Young people will be guaranteed a job, secure income, and free education under a new Greens recovery plan to restart the economy and build ‘a better normal’ after the coronavirus economic shock.

The vision for a debt-financed recovery reaffirms the government’s role in responding to the crisis, and rejects the austerity approaches offered by the Liberal and Labor parties, charting a course for a government-led recovery that extends Australia’s world-class social services, instead of slashing funding for education, healthcare, and the environment.

Leader of the Australian Greens Senator Richard Di Natale has condemned today’s bipartisan destruction of our progressive taxation system, declaring that the Greens are the only party acting as a real opposition.
 
“What a dark day this has proven to be. Centre Alliance seem to be Morrison puppets, Jacqui Lambie has sold out Tasmanian battlers for cents on the dollar, and Anthony Albanese’s Labor folded at the first sign of pressure,” Opposition Leader Richard Di Natale said.
 

The Labor leadership needs to stick firm in its opposition to the Government's tax cut package, despite the pressure it may be feeling from a handful of backbenchers, Leader of the Australian Greens Dr Richard Di Natale said.

"Labor said during the election that they wouldn't back in the Government's disastrous tax cuts and Anthony Albanese should stand firm, do the right thing for the country and continue to oppose these cuts," Di Natale said.

Instead of locking in a spiral of economic inequality by green-lighting Scott Morrison's flat tax system, the Labor Party should work with the Greens on a long-term plan to drive productivity and create sustainable jobs through investment in renewables and increasing Newstart, Leader of the Australian Greens Dr Richard Di Natale said.

"By supporting these tax cuts the Labor Party are going to make inequality worse and do nothing to set the country up for the future," Di Natale said.

This budget is a cynical attempt to buy votes instead of planning for the nation’s looming challenges. What we needed was a plan to tackle the climate emergency through a real investment in renewables and a managed transition away from coal and other fossil fuels. What we needed was a plan to tackle growing inequality and to fund our essential services. Instead Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg have stuck their heads in the sand and delivered a few election bribes.

Today’s disappointing final report into the banking and financial services industry will slow, but not end decades of money grabbing and unethical conduct, the Australian Greens have said today.

“The enthusiasm from the Liberal and Labor parties to accept these recommendations tells you all you need to know. The financial services industry is one of the biggest donors to both old parties, and they will all be laughing all the way to the bank tonight,” Leader of the Australian Greens Senator Richard Di Natale said.

Greens Treasury spokesperson Senator Peter Whish-Wilson and Leader Dr Richard Di Natale have this afternoon welcomed the release of the interim report of the Banking and Financial Services Royal Commission, saying we must now undertake serious reform to clean up the endless greed in the sector.

“Scott Morrison famously said when announcing this Royal Commission that it would not be ‘capitalism on trial’, but it’s now clear that’s exactly what it is, certainly it’s the worst excesses of capitalism on trial,” Senator Whish-Wilson said.

Leader of the Australian Greens Dr Richard Di Natale and Treasury Spokesperson Sen. Peter Whish-Wilson today unveiled a proposal for a sweeping overhaul of our banking and financial services sector, as well as the regulatory and governance system underpinning it. Simply put: it's time to break up the banks.