ADJOURNMENT
Ms WATSON-BROWN (Ryan) (16:30): This is the motion that Labor just tried to stop me talking about: the need for essential public services to return to public ownership. Instead, Labor replaced it with their own topic. I've never seen this happen before in the entire time I've been here.
Clearly, they desperately don't want to talk about how Australians are being ripped off on their phone bill, energy bill, internet, even mortgage. They're being ripped off because Labor and the Liberals, both major parties, have been privatising public corporations and essential public services for decades. Here is just one example.
According to the Australia Institute, in 2024, AGL made $755 in profit per customer per year for household electricity. You're not just paying for these essential services; you're paying for the price of privatisation on top. It's no wonder that they want to stop me talking about it.
They don't have the solutions. The real solution is staring us in the face. We have to end 40 years of privatisation and corporate rule.
If you're out there in the real world listening to this, I just want to say something. You, we, can win a tax on gas corporations but not if we leave it to the politicians. Let me explain.
In 2024, we won 50 cent public transport fares in Queensland. We didn't do this by doing political deals. We did it by organising.
In 2020, the Greens announced a free public transport policy. At the time, we were laughed at, but then hundreds of everyday people doorknocked tens of thousands of voters. We talked about free public transport, among other bold policies.
We terrified the major parties because they knew it was popular and they were going to lose votes if they didn't do something. So they caved. Both Labor and the Liberals committed to 50 cent fares permanently.
In 2022, we won bigger taxes on coal corporations in Queensland with the same method. We announced our policy. We campaigned on the ground.
We won the argument. Labor were forced to go much further than they'd planned. We also won a far bigger build of publicly owned renewables in Queensland, same story.
Last term in federal parliament, we won an extra $3 billion for public and community housing with the same approach again, organising. These politicians in the major parties, they're not leaders; they're followers. They follow the line set for them by their corporate donors and lobbyists unless they're forced to follow the people.
That's why I reckon we can win a gas tax, but only if we organise. We know the people in Labor and the major parties are still too close to big corporations to really put everyday people first, so we'll have to replace them. But you know how we replace them?
By getting organised. Lastly, I just want to talk about what happened in the House yesterday. We were speaking to and voting on the government's heinous NDIS bill.
We saw the two old parties lining up together to support a bill that will destroy lives. Seeing them all there, ganged up against the most vulnerable Australians with many backbenchers who I'm convinced didn't know what they were voting for, was horrendous. It was soul destroying.
During what should have been a serious and critical debate, there they were, chattering amongst each other, laughing and joking about going to the Midwinter Ball that night—what they're going to wear, how much they would drink, how late they would party—while voting for one of the most appalling pieces of legislation brought before this House. Straight after their vote to remove basic human rights for people with disability, they went to the ball to party with the likes of Sportsbet, arguably another vehicle for destroying lives.
I just felt a pox on your House. I didn't go to the ball. I went home to, frankly, have a little cry.
I had a little cry of despair, but I woke up this morning fresh—not hungover like a lot of people here today, I've got to say—with fresh resolve to keep fighting for vulnerable Australians even as their government seems lined up against them.