MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
Senator HODGINS-MAY (Victoria) (16:24): Right now, while an illegal war wages in the Middle East, companies like Santos are set to reap blood-soaked profits. These companies have ripped off Australians' resources for decades because of Australia's broken tax system that lets them take almost all of our gas for free. Well, time's up.
An overwhelming majority of the public across the political spectrum supports the need for a minimum 25 per cent gas tax export—a minimum! This could raise $17 billion a year, to ease household energy bills, to fund disaster recovery and to accelerate the transition away from the gas that currently ties household energy bills to global conflict. Labor, the coalition and One Nation all voted it down, doing the bidding of the gas lobby, as we have become so accustomed to them doing in this place.
They voted to let Santos keep profiteering from war, but the war profits are only part of the story. Across Australia, families are also paying the price of Santos's climate pollution and destruction. In Queensland, communities who have barely recovered from Tropical Cyclone Koji were just hit by Cyclone Narelle.
In Victoria, communities endured catastrophic fires, flash flooding and extreme heat. The Northern Territory has just experienced five climate disasters in a single season, and Katherine braces for floods as I speak. All the while, Santos executives are rubbing their hands, ready to trash the Territory in pursuit of more climate-wrecking gas.
For just over 12 months now, South Australia's oceans have been under siege. For a whole year, a toxic algal bloom, driven by polluters like Santos, has destroyed millions of ocean animals. It has ripped across 20,000 kilometres of coast, shredded the economy and broken people's hearts.
Every morning, locals walk the beaches to count the bodies, to label the location, time and species, and to report them to researchers—dolphins, sharks and seals gone. While coastal businesses struggle to survive, Santos is swimming in profit. While children, my children, ask me why there are so many dead rays on the beach, Santos is drilling for more gas.
South Australia's marine emblem is a thing of fragile, extraordinary beauty. And I have here in Canberra 100 of them sent to me by devastated communities. The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Polley ): Thank you, Senator.
Senator HODGINS-MAY: When will Santos be held accountable for their climate destruction, and when will the gas exporters be taxed? The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Order! The senator knows having props are not within the standing orders.
I ask you to remove those. Point of order, Senator O'Sullivan? Senator O'Sullivan: Acting Deputy President, may I suggest that, when the call, by you, has been given, the microphones be cut, because the senator was able to continue and was able to be heard.
The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: I have reminded the senator of the standing orders and I will ask her to remove them from the chamber. Senator Whish-Wilson interjecting— The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: When there is some respect in the chamber, we will continue. Senator McDonald, you have the call.