MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE

Senator McKIM (Tasmania—Australian Greens Whip) (16:37): Next time you're standing at the bowser in a servo, watching money flow out of your pockets and into your fuel tank, think about how some of the biggest, most profitable, dirtiest corporations in the country are getting cheaper fuel than you are thanks to government subsidies, thanks to the Labor Party, the Liberal Party, the National Party and One Nation.

Think about the $8 billion a year in public funds that is flowing directly into the pockets of massive corporations to encourage them to burn diesel. These are not struggling businesses who need a helping hand; they are hugely profitable corporations that are cooking the planet. Last year, BHP alone received more than $600 million from fuel tax credits.

Rio Tinto received more than $400 million on fuel tax credits. In total, $8 billion a year is going to big, hugely profitable corporations with subsidies that are supported by the Labor Party, the Liberal Party, the National Party and One Nation. Fuel tax credits should be abolished for big mining and big fossil fuel corporations.

The other thing fuel tax credits are doing is making it very difficult to tackle climate change. Providing heavily subsidised diesel to big fossil fuel and big mining corporations is disincentivising a genuine decarbonisation of the Australian economy. If we're serious about tackling climate change, government policy should not be subsidising the burning of fossil fuels and we should be encouraging corporations to decarbonise—but, because Labor and the opposition are in the pockets of big corporates, particularly big fossil fuel corporations, in this country, that is not happening.

Every dollar spent subsidising fossil fuel use is a dollar spent slowing the decarbonisation of our economy that we know needs to happen, and everyday Australians pay the price all over again. They pay the price every time. Australians never stop paying for corporate subsidies.

Australians never stop paying for Labor and the opposition to publicly subsidise burning fossil fuels. It's no wonder we can't transition our economy. The government and the opposition are in the pockets of the big polluters.