Thursday, 6 March 2025

 Aiv PUGLIELLI (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (09:47): Last year Australia’s billionaires made $67,000 an hour. That is a whole year’s salary for many people in our community. People like Gina Rinehart and Clive Palmer have increased their wealth, year on year, while the rest of Australia’s wages struggle to keep up with inflation. Many of Australia’s 150 or so billionaires own or invest in mining companies, companies literally destroying our country and destroying our planet. Another popular industry they invest in is real estate, hoarding properties while the rest of us struggle to afford mortgages or rent increases in this housing crisis. Do not doubt for a second that the way these billionaires are increasing their wealth is by taking from the rest of us, exploiting their workers, exploiting and plundering the environment and monopolising industry. In this country with a population of around 26 million people, the richest 250 people have wealth equal to about 25 per cent of our national GDP. What does that leave for the rest of us? We need to put a stop to this outrageous hoarding of wealth. We need to tax the billionaires to pay for the things the rest of us need – pay for our schools, pay for our hospitals, pay for cost-of-living relief – 50-cent public transport fares, for example. Tax them and get it done.