MATTERS OF URGENCY

Senator SHOEBRIDGE (New South Wales) (16:26): Well, here you get it, don't you? You've got the three gas parties with their billionaire donors all lining up together. One Nation, Labor and what's left of the coalition are all joining together to oppose a gas export tax on their big billionaire donor mates.

This tells the truth. If there were a cat wandering through the chamber, it'd have a bloody big bell on it, and it would be ringing in the donations that the gas industry has given to the Liberals, to One Nation and, of course, to their mates in the Labor Party. What could taxing big gas deliver for us?

Well, with the tax we'd get from big gas, you wouldn't have to be cutting 160,000 vulnerable Australians off the NDIS, because we'd have the revenue to actually put money into the care sector and the care economy. This government, the Labor Albanese government, with help and support from their One Nation mates, are going to say they're not going to tax these billionaire owners of gas exports, because they care more for a handful of billionaires than they do for over 150,000 Australians and their families who desperately need the support of the NDIS.

You could have met any shortfall in the NDIS a couple of times over by taxing export gas. We could ensure that every Australian could just walk in to a GP clinic and get the treatment they need right there and then for free with that money. But Labor has decided, with their mates in One Nation and the sort of quiet little cheer squad in the coalition—you could have had the money to make that happen if you'd been willing to take on the one per cent and the billionaire class and tax gas exports.

We're asking here for about a third—a bit less than a third—of what Norway does in taxing gas exports. You'd have billions of dollars a year. The fact that Labor won't do it now while these gas export companies are literally making blood soaked super profits because of Trump's war in Iran shows the reality.

We're not going to fix Labor. Australians need to see what's happening and replace Labor with parties that are going to take on the billionaires, not fly around in one of their gifted aeroplanes or wander off to some Sicilian resort with the billionaire class. That's who you need.

Look at what's happening here. Look at what's happening here, and you can see it. I want to thank my colleague Senator Hodgins-May for the leadership that she's shown in this, the strength that she's shown not only chairing that committee but also holding this government to account like she's doing today.

More of that.