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

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister representing the Prime Minister (Senator Wong) to a question without notice I asked today relating to the fossil fuel industry.

More than 100 schoolgirls killed by a missile strike, a death toll mounting every single day now to over 800, hospitals bombed, homes reduced to rubble, unilateral attacks by Israel and the US in breach of international law—it is always civilians who suffer from bombing, violence and upheaval. While ordinary people pay the price, whether with their lives or from their own pocket, corporate profits soar. Within hours, share prices skyrocketed for fossil fuel companies. In 2022, in the wake of Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine and the global gas crisis that followed, Woodside's profits doubled to $6½ billion and Santos's rose to $3½ billion, up 160 per cent. Since the illegal US-Israel strikes on Iran began this week, Woodside's shares are up 7.7 per cent, and Santos's shares are up 7.8 per cent. Fossil fuel corporations are raking in megaprofits while paying no tax on the gas that they get for free. And they're not the only big corporations benefiting. There are also Lockheed Martin, Palantir, drone companies, RTX—the same companies that our government is- handing billions to in defence contracts. That's not to mention that Labor is investing billions via the Future Fund in the shares of companies like Elbit Systems. This is all happening at the same time as we funnel $368 billion dollars to the US via AUKUS for nuclear submarines that we we'll probably never see.

War has always made billionaires and big corporations even richer. It is just another business model for them, while everyday people pay with their pockets and their lives. Yet this Labor government, who has so completely sold out any principles it once had for peace and for people, was the first to support this illegal war. When asked what they're doing today to support big corporations profiteering off it, they can only say they've written a letter asking the ACCC nicely to monitor for price gouging. Pathetic. They could just vote for the Greens bill to stop corporations price gouging, but they voted against that a few weeks ago. Our message to Labor is this: stop backing Trump and Netanyahu's illegal war. (Time expired)

Penny Allman-Payne (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the last few hours, senators in the US have come out of a classified briefing to Congress, and they've said that it's very clear now that there was no imminent threat and no intelligence—nothing—to justify the US's and Israel's illegal strikes on Iran. Senators are saying as well that the information they've been given behind closed doors is actually leaving them more confused than when they went in as to not only the justification for this illegal war but what the plan is and what the endgame is. They're saying that it's clear that it's not going to make people in the US any more safe. I would argue that it's not going to make Australians, whose government has tied us to the hip of Trump's US government, any more safe either.

The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency has also confirmed now that Iran was not weeks or days away from having a nuclear weapon. This is sounding very much like a repeat of Iraq, an illegal war started with no justification. When my colleague asked in question time what the government will do to stop big corporations profiteering off Trump and Netanyahu's illegal war, the minister said they're not focused on prices; they're focused, rightly, on getting Australians home. Well, maybe they should have thought about that before they were first out the gate in the world to support an illegal war that is now putting the lives and the travel of Australians at risk. Then the minister went on to say that they agree that ordinary citizens are hurt in conflict. Again, maybe that means that they should have been doing absolutely everything they could to stop the conflict escalating instead of supporting an illegal war which is now spreading across the Middle East. And then the minister said, 'Iran is not Ukraine.' That is outrageous. Are we resorting to vigilantism now? We only follow international law depending on the country that is being bombed? Labor has lost its way, and the Australian public know it, and they see it.

Question agreed to.