6 May, 2026
The Hon. R.A. SIMMS (15:28): The matter I rise to speak on this afternoon is one that will be of growing concern to South Australians, and that is the growing divide between the rich and the poor, the 1 per cent richest people in our society and everybody else. The Greens have recently launched a campaign to tax the richest 1 per cent and to focus on this in the lead-up to next week's federal budget.
There are signs of this inequality everywhere one looks. One of the things that we must see action on in next week's federal budget is ending the perks for developers, the perks for investors, property tax. Our housing system makes the big banks and property developers billions of dollars at the expense of everybody else.
While we have people sleeping in their cars, property investors are able to buy 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50 houses and get taxpayer subsidy to do it. They are buying up assets, competing with first-home buyers and pushing prices out of reach. By phasing out these tax discounts that they get on their property portfolios via negative gearing, we would free up homes for ordinary people and give first-home buyers a real opportunity to finally break into the market.
We also need to see federal Labor take action on gas exports. We need to see an end to the rort that lets offshore gas companies export our resources without paying any royalties. Massive gas corporations are making billions and billions of dollars in profit, while 56 per cent of all Australian gas is exported without paying a cent in royalties. It is outrageous. If we tax their exports, we would get our fair share of wealth generated from our own natural resources. These natural resources belong to all Australians, and we should get our fair share.
We also need to end the rorts for big corporations. It is shocking to know that in the last 10 years corporate profits have doubled, and all the while one in three big corporations have paid no tax. I referenced, earlier in question time, the fact that interest rates are going up again, for the third time this year, and while ordinary South Australians are struggling to make ends meet we have the big four banks making a record $16 billion in just one financial year. It is outrageous and we need to see leadership from the federal Labor Party.
I say we need to see leadership from Labor because we know we certainly will not be seeing it from the Liberal Party—they are the party of the big end of town—and we know we will not be seeing it from One Nation because they are beholden to the mega rich and vested interests. If you want proof of that assertion, in politics we are judged by the company we keep, and just last week we saw news that Pauline Hanson has been gifted a private jet by Australia's richest person, Gina Rinehart—a private jet paid for by billionaires. This is the person who says that she is a friend of the battler. She is no friend of the battler; she is a friend of the billionaires, and One Nation members of parliament are here to do their bidding.
They scapegoat migrants and they scapegoat and demonise difference to distract from the economic system that is dividing us and allowing some people to make a lot of money while others compete for the scraps. This is the same approach that the MAGA movement is taking in the United States. It is that style of politics that is being coopted here in Australia by One Nation. They do not care about the battlers; they are there to serve the billionaires.
It is very telling that their leader in this place, the Hon. Cory Bernardi, aspires to be a member of the Adelaide Club. This is a man who said that he wanted to shake up politics. Well, you do not shake up politics by shaking hands over in the Adelaide Club. You shake up politics by offering policies that actually serve the interests of real people, not Gina Rinehart and certainly not Pauline Hanson, who is here to serve the billionaire class.