Wednesday, 23 September 2026

 Ellen SANDELL (Melbourne) (19:13): (1855) My adjournment today is for the Premier, and my ask is for the government to accept that people are fed up with Labor and ready to vote Greens to replace them. We are two months away from a critical state election here in Victoria, and right now people are fed up. They are fed up with being told to choose between two major parties that have so fundamentally let Victorians down. Frankly, people are fed up with having to choose between bad and worse, and honestly, in 2026, who can blame them? Just look at how Labor is responding to the defining crises facing Victoria. In the middle of a housing crisis, Labor is demolishing and privatising public housing. In a climate crisis, Labor is fast-tracking AI data centres and opening up new oil and gas drilling in Victoria’s oceans. In a cost-of-living crisis, Labor is delivering the lowest-funded public schools in the country and has spent years selling off our public services and assets, even trying to sell Melbourne Water and our road maintenance to private companies so they can make profit while we all pay more for worse services. That is Labor’s vision: lowest-funded public schools, demolished public housing, cuts to the environment and privatising our public services for corporate profit. And if all that was not bad enough, just look at what has already been committed to by the Liberals, Nationals and One Nation: more coal, gas and nuclear and an end to renewable energy, huge cuts to public workers, AI running our healthcare system, attacks on abortion rights and ripping up our historic treaty with First Nations communities.

People are fed up with Labor, but they sure as heck do not want a Liberal–One Nation coalition government. The good news is that this November Victorians do not have to choose between bad and worse. There is a genuine positive alternative for our state, and that is the Greens. Recent polling shows that we are in the box seat to win a whole host of seats and reshape politics to be bold, to be hopeful and to deliver the real change that Victorians need. The Greens are the only ones in Parliament fighting to put people and planet before corporate profit; to bring down your costs with free public transport, free dental care, rent controls and genuinely affordable and public housing; to make communities safer, with real investment in what works, like the mental health and addiction and homelessness services that have been so sorely neglected; and to replace Labor’s coal and gas with cheaper, publicly owned renewables. The Greens will get money out of politics and ban corporate donations to politicians.

All of this better future is possible if we elect politicians who have the guts to take on the corporations and make them pay their fair share of tax. The Greens’ plan delivers over $5 billion in revenue every year by taxing the billionaire banks, the gambling giants, the coal and gas companies, property developers and the ultra, ultra wealthy. The Greens are the only ones fighting to tax these big corporations because we are the only party that does not take their donations, and we never will. We are fighting for two things: people and planet. We are not here to push Labor or any other government to be better, we are here to replace them. The two-party system is not working, the time to end it is now and this November the Greens are ready to replace it.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Before I call the member for Laverton, I am struggling to see how the action, as I heard it, pertains to government business.

Ellen SANDELL: Maybe it does not. Maybe it should be ruled out of order.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Would the member for Melbourne like to reiterate what the action is?

Ellen SANDELL: It is for the Premier to advocate using government resources for people to vote for the Greens.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I do not see how that relates to government business, sorry, member for Melbourne. I will rule that out of order if that is all you have got.