Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I and the Greens support these very sensible amendments that have been moved, but it's worth being clear how it is that we got to the point of moving these amendments. The only reason we're debating these amendments moved by the member for Warringah is that Liberal and Labor voted just then to give public money to new gas projects. That's what they just voted for. We have a government fronting up and saying that it wants to take billions of dollars that could be going to schools and hospitals and, instead, use it to fast-track the climate crisis by expanding new gas projects in northern Australia. Liberal and Labor just voted for that. You can't say, 'We're in a climate emergency,' and then turn around and give public money to new gas projects, especially when we know that gas is as dirty as coal and when we know that expanding the Beetaloo Basin project—which is what this government wants to do and, apparently, is Labor wants to do as well—will blow any chance we have of Australia doing its fair share in meeting the Paris goals of limiting global warming to well below two degrees, while still aiming for 1½ degrees.

These amendments are absolutely critical. I think most people in the country would accept that the government doesn't quite get climate change, and most people in the country would accept that the government's not doing enough to tackle the climate crisis. But most people in the country would also be stunned to know that they themselves, the public, are bankrolling big gas corporations with the permission of Liberal and Labor. That's because what has just happened is that they have both voted to say, 'Let's take public money and make it available to big gas corporations.' And do you know what? The big gas corporations just brought in $50 billion in revenue and paid zero dollars tax. So, not only do they pay no tax, but Liberal and Labor say: 'We'll give you handouts. We'll give you money that could be going to bring down the cost of dental care or making public schools genuinely free.' No! Thanks to that vote, this money is now going to big gas corporations, who are going to be building stranded assets, and the public is going to be on the hook for them. We know we've got to get out of coal and gas. We absolutely cannot build any more new coal and gas. We have to get out of it. What we certainly should not do is use public money to make the climate crisis worse.

These amendments are very sensible and they are very critical because they make it plain that this fund cannot be used as a slush fund for the big gas corporations, which is what the government is trying to do. I'm disappointed, but not surprised, that the government moved this, because the government is just delivering, and this is payback for the political donations that the big gas corporations have given to the Liberal Party. But it appears that it's payback for the donations that the big gas corporations have given to the Labor Party as well. I urge the opposition to rethink and to support this amendment, so that no public money can go to fossil fuel projects as part of this terrible NAIF slush fund that the government is establishing.

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