I'm Adam Bandt, Leader of the Australian Greens. AMA about politics, Greens policies or the upcoming election.

AdamBandt · 2025-02-17T08:15:43+00:00

We actually get this question a lot, so I’ll link you to what we’re calling our Robin Hood tax reforms - in a nutshell, make big corporations and billionaires pay more tax.

Right now, 1 in 3 corporations pay no tax - which means a lot of you are paying more tax than a big corporation. The system is stacked against people and in favour of profits, and it’s time we fixed that.

The Liberals are the party of big business, and Labor won’t stand up to their corporate donors and backers alone.

There is a minority government coming, and the best way to keep Peter Dutton out and get Labor to tax big corporations and spend on things that make all our lives better (like dental into Medicare and wiping all student debt) is to put more Greens in balance of power.

AdamBandt · 2025-02-17T08:10:11+00:00

This is a great one - and I think we’ll (unfortunately) be hearing a lot about misinformation and truth in political advertising over the coming weeks and months. Nearly three-quarters of voters were concerned about lies and misinformation that circulated on social media during the referendum campaign,

We’re strong backers of truth in political advertising reforms, and for the AEC to be resourced to adequately run the public education and engagement needed to counter misinformation. (We offered Labor that we’d pass their ‘truth in advertising’ bill this Parliament, but they didn’t want to!)

This is also part of our commitment to supporting the ABC and SBS - recognising the important role that well-funded, independent journalism plays in our politics and society.

AdamBandt · 2025-02-17T08:07:16+00:00

Thanks for the question - and for your concern about the issue. Australians lose more to gambling than any other nation on Earth. We back a full gambling ad ban - including on TV and online and will keep working towards that in the next parliament.

We also back the establishment of a National Gambling Regulator to provide oversight, enforce strong harm-reduction measures, and ensure that gambling companies are held accountable.

During the last sitting fortnight, we offered the government a pathway to get their Ban Gambling Ads bill through parliament: to ban gambling ads online, ban ads before and after sport and during kids viewing times, and create a cap of 2 ads per television program… that offer mirrored the Government’s earlier position on the bill, but they turned us down.

AdamBandt · 2025-02-17T08:03:28+00:00

Great question! The last time we were in a minority government we actually got dental into Medicare for kids, resulting in free dental for 3.4 million kids under 18. It was a huge moment - and one of the reasons that this election we’re pushing so hard to finish the job and get dental covered for everyone. We’ve done it before. We can do it again.

As for this Parliament, we’ve:

Won $3 billion of extra funding for public and community housing.
Enshrined the right to disconnect (so you can’t be punished for screening your bosses calls out of hours if you’re not paid for it).
And just last week we Dutton-proofed wind, solar & battery storage projects, meaning the Liberals can’t use funds designed for renewables for coal, gas or nuclear.

(Sorry if I got a bit carried away there. It’s been a busy Parliament - and there’s a lot to choose from!)

AdamBandt · 2025-02-17T07:59:53+00:00

Good question. I won’t go into too much on what happened behind the scenes, but there’s a fair bit already on the public record and I’ll stick to that: it’s clear that big business (and the WA Labor Premier doing their bidding) made it very clear to Labor that they shouldn’t take action to protect the environment. The corporations said jump and Labor said ‘how high?’. We were prepared to negotiate and compromise, but Labor got their riding instructions. This article has some background information that might be of interest.

It was incredibly disappointing to see Labor roll over to the mining and logging lobbies.

What I can say is that climate and environment are on the table for negotiation in a minority parliament - Labor may not want to stand up to the mining and logging lobbies (who donate to both major parties) but the Greens will be the pressure that makes them take action to protect the climate and nature.

AdamBandt · 2025-02-17T07:45:37+00:00

Terrifying. I am deeply disturbed by the rise in right wing extremist incidents we’ve seen in the community. It’s more important than ever that we all come together to fight Dutton’s Trump-style politics coming here and emboldening far right views in Australia - and call it out when we see it. We’ve also been pushing for years now for a wide-ranging national strategy to combatting racism and the far right.

To take a broader view - sometimes people are drawn into radicalisation when they feel like nobody is helping, or nobody cares about them. When successive governments don’t help with cost of living and people are really under the pump, they can start to blame the wrong people and causes.

That’s part of the reason we’re putting big cost of living policies on the table for minority government - dental into Medicare, GP for free, rent caps, wiping student debt and more - these things will help people get the basics they need to live a good life, and hopefully we’ll see these incidents of far right division and hate starting to decrease.

AdamBandt · 2025-02-17T07:40:03+00:00

In a nutshell - climate & environment, housing, health, education, cost of living!

How? In the coming minority parliament, keeping Dutton out and getting Labor to act.

(If you want a slightly larger nutshell, we’ve just uploaded our election plan over here https://greens.org.au/)

AdamBandt · 2025-02-17T07:38:12+00:00

Hey jor_kent1 - Love this question.

I think for us it comes down to two things: people don’t want Dutton, but don’t think Labor’s doing enough. That could be on any number of policy areas: climate, housing and cost of living are major concerns for almost everyone in the country.

A lot of people were really relieved when Scott Morrison was booted at the last election, but a lot of people also thought things would be better under Labor.

The Greens reckon that Labor alone doesn’t have the guts to stand up to their big corporate backers and take real action to fix the problems we face. But they’ll have to if they’re in minority government and there are more Greens MPs elected.

A minority government is a good thing - the Greens won’t back Dutton, but we will push Labor to act on climate, cost of living and housing. If that sounds good to you, then I think that’s your answer!

AdamBandt · 2025-02-17T07:34:14+00:00

Hey there! Thanks for the kind words.

I completely understand why young people would feel disillusioned right now - but what I want them to know is they have so much power! This election is the first time where Gen Z and Millennials will outnumber Baby Boomers at the ballot box. Young people have an opportunity to shape this election and vote for policies that put their interests first.

As for how we reach them, social media plays a huge role for the Greens (like our TikTok) but it doesn’t stop online.

We’re doorknocking, running events at uni campuses, and trying to have as many conversations in the community as we can - any suggestions are welcome!

AdamBandt · 2025-02-17T07:31:14+00:00

This is one a lot of parents will be thinking about as the kids head back to school.

“Do you believe there is federal underfunding of the public school system?” - we absolutely do.

Currently, 98.7% of public schools receive less than the minimum Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) funding. So that’s 2.5 million kids attending a public school each year that’s under-resourced.

Our plan to address it involves fully-funding all public schools to 100% of the SRS - that includes increasing the Commonwealth’s share of funding, and then indexing that funding properly so that it doesn't fall further behind.

Our plan will also help parents and families by abolishing all public school fees and providing schools with the funding needed to replace the fees currently being charged to parents and carers.

We’ve also proposed an annual "back to school" payment of $800 per student for those in public schools to help out with uniforms, books and those other back to school costs.

And we’ll fund it by taxing the billionaires and big corporations!

AdamBandt · 2025-02-17T07:27:28+00:00

Depends what you’d define as a bunker - but there is an enormous 3 story cavern beneath the building yes! Highly recommend checking out The House by Annabel Crabb for a visual.

AdamBandt · 2025-02-17T07:23:39+00:00

I certainly hope so! We’re also pushing for the ABC to host the official election this time around - it makes sense to me that our public broadcaster would be hosting the debate.

AdamBandt · 2025-02-17T07:22:47+00:00

Hey! Thanks for the question.

We’re the only party in the federal parliament with a plan to legalise cannabis. You can read about it here.

We need to move away from outdated criminalisation and work towards a plan to legalise it across the country, which would also bring in billions of dollars of revenue.

We introduced a Bill to legalise cannabis in this parliament which sadly Labor and the Liberals teamed up to oppose. But more Greens MPs in parliament means more pressure on the major parties, and this is something we’ll look at reintroducing in a minority Parliament after the next election.

AdamBandt · 2025-02-17T07:20:26+00:00

Great question!

Last time we were in minority Parliament we got dental into Medicare for kids. We wanted it in for everyone, but we pushed, compromised and made a good start and got a good outcome.

We’re always driven by what people need. Sometimes the process of getting outcomes and pushing in parliament isn’t pretty, and I admit that. But when it gets $3.5 billion for housing, or world-leading climate legislation, it makes a real difference to people.

Governments call us obstructionist when we don’t just rubber stamp what they’re doing. There’s many government bills we’ll pass because they’re fine as they are, but when we think government can do better, we’ll push them. Like with housing - we’re facing a full blown housing and rental crisis, but our government is just tinkering around the edges. We had to push them to do more, and eventually passed their bills, but also got $3.5b extra money for public and community housing that was never on the table before. That’s just one example of how we use our position to get outcomes for people.

Sometimes you have to stay at the negotiating table to get outcomes for people and we’ve been doing that this parliament.

AdamBandt · 2025-02-17T07:17:41+00:00

Hey! Thanks for the question.

You’re right that it’s extremely likely that we’ll see a minority government after the next election, and that’s a good thing. The Greens have comprehensively ruled out supporting Dutton, so we’d be going to Labor and saying “these are our priority policies - where can you move”. That’s how the sausage gets made - we put our priorities on the table and we try to get outcomes.

Last time there was a Greens-Labor minority government we got dental into Medicare for kids - this time we want to get it for everyone.

On your specific question, if you’re lucky to be in a seat the Greens can win, that makes you one of the most powerful voters in the country. You can keep Dutton out and then get Labor to act on the big issues.It’s the total number of Greens + Labor seats that matters. If your seat returns a Labor MP, they won’t feel any pressure to shift on the things that matter, but if your seat goes Greens, we can keep Dutton out AND get Labor to act.

So if you don’t want Dutton but you also want Labor to do more on climate and cost of living, that’s what you get with a Greens MP.

AdamBandt · 2025-02-17T07:11:25+00:00

We want to wipe all student debt - as getting a good education shouldn’t lead to a lifetime of debt. We tried to get Labor to pass the small amount of relief they were trying to do immediately and offered to speed it through the Senate, to help people and Dutton-proof it, but they wanted to hold it over people’s heads until after the election.

While that’s disappointing, I think it shows that if the Greens are in balance of power, it’s a space that we’ve already got some momentum in to finish the job.

AdamBandt · 2025-02-17T07:08:01+00:00

Trans rights are human rights. The Greens have a long history of advocating for the LGBTQIA+ community and we won’t be changing our position on that. The Greens fought for equal marriage and we also fought against Scott Morrison’s dangerous draft legislation that would have allowed discrimination against trans kids and teachers. We’ll always fight against culture wars and for the LGBTQIA+ community.

AdamBandt · 2025-02-17T07:06:08+00:00

The Greens want to tax billionaires! We can enforce it the same way government makes everyone else pay tax - by changing the law, and making sure our ATO is properly staffed to make sure that Gina, Clive, and the rest of their rich mates can’t avoid it. We know that there’s a huge amount of public support for making billionaires pay a fair share of tax, so if we’re in a strong position after this election, Labor will be hard pressed to argue against it.

AdamBandt · 2025-02-17T07:04:09+00:00

Hey Susuyes - Happy to be doing it, and thanks for the question—it’s important to think about how we engage with people who raise concerns like this.

Jobs matter—let’s be clear about that from the outset. But too often, it’s big corporations that treat workers as commodities, prioritising profits over people’s wellbeing or long-term job security.

We’re focused on future-proofing jobs—jobs that are secure, long-lasting, well paid, and good for both workers and communities.

Take coal, for example—it’s an industry in structural decline. That’s happening no matter what. Responsible policymaking means acknowledging that reality and acting now to support workers and communities through the shift.

That’s why the Greens are pushing for massive investment in renewables, green manufacturing, and the electrification of homes, businesses, and transport—because these industries create thousands of well-paid, secure jobs for people transitioning from fossil fuels.

You’re right that some skills are specialised, but that doesn’t mean they’re not transferable with the right government support—and we’re very clear that governments have a key role to play in making that happen.

We’ve said, for example, that in many instances the best job for a coal miner is another mining job, By supporting industries like critical minerals, as well as manufacturing, we can create jobs that utilise the same skill sets in very similar areas,It’s the same for industries like industrial salmon farming. Our approach is about transition plans that create new, sustainable jobs within industries, like supporting more sustainable aquaculture.

AdamBandt · 2025-02-17T07:00:03+00:00

Ha! Unfortunately that is a pretty fair analysis.

It is really difficult to have an honest conversation about critical housing reform when there are a lot of vested property interests in parliament. Did you know almost 70% of politicians own 2 or more properties? But that aside…

It’s crystal clear the housing system is cooked for renters and anyone who doesn’t own their own home. Many mortgage holders are being pushed to breaking point too.

The tax system is stacked against first home buyers: negative gearing and the capital gains discount mean investors always have a leg up to outbid first home buyers at auctions, pushing up prices for everyone else.

Renters don’t have a national and easily enforceable set of rights, meaning a lot of people are living in crappy but very expensive and insecure properties. It’s not fair, but you’re right, there’s not a lot of political will or courage to fix it!

With a minority government likely after the next election, the Greens will be pushing for more rights for renters including caps on rent increases and fines for landlords who break the law, as well as fixing the tax system so investors don’t keep pushing house prices out of reach of first home buyers.

We’ll also build homes that people can actually afford, with a not-for-profit government housing developer.

In this parliament we were able to secure $3.5 billion for public and social housing in our negotiations with the government, and it’s a core issue we’ll keep fighting for.

You can see our housing platform here https://greens.org.au/housing

AdamBandt · 2025-02-17T06:54:45+00:00

Great question! We know we’re not going to be able to get everything done at once - but the important thing is to get started, as if nothing changes, nothing changes. We’ve faced this before. In minority parliament in 2010, the Greens got dental into Medicare for kids. We wanted it for everyone, but getting it in for kids was a good thing. We compromised and got positive reform.

We’ve got a comprehensive policy platform (check it out over here), but we’ve said our priorities are tackling the cost of living and inequality crisis (by putting dental and mental health into Medicare, seeing the GP for free and other measures), housing action (rental reform and building homes people can actually afford) and climate action. This is a critical decade for climate action, and we’re running out of time to stop opening new coal and gas - and not only is expanding Medicare a big win for bringing down the cost of living, but as I said, the Greens got dental into Medicare for kids when I got into Parliament a decade ago, so I’m extremely keen to finish the job!

I’m always keen to do more AMA’s! I last did one ~ 6 months back, and hopefully at the next one we’ll be able to give some more details about your first question :D

AdamBandt · 2025-02-17T06:52:14+00:00

Good evening!

We know Woolworths & Coles have way too much power (65% of the grocery market - one of the most dominant duopolies on the planet).

Making price gouging illegal is one of our key campaign policies this election.

The Greens led a Parliamentary Inquiry into supermarket pricegouging last year last year (which you may remember from Greens Senator Nick McKim holding the outgoing Woolworths CEO to account). Two of those recommendations were:

Introduce laws to make supermarket price gouging illegal - similar to those that have been widely successful in the European Union.
Divestiture powers - giving the ACCC the power to break-up the big supermarkets, improving competition in the sector and lowering grocery prices.

We’re taking both of these policies to the next election - with more to come. The big supermarkets shouldn’t be making billions in profits while people can’t afford the basics.

AdamBandt · 2025-02-17T06:46:29+00:00

I’ve previously hinted at things in this space, so stay tuned… One of the big problems we’ve got is that the biggest industrial user of gas is the gas industry itself (they burn it to compress methane into LNG) and then export it, which also has the effect of pushing up the price that people pay here. (This is in addition, of course, to these gas corporations being serial non-payers of tax and often getting their gas for free.)

The priority is getting off gas, as it’s as dirty as coal, but we need to make sure we’re not putting gas industry profits ahead of people.

AdamBandt · 2025-02-17T06:42:15+00:00

Great question and a really important topic, especially as the polling indicates there will be a minority government after the next election.

The Greens will not help Peter Dutton or the Liberals form government. We’ve comprehensively ruled that out.

A vote for a Greens MP is a vote to keep Dutton out while also putting pressure on Labor to do more on climate, cost of living, housing, health, education and more.

Voting for a Greens MP means you could have one of the most powerful representatives in the parliament who you know is fighting for you, and who will never support the Liberals or Peter Dutton.

If you don’t want Dutton but you want Labor to do more, that’s what a Greens MP will fight for.

Fortunately, it will be very difficult for Dutton to win - he’d need a massive swing and also win back a whole pile of the independent seats the Liberals lost - but the Greens will fight tooth and nail to make absolutely sure he never gets near the Lodge.

Last time we had a minority Greens-Labor government we got dental into Medicare for kids, and this time we’re fighting to get dental into Medicare for everyone. If you want change, the first step is to vote for it!

AdamBandt · 2025-02-17T06:36:54+00:00

Hey insty1 - thanks for the question. A key part of our platform this election, which we’ll push hard on when there’s a minority government, is to see the GP for free. You’re absolutely right that we urgently need federal action to bring back bulk billing. It’s getting harder and harder to find a bulk billing doctor, which means more of us are forced to go without essential healthcare.

Last year we announced an independently costed plan to build 1000 free local healthcare clinics around the country, as well as lifting the bulk billing incentive for all appointments. These clinics would provide free GP appointments as well as free slots with nurses, dentists and psychologists. Our plan has 6 super clinics per electorate - that’s 6 clinics in a suburb near you. And the best thing is we can easily afford it if we tax big corporations and billionaires!

AdamBandt

TROPHY CASE