Max Chandler-Mather (Griffith, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Whether it is bringing dental and mental health into Medicare, making university free and completely wiping student debt, capping rent increases or setting up a public developer to build homes that are then rented for cheap to almost anyone, everything the Greens are proposing is already done around the world in countries like Norway, Denmark, France and Austria. The big difference is that in Australia we have a political and economic system that, far too often, puts billions of dollars in the pockets of billionaires and big corporations. One-third of Australia's biggest corporations paid zero dollars in tax in Australia. This includes multinational gas corporations like Santos, which made $6.2 billion in income and then paid less tax than a nurse.

In places like Norway, they make their big oil corporations pay their fair share in tax. In 2023 alone Norway collected $209 billion in tax revenue from their oil and gas sector, a 63 per cent cut of that sector's revenue. Meanwhile in Australia in the same year, the gas industry made $164 billion but only paid nine per cent in tax and royalties. If they charged the same tax rate as Norway, Australia would have made an extra $88.8 billion in revenue in a single year. In Norway, they tax their big oil corporations to give students free university. In Australia, the government taxes students to give big oil and gas corporations massive tax breaks. In Australia, the government taxes students, and in Norway they tax big oil corporations. I know which one I would choose.