy to pay. 

These taxes are so low that the gas industry is now begging the Coalition to support them, so Labor doesn’t have to negotiate with us in the Senate.  

We are now the only party to be calling for the corporate giants, the very ones who are driving up the cost of living and driving the climate crisis, to simply pay their fair share of tax. 

The Liberals are irrelevant. Labor is defending the status quo and making the problems worse. And we are the only party fighting for you, your family, and our future – as a country that makes the big corporations and the wealthy pay tax and puts it into the services we all need: homes, health, education and a safe future. 

Hero image: Pexels.

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