Australia is a wealthy country but this wealth is shared very unequally. But the true extent of this inequality is not as widely known as it should be. For example, the wealthiest 20% of households own 64% of Australia’s wealth and the bottom 60% of households own just 16%.

And the income of the highest 20% is more than the lowest 60% with the lowest 40% receiving just 18% of all income. With government policies favouring the wealthy this inequality is worsening. In the last 5 years the wealth of the wealthiest 3 Australians doubled while for most real wages have declined. Neither Labor nor Liberal have any intention to address this trend to greater inequality.

Tackling the cost of living crisis means honesty about the causes of rising prices. The biggest cause of rising prices (as measured by the inflation rate) is from the higher corporate profits which are just passed on to ordinary Australians as higher prices for the good and services we buy just to live. So it is wrong to blame wage increases for the cost of living crisis. But as wages have not kept up with these price rises wealth is being transferred to the shareholders of these companies. And with wages lagging behind the share of Australia’s wealth held by working families decreases.

Politicians from both Labor and Liberal claim that interest rate rises are necessary to reduce inflation. But it is the banks and wealthier Australians who profit from higher interest rates. This means that interest rate rises have just hit those who are not responsible for higher prices. So the cost of living crisis has just led to more wealth being transferred from ordinary Australians to increased profits. And it is wrong to increase interest rates to “tackle inflation” as this just punishes ordinary Australians who then pay more for their borrowings especially mortgages. By paying more through higher interest rates rather than Australian workers spending their wages back into the economy a higher proportion of their income is diverted directly to the banks. It any wonder why most Australians are worse off now?

When inflation went up to 7.8% – as it did post-covid in late 2022 – then the purchasing power of incomes goes down by that percentage. So for every percentage increase in prices wages need to increase by that amount just to keep up. If not, then workers go backwards. Without an increase in wages and Centrelink payments the real income of ordinary Australians has gone backwards. For millions of Australian families living standards have not risen for years. Wages must keep up with inflation to cover the cost of rising prices. And primary reason for the historic decline in real wages is the effectiveness of union organising for worker’s rights.

The cost of living crisis won’t be fixed while the mainstream parties aren’t honest about why prices are rising. Any serious approach to fixing the cost of living crisis will mean indexing wages and pensions and requiring the big companies to pay their share.

Just 12% of Australians are private landlords who own at least one investment property. Over a quarter of Australians households rent from these private landlords. And ownership of rental properties is highly concentrated with only 1% of taxpayers owning a quarter of Australia‘s rental properties. With wages not growing to keep up with housing prices saving for a deposit while paying higher and higher rent traps renters in the rental market. And as renters tend to be young and landlords tend to be older Australia’s youth are seeing little hope of one day owning their own home. Profits are being made by private landlords off those Australians who rent from not being able to afford their own home making the housing future of Australia’s young bleak.

This situation did not happen overnight but is the result of years of policy choices by both major parties which have made the property market an investor’s paradise with tax concessions only available to private investors making it easier to buy a second property than it is to buy a first home. One example of these tax concessions negative gearing which is only available to those who own investment properties allowing private landlords to claim a personal tax deduction for investment property expenses. But this policy just encourages the purchase of more than one property to make a profit and houses pushes up demand and prices as these investors compete for the same houses as those wishing to just buy a home to live in. And these private landlords can then pass on rises in interest rates to tenants by increasing the rent. And short term rentals such as Airbnb bring in high yields for owners but result in another property becoming unavailable for long term occupancy by a single tenant.

The majority of Australian (some 65%) either rent or are paying off a mortgage for the home they live in. This majority don’t have access to tax breaks like negative gearing. With capital gains tax about $20 billion of tax revenue is lost each year which is money that could be applied to funding affordable housing. This is more money than Labor is promising to spend yearly on actually building houses.

Fixing the housing crisis means ending those tax concessions for multiple property owners which have only made the housing market a profitable sector sought after by private investors. The tax concessions for multiple property owners which contribute to the housing crisis such as negative gearing and capital gains tax exemptions (which taxes profits made on the sale of property such as real estate and shares) need to be replaced with a fairer system. That system won’t benefit those who already wealthy but will provide security in housing especially by helping younger Australians into their own affordable homes.

Housing policy should see instead see housing as a right and prioritise the interests of the majority who are renting or currently paying off their home to have seeking security in their long-term accommodation. Public money should be not be subsidising the private sector but applied to a national builder to build quality housing in locations to minimise commute times for workers to get to their jobs.

Labor’s plan for housing does nothing to stop the housing tax benefits the wealthy are receiving. Labor’s “centrepiece” policy on housing – the Housing Futures Fund – is just a plan to borrow $10 billion dollars, invest it in global markets, and then fund housing each year from the monies left over (that is the money left after payment of interest and investment management fees). The money that will actually be drawn from the fund for housing each year is planned to be half a billion dollars but seeing this money is dependant upon the fund’s market performance in any given year.

But with 70% of the politicians in Canberra owning more than one property and therefore significant housing investors themselves – most politicians benefit directly from the very tax benefits that need to be abolished to make housing more affordable for the majority. And the political donations both major parties receive from the property sector’s vested interests mean that the housing crisis will continue. Both the major parties are out of touch. Neither wants to legislate changes that might affect their interests or challenge the powerful interests that donate to them.

Years of government outsourcing and subsidies to the private health sector has not resulted in lower prices and efficiencies. There is a widening gap between the Medicare rebate and the out-of-pocket expenses patients incur for medical scans and tests for which the patients themselves are expected to cover.

Young people are being penalised for not having private health insurance and, again, public money is being spent to help the private health sector make money from health services that used to be publicly owned. This has only led to the cost of medical treatment for ordinary Australians increasing while the health insurers are making posting profits. And aged care and childcare providers are profiting on the government subsidies they receive while workers are struggling in this low wage sector.

The government subsidies handed out to private health insurers each year could be better applied by funding and expanding Medicare to include primary dental treatment.

Billions of tax dollars are avoided each year by multinational companies who are either paying no tax at all or a much smaller rate than the average taxpayer. So in the last 10 years Australia’s teachers have paid twice the tax of the big oil and gas companies. And subsidies paid to the fossil fuel industry have increased and in the last financial year alone were $14.5 billion (up from $11.1 billion the previous year). This is money that could be applied to cost of living relief, housing, and public services.

In early 2024 Australia voted against a United Nations resolution which sought to tax multinationals in the countries where they make their profits. The land beneath your feet is being sold to the highest bidder but those proceeds of sale are not being applied for the public good. Although some of Western Australia’s gas is reserved for the domestic market here in WA even this is under threat. It’s time to prioritize shifting the tax burden to the companies profiting from their operations in Australia without paying what they should.

Political donations and the toxic culture of lobbying gets outcomes for corporations at the expense of ordinary Australians. Corporate ownership of the mass media and its funding of both major parties influences political decision making. And major party politicians who finish their political careers should not simply re-appear as lobbyists once they have spent years being on the public payroll. The politician to lobbyist career pathway needs to end with a mandatory 10 year cooling-off period once a politician leaves office. Voting independent means a voice not beholden to these corporate interests.

The major parties’ have planned changes to electoral funding laws to take effect after the election which are intended to further entrench the 2 major parties’ grip by channelling funding to themselves rather than their challengers them.

Time is running out to tackle climate change before is it too late stop global temperatures rising uncontrollably. Ordinary Australians are already paying the financial costs of the climate crisis from property damage following fires or floods and through rising insurance premiums.

A 70% reduction in emissions is needed by 2030 for there to be any realistic hope to achieve net zero by 2050. Labor’s claim to reach 50% by 2030 is not on track. But both major parties continue to subsidize fossil fuel use and even today a quarter of Australia’s emissions come from industry liquifying natural gas for export. Despite the spin campaign fossil fuels like natural gas are not a transition fuel but the actual problem.

The money budgeted to 2030 for the transition to renewables is a tiny fraction of the public monies being spend subsidising the fossil fuel industry. WA Labor’s decision to extending the life of the NorthWest Shelf Project Extension gas plant out another 45 years to 2070 makes a mockery of any goal of net zero by 2050 and federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has 30 business days to make a decision on the North West Shelf. And federal Labor’s fudging the numbers by increasing how much carbon is stored by the land use sector means the reality of the tiny decrease in fossil fuel use is being camouflaged to make if look like emission reductions is on target. But cutting emissions means reducing the emissions in the first place not camouflaging them with carbon offsets.

Australia’s Fuel Tax Credits scheme is just another example of corporate welfare which will cost taxpayers $10 billion in 2024-25 to subsidize the fossil fuel polluters. The scheme also encourages industry’s continued reliance on burning fossil fuels.

The shareholders in the fossil fuel industry are holding the country and the world to ransom. The fossil fuel industry is aware that any shift to clean renewables is a threat to their vast profits and have an interest in challenging the science of climate change.

Big polluters like Santos say: “Our purpose is to provide reliable and affordable energy to help create a better world for everyone” but Santos, like any other big company, are out to make money. But neither Labor nor Liberal is Labor is not serious about action on climate change when it continues to subsidize the oil and gas industry ($14.5 billion in 2023-24 which is up from 2022-23). Labor’s plan to invest just $1.5 billion support investing in solar panels and the battery supply chain is just not enough and the Liberals’ plan for nuclear power is really a scheme designed to keep Australia hooked on fossil fuels for years while these expensive and wasteful nuclear power plants are built with public money.

Action on climate change is needed now but the major parties lack the political will to do so.

Publicly-owned renewal energy infrastructure will mean cleaner and cheaper energy for all. With zero costs for solar or wind inputs into the system means the price of power will then be just for the repair and maintenance of this publicly-owned infrastructure. But achieving this outcome means ending the public subsidies to the fossil fuel industry and instead resourcing the urgently needed transition to renewables with no loss of income to those currently working in the fossil fuel sector.

For over a year Israel has conducted a deliberate and systematic destruction of the Gaza Strip and its Palestinians. Israel has ignored United Nations resolutions and decisions of the International Court of Justice and is committing genocide. The International Criminal Court has now even issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. But with more than 45 thousand of Palestinians killed the Australian government refuses to even use the word “genocide” and instead maintains its full diplomatic and economic ties with Israel. This failure, like that of other Western countries, has contributed to Israel acting without any restraint. International law must be followed if it is to mean anything.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the International Court of Justice have called out Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians. So why can’t Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton do the same? Without calling out this genocide and cutting ties, risks history recording Australia as not having taken a stand against genocide. It’s time for Australia to comply with its international law and boycott and sanction Israel.

The AUSKUS nuclear submarine program is projected to cost $368 billion. This obscene amount of money is enough money to each and every resident of the Cowan electorate a multi-millionare. The government expects to extract this money from ordinary Australian over the coming decades. Already $4.3 billion is being spent to upgrade Rolls-Royce’s facilities in the UK to expand that firm’s capacity to build the nuclear reactors required for the AUKUS program. This $4.3 billion could have been spent on addressing the housing or cost of living crises. The government’s priorities are wrong.

The AUKUS program means a nuclear future with Australia to carry the burden of storing nuclear waste for a thousand years. Already Australia is allowing nuclear armed US Navy vessels to use Australian ports. And to store this nuclear waste on Australian soil will require repealing nuclear waste disposal laws and stripping native title. Aukus is a wasteful program designed to ensure Australia is further integrated into the region’s system of US bases as part of the regional arms race.

AUKUS needs to be scrapped and instead prioritise addressing the cost of living and climate crisis.

Corporate influence erodes democracy. To safeguard our freedoms, We support:

  Capping political donations and increasing transparency.

  Enforcing a mandatory cooling-off period for politicians before they can become lobbyists.

  Addressing disadvantages faced by First Nations peoples.

  Protecting freedoms of speech, religion, association, and gender rights.

Listening to the voices of first nations people is a first step towards any true reconciliation to address historical and ongoing injustice. Justice first requires truth and their stories need to be heard. This is even more so when we are facing an environmental crisis and the knowledge of traditional owners is needed to address it.

We support initiatives to reform the justice system which seek to address the disproportionate rates of incarceration and disadvantage experienced by Indigenous Australians, including culturally informed alternatives.

Addressing the domestic violence crisis means funding the programs that work to reduce the incidence of domestic violence and assisting those escaping violent relationships.

Corporate interests keep many Australians addicted to online gambling affecting not just them but those dependant on their income.

Australian universities are now big businesses and have made billions from charging fees for students to study the courses offered. Many students, usually induced to study a course with the promise of employment following graduation, have been left in debt. But it is the employers who make money from the qualified graduates they employ who are benefitting from these qualifications but the former students themselves are the ones are in debt. I see forgiveness of all student debt is a priority.

Students shouldn’t be burdened with lifelong debt while employers profit from their qualifications. We support:

  Forgiving student debt.

  Investing in public education to ensure access for all.