Wednesday, 16 August 2023

Australian Labor Party

Aiv PUGLIELLI (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (17:46): (397) My adjournment matter is for the Premier, and the action I seek is for him to listen to the Victorian community and take its concerns to the Labor national conference. This weekend is the Labor national conference, as I think everyone in this place would be aware. The conference is described on Labor’s website as playing ‘a defining role in the future of our party and our nation’. We know that the policies agreed upon at this conference will influence the Labor initiatives that will come from our state and federal governments. These policies have real-world impacts for our community. What members in this place might not be aware of is that a range of organisations are planning to protest this event. Housing organisations, renters, queer groups, people living in poverty and many different people will be holding demonstrations during the conference, and their sentiments are shared by the broader Australian community.

I want to talk about some of the reasons why people are planning to protest Labor’s event. Earlier in the year Labor released a draft of the policy platform to be agreed upon at the conference. Queer members of the community were horrified to learn that commitments to expand anti-vilification laws for queer people had been removed from this proposal. Last year it was there, but in this draft this year it is gone – at a time when the queer community is under attack from the far right and needs expanded anti-vilification laws more than ever. Labor needs to do better.

Premier, we are in a cost-of-living and housing crisis, and renters are feeling abandoned by the Labor government. Labor is selling off public housing stock to private developers, investing in the failing private housing market and providing no hope to the growing cohort of renters who will never be able to afford a home of their own or have housing security, doomed to age in insecurity and forced to move home every few years and relocate their entire lives whilst the private sector enjoys billions in subsidies. Labor is walking away from renters. Premier, $313 billion is being handed to the most wealthy in this country despite Labor’s own acknowledgement that stage 3 tax cuts are a slap in the face to anyone who is not rich – tax cuts that will increase wealth inequality. It is a hard pill to swallow for the people in housing stress or for the over 70 per cent of people who are cutting back on groceries because the cost to eat is too high. These are just a few reasons why people are choosing to protest Labor’s national conference, so I ask you, Premier: with the opportunity you have, do something.