2024-10-04
By Stephen Bates
Member for Brisbane
As we enter the final 6ish months of the Albanese Labor government's first term, the feeling of utter disappointment in our community in Brisbane is palpable. When my team and I are out chatting to locals at events or at their doors, almost no one can remember a single good thing that this government has done.
Of course, we know there has been some tinkering at the edges that have been positive, but in nearly all cases, those changes were still a let-down to the community who were promised so much more. On the flipside, I receive daily messages of support for our strong and unwavering position on Palestine, for fighting to stop cuts to the NDIS, our campaign for housing, and for showing people that a better world is possible.
It has been a massive year for our Queensland teams and so I’d like to say a huge thank you, not only to my Electorate Office team who have done amazing work helping constituents everyday (more on that work below) but also to our Brisbane Nest campaign team, who are probably less known to our interstate colleagues.
Our Brisbane Nest campaigners have been actively organising and doorknocking since July 2023. And they’ll keep it up until potentially May 2025. It’s a humongous effort. They saw us through the most successful local government results that the North Brisbane wards have ever achieved; a win in Paddington, electing Seal Chong Wah, an 8% swing and a narrow miss in Central Ward, a whopping 14.5% swing in Enoggera, and big swings in Hamilton and Marchant wards, taking votes from the LNP and Labor..
We then jumped straight into state election campaigning and with less than two months to go until election day, we’re looking very strong in McConnel and Cooper.
Then come November, we’ll be jumping straight into federal election mode. Our volunteers are amazing and dedicated and they’ve been inspired by the hard work of our North Nest campaign team - I hope that you’ll see the fruits of their labour on October 26, and of course on federal election night.
In Brisbane, and in all the seats we’re campaigning to win, Labor and the Liberals are fighting dirty, but our community is with us. Thank you to all my staff and the many volunteers helping out every day - I couldn’t do it without you!
Advocating for our community
Our country’s social services system is flailing. Whether it’s Centrelink, the NDIS, housing or immigration, every single day my office is trying to plug the gaps and help people who have nowhere left to go. In many cases, choosing to reach out to their federal MP is someone's last ditch effort for help.
In the last year my small, but powerful team of community advocates have directly helped over 400 Brisbane constituents. These are complex cases that often require weeks of back and forth with government departments, Ministerial offices and community service providers to get an outcome.
Community Grants
Every year I donate a portion of my salary towards community grants. In May we opened our latest round of grants, focusing on supporting local small organisations and not for profits who don’t have the scale or capacity to go for the big government and corporate grants.
I received proposals from 24 amazing community organisations this year. There were so many great ideas from local public schools, community groups and sporting organisations. We awarded 13 grants of up to $1000 each. This is such a rewarding way to directly help our local community thrive.
Bringing neighbours together
Another really successful activity, that many Greens MPs now do, is running a free community BBQ. So far this year we have served close to 10,000 free meals. It’s such an easy way to reach people who would otherwise not consider themselves ‘politically active’ and who ordinarily wouldn’t come along to a forum or pop-up office.
These casual BBQs help me and my team to better get to know the issues that local neighbourhoods are facing. My team has also opened a free community pantry and little library at our electorate office. We need to restock the pantry daily. Sometimes twice a day.
Local Issues Campaigns
Our office has been running numerous local campaigns to address issues of concern for the community.
- Fighting for a better deal on the 2032 Games and associated infrastructure for our local communities - including calling out the state Labor government for backflipping on their commitment to use the athletes village for temporary accommodation before the games.
- Advocating for more green space and affordable housing in Newstead.
- Campaigning to ensure that Victoria Park/Barrambin remains a publicly accessible park and isn’t carved out for private use, or turned into an Olympic Stadium.
- Working with locals and community groups to address unsustainable flight noise pollution.
- Empowering local communities with the ability to fight back against poor local government planning and decision-making.
LGBTIQA+
Our queer community has been let down again and again, and again, by the Albanese government this year. We’ve all seen Anthony Albanese and his ministers joyfully marching and taking selfies at Pride, but when it comes to turning those nice promises into outcomes, Labor are too scared of ‘divisive debate’. What a cop out.
Right now in Australia, you can lose your job for being LGBTIQA+, a single mum, or for terminating a pregnancy because of a carve out that religious-run institutions enjoy in the Sex Discrimination Act.
People of faith should be free to practise their religion without fear of harm or prejudice and people from all protected groups should have the right to feel secure in their employment, without fear of being fired for who they are.
Earlier this year, the Australian Law Reform Commission released their groundbreaking report into discrimination in religious schools with a clear roadmap to fixing Australia's outdated anti-discrimination laws.
The Greens were clear from day one that we wanted to work with Labor to deliver these important reforms as soon as possible. I wrote letters to the Minister, asked questions, sought meetings and briefings. We tried the diplomatic approach, we then tried publicly calling on them to work with us. We also worked with other crossbench MPs in the House and the Senate to prove to Labor that they have the numbers to get these changes through without having to negotiate with Dutton.
Despite these repeated attempts to work collaboratively with the Labor Government on religious discrimination - they refused to show their draft Bills to anyone except the Liberal Party. Then, when they couldn’t appease Peter Dutton, they shelved the legislation completely.
This broken election promise is shameful and I will be continuing to work to progress these critical reforms.
National Census
In a move that no one saw coming, the Labor government gave a drop to Sky News on a Sunday afternoon in August that they were walking away from changes to the National Census that would ensure that the LGBTIQA+ community were properly counted in the 2026 census. Labor was not prepared for the immediate and widespread outrage and condemnation of this decision.
Every queer advocacy group I know, the Human Rights Commission, Labor state ministers and even federal Labor backbenchers called out this stupid decision.
Within a week, Albanese was in damage control, calling into Melbourne ABC radio to offer the meekest of backflips - that one question on sexual orientation would be included in the 2026 census.
Without appropriate Census questions, it is significantly harder for governments and support services to understand the health and wellbeing needs of LGBTIQA+ people.
The failure of the Census to appropriately consider LGBTIQA+ people in its design has been so acute that the Australian Bureau of Statistics issued a rare Statement of Regret a year ago, apologising to the LGBTIQA+ community, Equality Australia and April Long for the exclusion of non-binary people from being counted as parents.
Labor even reaffirmed their commitment to Census reform in their 2023 National Platform, but now they’ve backtracked yet again and thrown another election promise out the window.
We’re keeping a close eye on developments and will be taking this campaign into parliament over the coming months.
10 Year National Action Plan for LGBTIQA+ Health and Wellbeing
This is yet another big promise that has fallen to the wayside under Albanese’s leadership. The LGBTIQA+ Health and Wellbeing plan was an election commitment and some funding was initially committed for the planning stage. But two years later, we are yet to see any money for implementation. Meanwhile our community continues to face worse physical and mental health outcomes than our straight counterparts. We struggle to find appropriate care, and report higher rates of discrimination.
The commitments that Labor made to the LGBTIQA+ community in the lead up to the 2022 federal election were the bare minimum. The bare minimum to live our lives as our true authentic selves. Instead, we’re not counted, not able to access appropriate healthcare and not all of us are safe to be out in our workplaces.
Youth
In June this year I ran a Youth Survey to all people under 30 living in the Brisbane Electorate. We advertised on social media, in newsletters and even wrote directly to every under 30 household inviting them to have their say.
One thousand people took part, far exceeding our expectations! Interestingly, more than half of the respondents live outside of the Brisbane electorate, showing just how keen young people were to have their voice heard, and to share it with their friends and family.
The results were pretty bleak — 97% said they didn’t think the government was listening to young people.
When it came to the top political issues young people care about, three came out way ahead of the park. Nearly half of young people said they want tax reform to make the rich and wealthy pay their fair share to help fund cost of living relief, particularly to make mental healthcare more accessible.
I think the biggest thing that's changed in the last few years has been just how much the cost-of-living crisis is hitting young people. Until the pandemic, tackling climate change would top the list but now it's all about how much harder it is to get by.
You can read more about my Youth Survey on my website here.
This survey was such a useful tool to engage with young people and get meaningful feedback on the things that matter to them. Incredibly, enrolment of 18-24 year olds has reached its highest ever levels, with a 5.7% increase since the last election. Young people don’t feel listened to by Labor and the Liberals but they’re going to make their voices heard at the next election!
- Stephen