Charlotte Walker (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today so we can cut through a little bit of the noise. When people hear 'gas export tax' or 'PRRT reform', most people aren't thinking of tax design; they're thinking, 'Why does everything feel so expensive right now?' Rent, groceries, power, petrol—it's all stacking up. The reality is a lot of Australians feel like they're doing everything right and still not getting ahead. That's the actual issue sitting underneath this debate. The proposal we're looking at today is to put a 25 per cent export levy on gas companies. On the surface that sounds like an easy fix. Big profits, big tax—problem solved. Unfortunately, policy doesn't work that easily in practice. As we've seen, when you start messing with supply in a tight global market, especially right now, you're not just hitting companies; you're affecting prices, investment and ultimately what people are paying at home. If we get that wrong, it's not the CEOs who feel that first; it's households. That is the part we cannot ignore.

That is why this government has done lots in this area. We've reformed the petroleum resource rent tax, so companies are paying more and paying it earlier. That's already showing up in the numbers, adding billions in revenue. And more companies are actually contributing. It's not hypothetical, or 'maybe, in 10 years'; it's happening now. This matters, because the revenue isn't just sitting there; it's funding the things that people actually rely on: energy bill relief; cheaper medicines; rent assistance; tax cuts for working families. That's the connection.

If you want to talk about the cost of living, you can't just talk about where the money comes from; you have to talk about where it goes, and, right now, we're working hard to make sure it's going back into helping people with higher costs and global uncertainty. We've increased rent assistance for over a million households; boosted income support for over one million Australians; and delivered tax cuts across the board, with more coming. These aren't just abstract ideals; this is current cash flow.

On energy, which is where this whole conversation starts, we're not just reacting; we're trying to stabilise things. That's because energy prices don't exist in a vacuum; they're tied to global markets, supply chains, the current conflict—all of it. So the job of government here isn't to throw a grenade into the system and hope for the best. It's to keep supply stable while gradually bringing costs down, which is why we've been focused on fuel security—making sure supply is there, especially in regional areas. It's why we've worked with regulators to monitor prices and crack down on dodgy behaviour. And it's why we're investing heavily in renewables—not because it sounds nice, but because, over time, it's one of the only ways to structurally lower energy costs. We're already seeing early signs of that, with the electricity prices forecast to ease, even while global fuel costs are rising. This hasn't happened by accident. It has happened because we are trying to manage the system carefully, not just chasing a headline.

And of course I get why people are frustrated. When you see large companies making record profits, it's completely reasonable to ask whether Australians are getting a fair return. That's exactly why we've tightened tax settings, increased compliance and gone after multinationals trying to minimise what they pay. That way, there's no free pass here.

But fairness also means being honest about trade-offs, because if the goal is to make life more affordable and not just to feel like we're doing something, then we have to be careful not to create policies that backfire. That's the difference in the approach here. We're not pretending that there's a one-line fix to the cost of living. There isn't. What we're doing is steadily pulling the levers that genuinely make a difference, making sure that companies pay more tax, using that revenue to support households, stabilising energy supply and investing in cheaper energy over time. These aren't flashy, headline-grabbing tactics but something real to work with—and, right now, with everything people are dealing with, 'real' probably matters more than anything else.