Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister representing the Prime Minister (Senator Wong) to questions without notice asked by Australian Greens senators today.

Australians want a gas tax, so when will Labor start listening? If you want the perfect example of how Labor says one thing and then does another, take a look at the gas tax. People are being smashed by cost-of-living pressures. First it was the housing crisis, then it was the cost of groceries, now it's the cost of fuel. Yet, just two weeks ago, this government voted down a proposal by the Greens for a gas export tax. This gas tax would have raised about $17 billion which could have been used to help people in a cost-of-living crisis. It could have been used to make public transport free in a fuel crisis. It's $17 billion that could have been used to provide immediate cost-of-living relief for families feeling the pain of fuel prices. It's $17 billion that could have been spent on people instead of letting corporations make massive profits off an illegal war.

But no, Labor would rather tinker around the edges on cost of living and back Trump and Netanyahu in this illegal war than support a 25 per cent gas tax passing the parliament this fortnight. That's despite the fact polling today shows that 61 per cent of Australians actually want to tax export gas. With an erratic Trump issuing ultimatum after ultimatum, we are facing fuel shortages for months to come, and gas prices are expected to remain high for even longer. All those profits are remaining high too.

Where is your spine, Labor? People are hurting. They need a government that is willing to stand up to the big corporations, not kiss their hand. They need their government to actually finally introduce a gas tax, not continue, time and time again, to bow down to your corporate donors who are making record profits off this war. Woodside stocks are skyrocketing. Santos stocks are skyrocketing. At a time when people are feeling the compounding cost-of-living pressures of war and interest rate rises, this is no-brainer. Start working for people, not corporate profits. (Time expired)