Stephen Bates (Brisbane, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) for decades, mining companies have been making excessive profits that should have been taxed in order to put dental and mental health into Medicare, build affordable homes and fund the rapid transition away from coal and gas; and

(b) in Queensland, big mining companies have exported $634 billion of our resources but only paid nine per cent of that in royalties over the past ten years; and

(2) calls on the Government to rein in the excessive profits of mining corporations.

This country is run like an arm of the fossil fuel industry. When the fossil fuel industry says, 'Jump,' the major parties ask, 'How high?' For decades the fossil fuel industry and multinational mining corporations have taken this country for a ride. Their tax rates are among the lowest in the world, especially when compared with countries who have a similar economic make-up to Australia. Last year Australia's oil and gas industry paid a tad over $17 billion in taxes. That may sound like a lot of money, but let's compare that to Norway, another country that exports a lot of fossil fuels—namely, oil and gas. Norway imposes a corporation tax of 22 per cent on fossil fuel companies but then a further 56 per cent special tax on petroleum operations. This tax setup has been in place since 1996 and last year generated the country $127 billion in revenue. That is how we should be taxing the fossil fuel companies in this country, but instead they are operating on a model of environmental destruction and then asking not even to tax them fairly for the pleasure of doing it.

Let's say we tax the fossil fuel industry fairly. Let's say the mining industry paid just a bit more than the nine per cent in royalties they've been paying in Queensland over the last 10 years while at the same time they exported $634 billion of resources. Let's say we fix the tax system so that teachers aren't paying more in taxes than the oil and gas industry does, which is not a made-up statistic, as research from the Australia Institute has shown us that this is what is happening right now. Let's say we fix it. What could we do with that revenue? We could dramatically improve people's lives and protect the climate. We could bring dental and mental health into Medicare, saving people hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in healthcare bills every single year. We could wipe all student debt and make university free once again, providing everyone in this country the chance to pursue higher education without fear of the cost or being left with tens of thousands of dollars in student debt. We could raise JobSeeker above the poverty line and move on a path towards making sure that no-one in this country ever has to live in poverty. We could invest in renewable energy and the transition to a green economy so that Australia can live up to its potential as the powerhouse of the world, with ample wind, solar, batteries and new and emerging green technologies. We could be a world leader in tackling climate change instead of playing catch-up to the rest of the world, as we always seem to do. We are robbing ourselves of countless economic and social opportunities because governments refuse to challenge the power of the fossil fuel industry.

We cannot leave workers in the fossil fuel sector in the dust when this industry eventually ceases to exist, which it will. It is fundamental to a just transition to a renewable economy that workers in the fossil fuel sector are taken care of. We all have bills to pay, and these workers are no different. When we talk about a just transition, we need a job-for-job guarantee. A renewable economy still requires mining for critical minerals, and it is of fundamental importance that workers are centred in this transition. The climate crisis is caused by corporations, not by workers. We are running out of time to tackle the climate crisis and, the longer we leave it, the closer a large-scale rapid transition looms. We need a big plan that looks after workers and communities alike.

Previous industry collapses like steel in Newcastle and car manufacturing in Geelong and Adelaide have given us important insights into what we should avoid. Without transition plans in place at the time corporations announce plant closures, only a third of workers are able to find full-time employment again, another third can find only insecure work and the final third remain permanently unemployed. We cannot leave communities to face this alone. By making the fossil fuel industry finally pay their fair share of taxes, we could change the country immeasurably for the better. We could find a just transition for workers, bring dental and mental health into Medicare, wipe student debt and lift countless people out of poverty. The only thing stopping us from achieving this goal is the cowardice of the major parties.

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