David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As many Australians feeling the weight of the cost of living look to tonight's budget, we know one thing that won't be in the budget: ensuring Australians get a fair return from the export of our gas. Multinational gas companies will look at tonight's budget, have a sigh of relief and probably crack a bottle of champagne at the fact that they will continue to make extraordinary amounts of profit and not have to pay Australians a fair share for the export of our gas. This is a deliberate choice by the Albanese Labor government, and it is a choice that Australians are paying for every single week.

When we see what isn't and what is in the budget, we need to remember that a 25 per cent gas export tax would bring in $350 million every single week in a normal year—probably a lot more with the money that gas companies are making due to the war in Iran—and that's $17 billion a year. We hear so much about being fiscally responsible and about what's in the national interest. Getting a fair return for our resources is all of those things, and it is something the vast majority of Australians want to happen, and they want to see it happen tonight, in the budget.

We're told by politicians from both sides: 'Don't worry about paying for the actual gas. These companies pay corporate tax. Aren't they good corporate citizens? They pay corporate tax on their profits, and we should just be grateful for that.' If you look at what some of the industry players actually pay, Santos has paid $33 million in Australian income tax on more than $41 billion in sales over the past decade—$33 million on $41 billion. That's not a fair return. INPEX, which exports more gas each year than New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia put together consume, paid no royalties, no petroleum resource rent tax and just $484 million in company tax on $81 billion in income.

Australians see this, and they know we're getting fleeced. They look at the major parties and then they look at the gas companies, and they say, 'How come you're all saying the same thing? How can we have elected representatives and multinational gas companies saying the exact same thing to us? That's our gas. We just want to get paid for our gas. And then, sure, when you make a profit, you can pay some corporate tax as well.'

This is a tax system that's not working for Australians, and we are selling off the inheritance of young Australians. The longer we delay, the less we will get, because the window to act is closing as the world moves away from gas. Pakistan has cancelled 45 LNG cargoes for 2026 alone. Vietnam has walked away from imports. The government's own modelling expects LNG production to fall 27 per cent by 2035.

We only get to sell this gas once. We should demand a fair return from the export of our gas, because every cargo that leaves Australia untaxed is revenue that we will never see again. These big multinationals who turn up to the Senate inquiry want to tell us all the costs of their investment—how much corporate tax they've paid, how much payroll tax they've paid—and when you say to them, 'Thank you for your contribution. What was your revenue last year?' they're stunned. They are stunned. 'Oh, oh, I can't remember. I can't remember how much gas we sold. But I'll tell you all the costs. I'll tell you how much tax we paid, but I can't tell you revenue and I can't tell you the volume of gas that we exported.'

Australians have had enough. They are sick and tired of multinationals taking advantage of us and that being enabled by the major parties—and it's no wonder that Australians across the country are looking for alternatives. We have to make sure that we actually get a return on the export of a resource that belongs to all of us.

We've seen the gas industry with $10 million odd for a campaign to stop Australians getting a fair return for our gas. Thankfully, a lot of Australians are seeing through the propaganda. They're seeing through the flood of ads on social media, when they read the news, at the airport—all over the place—with the gas industry saying, 'Hey, hey. Don't you dare touch this system that works very well for us.' You've got Japan, profiting more from our gas than we get in petroleum resource rent tax, also saying, 'Don't tweak the system. We're doing very well out of it, thank you very much.'

So we have to continue to fight on this. We have to continue to call out the lobbying that happens in this place, the total lack of transparency when it comes to who has sponsored passes and, I would say, the arrogance of some of the answers we received back in the recent inquiry—a refusal to say who has a sponsored pass and who gave one to that representative. This is the people's house. Australians deserve to know who has privileged access to this place. In the absence of transparency, Australians will make up their own minds as to why we have two major parties who think that it is totally cool and normal to export a resource and not demand a fair return—or payment at least—for that resource.

I'd like to also speak about something that every parent in Canberra is terrified about—whether their child will be able to get the care that they need here in Canberra. Yesterday, we saw the news of yet another Canberra mother begging the ACT government to establish a paediatric oncology and haematology unit in Canberra. This is not a new call. There have been families over many, many years telling their stories of travelling to Sydney for treatment time and time again. The cost of that, the challenges in terms of schooling and family—

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Sorry, Senator Pocock, we are going to now move to two-minute statements.