Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I support the government's energy package. In fact, I go so far as to applaud the government for standing up to the petulant, greedy and selfish coal, gas and oil companies that want business as usual. But I regret to say that there is one glaring omission in the government's energy package, and that is some sort of windfall tax or super profits tax to do something about the outrageous profits being posted by the coal, gas and some oil companies on account of the war in Ukraine—because that's right: these companies, including Australian companies, are shamelessly profiteering off a war in Ukraine at the expense of Australian consumers. And let's not forget who owns the oil, the gas and the coal. Australians own that resource—it's our resource. It's not the private property of BHP or Woodside or Shell or Santos or Exxon. It's our property. Sure, we want these companies to make a reasonable return on investment, but we cannot continue to accept them gouging and profiteering off the misery of the Ukrainian people.

To give you a sense of the scale of this, Santos's global 2022 half-year results show an underlying profit of $1.267 billion, up 300 per cent. And Australia's Santos stated last week that third quarter revenue jumped over 88 per cent to a record high, with reported revenue of $2.2 billion. Moreover, it said its average realised LNG price rose 61.8 per cent from the previous quarter. Shell has adjusted global earnings of $9.5 billion in the third quarter—more than double from the same period last year. Woodside's production for the third quarter increased 131 per cent, to 51.2 million barrels. And, due to higher gas prices, its revenue jumped 272 per cent, to A$9.3 billion. Exxon has experienced its highest global quarterly refining since 2008, and earnings jumped from $17.9 billion in the second quarter to $19.7 billion in the third quarter. And BHP's June financial report states:

BHP delivered strong operational performance and disciplined cost control to realise record underlying earnings of US$40.6 billion and record free cash flow of US$24.3 billion.

How much more evidence do we need that the coal, gas and oil companies are making a fortune out of the suffering in Ukraine and using the war in Ukraine shamelessly as an excuse to gouge Australian consumers and to virtually steal from Australian consumers the resources that they own?

I call again on the government to introduce a windfall tax or a superprofits tax—call it what you want—a tax on companies in this country that earn a super-return on their investment and to use that increased revenue to pay back to the community, to pay to disadvantaged people, people on low incomes, the very people in my community who are turning off their heaters, not cooking on their gas cooktop, turning all their lights out at seven o'clock at night. I'm sick of hearing stories of people in one of the richest countries in the world who are going without food to pay their power bills, who are going without their prescription drugs to pay their power bills, who are going to bed at dark wrapped up in two doonas because they can't afford to turn their heating on. That is in one of the richest countries in the world, when these oil, gas and coal companies are making profits like this, and governments aren't doing anything about it. That's what's needed. Everything that the government is currently doing is good, but they've got to go much further and tax any Australian company—or, more importantly, any company operating in Australia, including foreign companies. When they are making a record return on their investment, make them pay the tax that they owe the Australian people.

See this speech in context