I’ve worked as a social researcher, teacher, carer, and community worker. I’ve just finished my PhD looking at climate change adaptation in Bangladesh. I’m a long-term renter living in Woolloongabba, and I went to school at Brisbane State High.
Our political system is stacked in favour of big business, and I’ve seen the effects that corporate-dominated politics has had on communities. In South Brisbane, unsustainable, profit-driven property development has pushed out residents and overwhelmed our limited public infrastructure. This has led to problems with parking and traffic congestion, overcrowded schools, and a critical shortage of affordable housing.
Across Queensland, people are suffering from record-low wages and are struggling to pay their rent, mortgage or electricity bills. 29,000 people are on the waiting list for social housing. All the while, big corporate profits soar.
But we can do so much better. The Greens have a plan this election to fund a jobs and investment boom across Queensland. We want to fund significant investment in public infrastructure, via a Queensland Public Infrastructure Bank, by asking property developers and mining corporations to pay their fair share. We want to build 1 million affordable homes, effectively ending homelessness, and ensuring that every Queenslander has a safe, secure place they can call home.
We want to roll back privatisation in the electricity sector, and stop price-gouging, to save every household up to $600 a year on their power bill. We want to invest in publically-owned renewable energy generation and storage. We can make public transport fares $1 and create fast and reliable buses and trains. We can afford all of this, with an increase in charges on property developers, and an increase in mining royalties, to invest in the kind of public infrastructure we need in Queensland.
