Slade Brockman (WA, Deputy-President) | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator McKim has submitted a proposal, under standing order 75, today. It is shown at item 12 of today's Order of Business:

Pursuant to standing order 75, I give notice that today the Australian Greens propose to move "That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The need for the Australian Government to place a moratorium on meetings with representatives of the gas industry and their lobbyists for the duration of the public debate on the taxation of gas exports, revoke sponsored parliamentary passes held by such representatives, and immediately disclose all meetings held between Government Ministers and representatives of the gas industry or their lobbyists over the previous 12 months."

Is consideration of the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

With the concurrence of the Senate, the clerks will set the clock in line with the informal arrangements made by the whips.

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

I move:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The need for the Australian Government to place a moratorium on meetings with representatives of the gas industry and their lobbyists for the duration of the public debate on the taxation of gas exports, revoke sponsored parliamentary passes held by such representatives, and immediately disclose all meetings held between Government Ministers and representatives of the gas industry or their lobbyists over the previous 12 months.

The corporate parties have given the gas lobby free run in this building for far too long, and the Greens are saying time is up. Australians have a simple message for the Albanese government: stop the great Australian gas rip-off and make corporations pay what they owe. During our Greens led gas tax inquiry, we heard it over and over again from Shell, INPEX, AEP, Woodside—different logos, same script: 'The PRRT is working. Now isn't the time for more taxes. Don't change the system.' Of course it's working for them. It is delivering exactly what it was designed to deliver: billions in profits for multinational gas corporations and next to nothing for the Australian people whose resources they are selling. Now, we have the receipts.

New analysis from InfluenceMap confirmed what we all suspected—every gas company and industry association that appeared before the inquiry opposed reform using the same talking points, the same scare campaigns and the same script: 'We can't tax gas properly because of energy security. We can't tax gas properly because of our trading partners. We can't tax gas properly because the sky might fall in.' The gas lobby came to parliament prepared with a script, and the government and Albanese repeated it word for word. Every time Australians demand reform, the gas lobby leans in and Labor rolls over.

What's perhaps most extraordinary is the access that these companies enjoy. While ordinary Australians struggle to get a meeting with their local rep, gas executives walk the halls of parliament like they own the place. Believe me, they do think they own this place. Freedom-of-information documents obtained by the Australian Conservation Foundation revealed almost 200 text messages between Woodside and senior government officials while conditions on the North West Shelf Project extension were being negotiated. One Woodside representative asked, 'Any chance we can see the final conditions as put to the minister?' Imagine the entitlement. It's not 'do the conditions protect the environment?', not 'do they protect cultural heritage?', just 'do they work for Woodside?' and 'do they protect our profit margins?'. Then, after months of negotiations, came the message from the government—'Thanks. We got there.' Those three words that tell Australians everything they need to know.

At budget estimates, I repeatedly asked about meetings between ministers and gas industry representatives during the gas tax debate. Nobody could tell me. Nobody could disclose to me whom met whom. Nobody could even tell Australians whether gas companies attended Labor's $5,500 a head budget night fundraiser.

All of this matters because another major decision is looming. Right now, Woodside lobbyists are roaming the halls of parliament trying to win support for the Browse Gas Project, a project we do not need for domestic supply, a project that only stacks up if those gas corporations keep getting Australia's gas for cheap. The Prime Minister dismisses the calls for a gas tax as a slogan. It is not a slogan, mate. It is a groundswell. Australians can see the billions of dollars of profit flowing offshore. They can see the corporations get rich, and they can see how little comes back when they're struggling with the cost of living.

That's why we need to ban gas lobbyists from this place. If you want to break the cosy relationship between Labor and the gas industry, we need to lock these bastards out. We need to ban the secret meetings. We need to revoke their sponsored parliamentary passes.

Slade Brockman (WA, Deputy-President) | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Hodgins-May—

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

I withdraw. Buggers. Revoke their sponsored parliamentary passes. Publish the ministerial diaries. Let Australians see who's really calling the shots in this place.

Today, Labor and the other corporate parties have a choice. Do they stand with the Australians demanding a fair share and a fair return for publicly owned resources, or do they keep taking orders from mates in the gas lobby? If Labor won't tell Australians who's influencing them, maybe they should save everyone the trouble and wear the logos of their gas industry sponsors around Parliament House. The Fremantle Dockers wear Woodside's logos, so why doesn't Labor? Honestly, wear the logos. Tell the Australian people who you're working for because it's sure as hell not us. People are outraged. We demand a ban on gas lobbyists in this place and their dirty influence because Australians deserve a tax on our gas exports and they deserve to reap the benefits of our resources and the sale of those.

Susan McDonald (Queensland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm amazed that now the Greens greatest idea is stopping democracy, stopping letting people engage with the political process. I mean, what's next? Are we going to ban nurses and unions from engaging in political discussion? You cannot block a sector in the middle of a significant discussion about public policy. It is clear that years of intervention by the Labor government has created problems in the Australian gas market, but the solution from the Greens to stop engagement is, I think, extraordinary. What they now propose is that the market's problems should be left to bureaucrats, not to the people who are actually elected to make decisions. That is our very role in this place, to be listening but most importantly accountable to Australians. Every sector should have the ability to come to parliament to raise concerns about policy and about impact, with their local member or with their senator. But it is not up to any political party, particularly the Greens political party, to block one sector due to ideological reasons.

The interventions that Labor has made over the last few years have made our gas market more complex, more confusing and less secure. Instead, we're going to see the collapse of domestic gas producers, particularly in Victoria and New South Wales, in the places where we absolutely need this gas. But, instead, we have investors worried, we have the stock market for those companies very, very damaged, and we now have the spot market trading at $6 and less. That means that the result of Labor's policy will actually be to invest more power into LNG exporters and to cruel and cripple domestic players who are the ones who are most capable of solving this problem, particularly those in offshore Victorian waters who have the infrastructure that's necessary to supply. Labor has systematically undermined our gas market through repeated interventions, anti-gas rhetoric from senior cabinet ministers and its general disregard for the billions of dollars of capital needed for gas companies to make investment decisions in Australia. So, while Labor are claiming that they are pursuing cost-of-living relief, the reality is that taxpayers will be forced to come in and bail out investment in the gas industry after the payout of these policies comes to fruition.

Last week, I went to Norway because I wanted to see for myself what the impact of those tax policies is on the Norwegian gas market. People there were completely horrified to hear of the proposals of the Albanese Labor government for a domestic gas reservation or the Greens political party proposals for gas tax increases in the middle of an investment cycle. They were appalled and surprised that they were being held up as the example. We are seeing concerns from local businesses about the sugar hit that this gas reservation will provide to the domestic gas market and then the wasteland that we will see in Australia for gas in the places where we need it.

Of course, we need to be clear that this is an agenda being run by anti-gas and anti-fossil-fuel activists and lobbyists. Whilst the Greens would like to see the gas sector have their passes pulled, how about they pull the passes from their mates in the Australia Institute, Punter's Politics, IEFA and other people who shamelessly have an agenda to stop fossil fuel investments and new gas, coal and oil projects? How about they be honest with Australians about what they're really seeking to do, which is to keep us poor and to keep us in the dark? I think this is a shocking urgency motion, and I do not support it.

Ellie Whiteaker (WA, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, the Greens used to be far more interesting than this. They used to be a party that put forward genuine policy ideas for debate. Instead they just rely on online commentators and follow whatever Senator David Pocock is up to determine their priorities in the Senate. I understand it's all about a nice social media grab. It's all about a bit of profile building for Senator Hodgins-May, who likes to travel around the country and make pretty social media videos about how we should tax gas companies more.

As to getting up and saying that gas companies don't pay tax in this country, it sounds like a good line. It's a popular line, clearly. But what they forget to mention is the work that our government has done to make sure that gas companies pay their fair share of tax. In our first term of government, Labor made changes to the petroleum resource rent tax to ensure offshore gas companies pay more tax and pay it sooner. It increased the number of companies paying the PRRT, and in this budget it revised revenue from the PRRT up $1.6 billion. The government announced just in the last few months that we are introducing a gas reservation scheme modelled on the scheme that exists, and has existed for some time, in my home state of Western Australia, which is all about making sure that more Australian gas stays here in the country and provides reliable and secure energy for Australians who need it as we transition away from coal fired power.

The truth is this: in 2023-24, oil and gas companies paid almost $12 billion in tax. Seeing that some in this place like to use the beer excise as a measuring stick these days, I note that $2.6 billion was raised off the beer excise. Let me tell you those numbers again, because some in this place like to pick and choose the numbers they use. Oil and gas companies paid almost $12 billion in total tax in the 2023-24 financial year. The beer excise raised $2.6 billion. So, no, Aussies aren't paying more tax on beer. This is a government that is committed to making sure that oil and gas companies pay their fair share, and I know that voters, particularly in my home state of Western Australia—and in your home state, Deputy President—see through this kind of rubbish that they hear from some members of this chamber. They can see through the social media grabs. They can see through the one-liners, because they know how important the oil, gas and broader resources industries are to workers in my home state, to families in my home state and right across this country, and our government is committed to doing that.

I also wanted to talk about a new Parliament House access policy that has been announced in the last week or so by the presiding officers. I think Senator McDonald made a really good point that we shouldn't pick and choose who shouldn't be entitled to a pass, but what the presiding officers have done instead is made a commonsense change to the pass policy to make sure that there is more transparency in who has access to this building. I think it is important not only that we are clear about who has access to this building but that we don't make those decisions based on our own political ideologies.

The other work that our government has done on transparency in politics includes establishing the National Anti-Corruption Commission, strengthening the ministerial code of conduct, strengthening protection for whistleblowers, increasing funding to the Australian National Audit Office, restoring transparency to AAT appointments, establishing the Administrative Review Tribunal, reinstating standalone privacy and freedom-of-information commissioners, implementing the recommendations of the Bell inquiry into former prime minister Morrison's multiple ministries, establishing the Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission and working to tackle the influence of big money in politics with reforms to our electoral system to lift transparency. Those are reforms that, I think, the Greens political party voted against, so if the Greens were serious about stopping the influence of big money in politics they would've voted for our electoral reforms, but what we're seeing here is that they are not committed to that work.

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

This motion addresses a very serious issue: the influence of the gas lobby over this place. It's clear we have a huge issue with vested interests and their stranglehold on the major parties when it comes to gas. We are not getting a fair return for our gas. It's got to the point where, even when the ACTU suggests a 25 per cent gas export tax, Labor politicians rubbish that idea and agree with those in the coalition about how much tax the gas industry pays. But, first, I want to mention a huge win that the crossbench and the community had last week: the Prime Minister and presiding officers finally said that there will be real transparency over who walks these corridors. For years this has been the call: more transparency over who is in this place, who gave them that access and who they are here to represent. This is an important step forward, and I welcome it from the government. Clearly, pressure does work.

This motion seeks to go further: an outright ban on conversations between the gas industry and government. I understand the intent of this, but I think governments should actually be talking to the industries that they regulate. I think what we need is transparency. We need ministerial diaries rather than some outright ban on certain industries. Lobbying is a good thing. You need to hear from those who are affected by legislation, but we just need transparency. That is what I have been pushing for the last four years and will continue to push. I don't think a blanket ban is the way to go, so I call on the government to listen to the vast majority of Australians and give us a 25 per cent gas export tax now to solve this problem of a potential shortfall and make Aussie gas cheaper for Australians.

Varun Ghosh (WA, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

There are few more dangerous ideas in a democracy than banning people and ideas you don't like. The Greens political party's vendetta against the oil and gas industry is relentless and irrational, and it's in full swing here again today. This motion tries to single out and ban representatives of the gas industry and prevent them from engaging with elected representatives. It's undemocratic, it would hurt the Australian economy and it would set back the achievement of net zero. But none of that matters to the Greens because it's about grandstanding, it's about stunts, it's about props; it's not about achieving good policy.

I also can't speak to this motion without addressing what is at its core, which is an attempt to ban people whose ideas one political party doesn't like. That is the creeping hallmark of the totalitarian left—not democratic engagement but proscription, naming names and preventing people from putting arguments in this parliament. The idea that, in a democracy, we would bar a group of stakeholders involved in the production of a crucial resource, a key pillar of our economy, from interacting with decision-makers is quite simply absurd.

Good government doesn't operate in an echo chamber. It does not seek only to hear voices that it agrees with. Meeting peak bodies, industry bodies, regulators, workers, customers and members of the community is an incredibly important part of our role in this place. It's an incredibly important part of developing good policy. Trying to exclude one group from that is absurd. It's more than absurd; it's dangerous.

But let's have a think about this industry that the Greens so badly want to demonise, because the oil and gas industries—the gas industry, particularly, is an important part of Australia's future. It is a vital element, as a firming fuel in the energy transition and our path to net zero. It's vital as an industrial feedstock, particularly in the state of Western Australia, and as a fuel for industrial and mining processes that are hard to abate. It has energy density that, in different areas, can't be matched. Over five million households are currently connected to gas networks, as are thousands of small businesses, particularly in the food and hospitality industry.

And it's an important export. I'll say it again: our gas industry is an important export industry. It increases the standards of living of all Australians; it supports well-paid, secure jobs in Australia, and in Western Australia particularly; it supports the energy needs of our regional partners; and it underpins aspects of Australia's energy security. By remaining a reliable LNG supplier and a responsible climate actor, Australia can develop new regional partnerships in emerging energy industries and clean energy exports as well. It is vital for our energy transition and as we move to net zero that we have gas available here and gas available to our regional partners to achieve that transition. Why is that relevant to the motion? It is relevant because making good gas policy requires us to listen to a wide range of people, including—surprise, surprise—the people affected by that policy.

You would think that the Greens political party would be interested in advancing the transition to net zero and the clean energy system, which, under the model we're moving forward at the moment, requires and relies on gas. It's a firming fuel for intermittent renewable sources of energy. But, just as the Greens voted with the coalition against meaningful action on climate change in 2009, when they voted down an emissions trading scheme, and just like they come in here week in, week out and run these stunts with no view to the Australian interest and no view to good public policymaking in this place, they've got another absurd motion in here today. And it's got that extra kick, that extra barb—to ban people they don't agree with from the building. It's intellectually pathetic, and it's democratically dangerous. It's the kind of charlatanism that has come to characterise the Greens political party, the mountebanks of the environment movement.

If you're actually serious about net zero and the transition, then you have to be serious about gas not only in Australia but in the region. If you're serious about how this industry works in Australia, you have to listen to the people in the industry—and not only those people. We should listen to a wide range of stakeholders. We should listen to environmental groups. We should listen to people in the community. But we should also listen to people in the industry when we're designing these sorts of policies. That's why, again, this motion, this attempt to proscribe people from access to the Australian parliament, is not only stupid; it's dangerous.

Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) | Link to this | Hansard source

Fossil fuel money flows through this country's cooked political donation system like gas through a pipeline. Labor, the Liberal Party and One Nation dance to the tune of the same corporations and the same billionaires. When the cheques aren't enough, there is always the revolving door. We know Labor ministers walk out of cabinet and straight into gas industry boardrooms. They approve the projects in government and then collect the salary in industry. That is the business model. That's why there is open access to the fossil fuel lobby. Ban these dirty donations, and lock the gates of parliaments to these climate wreckers. That's what needs to happen.

The Labor government approves gas project after gas project while families can't afford to put food on the table and gas companies rake in obscene and record profits. The Greens are fighting to tax gas exports properly to fund health care, housing, aged care and education. An overwhelming majority of Australians want a 25 per cent tax on gas exports. There are billions of dollars sitting right here to be unlocked, but the government rejects it because the gas industry said no. And what they say goes for this Labor government.

While the revolving door spins, the planet burns. Every approval comes with more climate breakdown, more fires, more droughts, more floods, more extreme weather events. It's no wonder people are walking away in disgust from the two old big parties. The people of this country do not need governments at the beck and call of the gas industry, their executives and their lobbyists. They deserve for power and wealth to be put back in the hands of the many, not hoarded by a few.

Tyron Whitten (WA, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

'Don't listen to the experts. Don't listen to industry. Mandate that politicians ignore key stakeholders.' What a great idea! This is peak socialist rhetoric from the Greens. There is a name for a system of government that makes decisions without consultation—a dictatorship. But the Greens have no issue with dictating to the people. They are as authoritarian as they come. One Nation will be a government of freedom. We will listen to all involved and find the best way forward for the country.

One Nation hears the Australian people. They want a better return on their natural resources. That is why we developed our oil and gas policy with two objectives in mind: more oil and gas for production in Australia and a better return for all Australians. We want Australians to have real ownership of their oil and gas assets, providing energy security, lower prices and more jobs for the Australian people. We don't want to kill the industry like Senator Pocock and the Greens. Their climate change billionaire donors demand they kill oil and gas.

One Nation wants an oil and gas industry that is strong for generations to come—an industry that can help power Australia into the future. We did consult with industry on our gas plan and we will continue to consult. We don't apologise for that. In fact, let me share some feedback that we got. We briefed a wide range of industry participants—the big end of town, small Australian producers, offshore, onshore. You name it. The No. 1 thing we heard was, 'We can't believe we're genuinely being consulted.'

This government is flying blind to making up policy on the fly. Labor and the Greens don't see it as an issue. They want to mandate ignoring the experts. One Nation will listen to Australians and industry. We will listen to whoever we need to to ensure we have the best plan for Australia's future.

Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) | Link to this | Hansard source

One of my favourite Australian authors, Gregory David Roberts, who wrote the book Shantaram, said in his book:

The only force more ruthless and cynical than the business of big politics—

and we're all in the business of big politics—

is the politics of big business.

When the two get in bed together, they're an unstoppable force. That's exactly what we are witnessing here today. A textbook word for it might be cronyism; it might be institutional corruption, state capture. When the people demand that their resources provide a fair return to them as the owners of that resource and the government ignores them because they won't take on big, powerful, greedy multinational corporations, then that is corruption. That is corruption, and we should call it out for what it is.

We need to clean up politics and we need to hold these companies to account. That's what the Australian people put us here to do. It's not as if we don't need the money. We do. We desperately need money. We're cutting billions of dollars from the NDIS—targeting some of the most vulnerable people in our community—because apparently we don't have enough money. All it would take is a decision by a government to turn around to these corporations that have been getting away with it for too long and say, 'You are going to pay your fair share of tax for the minerals and the resources that you mine from this country.' Let's not forget that this gas, a dirty fossil fuel, is pushing us further towards the brink of climate collapse, and who's going to pay for that? Who's going to pay for the adaptation and the mitigation that we need to make sure that future generations in this country and on this planet inherit the joint in better shape, better condition, than we did when we came into this parliament?

David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) | Link to this | Hansard source

Gas companies are making off like robber barons right now, and Labor and One Nation are helping them get away with it. The hundreds of billions of dollars of publicly owned gas exported from Australia delivers next to nothing to Australians in return. Multinational gas corporations are pumping gas out of Australia, selling it around the world while giving nothing back to the public. It's a rort. It is no wonder it is being called the 'great Australian gas rip off'. The public can see these multinationals raking in super profits from our gas, while Donald Trump's war in the Middle East is driving up energy prices. They know they're paying more. They know they'll keep paying more, so it's even more obscene that Labor in this year's budget gave the gas lobby another free ride and refused to put in a 25 per cent export gas tax. That was a $17 billion gift to Santos and Woodside, a great return for their multimillion-dollar donations to Labor, One Nation and the coalition.

When the majority of Australians want at least a 25 per cent tax on gas exports, why is the Albanese government refusing to tax them? When people every day are spending more on housing, on energy, on food, on just living, why are Labor and One Nation running cover for the gas corporations? I was struggling to think of a reason and then I remembered the million dollars Labor received from the fossil fuel industry in the run up to the last election. And I remembered that every retired federal resource minister in the past two decades has left parliament and walked into a high-paying job in the resources industry. So when I see these swanky fundraisers from Labor, when I see the chummy pictures of Albanese and fossil fuel CEOs, when I see retired Labor ministers gaining special access and when I see the protection racket that Labor runs for the industry, I see a betrayal of the public. The Greens see that. Parliament is meant to be for the public. The gas industry has paid to own Labor and One Nation, but has not bought the public, not paid the people, and, until it does, shut the door. (Time expired)

Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the motion moved by Senator Hodgins-May be agreed to.