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

Guess who paid more tax on their income last year—you or your gas company? There's a good chance it was you. Most fossil fuel multinationals in Australia paid zero company tax between 2014 and 2020. We have the balance completely wrong when the Australian government collects more money from HECS debts than it does from taxing the income of gas multinationals. Australia is very good at taxing small businesses and families but it's terrible at taxing multinational fossil fuel companies. Almost every other country with large coal and gas industries does that better than us. It's not rocket science. It's not even brain surgery.

We need to strengthen the petroleum resource rent tax, and we need to take that money and put it into targeted relief to help everyday Australians get through this cost-of-living crisis. We need to take that money and put it into cheaper power, more housing, child care and aged care. The major parties listen more to fossil fuel companies than they do to everyday Australians. They care more about the next election than the next generation. It's time to reset politics in this country so that it's about people and not about political parties. It's about making sure that we tax multinational corporations properly. That's one of the first steps to getting there.