Speaker 1: All right, let's get into it.
Speaker 2: I'm just going to see them just turning you up
Speaker 2: and a little bit softer.
Speaker 1: Sure, okay. Adam band is the leader of the Greens.
Speaker 1: If things go his way this weekend, his party could
Speaker 1: hold the balance of power and a minority Labor government.
Speaker 1: But given the Prime Minister's famed hostility towards the Greens,
Speaker 1: and given the Labor parties continual approvals on new coal
Speaker 1: and gas projects, questions remain about whether they really have
Speaker 1: any power at all.
Speaker 3: The reality is that there has been negotiations during the
Speaker 3: course of the parliament, not only between the ministers and
Speaker 3: our spokespeople, but also between myself and the Prime Minister
Speaker 3: as well.
Speaker 1: From Schwartz Media, I'm Daniel James. This is seven am
Speaker 1: today Green's leader Adam Bant. I'm working with Albanezi and
Speaker 1: what the Greens have to show for their record win
Speaker 1: last time around. It's Tuesday, April twenty nine and thanks
Speaker 1: for being here. I want to start with your electorate.
Speaker 1: Bornerong Elder Uncle Mark Brown was heckled on Friday at
Speaker 1: the dawn service at the Shrine of Remembrance. What does
Speaker 1: that tell you about the current political environment? We're in.
Speaker 3: I think we see the rise of the far right,
Speaker 3: and we've been warned about that for some time, and
Speaker 3: why supremacists and afar right sadly have had a history
Speaker 3: of organizing in Victoria in particular. We saw it during lockdown,
Speaker 3: we saw the marching and gathering in the Grampians. We
Speaker 3: have been warned about this and now it is sadly
Speaker 3: you got to the point where they're feeling emboldened enough
Speaker 3: to go and start speaking out in public and promoting
Speaker 3: themselves and their knee and Nazis. And one of the
Speaker 3: really concerning things I think is that Trump has opened
Speaker 3: the doors for a potential legitimation of this kind of politics.
Speaker 3: And we've now got Peter Dutton weighing in as well
Speaker 3: by attacking welcomes to country at the same time, like
Speaker 3: in the same week. Is this within a few days
Speaker 3: of this happening, And so I am worried. I am
Speaker 3: concerned about it, and I think one of the things
Speaker 3: that we need to do during the election campaign in particular,
Speaker 3: but beyond is call it out for what it is,
Speaker 3: call it out for a creeping introduction of Trump style
Speaker 3: far right politics into Australia. But also white supremacism and
Speaker 3: neo Nazism on the rise and take all efforts that
Speaker 3: we can to stamp it out.
Speaker 1: Adam, I want to talk to you about your record
Speaker 1: in this term. What goals did you set for yourself
Speaker 1: at the start of this parliamentary term and what did
Speaker 1: you achieve.
Speaker 3: So the last election, our campaign was to get Morrison
Speaker 3: out and push labor to go further and faster on
Speaker 3: the things that matter. And as a result of us
Speaker 3: being there, we've got an extra three and a half
Speaker 3: billion dollars for public and community housing money going out
Speaker 3: the door.
Speaker 2: Now there was never on the table before.
Speaker 3: Some greater protections for the environment through especially for water
Speaker 3: for the Murray, and we got the right to disconnect.
Speaker 2: We managed to.
Speaker 3: Get a hard cap on pollution put into the climate legislation,
Speaker 3: which means pollution can't rise, and that stopped about half
Speaker 3: of the colon gas projects in the pipeline. We've also,
Speaker 3: and I think more broadly politically, we've put renters and
Speaker 3: first home buyers on the agenda. Going back to the
Speaker 3: last election in twenty twenty two, Anthony Albernezi ran a
Speaker 3: really small target campaign and they came up with these
Speaker 3: really piecemeal offerings around housing, and we pushed and we said, look,
Speaker 3: this is not going to fix the problem. There are
Speaker 3: some structural problems with housing in Australia. Go back to
Speaker 3: the nineteen eighties, three times the average income was the
Speaker 3: price of an average home and now it's eight, fueled
Speaker 3: by negative gear and capital gains tax concessions introduced by
Speaker 3: John Howard, and so the question is how do we
Speaker 3: unwind it. We got the government to the point of
Speaker 3: modeling some changes on that and seeking advice from Treasury,
Speaker 3: so as well as some really practical things they're going
Speaker 3: to make a difference to people. From the practical things
Speaker 3: like building more homes and helping public housing tenants get
Speaker 3: things like air conditioning and solar panels up through to
Speaker 3: shifting the political agenda, we've had an impact.
Speaker 1: You talked about the modeling that the government is doing,
Speaker 1: and that'd be around negative gearing. They've rulled that out
Speaker 1: for this election. Do you great not being able to
Speaker 1: manage to secure more.
Speaker 3: They also said they were going to change Stage three
Speaker 3: tax cuts. They made that a solemn promise and we
Speaker 3: pushed and pushed and said, look, it's massively unfair spending
Speaker 3: billions of dollars to give tax cuts of politicians and billionaires,
Speaker 3: and we got the government to change it, and we
Speaker 3: gave them credit for that. So I actually think, notwithstanding
Speaker 3: everything that said during the election campaign, I actually feel
Speaker 3: that if we keep pushing, pushing, we can get somewhere.
Speaker 3: Would we have liked to have been able to get
Speaker 3: more on reform on negative geering and capital gains tax, yes, yes, absolutely.
Speaker 3: But what we're doing this election is putting forward what
Speaker 3: we think is a fairly reasonable and fair way of
Speaker 3: unwinding of defusing John Howard's time bomb. So we're proposing
Speaker 3: leave the current arrangements in place if you've got one
Speaker 3: investment property in addition to your family home, but rule
Speaker 3: it out for the future, so that from here on
Speaker 3: in like, if you want to go and buy multiple properties,
Speaker 3: then no one is going to stop you, but don't
Speaker 3: expect to hand out from the government to support you
Speaker 3: doing it, especially when the effect of it is that
Speaker 3: you're pushing up prices out of reach of first home
Speaker 3: buyers and renters.
Speaker 1: You had a record number of seats in this Parliament
Speaker 1: and yet on a number of fronts you weren't able
Speaker 1: to influence policy as you would have liked. One example
Speaker 1: is late last year Anthony Alberinezi pulled the pin on
Speaker 1: the Nature Positive Bill after the Environment Minister Daniel Plipacy
Speaker 1: got very close to a deal with the Greens. Did
Speaker 1: you learn about negotiating with the Labor Party and how
Speaker 1: would you go about it differently next time.
Speaker 3: I think what we've learned from that is that we
Speaker 3: need more pressure in Parliament so that Labor does not
Speaker 3: think that they can get away with doing a deal
Speaker 3: with the Liberals to weaken our environment laws. And we
Speaker 3: know that just mathematically, of course the numbers are there
Speaker 3: if they choose to do it. We have to put
Speaker 3: them in the position where they don't want to do
Speaker 3: it and where they understand that they can potentially lose
Speaker 3: seats if they weaken our environment laws instead of strengthen them.
Speaker 3: The Australian Conservation Foundation said, as a result of that,
Speaker 3: we end the term with weaker environmental protections than we started. Like,
Speaker 3: that's a pretty astounding place to be. I guess the
Speaker 3: second thing I would say is that this is what
Speaker 3: you get when you have majority parliaments, so they feel
Speaker 3: like they can get away with anything, and with the
Speaker 3: experts saying there's every chance of a minority parliament. The
Speaker 3: experience of twenty ten is that that's when you can
Speaker 3: get them to pay attention.
Speaker 1: FB Albanezi is famously no fan of the Greens. He's
Speaker 1: antipathy towards your party is well noted. Do you think
Speaker 1: that's a liability when it comes to getting things done
Speaker 1: in the Parliament.
Speaker 3: We've got a situation now where less than a third
Speaker 3: of the country votes for the government, more than a
Speaker 3: third vote for the opposition, and about a third vote
Speaker 3: for someone else, including the Greens. I think the next
Speaker 3: parliament is going to be judged on whether it tackles
Speaker 3: some of these big issues, the underlying issues of the housing,
Speaker 3: cost of living, inequality, climate crisis, like these big forces
Speaker 3: at work here, and if they don't, and bearing in
Speaker 3: mind of course they're going to have to negotiate with
Speaker 3: us in the Senate anyway, because there's no majority in
Speaker 3: the Senate. Like, if they're not willing to do that,
Speaker 3: I think they're going to be pretty harshly judged.
Speaker 1: So how would you characterize your relationship with the Prime Minister.
Speaker 3: But it's professional and it's we talk and we have
Speaker 3: the ability to discuss the legislation that's before the Parliament
Speaker 3: and how we can managine and.
Speaker 2: Get it through.
Speaker 3: So the reality is that there has been negotiations during
Speaker 3: the course of the parliament, including not only between the
Speaker 3: ministers and our spokespeople, but also between myself and the
Speaker 3: Prime Minister as well. It has actually happened and it
Speaker 3: has resulted in good outcomes for people.
Speaker 1: Coming up after the break, Adam bands plans for the
Speaker 1: next parliament. You have the goal of the balance of
Speaker 1: power in a minority labor government. How many seats do
Speaker 1: you think you can win?
Speaker 3: Well, we've got four that we're the seat of Melbourne,
Speaker 3: plus three in Brisbane that we're working hard to get
Speaker 3: re elected in and taking nothing for granted in any
Speaker 3: of those seats. And then there's another five around the
Speaker 3: country that Will and McNamara in Melbourne, Richmond in New
Speaker 3: South Wales, Stuurt in South Australia and Perth Over in WA.
Speaker 2: There are all seats.
Speaker 3: Where we're within reachi of winning those seats. So that
Speaker 3: I guess would be we'll see how many of those
Speaker 3: go green on election night.
Speaker 1: How many of those seats would you need to win
Speaker 1: to consider the strategy success.
Speaker 3: I obviously like to increase the hold and increase. We're
Speaker 3: facing this time not only the well resourced attacks from Advance,
Speaker 3: but also Liberal and Labor. Though this is the first
Speaker 3: election that the Greens are going in where we've got Liberal,
Speaker 3: Labor and Advance all deciding that they want to come
Speaker 3: and take seats off us because they've seen that we
Speaker 3: actually believe in something different and they don't want that
Speaker 3: in Parliament. So we're not underestimating the task that we've
Speaker 3: got ahead of us. But yes, we would like to
Speaker 3: hold our existing representation and increase.
Speaker 1: So if you do increase your representation, what will be
Speaker 1: your top priorities for the next term.
Speaker 3: So we've put forward what I think would be called
Speaker 3: like a really clear social democratic platform. The basic principle
Speaker 3: underlying our policy platform that we've released is not this
Speaker 3: band aid approach from the others, not tinkering around the edges,
Speaker 3: but saying in a wealthy country like Australia, everyone should
Speaker 3: be able to afford the basics. We should all be
Speaker 3: able to have housing, health care, education, they should be
Speaker 3: guaranteed in a wealthy country like ours. So I think
Speaker 3: it's a platform that Whitlam would be proud of We've
Speaker 3: identified a number of areas that we think we could
Speaker 3: get action on really quickly. One is winding back and
Speaker 3: raining in those tax handouts to wealthy property investors that
Speaker 3: are denying renters chance to buy their first home, building
Speaker 3: more housing and capping how much rents can go up
Speaker 3: by like they do in the AC team, so that's critical. Second,
Speaker 3: another area would be getting dental into medicare.
Speaker 2: Last time we got it in for kids.
Speaker 3: Some we want to get in for everyone, pre universal childcare,
Speaker 3: starting to treat childcare like we treat primary school where
Speaker 3: it should be free to go and are available to everyone,
Speaker 3: any native forest logging and stopping the government from opening
Speaker 3: new coal and gas mines. So they're the areas like
Speaker 3: of course, will pursue all of our areas across our platform,
Speaker 3: but there areas we reckon we could get action on
Speaker 3: within a few weeks or months.
Speaker 1: And the Greens yourselves, you've been the focus of a
Speaker 1: campaign by the lobby group Advance, which came to the
Speaker 1: floor during the Voice referendum debate. How much impact are
Speaker 1: they having on the political climate and the Greens chances
Speaker 1: of winning additional seeks this election.
Speaker 3: Look the Advance of this shadowy organization funded by coal
Speaker 3: billionaires and others who can see that there are days
Speaker 3: of being able to continue to back new fossil fuel projects,
Speaker 3: accrue billions of dollars and get away with whatever.
Speaker 2: They want are potentially coming to an end.
Speaker 3: They know that there's a realistic prospect of a minority
Speaker 3: government after this election.
Speaker 2: I think the attacks are very.
Speaker 3: Thin, and I think people can see what's behind them.
Speaker 3: That there's also I think a growing awareness of what
Speaker 3: Advance in groups like it represent, that there is this
Speaker 3: in fact well resourced network of groups of which Advance
Speaker 3: is part, but they operate in other countries as well,
Speaker 3: and their goal is pretty clear is to defend the
Speaker 3: interests of their billionaire backers and their fossil fuel interests.
Speaker 3: They know they can't say that outright, so they find
Speaker 3: other ways of trying to do it. About my senses
Speaker 3: that people are seeing through it.
Speaker 1: If the government is returned with a majority on SAT Day,
Speaker 1: we see that as a rebuke of the Greens.
Speaker 2: I think we'll have to see what happens.
Speaker 3: So there's too with the Greens and our presence in Parliament,
Speaker 3: and of course we're going to continue to have a
Speaker 3: big presence in the Senate. I think this move towards
Speaker 3: having more third voices in Parliament is unstoppable as you
Speaker 3: look at the polls that are out at the moment,
Speaker 3: regardless of what happens about people's vote here. One of
Speaker 3: the constants that is coming through is now one came
Speaker 3: out over the weekend that said only seventeen percent of
Speaker 3: people think that this election campaign has given them hope
Speaker 3: for the future, and two thirds of people think that
Speaker 3: neither of the major parties who are tackling the big issues.
Speaker 3: And I think that that underlying sense that you've got
Speaker 3: to tackle the big issues is going to persist. And
Speaker 3: I think one of the lessons from Trump is that
Speaker 3: where governments do not use their power to make people's
Speaker 3: lives better by making big changes to things like housing,
Speaker 3: to things like cost of living, then along come the
Speaker 3: hard right or sometimes even the far right, and they
Speaker 3: use that disconnection and that dislocation and they try and
Speaker 3: ferment it and try and use it to get themselves
Speaker 3: into power. And I think whatever the composition of the
Speaker 3: next Parliament, it's got to tackle those issues otherwise that
Speaker 3: disaffection is going to grow. And I think that would
Speaker 3: be a really dangerous place for Australia to be.
Speaker 1: Adam, thanks so much for giving your time. It's such
Speaker 1: a busy part of the election cycle. Thank you.
Speaker 2: I really appreciate it. Thanks.
Speaker 1: We've invited the Prime Minister Anthony Alberizi and the opposition
Speaker 1: where that Peter Dutton, on the show to lay out
Speaker 1: their visions for the country. We still hope to bring
Speaker 1: you interviews with both of them. Also in the news today,
Speaker 1: the Albanesi government has released its election costings, was Treasurer
Speaker 1: Jim Charmers, saying responsible economic management has been a feature
Speaker 1: of their government. The Treasurer says labor has improved the
Speaker 1: budget position by more than one billion dollars compared to
Speaker 1: the pre election outlook, claiming the savings will offset the
Speaker 1: cost of their election campaign can commitments. He comes after
Speaker 1: SMP Global Ratings warned Australia's Triple A credit rating may
Speaker 1: be at risk if election campaign pledgures result in larger
Speaker 1: structural deficits, debt and interest costs. And a colonial inquest
Speaker 1: is underway into the mass stabbing attack at a shopping
Speaker 1: center in Bondai Junction one year ago. The five week
Speaker 1: in quest at the New South Wales State Coroner's Court
Speaker 1: will investigate the deaths of the six victims and the
Speaker 1: attacker who was shot there by the police at the scene,
Speaker 1: as well as the emergency response and adequacy of mental
Speaker 1: health services. I'm Daniel James seven am. Thanks for listening.