The Australian Greens have slammed the government’s changes to support measures for the NSW lockdown, saying that the paltry concessions are a wasted opportunity that will leave people in poverty and risk further evictions. 

Despite acknowledging that existing support levels are too low, the additional scraps announced this afternoon are too narrow, and too miserly to protect people.

Greens leader Adam Bandt will announce the next steps in the Greens campaign to make the billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share today, with a Budget push for the Morrison government to force the billionaires and big corporations who profited from JobKeeper to pay it back.

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.