2023-05-10
Labor’s Budget keeps people in poverty.
It is a big win for the big corporations and the very wealthy.
It is a betrayal of renters, students, jobseekers, young people and everyone doing it tough.
At the election, the Prime Minister said no one would be left behind. Well, Labor’s Budget leaves millions behind, leaving people in poverty while billionaires get tax cuts.
Tonight, as the cold starts to bite, people are going to sleep, freezing, in their cars.
Tomorrow, there will be people who wake up hungry, and wonder what they’re going to eat.
And right now, there are students who will wonder how they will cope with the next rent rise.
But Labor’s Budget spends a quarter of a trillion dollars on tax cuts for the wealthy, with $9000 a year for billionaires and politicians.
It has $16.7 billion handouts for wealthy property moguls, and $368 billion for nuclear submarines.
Labor wants to be the ‘superior economic manager’. But for who?
It's not young people, it’s not students, it’s not renters or first home buyers, it’s not those on income support or disabled people.
It’s for their big corporate donors. “No corporation left behind.”
Labor is managing the economy for CEOs, the billionaires and the property moguls.
If you own scores of homes, this budget is for you.
If you run a coal and gas corporation, this budget is for you.
If you own a private jet, this ones for you.
If you’re rich, Labor’s got your back.
If you’re on income support, you get $2.85 extra per day. It’s hardly enough to buy a loaf of bread.
If you receive rent assistance, you will get an extra $1.12 per day. That’s not going to cover rent increases which are rising ten times that amount in capital cities.
$1.12 a day to cover skyrocketing rents, while billions go to the wealthy property investors.
And for 5.5 million renters, who are not on rent assistance, nothing at all.
Meanwhile the government is collecting more from Labor’s increase in student debt than changes to the tax on big gas corporations.
Labor boasts that they’re in surplus, but you can’t use a surplus to pay the rent or buy food.
Every dollar of surplus is a dollar not spent lifting people out of poverty.
Including the single mothers excluded from Labor undoing the damage since their attack on single parents over a decade ago.
And disabled people facing $74 billion in cuts to the NDIS.
These aren’t tough choices, as the Prime Minister likes to say, these are just bad choices.
Despite the Treasurer failing to mention climate once in his speech, the Greens have secured more than a third of new climate spending, with a $2 billion package to help households, businesses and public housing get off gas.
However, Labor’s still spending $41.4 billion on fossil fuel subsidies, more than the $29.5 billion climate spend.
When the budget legislation hits the Parliament, we will fight to make the big corporations and billionaires pay more tax and for more support for people who need it now.
The Greens will be fighting for renters and against the billions in handouts to property moguls.
We will be fighting for the climate and the environment, and against handouts for coal and gas corporations.
The government has the power to tackle the inequality and cost of living crisis, but instead they make it worse.
They say no one left behind, then betray young people and those in poverty.
They say they are ending the climate wars, and hand out billions in fossil fuel subsidies.
They say they want to tackle housing, but they give nothing to 5.5 million renters and refuse to directly invest in building more housing.
Labor could work with the Greens to tackle the crises we face, but instead, Labor is betraying people and leaving them behind.
Voters elected this parliament to act on climate, the environment and the cost of living.
If Labor worked together with the Greens we could immediately stop all new coal and gas, lift people out of poverty, freeze rent increases and wipe student debt.
This is what we will continue to fight for.