MATTERS OF URGENCY
Senator HODGINS-MAY (Victoria—Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens) (16:20): I move: That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency: The need for the Labor Government to make resource corporations pay their fair share, raising an estimated $45 billion a year in additional public revenue to deliver cost-of-living relief, fund essential services and accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels.
Well, here we go again: another day in this chamber, another day of this Labor government refusing to stare down the big resources industry, with the billions of dollars that they are making—refusing to tax them properly. Just now we have seen them want to go after pensioners, instead of properly taxing our resources in this country. They would rather rip away more than a billion dollars from the pockets of pensioners than look to the coal and gas industries who have been lining their pockets off the back of Australia's resources for far too long.
And you know what? We are getting so tired of it. Australians are exhausted, and they have been saying until they're blue in the face: 'There's money out there.
These resources are finite. Pay what you bloody owe.' Today we launched a report with Prosper Australia which indicated that there is an extra $45 billion out there that this government could be collecting in tax revenue from those big coal and gas corporations—$45 billion. Yet this Labor government wants to go after pensioners.
You can't make this stuff up. Just imagine what $45 billion could do towards making people's lives better, in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. Imagine what that money could do for our public schools, for our public hospitals, for our public housing, for making childcare free for every kid across this country.
Heck—let's make education free from early childhood right through to TAFE and uni! This is the sort of money we are talking about. And this is the political choice that this Labor government is making: instead of working with the Greens to tax our resources, to tax coal and gas and make them pay what they owe, they're choosing to continue to line their pockets, to the tune of $45 billion.
Who does this government represent? Your job in this place is to represent the people who elected you, not just those who donate to you. Talk about a raw deal for Australians!
Some of the richest corporations in the world are making billions off our resources, yet Labor reckons making them pay their fair share is just a bit too tricky. There was an interjection from Labor when we said, 'Why don't you go after the gas corporations instead of pensioners?' They said, 'Well, this is why you'll never be in government.' And I say, 'Bollocks to that.' A majority of Australians want us to tax our resources properly.
They recognise our resources are finite, and they recognise that they are getting a dud deal. Instead of that wealth flowing into the coffers of big coal and gas corporations, it could be paying to make people's lives better. And people know that.
They are so frustrated that this place isn't doing its job. Ordinary Australians pay their tax. Teachers pay their tax.
Nurses pay their tax. Retail workers pay their tax. Why should they have to pay tax when massive corporations do not have to pay?
Where is the justice in that? We hear these scare campaigns about scaring off investment. We've heard those talking points before.
But we know the resources exist here. There is a royalty scheme in Queensland. Why don't we have that in the rest of the country?
Why aren't we taxing those gas and coal producers and exporters? Why aren't we doing that? As I say, this is a political choice.
Labor has a decision to make. Will it continue to capitulate to big coal and gas, or will it genuinely get a fair deal for Australians who are making impossible choices every time they go to buy groceries and, every time they go to pay their medical bill? It's a political choice.
Have some political courage, and do what's right for the Australian people.