Steph Hodgins-May (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move the amendment that has been circulated in my name:

Omit paragraph (b), substitute: (b) calls on the Government to subject all gas production to a minimum 25% gas export tax.

A tax on Australia's gas exports is an absolute no-brainer and long overdue. The Australian public supports it. Polling shows that it's supported across the political spectrum, and, as far as I can tell, the crossbench supports it too. Yet, year after year, successive governments of the two major parties—the two old parties—refuse to act and rein in our gas exporters. Instead they come in here and read out the talking points of the gas industry. What a farce that everyday people—teachers, nurses and retail workers—are paying more tax on their wages than multinational gas corporations pay on gas extracted from Australia and shipped overseas! Australians pay more each year in HECS and HELP repayments than gas companies pay through the so-called petroleum resource rent tax. Students paying back their education contribute more to Commonwealth revenue than corporations exporting tens of billions of dollars worth of our gas.

Since large-scale LNG exports began on the east coast, energy prices have surged. Domestic gas prices have been pulled into volatile global markets, and when international prices spike Australians feel it in their power bills and in their heating costs. In other words, we are exporting our gas, importing global price volatility and collecting almost none of the revenue. What better time to confront this reality than right now, in this moment, when this government is dragging us into another international conflict that is once again driving global gas prices higher? Global exporters stand poised to make billions in additional war profits, but Australians, who actually own the resource in the first place, will have barely a cent returned.

That is why the proposal for a minimum 25 per cent levy on gas exports makes so much sense and why Australians are demanding it. Replacing the broken PRRT with a flat 25 per cent tax could raise $17 billion every single year for the Australian public—$17 billion that could compensate households for soaring energy bills; $17 billion that could accelerate the transition to renewable energy, finally move Australia off polluting fossil fuels, create new jobs in industries and protect us from volatile global energy markets; $17 billion that could help repair the catastrophic climate damage that these corporations are behind, of which my home state of Victoria has experienced far too much; $17 billion that could fund an entire wish list of things we desperately need, such as universal childhood education, expanded paid parental leave and desperately needed public housing. Instead, that wealth flows offshore.

To put the scale of this into perspective, from the moment I began this speech to when I finish it Australia will have missed out on roughly $320,000 in public revenue—$320,000 that could have been taxed from the more than 1,300 tonnes of LNG exported in just 10 minutes. Look at the clock ticking and imagine that flow of LNG off our shores—those millions of dollars of profit, and next to nothing for Australians paying the price. It's not a fair deal. We're being ripped off.

It's not just about the revenue; it's about decoupling our domestic gas supply from the volatile international market and prioritising supply for Australian households and businesses whilst we rapidly and fairly wean ourselves off toxic gas altogether. Importantly, this would be without the incentive of new gas fields.

We don't have a gas supply problem. We have an export problem. The so-called shortages projected on the east coast could have been avoided simply by redirecting uncontracted gas currently shipped offshore, often for little public return, back into the domestic market. Instead, the Labor government is incentivising new gas fields, opening new acreage and letting the gas lobby run wild in this place. They are cartels operating in this country, gas cartels. They're insisting that more gas is the answer rather than using what we already have and finally, finally breaking our dependence on it.

Thousands of acres in the Bass Coast opened up just a few months ago, a gift to the gas industry that brave coastal communities across Victoria are fighting. There's risky, toxic fracking proceeding in the Northern Territory, which the Northern Territory community are rightly fiercely opposing. There's the climate bomb of the North West Shelf extension that we continue to oppose and fight, which was cynically approved by the Labor government straight after the election. Communities in South Australia continue to fight for justice in the wake of the devastating algal bloom, Australia's largest ongoing environmental crisis, driven by Santos and the gas companies just like them who get away with climate and environmental destruction. They're cowboys.

The Greens continue to stand with these grassroots climate activists and community advocates who will not let these multinational corporations continue to pillage our resources, pollute our environments and get away with not paying for the mess they create. They are being left to get away with it by the major parties in this place, who are very quiet. I've noticed the Albanese government side of the chamber are very quiet on this debate.

This week in the chamber we heard some of the usual, familiar talking points—so familiar we've got a question: are we actually in the Parliament of Australia, or are we in a shareholder meeting of Woodside or Santos? Honestly. Members dutifully repeat lines of the gas lobby, defending inflated claims about how much the industry supposedly contributes to our economy. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the hundreds of thousands of dollars that flow through to their campaign coffers before an election.

But the truth is simple that no amount of spin can hide the failure of the petroleum resource rent tax. There is not much in this chamber that I agree with One Nation about, but on this point there is rare common ground. Our gas tax system is broken. Decades of loopholes have allowed multinational corporations to extract Australia's resources, report massive profits and still pay little or no tax. Successive governments have failed to fix it. They are too beholden to their mates in the fossil fuel industry and to their generous donations. Instead, they have allowed a system to persist that is clearly rigged in favour of multinational gas corporations and against everyday Aussies, against everyday people—against nurses, against educators, against retail workers.

At the very same time, just today, new analysis shows that billions of dollars in public subsidies are continuing to flow to fossil fuel companies—$30,000 a minute in subsidies by a government that claims not to be giving public money to fossil fuel projects but refused to tell me whether that's still government policy in recent Senate estimates. 'I'll take that question on notice,' they said. These subsidies are flowing to some of the largest and most profitable corporations operating in Australia at the same time that households are being absolutely squeezed and being forced to make decisions about whether they put a roof over their head, whether they pay for medicine that week or whether they buy fresh produce.

Support for fossil fuels continues to grow. It's growing, under this government. In the face of the climate crisis, this government's solution is more public money to the companies causing climate catastrophe. Total subsidies for coal mining, gas production and large diesel users rose by 9.4 per cent, up from $14.9 billion in 2024-25. By comparison, despite constant claims that it is expanding too quickly, spending on the National Disability Insurance Scheme increased by only 7.6 per cent over that same period. The largest single fossil fuel subsidy remains the federal government's fuel tax credit scheme, which cost $10.8 billion and overwhelmingly benefits large mining companies, many of them multinational. How much longer are these parties willing to see our money flow offshore? Where's the outrage? Where's the listening to the community outrage on these issues?

According to the government's own budget forecasts, the cost of this scheme is expected to grow faster than federal spending on a range of essential services, including disability support, childcare assistance, aged care and services for veterans. Australians are effectively paying twice—once through their energy bills and again through taxpayer support for the very industries driving these costs up. Enough is enough. The Australian public is ready for change and is demanding change, and this parliament is ready for change. The arguments could not be clearer.

Australia should not be giving away its natural resources for free while households struggle with the cost of living and surging energy prices. We should be accelerating the fast and fair transition to renewables—which, by the way, aren't beholden to international markets. The sun and wind remain, regardless of international wars. A gas export tax of at least 25 per cent is the first step towards restoring fairness in this country, restoring justice and driving Australia towards the clean future that Australians want and deserve.