GRIEVANCE DEBATE

Mr WILKIE (Clark) (12:30): Many people are aggrieved right now or are at least anxious about the state of things. This is manifesting itself in all sorts of ways including politically, where loyalty to the major parties is breaking down and where interest in minor parties and Independents continues to increase. This heightened unease in the community hasn't come about suddenly, nor can it be attributed to anything in particular.

Instead, it has come about over time, as described ably at the macro level by Waleed Aly, who wrote in the Guardian last week: … September 11 and the "war on terror" placed security front and centre. The 2005 London Tube bombings raised the spectre of homegrown terrorism, triggering all sorts of social anxieties. Wars in Afghanistan and especially Iraq revealed the limits of western military power and undermined trust in governments that either imagined or invented weapons of mass destruction.

Then came the urgent awareness of climate change, which variously evoked existential dread and threatened to phase out entire industries on which depend economies and communities. Soon followed the global financial crisis, which caused millions around the world to lose their homes and life savings and revealed the edifice of our global economy to be more a house of cards than a cathedral.

Then came Islamic State, reviving the spectre that began the century in the crudest, most brutal form. Next, Brexit and the election of Donald Trump—both previously unthinkable, both smashing all manner of orthodoxies, thrilling or terrifying according to taste. The dust hadn't even settled when Covid-19 arrived, shuttering economies and lives, inflicting psychological torment, radically expanding state power.

It drove us into isolation and on to our phones, where we argued over lockdowns and masks and vaccines—seeding growing suspicion of authority, whether political or medical. Social media became ever more present and polarising. Covid abated but inflation took off.

Then Hamas slaughtered Israeli civilians on 7 October 2023, and Israel annihilated Gaza in response with relative impunity, yielding unfathomable human suffering that ricocheted through cyberspace and into visceral local antagonism in societies around the world. Trump was re-elected and launched a trade war on the world which he called "Liberation Day". Then, in Australia, came Bondi.

And while all this was happening, artificial intelligence emerged exponentially, developing faster than we could comprehend and threatening everything from swallowing up jobs by the million to unleashing killer robots. No wonder people are rattled, somewhat aggrieved and unhappy, frankly. Because in the face of all this governments, state and federal, have been swamped and have often taken their eye off the ball of progress or in some cases have actively allowed backsliding.

So that's very much at the macro level. Now let's get down into the weeds and think about the things that are making people anxious and even angry in order to help in some way to explain the changing political dynamic at the moment. First and foremost, I think, is the escalating housing crisis, which is undermining the ability of Australians to access one of the most fundamental needs they have: a place to call home.

Heavens, I know of people in my own electorate, people with jobs, that are living in cars. We probably are all aware of the thousands of people that are the hidden homeless, who are couch surfing at a friend's place, in the spare room or even in the shed out the back. In Hobart, there are beggars on the streets—in a rich place, in a rich country.

In Tasmania, again, there are thousands of people on the public housing waiting list. There's the prolonged cost-of-living crisis, which undermines other fundamental needs, including putting food on the table three times a day. Of course, this is being driven by inflation, low real wage growth and cartel-like behaviour from some in the corporate sector.

I know of constituents who regularly go without medicine because they can't afford it. I know of constituents who have dropped or reduced insurance on their property, their belongings or their car or their health insurance because they can't afford it. People are dropping Support at Home services which they're entitled to because they can't afford their contribution.

More broadly, we see deteriorating public services—for example, the cuts to face-to-face supports like what used to be provided by the Australian Taxation Office. There was robodebt, which really affected the confidence that many in the community had in the government and the bureaucracy. We're still seeing, despite claims to the contrary by the government, the declining value and availability of Medicare, the outsourcing to contractors and consultants, taxes going up, increased means testing and reduced universal service provision.

In Tasmania, again, the public health system is stretched to breaking point. Public transport in Tasmania, including Hobart, is flimsy at best. No wonder people are unhappy, because all of these issues are piling on top of each other.

There have been the questions over integrity, which help to explain the declining trust in government. Just in recent weeks, we've had the revelations that the so-called Major and Local Community Infrastructure Program, which was worth about $560 million, was invite only, and three-quarters of the $560 million went to Labor seats. I accept the explanation by the Prime Minister that it's delivering on election promises, but still we see three-quarters of an invite only program going to Labor seats.

No wonder people are cynical. No wonder there is something bordering on a collapse of trust in what I'll call the political class. Then there are the misguided priorities: insufficient increases from the government to income support, insufficient family and domestic violence funding, no effective tax on gas exports, and no effective gambling reform, despite all the hoopla several weeks ago—all while the community is witnessing billions spent on fossil fuel subsidies, nuclear submarines and so on..

Just yesterday, we had in the parliament a two very telling issues: the passage through the lower house of the legislation for the $5,000 cap on allied health services for veterans, and then the debate about the cut to the private health insurance rebate for Australians over 65. These are people with no financial room to move. No wonder they're unhappy.

They have a grievance alright. I could go on. I think we all understand, as well as or better than I do, why people are unhappy.

Some are angry. Politicians are not in favour. Political parties are not in favour.

People are looking around for some way through this—some alternative. I think it's reflected in the polling—not that some of the people or parties in the polls offer any solutions, other than that they're just not us. I think that is part of the appeal of some of these other parties and candidates.

But, of course, every problem has a solution. If the political class recognises there's a problem and has the vision to solve it and to get cracking, we as a country can certainly afford to solve these problems that I described. We can reinvigorate public services and supports.

We can strengthen integrity institutions and the guardrails. For example, we can give the National Anti-Corruption Commission more teeth, let them have public hearings, shine a light, and bring into the spotlight or into the daylight the problems that people are concerned about. We can reform whistleblower protections and FOI and secrecy provisions; improve ministerial and parliamentary standards; undertake more political donation reform and more electoral reform; have a more independent and transparent government grants program; and undertake lobbying reform.

But do you know what we need to do more than anything else? We—everyone in this place, myself included: all the political parties, all the crossbenchers and all the senators—need to remember our job is to work in the public interest every minute of every day and to put aside our political self-interest or the political self-interest of our party, if we're in a party.

I reckon that's the way ahead here. If the public know we are working in their interests at all times and we're giving it our best shot, they'll be more forgiving when we stuff it up. But the way things are at the moment, they think we work in a bubble.

They think we work only for ourselves and that we're completely out of touch with them. You know what? To some degree, they're right.

And they'll get it right at the next election when they pass judgement on all of us. We'll see how they go with their interest in other emerging politicians and political parties.