Elizabeth Watson-Brown (Ryan, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Greens will be opposing the unamended Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility Amendment Bill 2026 in the House and reserving our position in the Senate. The reality is that there's nothing stopping the NAIF from being a fund to keep coal and gas on life support, and that is why we're opposing it.

I have an amendment, which has been circulated, to stop the NAIF funding dirty coal and gas projects and related infrastructure, and also native logging projects. Ending the public financing of coal and gas projects and infrastructure is an area where we were able to work with the government to make advances in the last parliament, and my amendment should be supported by the government to build upon that good work.

In the last parliament, we closed off the National Reconstruction Fund from funding coal, gas and native forest destruction. In the Future Made in Australia package, we ended the ability of Export Finance Australia to finance coal, oil and gas projects both in Australia and overseas. And we amended the broad grant power in the Industry Research and Development Act to turn off the massive pipeline of fossil fuel subsidies that the coalition was using to fund fracking in the Beetaloo and new coal plants in Queensland and support the gas fired recovery.

The same treatment now needs to extend to the Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund. It was used by the coalition, who wanted to fund Adani's coalmine with $1 billion of public money—but the deal fell over. Queensland Labor vetoed it because they were worried about losing seats to the Greens. But the risk of financing fossil fuel projects with public money is not over. Right now, there is a gas project, the Comet Ridge project, that has issued a statement to the ASX that they are in discussions with the NAIF for a $110 million loan. Australians do not want their money propping up new coal and gas projects.

The NAIF is one of the last remaining specialist investment vehicles able to finance fossil fuel expansion with public money. My amendment gives effect to what informally appears to be Labor government policy—to not use public funding to fund coal and gas projects. The government should make its policy position clear by supporting this amendment.

Comet Ridge have applied for that funding because they couldn't or wouldn't obtain it through private lenders. Let me spell out what that means. That is the government, and therefore Australian taxpayers, taking on the risk of this gas project. Privatise the profits and socialise the losses of a project that'll make climate change worse and damage our future—it makes absolutely no sense, and the government must rule out funding it by supporting this amendment.

To summarise, public money should not be used to keep coal and gas projects on life support. It's simple. The Australian people don't want it, so why is the government entertaining the idea? Comet Ridge, that new gas project in Queensland, have bragged that they're in discussion with the NAIF, a government funding body, for a loan of $110 million. Let's be clear about what that means: Comet Ridge should and could be seeking private funding, but they're applying for this government backed loan because it gives them a better deal. It's the government, it's taxpayers, that are taking on the risk of that loan. Instead of derisking our future and our climate by ending new coal and gas projects, we are derisking this gas project, operated by a for-profit corporation, that'll make climate change worse.

We saw a decade of subsidies for fossil fuels under the Liberals, and now we're seeing Labor doing exactly the same. There's the fuel tax credits scheme, which cost the budget $10.2 billion in the 2024-25 financial year. Labor also put aside a tidy $1.9 billion in their first budget for the Middle Arm hub in Darwin, which will enable even more gas exports out of the Northern Territory. The Greens want no new coal and gas, because it's clear that new coal and gas is not compatible with a safe climate. But the least we can ask for is committing to an end to public money—to taxpayer money—going to make climate change worse.

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