Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility Amendment Bill 2026
Senator ALLMAN-PAYNE (Queensland) (19:32): The Greens oppose the unamended Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility Amendment Bill 2026 because currently there is nothing preventing the NAIF from being used as a slush fund to prop up the dying coal and gas industries. The Greens amendment would stop the NAIF being used to support dirty coal and gas projects and related infrastructure, and also native logging projects.
In the last parliament, the Greens worked with Labor to stop the public financing of coal and gas projects. The Greens made sure that the National Reconstruction Fund could not fund coal, gas and native forest destruction. In the Future Made in Australia package, we ended the ability of Export Finance Australia to finance coal, oil and gas projects both in Australia and overseas.
We also amended the broad grant power in the Industry Research and Development Act to turn off the massive pipeline of fossil fuel subsidies that the coalition was using to fund fracking in the Beetaloo and new coal plants in Queensland, supporting the so-called gas fired recovery. That same treatment now needs to extend to the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility.
We can't forget that the coalition tried to use the NAIF to pump $1 billion into the Adani coal mine in Queensland. It only fell over when Queensland Labor vetoed the deal because they were worried about losing seats to the Greens. The risk of financing fossil fuel projects with public money is not over.
Comet Ridge, which is proposing a joint venture gas project with Santos, about 250 kilometres west of my home of Gladstone, has announced it is close to securing a $110 million loan from the NAIF. Australians don't want their money propping up new coal and gas projects, especially when multinational gas corporations continue to rip us off. Over half of Australia's gas is exported without paying a cent in royalties, and then these companies make billions while ordinary Aussies are told to tighten our belts.
The NAIF is one of the last remaining specialist investment vehicles able to finance fossil fuel expansion with public money. The Greens amendment forces Labor to make a simple choice: will you back Australians or will you hand over more of our public money to private corporations for nothing in return? Comet Ridge has applied for NAIF funding because they couldn't or wouldn't obtain it through private lenders.
It's ridiculous that the major parties and the likes of One Nation want Australians to take on the risk of this gas project. The big business parties seem to love anything that privatises the profits from Australian resources while chaining Australians to any losses from a project that will make climate change worse and drive up our energy costs. The Australian people want a tax on gas exports.
Our communities deserve to share in the benefits from our resources, and we won't accept Labor spending millions of dollars of public money just to keep coal and gas projects on life support. Since coming to power in 2022, federal Labor has signed off on 36 new, expanded or extended coal, oil and gas developments. Since 2022, the planet has experienced its three hottest years on record.
It is suicidal to continue to back in coal and gas projects when we urgently, desperately need to stop new coal and gas and transition to cheap, low-emissions renewable energy. To everyone in this room: I remind you we work for the Australian people, not the gas lobby, no matter how many dollars some of you accept from your gas donors. I foreshadow the Greens amendment on sheet 3685 to be moved in committee of the whole.