Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Who do you think that we should help more—a young person who can't afford to buy a home, can't find a rental and can't pay off their HECS debt or multinational companies earning multibillion-dollar profits exporting Australian gas overseas? We have our priorities completely wrong. You only need to look at other countries to see how different it could be.

Norway taxes its gas industry, and it gives university to students for free. We subsidise multinational gas companies, and we charge our students tens of thousands of dollars for degrees. Norway's revenue from multinational oil and gas companies amounts to $23,500 per person per year. Australia's revenue from our multinational oil and gas companies is $200 per person per year. We collect twice as much tax from teachers as we do from our main oil and gas tax. Our beer excise collects more than our main oil and gas tax. This is a wealthy country, but far too few Australians share in that wealth.

To the young people of Australia, let me say: we can change that. We can make university more affordable. We can build well-made, affordable homes for people to rent and to buy. We can give you hope for the future again. But to get there, my colleagues need to care less about multinational gas companies and more about Australians. They need to care less about securing their own future and more about the next generation.

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