QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE: TAKE NOTE OF ANSWERS
Senator HODGINS-MAY (Victoria) (15:26): I move: That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Industry and Innovation (Senator Ayres) to a question without notice asked by Senator Waters today relating to the gas lobby. I rise to take note of the answers given by Minister Ayres to my colleague Senator Waters about Labor's cowardice in taking on the gas lobby.
Minister Ayres described Labor's gas reservation scheme as the greatest reform to gas policy in our lifetime. That tells you everything you need to know about this Labor government's ambition or lack thereof. It tells you everything you need to know about their lack of vision and about their unwillingness to stare down the gas industry and do what Australians expect of them.
Australians want a gas tax. They do not want a reservation scheme that will not raise a cent of revenue. Lifetime Labor politicians might have lost touch with this, but regular people are getting smashed by cost-of-living pressures.
We're feeling it at the checkout, at the bowser and every single time we have to pay our energy bills. Meanwhile, multinational corporations like Santos, Woodside and Chevron are raking in billions of dollars selling off Australia's gas that they got for basically nothing. They are making megaprofits, and those profits are set to rise again as global energy markets continue to be disrupted by Trump's illegal war.
When Australians are struggling to pay their bills, it is a no-brainer to ask the gas export corporations to pay what they owe. A minimum 25 per cent gas export tax could raise more than $17 billion per year. That is $17 billion of public money that could be used to bring down the cost of living, to guarantee essential services and to invest in clean, secure, renewable energy that would actually lower energy prices.
Minister Ayres says a gas export tax is just a revenue measure. That is simply untrue. A gas export tax can do things Labor says its reservation scheme is designed to do while also raising billions of dollars worth of revenue.
Fancy that. It is the best of both worlds. When the minister talks about making a difference with this flimsy reservation scheme, we ask: What kind of a difference would $17 billion a year make?
How many households could be helped? How much could be invested in cheaper, more secure energy? How many essential services could be properly funded?
Only this Labor government could look at a pile of money, $17 billion, and say, 'That's not in the national interest.' Let's be clear about who's driving this policy. The gas industry has had its greedy mitts all over Labor's gas reservation scheme from the beginning. Minister Ayres talked about Labor's partners, and he is, frankly, saying the quiet part out loud, because when Santos lobbies the government and the government then weakens its own policy, Australians are within their rights to ask: Who is this policy designed to help?
Who is this designed to serve? You talk about an obligation you are creating for the gas industry, but that obligation is being watered down at every opportunity. Successive versions of the reservation scheme just get weaker and weaker.
A policy designed with the gas industry will not stop the gas industry from ripping Australians off. If you do not believe that, you're an incredibly gullible person. The Greens will never apologise for fighting for what Australians are owed.
We will never apologise for standing up to the gas lobby, which has made billions of dollars from Australia's resources while driving the climate crisis, and we will never apologise for demanding that this government do what 70 per cent of Australians want. Tax gas exports now. That's what they're saying.
That's what they're demanding. That's what they're calling for. Minister, you told us to talk to the people.
We highly recommend that you go and talk to the 70 per cent of Australians who want a gas export tax. Better yet, listen to them. Go out and listen—not to the gas lobbyists who are roaming the halls of this place, and not to your donor mates.
Go out and listen to the Australian people, because they understand what this government apparently does not understand or chooses not to listen to and act upon. Australia has some of the world's biggest gas resources, and they are finite resources. Once they are sold, they are gone.
This money cannot be made back in the future, and Australians should get a fair return when multinational corporations are exporting them for billions of dollars worth of profit. Prime Minister, it is beyond time to stop listening to the gas lobby and start listening to the Australian people who are demanding more, demanding better and demanding a tax on our gas exports.
Tax the exports, make the gas giants pay their fair share and put that money to work for Australians. Question agreed to.