STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator FARUQI (New South Wales—Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens) (12:34): It gives me great pleasure to share a win with all migrants and people of colour. When Senator Hanson told me to 'piss off back to Pakistan', I decided to hold her accountable on behalf of each and every one of us who has been told to go back to where we come from—which the trial judge agreed is a racist trope and a strong form of racism.

Now, another three judges have joined the first in finding that these comments were indeed racist and breached our racial discrimination laws. The latest ruling is an important win against the forces who would rather see us fighting our neighbours than taking on a system broken by vested interests. Crucially, it means the Racial Discrimination Act is stronger than ever.

In the words of the Race Discrimination Commissioner, the court's decision brings: … much-needed clarity, strengthening protections against racism and helping build a more inclusive Australia, one where we are all safe and respected. He called the ruling: … a particularly important decision at a time of alarming increases in racism towards migrants. I'm sure many migrants will feel validated that the trial judge was left with: … the distinct impression that Senator Hanson would say anything that came to mind if she thought that it would suit her at that time; she had little regard to whether what she said was true or false.

Her evidence is generally unreliable. Well, here's the truth. People coming to this country deserve the same safety, happiness and chance to live a good life as anyone, and it is racist to tell us to go back to where we came from.

I know many people watching are proud migrants just like me, and, just like me, I know you are frightened by the surge in anti-migrant and anti-Muslim sentiment and content in the media and online. I'm here to say this simply and very directly: migrants to Australia should be valued. It doesn't matter one bit where you come from or what work you do.

You deserve the same safety, the same happiness and the same opportunity to thrive as anyone else. We are told migrants are the problem, that people like you and me are to blame for rising rents, crowded hospital waiting rooms and how hard it is to find a job. These aren't just lies; they're deliberate tactics to distract working people, pitting us against each other while billionaires and CEOs of corporations like gas companies and supermarkets rake in massive and obscene profits and destroy our planet.

This lazy, racist politics from Labor, the Liberals and One Nation lets them get away without actually offering real solutions. They want people to look at their migrant neighbour with suspicion so that they don't look up and see who is really rigging the system and ripping us all off. Racism doesn't fix a broken system; it protects it.

They want us divided because we are powerful when we are together. The power of the people is always so much greater than the people supposedly in power. Back when I was teaching, I would tell my students, 'The point of a system is what it does.' Labor say they believe in climate change, but they won't tax gas profits.

Labor say they worry about gambling addiction, but they won't crack down on advertisers. Labor say they support migrants, but they slap us with exorbitant visa fees and keep families apart. Labor say they oppose racism, but they won't fund their own national plan to tackle racism.

The point of the system is what it does. It is Labor's system that's making life harder. This is why Labor can't stop One Nation—because Labor and their system made One Nation's rise possible.

Since the 80s, Labor and the Liberals have been making decisions that have made life harder for ordinary people and easier for big corporations and billionaires. They slashed corporate tax rates and relaxed the rules for big business. They kneecapped unions to keep workers' wages down.

They sold off public services like telcos and banks, so now you can't even access essential services without getting ripped off. Forty years later, corporate profits are up and Australian billionaires are sitting on more than $680 billion while people struggle to put food on the table. That's the system One Nation is feeding off.

The Greens don't take corporate donations like those that corrupt the Labor Party, and we will always put people over profit. That's why we're not here to keep the bastards honest; we're here to replace them. Speaking of public services, it's time I dropped my nationalisation hit list.

No, I don't just mean breaking up the Merivale pub empire or nationalising Boost Juice or Yo-Chi, though these are some of the suggestions that I've heard around Sydney lately. I mean putting essential services back into public hands. A few decades ago, there were publicly owned options for essentials like Telstra, the Commonwealth Bank and health insurance—run for people, not profit.

While people struggle with the cost of living and the cost of housing, the Commonwealth Bank has made an obscene profit of $11 billion. But Labor and Liberal governments sold it off. Why?

Because their corporate donors want a piece of the action. Privatisation let CEOs and investors rake in massive profits. Then they rewarded the major parties with millions to run their campaigns and cling onto power.

Now, while mobile networks keep going down, our grocery and power bills keep going up. That's why you keep hearing people talk about privatisation, nationalisation and public ownership. People are demanding change, and I'm right there with them.

Here's my nationalisation and public ownership hit list: make groceries cheaper by breaking up the Coles and Woolies duopoly; drive down power bills by expanding publicly owned renewable energy; and give the big banks more competition by setting up a people's bank to help Australians get a loan. Pair that with a government owned developer to build good-quality homes at a price you can afford, and we'll really be cooking.

That's a lot to go on, but there's no way that I would stop there. Early childhood education and care, the telcos, toll roads and airlines are next. These are businesses who take public money when they're in trouble and pocket the profits in good times.

It's time we brought bills down by bringing public services into public hands so that they are run for people and not for profit. But you won't hear that from Labor, because they are and always will be in the pockets of their big business donors. While I'm on things you won't hear from Labor, I want to reflect a moment on their silence—and, worse, their crackdown—on free speech.

For nearly three years, students have been on the front lines of the fight for Palestinian freedom, and they have been punished for it. Our universities have become battlegrounds for the basic right to speak out against injustice, apartheid and genocide. Students have been surveilled, investigated, intimidated, suspended, expelled and arrested.

They have had protests shut down, encampments threatened and police called on them, and they still refuse to be silent. We saw that courage when Jewish student-activist Yasmine Johnson helped organise the first Gaza solidarity encampment in Australia and again when she walked into the royal commission and refused to allow the Palestine Solidarity Movement to be smeared and silenced.

We saw it in Queensland, where Students for Palestine activist Liam Parry was arrested after speaking at a student organised rally against laws criminalising Palestine solidarity slogans. We saw it when Palestinian Australian student Zac Karaniki and student activist William Sim were hauled away by police for protesting those same laws. This is the political environment young people are being asked to study in.

The People's Inquiry into Campus Free Speech on Palestine documented what this looks like inside our universities. But students have not backed down. So, to every student who has organised, marched, occupied, spoken out and put their own future on the line: thank you.

Your courage puts powerful institutions to shame. You have refused silence. You have chosen humanity and solidarity.

You are on the right side of history.