Elizabeth Watson-Brown (Ryan, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

It's story time. Do you want an example of the blatant power exerted by giant mining corporations over our political system? Labor gets elected in 2022, promising to fix Australia's broken environmental laws. The Greens are in the balance of power in the Senate. There's a lot of negotiation, and, by late last year, a positive agreement was struck between the Greens and the environment minister. It's not perfect, but there is give and take on both sides, and it's a step forward. The mining corporations and their staunch ally, the WA Labor Premier, catch wind of this agreement. They lobby—hard—literally calling the Prime Minister to tell him to drop it. At the eleventh hour, the Prime Minister overrides his own environment minister and rips up the agreement she struck. This week, Labor officially withdrew the bill, and environment law is dead for this term of parliament. Meanwhile, Townsville and Ingham flood catastrophically just five years after their last once-in-a-century floods. This is climate change. Meanwhile, we're destroying natural habitats at record rates, threatening more species' extinction every year. When the Leader of the Opposition is all in with Trump's 'drill baby drill' attitude, what hope is there if Labor isn't willing to stand up to mining corporations? That's why the Greens are here.

Let's dig into the donations data a bit more. Santos, a massive gas corporation—$71,000 to the Labor Party and $37,500 to the Liberals in donations; $6.3 billion income and no tax paid. Mineral Resources, a huge mining company—$76,000 to the Liberals and $55,000 to the ALP; $5.6 billion in income and no tax paid. Adani Mining, a multinational coal corporation—$66,000 to a Nationals associated entity in donations, previously donated to Labor and the LNP directly; 115 million in income and no tax paid. Do you see a pattern here? Thirty-one per cent of corporations in Australia pay no tax. It's not just mining. Star Entertainment has donated almost $100,000 since 2020 to the ALP national and Queensland branches—no tax paid. Transurban, the toll-road operator, paid no tax in the last financial year. They donated almost the exact amount, around $30,000, to both major parties in 2021-22 and 2022-23. These companies, all ripping Australians off, are topping the charts for donations to Labor and the LNP, and the political system is serving their interests. They pay no tax while families are sleeping in their cars and tents, while 60 per cent of Australians put off seeing the dentist due to cost and while our next generation is saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in student debt. We need more Greens in parliament to stop the big corporations and billionaires buying our democracy.

This might be the last fortnight of parliament this term. I want to speak about something I've addressed many times before. Brisbane residents suffer some of the worst flight noise in the country. It's not an annoyance; it's a serious health issue with serious impacts. Interrupted sleep is a nightly occurrence for thousands of people in Brisbane. Flight noise has been inflicted directly by the shared policies of the major parties: refusing to legislate a curfew, prioritising aviation industry profits above all else, and privatising airlines and airports.

Labor and the LNP have refused to support my private member's bill that would extend the protections that Sydney Airport currently enjoys, a curfew, a cap on flights and a long-term operating plan to Brisbane. Labor and the LNP have voted against even considering a curfew at Brisbane Airport. Labor and the LNP also voted against transparency for Brisbane Airport's anti-curfew lobbying efforts. People affected by flight noise deserve so much better than Labor and the LNP—both so beholden to the aviation industry. The Greens got a Senate inquiry up that made 21 recommendations, got more flights over the water and brought this issue to the national stage. We're on the community's side, and we'll keep fighting for real, long-term solutions to aircraft noise.

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