The Greens will today announce key election policies, including a ‘billionaires tax’ to help fund genuinely free public schools, dental into Medicare and a job for everyone who wants one. 

With the party considering an election in November of this year still a possibility and a minority parliament the most likely outcome, Mr Bandt will push for a tax on billionaires & corporate super profits as part of dealings with a future shared power government.

Everyone is assuming 2021 will be an election year and the Greens are no different. Working closely with the party, our team is raring and ready to go. Your work on policy in previous conferences and again this weekend is making a great contribution to getting the party fit for a campaign. 

The government’s delay or abandonment of most of the recommendations from the Banking Royal Commission is a commitment to the hands off approach that caused the problems in the first place, the Greens say.

“The Liberals had to be dragged kicking and screaming into this Royal Commission, and they have never accepted that there is serious criminality and bad behaviour within the sector,” Greens Economic Justice spokesperson Senator Nick McKim said.

Leader of the Australian Greens Adam Bandt MP has today called on the government to defer the looming cuts to JobKeeper and JobSeeker in light of the growing COVID outbreak in NSW.

The Coronavirus Supplement is due to drop $200 a month in just 10 days, before being entirely cancelled come March 31.

“With lockdowns and travel bans throwing the country’s Christmas plans into chaos, Scott Morrison must immediately ditch the looming cuts to JobSeeker and JobKeeper,” Mr Bandt said.

MYEFO shows yet again that the Liberals are locking in inequality and damage from climate change, the Greens say.

“The economy continues to be underpinned by Government spending, with state governments’ investment in social housing and public transport responsible for a lot of the improved outlook," Greens Economic Justice Spokesperson Senator Nick McKim said.

"But wages growth has been revised down following the Government’s announcement that they will reduce public sector wage increases.”

The Future Fund must divest the $3 million it has put into a railway for the climate-destroying Adani coal mine, the Greens say.

Greens Economic Justice Spokesperson Senator Nick McKim said.

"This is public money and should be invested for the public good."

"Having already ruled out investing in tobacco products, the Future Fund must urgently get out of fossil fuels."

"This is a bad investment financially, morally and environmentally. To use public funds to cook the planet is an extraordinary error of judgement."

The Government and Labor have again wasted an opportunity to include real estate agents, accountants and lawyers subject to mandatory reporting of money laundering.

"We have been waiting 14 years for this badly needed reform," Greens Economic Justice spokesperson Senator Nick McKim said.

"Dirty money is flooding Australia's property market, helping to push house prices even higher, and making owning a home even more difficult for too many Australians."

Today’s national accounts figures show that government support for people who need it most must continue, Greens economic justice spokesperson Senator Nick McKim says.

“These figures show it was government spending that propped up the rest of the economy,” Senator McKim said.

“And even then, we are still way behind where we were before the pandemic hit. Millions of Australians are unemployed or underemployed.”

“As the OECD has made clear, now is not the time for the government to cut spending.”