Tyron Whitten (WA, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

With energy in the spotlight, I want to talk about one of the biggest myths the Greens and the crazy lefties love to spruik. The idea that a fuel tax credit is a subsidy given to industries that they don't like is a ridiculous and misguided notion. Whenever activists say things like, 'Oil and gas receive massive government subsidies,' chances are, even if they don't know it, they are talking about fuel tax credits.

This is complete nonsense. When you buy fuel, it comes with an amount of excise included. The excise is there to pay for the use of vehicles on public roads, so what if you use the fuel in something that doesn't use a public road? You get that tax back. If fuel is being used in, say, a commercial fishing boat on the water, a tractor on the farm, generators at a mine site, excavators and dump trucks, the excise is refunded. I made my living in construction and oyster farming, and I can tell you right now: we weren't entitled to any subsidies, but we sure as hell claimed back the fuel tax credits for the excise that we overpaid at the bowser for.

The left would have you believe that the government is forking out millions of dollars for the oil and gas industry and big miners. The truth is that this is the equivalent of someone receiving a tax refund at the end of the year because they paid tax that they shouldn't have. This issue doesn't just affect the big end of town. Thousands of farmers, builders and small businesses also rely on these credits. Are they part of this grand tax scam too?

The effort to conflate these tax refunds with the real subsidies—the real tax dollars—being forked out by this Labor government to the renewables industry is completely disingenuous. The government is paying out billions to renewable energy projects every year straight out of consolidated revenue. That isn't returning the tax they paid; it is giving these projects tax you paid. One Nation wants to see more support for our industries, for our farmers, for our regional communities and for small businesses. One Nation will see an end to your tax dollars filling the pockets of foreign owned entities and net zero zealots.