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

I rise to speak to the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation Amendment (Strategic Reserve) Bill, which has been raced through parliament in the last 48 hours. I want to make it clear at the outset that the Greens share the concerns of many in our community that the war in Iran is much more serious and long lasting than many in this place thought it would be when we questioned them just a few weeks ago. The dangerous actions of Trump and Netanyahu have been visible and painfully real to anyone who's had to fill up in the past few weeks. While I've condemned our government for their so early support of this war—first out of the blocks—and their lack of preparedness for another oil shock, I have shared their concern that we need to take actions now to ensure we can buffer against the risk that it gets worse as the months go on.

I feel for our community. The cost of living was already out of control, particularly for those renting, for those on pensions, for those studying and for those with older, less well-insulated homes or no homes at all. The cost of living was skyrocketing because of corporate profits and price gouging, while wages were flatlining, so our community was already at its limits. There's nothing spare for another shock. So I agree it's critical to pull all levers now, not wait until things get worse to act. However, it is deeply disappointing that, in the four years since Labor took government, they have not prioritised learning the lessons of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent economic pain that it caused our community and turning that into a commitment to a faster transition away from foreign fossil fuels, given how readily available those alternative technologies are and how we have those resources in spades here onshore. It is deeply disappointing that we're authorising up to $3 billion today to go to this project and we're not simultaneously speeding through a minimum 25 per cent gas tax on the likes of Santos for the obscene war profits that they are making to help offset the expense of this.

The Greens support emergency measures to make sure Australia has enough fuel and enough of the resources that we need to keep freight and food moving around this country during the crisis. But this bill does a hell of a lot more than just that. This bill grants a range of broad and unchecked powers to all future ministers well after this crisis is over, in perpetuity, and in particular category (c) in this bill would give the government of the day the power to funnel public money into anything at all that the minister determines unilaterally is in the national interest. I want to put that clearly on the record tonight. The government have inserted into this legislation the ability of Export Finance Australia to invest, via contract, loans, guarantees or equity, into 'any material, good or other thing that may be imported' and 'is experiencing, or is vulnerable to experiencing, supply chain disruptions'. That category is very, very wide. Theoretically, almost any importable good experiencing supply disruption could qualify as a category (c) item. This is effectively a blank cheque for this government and all future governments. None of that comes back to parliament to decide on or to consider or even to disallow if it's an egregious use of public resources.

The government clearly have a mindset of 'Don't waste a crisis', and they're using the urgency of the fuel crisis as cover to give themselves sweeping powers to invest in anything at all in the future, and that could include things like weapons manufacturing. I will point out that this is not limited to the duration of the fuel crisis; they are forever powers. That's why the Greens have asked the government to make these emergency measures temporary and sunset after six months. That's why I will be moving an amendment to do just that. The government has not made the case to extend these measures any longer, nor have they made the case that a minister should be able to make these decisions without bringing them back to parliament for a review, as is the normal role of the Senate, which is why I have a second committee-stage amendment to correct that. Our third committee-stage amendment seeks to rule out any use of this new power to perpetuate war or to invest in weapons—very commonsense guardrails that I urge the Senate to support. People deserve support. They didn't ask for this war. They definitely didn't ask for the chaos that it's causing. And here we are still so desperately reliant on foreign fossil fuels when we have an abundance of renewable energy that we could be electrifying our transport fleet with, making sure that people's daily needs are met and we have safe renewable energy independence. (Time expired)