Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Join the dots. This is dirty money playing a role in dirty politics. You have a bill before this chamber today that is all about setting up the regulatory framework that the big oil and gas mining companies desperately want. It is about setting up the regulatory system that they want, retrospectively. They have bought favour with both of the major parties, and it is at the cost of the Australian community. We now have lobbyists running around this place, knocking on the doors of ministers and shadow ministers, saying, 'Oh please, let us start drilling for oil in what is meant to be a marine protected area, a Commonwealth marine protected area, in the Great Australian Bight.' The public is rightly worried that the money being donated by these massive big oil and gas companies is having influence over the policy decisions of both the major parties.

The example of Chevron connected directly to the time frames of Senate investigation and inquiry and, I must say, questions from senators in this place to Chevron, who were basically asking Chevron to sit in a Senate hearing and tell the world how wonderful they are. If that is not cash for comment, what is it? Chevron's cash for comment is what we saw in the Senate hearing: $8,800 and then another $8,800 to the state parties; $15,000 to the federal Labor Party; and $11,000 to the federal Nationals. This big multinational company is buying favour with Australian political parties to get the policies they want. The Australian public are sick of it. Dirty money leads to dirty politics. Our democracy is not for sale, people! Our democracy means that is a place where policies are debated on merit, debates are had with integrity, and members of parliament stand for what they say, not because someone has paid them.

South Australians in particular are very concerned about what is potentially listed for the Great Australian Bight. We know that the risks are huge. They have not been mitigated. There is not even a proper response plan from these big companies, who just want to come in and drill for oil in the middle of a whale sanctuary: big profits for them; big risk for South Australians. It is putting our tourism industry at risk and our fishing industry at risk and providing no jobs for South Australians. The jobs are going to be imported from overseas.