Today Abigail gave an adjournment speech in Parliament about widening economic inequality in the ongoing cost of living crisis, a direct product of government decisions to prioritise the big end of town over the people in our communities who are doing it tough.
Abigail said:
If you are feeling that things are getting harder, you are not alone. Every day the gap between the super rich and the rest gets wider. The rich get richer while the rest of us find it harder and harder to afford the basics we all need to live a dignified life. Inflation means that everything costs more and your pay is not keeping up, the interest rate on your mortgage will not stop climbing, and power bills land with a thud every quarter. More than a third of us say it is hard, and getting harder, just to pay everyday expenses. One in five of us is behind on our bills, dodging phone calls from the bank chasing late mortgage payments or the landlord chasing last month's rent. If you are a single parent, have a disability or rent, or if you are injured or sick, things are even harder.
One in eight of us is already living below the poverty line, and many more are just one shock away from impossible choices: you get sick or injured, you lose your job, you take on caring responsibilities you did not expect, your landlord hikes the rent or kicks you out to redevelop your home into luxury apartments and you are priced out of where you call home, or a relationship ends or a partner dies and suddenly what was already tricky with two incomes becomes almost impossible with one. Suddenly, you are asking questions that no-one should have to ask. "Will I eat today? Will I have somewhere to sleep? Can I afford new school uniforms, work shoes or dinner with friends?" If you are lucky, you have some savings. But often they are already gone, eaten up by medical bills, car repairs, insurance and rego.
I got elected to try to help people, and over the past several years I have been honoured and devastated that so many people have reached out to me to share their stories of struggle and hardship in a system that has stopped working for people. Their stories are not one-offs. They are repeated across different people, different situations and different towns, but they still tell the same story of an unfair system stacking the odds against them, meeting struggle with greed or indifference—a story in which they feel isolated, alone and powerless. It might be fighting for basic supports through the NDIS in a drawn-out battle with an insurance company denying compensation for a workplace injury; fleeing violence with nowhere to go; fighting to have a child accepted into a local school that can cater for their needs; sleeping rough, desperate for a safe place to go; or one of the countless cases of women, children and First Nations people suffering trauma at the hands of a justice system that fails to protect the most vulnerable. Everywhere across this State I see good people doing their best and trying to get back on their feet, only to have our systems fail them and make things harder, not easier.
If people feel like things are getting crueller as well as harder, they are not alone. Life is getting harder for them and for me, and for our neighbours and friends. But it is not getting tougher for everyone. For the wealthy few, life just keeps getting better and better. Our governments cut back on the basic services we all need to live a dignified life while they are bending over backwards to give more to the rich and the powerful. Our Federal Government spends more public money on tax breaks for property investors than on social housing, homelessness services and rent assistance combined. The Labor Party and the Coalition pick the side of big businesses and their mega-rich owners, who they shower with handouts and subsidies. But when it comes to people doing it tough, those who need help the most, the well has already run dry and suddenly compassion has to be "sustainable".
Australia's top 48 billionaires hold more wealth than 40 per cent of the population combined. Forty-eight people in this country hold more wealth than 11 million of us. And with that wealth, they are securing even more political power. When people like Gina Rinehart, Australia's richest woman, dine with politicians and funnel massive donations into campaigns, is it any wonder that our political elite work together to maintain an economic system that continues to deliver for people like them while more and more of us fall further behind? Wealth inequality is political. The decisions that led to 48 Australians becoming billionaires while 13 per cent of us continue to live in poverty were political decisions, and that is important to remember.
When the Government chooses to leave $1 billion in potential gambling tax revenue on the table while it cuts thousands of people off from workers compensation, that is a political decision. Cutting income and disability supports while paying billions to foreign weapons companies for submarines we will likely never see—that is a political decision. These decisions are designed to widen economic inequality and make life tougher for everyday people. People are right to think that it does not have to be this way, and they are not alone. Our economy is designed by people, and it can be changed by people. We can tax the rich; the sky will not fall in. We can force the mega-wealthy to pay their fair share so that the rest of us can live a good and dignified life. We just have to choose to do so.
Read the transcript in Hansard here.
5 February 2026