MATT PARMETER

One of the Greens four core principles is social justice. The Greens believe in a more caring and compassionate society.

On any given night more than 100,000 Australians are homeless. That’s one in every 200 people. The Greens want to build new homes for the homeless – 7000 by 2020, to be funded by the phasing out of negative gearing.

Mental health, depression and suicide are serious issues Australia has to deal with. The Greens want to invest $1.4b over the next four years in a major mental health initiative to improve services. We would maintain funding for headspace and the Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Centres. The package includes $280m for rural mental health, and funding for step up-step down support services and accommodation.

The Greens have proposed funding measures to mitigate the effects of domestic violence that includes phone services, womens shelters counselling and a perpetrator intervention/mens behaviour change program.

Aboriginal Australians die more than a decade earlier than other Australians, and the death rate for children is twice as high. The Greens are looking to help Close the Gap in aboriginal health outcomes, with their National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan, aiming to limit preventable blindness, and help address chronic kidney disease.

We can measure our success by how well we look after the least fortunate members of society.