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

by leave—I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

I note the final report of the Select Committee on the Taxation of Gas Resources. Our inquiry heard loud and clear from Australians that they are not getting a fair share for their gas resources while multinational corporations rake in enormous profits. I think Ken Henry said it best when he said, 'Cut the crap and just do it.' That became the defining message to this inquiry from the public.

During the global energy crisis, gas companies made an estimated $112 billion in windfall profits, yet the petroleum resource rent tax actually fell during that period. It's a rip-off. Australia's gas tax is dramatically lower than that of other countries like Norway, Qatar, the UK and Canada. We heard from witness after witness that PRRT is fundamentally broken and that it is riddled with holes and deductions that let gas corporations minimise what they pay. It is a broken system.

We also heard from gas company after gas company, which, I might add, refused to send their CEOs. They were too weak to send their CEOs. This was a national inquiry into an issue that is of probably the most significant public importance in recent time, and the CEOs of those big gas exporters didn't even have the guts or the courage to show up. Then, when we heard from their lower executives who turned up, they parroted gas industry talking point after gas industry talking point. These are the talking points that even the Prime Minister himself started parroting. We had the ludicrous scenario of the Prime Minister quoting the gas lobby talking points and vice versa ad nauseam.

The capture is stark. The revolving door is spinning faster than ever, with nearly every single resources minister going on to work in the fossil fuel lobby. And those political donations that continue to roll in certainly seem to pay dividends when policy is being written by this government. It is disgraceful and the Australian people are absolutely appalled.

These are the key findings of our report, and I think that what's not in the final report is more telling than what is in there. We heard an explosive analysis indicating that the Japanese government collects more tax from Australian gas than Australia does. Well done, Japan! You are acting in the interests of your people, as the Australian people are demanding this government do. But it is failing to do so, with all these faux excuses that were dismantled by witness after witness in our inquiry.

Evidence to the inquiry showed that a minimum 25 per cent gas export tax could raise up to $17 billion per year to go towards things like electrifying our country and helping people through this really tough cost-of-living crisis that they are experiencing. We heard that really the government needs to stare down 10 gas export projects—that's it—to raise $17 billion worth of revenue. And evidence from Treasury, from economists, and even from gas companies themselves contradicted the claims of the Prime Minister and industry that an export tax would impact trade relationships and would drive up prices overseas. This was rebutted by Treasury, it was rebutted by the gas industry and it was rebutted by Ken Henry.

We heard that the burden of any export tax would overwhelmingly fall on multinational gas shareholders, not international customers, because prices are set largely through global markets and long-term contracts. So every time we saw the Prime Minister get up and say, 'Now's not the time,' we called nonsense, based on the evidence our inquiry heard. It is the profits of those gas exporters that are at stake, and that is exactly who the Prime Minister is going in to bat for. Evidence showed that most Australian gas project would remain highly profitable, even with a 25 per cent gas export tax. Taxpayers already subsidise the gas industry, through infrastructure, public support and fossil fuel subsidies, yet we receive barely anything in return.

We heard witnesses saying, 'We're not like Norway; they have a stake in their fossil fuel industry and they take on the risk and take on the reward.' Well, we're the mugs; we just take on the risk, by investing in the infrastructure. We don't take on the reward. We don't tax these guys. We heard that Shell, a company that has announced double profits through this illegal war that's happening, paid no PRRT in more than 10 years. In over a decade, they paid not a cent of petroleum resource rent tax. INPEX, who are plundering the Northern Territory, fall into that category as well.

Importantly, witnesses stressed that the window to secure public revenue for gas exports is closing as the global transition away from fossil fuels accelerates. When the Prime Minister says, 'Now is not the time,' again, we all rubbish on now not being the time. These corporations are set to make obscene windfall profits through this illegal war—blood soaked illegal profits—and now is exactly the time that the Australian public expect them to pay what they owe.

Despite all this overwhelming evidence, the committee did not support actual recommendations for reform. As I said, what's missing from the report is incredibly telling, and I'll let the public join the dots as to why we didn't get those recommendations. But the Greens have been on the record for a very long time saying that we must tax our gas exports, and Australians deserve and expect it of us. Labor is trying to kick the can down the road rather than confront the reality that Australians are being ripped off and that the great tax rip-off continues under its watch.

We see the Prime Minister continue to repeat and echo those gas talking points. On the same day, hours before this report was due to be published, they said, 'Look over here at our gas reservation policy written by industry'—nothing to see over there. How cynical can you get? People see through it. They see the smoke and mirrors and the distraction from the real issue, and they call BS.

This government is literally taking the Australian public for fools, and it's simply not working. We've seen polling reflecting that the vast majority of Australians want to tax our gas and want a fair share of our resources—and not unreasonably. Labor knows that the system is broken, but they are too timid, too weak and too captured to challenge the gas lobby. What other industry gets their inputs for free? Farmers don't get free seed or fertiliser. Bakers don't get free flour. Why does the gas industry get gifted our gas? Chevron was gifted to the tune of $300 billion worth of our gas for their Gorgon project—money that then flowed into Trump's inauguration fund. What a disgrace. This budget could be an opportunity for real reform, to stare down the gas cartel and get some money back for Australians instead of cutting essential public services. But I fear that the cowards in Labor will not do that.

If Labor thinks the book is closed and that, if we don't get a gas tax in the budget tonight, that's the end of it, then it has got another thing coming, because I warn you that this campaign is just getting started. We have seen and heard firsthand the fury of this community campaign of everyday Australians saying, 'Enough is enough.' 'We want our fair share,' they say. They look to countries like Norway, with multiple trillion-dollar sovereign wealth funds, and they imagine what Australia could be paying for—not begging for scraps and cutting 160,000 people off the NDIS. We could be funding free, high-quality universal child care. We could get dental care into Medicare. There is so much we could do with this money, and all it would take is for this government to stare down its gas industry donors.

The Greens will not rest until we scrap the broken PRRT; until we introduce, at least, a 25 per cent gas export tax on our resources; and until we use that money to pay for things that Australians need and Australians deserve. Let's cut the crap and get it done.