Barbara Pocock (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to this urgency motion. Labor must do more to help Australians with the economic fallout of an illegal war which has included a fuel crisis and a cost-of-living spike, and they can start with a gas tax. The Greens are calling for a tax on gas exports of at least 25 per cent. This is a step, which is long overdue, towards fair compensation for our national resources. Gas companies have pillaged Australia's resources for decades and now stand to make billions more in blood money from a war-driven price hike. While ordinary Australians are paying the price of this illegal war, companies like Santos and Woodside pay barely any tax. To add insult to injury, 56 per cent of all Australian gas is exported without paying a cent in royalties—incredible.

We've just heard from Senator Dowling about how it's all very hard and nothing is simple. Well, taxing organisations for exporting our own resources is simple. Other countries do it every day. Why are we failing to do this? Why are we allowing super profits, war profits, to boost the bottom line for these companies while Australians miss out? These massive gas corporations take Australian gas for free, and they make obscene profits. Recent polling shows that an overwhelming number of Australians want a gas exports tax. They get it. They know it's doable. Only five per cent disagree. A gas exports tax could raise $17 billion in a single year. Think about what that could do to assist those dealing with a massive cost-of-living crisis. It would make public transport free—it would really help with our transport costs—and assist with health, education, aged care and the housing crisis. If this 25 per cent gas exports tax had been introduced in 2022, it would've raised more than $63 billion by now. That's $63 billion we could've used for the services Australians need. It's a sensible measure, it's a doable measure, it has support across the political spectrum, and it's very widely supported by civilian society.

The government needs to act now to stop this war profiteering and ensure Australians are getting their fair share of their own wealth. Last sitting week, Labor, the Liberals and One Nation teamed up to vote against a gas exports tax. The three war parties showed us exactly who they work for, and it's not for ordinary Australians. The Greens have written to the Prime Minister and have offered to pass a 25 per cent gas exports tax this fortnight. The government has the numbers with the Greens in the Senate to pass really good reforms like this that would make a huge difference. Australians have been crystal clear: they want to tax gas exports, and they want to tax them now.