MATTERS OF URGENCY

Senator HODGINS-MAY (Victoria) (16:09): This government does have a toxic tax agenda, but that toxicity is less about who this government chooses to tax and more about who this government refuses to tax. This government had a choice to make about who it valued—disabled Australians or multinational gas corporations. Their answer could not be more clear, because that is the choice sitting behind these cuts.

Disabled Australians and their families have told the parliament what the proposed changes to the NDIS would mean for their lives, for their independence and for their dignity. They have asked to be heard, they have demanded to be heard, and they have demanded that this government listen, and yet, instead of just staring down a handful of gas exporters in this country and demanding they contribute more, Labor is forcing disabled Australians to carry the burden of its budget choices—just a handful of companies who should be bringing in more than $17 billion per year in revenue that could be used to strengthen not cut essential supports like the NDIS and to make it easier not harder for everyday Australians.

Instead, that money is being siphoned offshore. Maybe not all of it's going offshore, because tens of thousands of it are going back into the campaign coffers of the corporate parties in this place: Labor, Liberal and One Nation. Of course, a few million need to be put aside to fund the PR campaigns against reforms like a tax on gas.

Billions remain untaxed instead of going out to help everyday Australians who need it. This is not about whether they are difficult decisions to make, because governments are forced to make decisions every day. We appreciate that.

The question is: who gets protected, and who is sacrificed? Why is there always a reason not to tax the super profits of multinational companies but never one to strengthen the supports that people rely on every single day? The Greens have fought to give the disability community more time, more scrutiny and more protections, but the message from that community has been clear: these cuts cannot proceed.

They must not proceed. This is Labor capitulating to the right, to the Liberals, the Nationals and Gina Rinehart's One Nation, who are constantly inventing new ways to punch down on Australians who need support. For months, we have heard the same rhetoric about cracking down on rorts and getting spending under control, but, when the inquiry heard from the people who will actually be impacted by these changes, we heard that these cuts aren't targeting waste; they're targeting people.

Instead of listening to those Australians, Labor has chosen to echo the talking points of those who have spent years undermining public support for the NDIS and looking for opportunities to shrink it. The government cannot claim that there is no alternative while billions of dollars in gas profits leave Australian shores untaxed every single day. Disabled Australians are not a budget repair measure.

If this government has the courage to ask people who are already struggling to do more, then it should have the courage to ask multinational corporations or to demand multinational corporations making billions from Australia's resources to pay what they owe, because political courage is not balancing the budget off the backs of disabled people. Political courage is not letting lobbyists write the rules in this joint.

Political courage is not taking the path of least resistance and hoping nobody notices. Real political courage is taking on the vested interests. It is making gas corporations pay what they owe Australians.

It's staring down the gambling lobby and banning gambling advertising on our screens. It's being prepared to stand up to industries with money, access and influence when the public interest demands it and when the Australian people demand it. Instead, this government take the easier path, the path that sees them beating down on disabled Australians.

It's asking more from people who already have less while refusing to demand more from corporations making billions of dollars of profit off our Australian resources. Disabled Australians should not be paying the price for that failure of political courage from the government, and they should not be treated as collateral damage because Labor is too afraid and too timid and too gutless to stare down those corporations and to actually take them on.