Passenger Movement Charge Amendment Bill 2026

Ms WATSON-BROWN (Ryan) (11:07): The Passenger Movement Charge Amendment Bill 2026 increases the cost of travelling out of Australia for any reason. So, whether you're going to see loved ones, responding to a family emergency or just taking a well-earned break, this bill makes your flight more expensive. In a cost-of-living crisis, should this really be a government priority—taxing your family holiday and, meanwhile, letting the big gas corporations get away with not paying their fair share?

That tells you so much about this government, which, time and again, chooses the interests of big business and the fossil fuel industry over everyday people. As it stands, this bill simply makes the cost-of-living challenge worse, and the Greens can't support it in its current form. We Greens are also pushing for real consumer protections for travellers.

We want to see a fair set of rules so people can get full refunds and proper compensation in case of flight cancellations and delays. Let's see what the government proposes. Let's see what the government brings.

But we just want to be clear: we can't support reforms that will make the cost of living worse for people. In an affordability crisis, the Greens won't apologise for opposing a Labor government move that will make things even harder in these difficult times for everyday people. Just quickly on climate, this bill is not going to have any impact on reducing emissions from air travel.

There's no other way to get overseas; people will still fly. The extra fee is not going to deter them; it will just make things harder for them. If the government were serious about reducing emissions from air travel, they'd fast-track high-speed rail—it'd be great for all of us—so we can start to make significant reductions in domestic flights.

Labor would rather tax your trip to Bali than tax a gas corporation. Get this—gas corporation Santos made $47 billion over the last 10 years and paid no tax. But Labor are not willing to tax them.

They are, however, happy to tax your next holiday. Hidden in the last federal budget, the government quietly announced a $10 hike in airline ticket charges—paid by the customer, not the airline. Yes, you heard me right: the government wants to increase airline ticket charges—not abolish hidden fees, but increase them.

No-one likes those charges. You go online to see how much a flight costs, plan your itinerary and then discover the hidden fees. For some flights, these fees can be hundreds of dollars per person, making an annual holiday simply unaffordable for many families.

It's not as if the government has no other choice. If it needs more money for services, it could do what nearly 70 per cent of Australians actually want and tax gas exports. The government already collects the same amount of money from passport fees that it gets from the gas industry.

It collects five times the amount from visa applications that it gets from the gas industry—what a joke! But it's not funny. My message to Labor is this—don't tax the family holiday; tax gas.