Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to my Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Amendment (Benefit to Australia) Bill 2020.

I want the Australian people to understand the importance of this legislation and why it is so necessary.

First some background.

The country of Norway has a population of fewer than six million people.

It sits next to the resource-rich North Sea.

The country's leaders decided long ago to make sure Norway's people, who own these resources, benefited from their extraction and sale.

As a result, Norway now has the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world with a value approaching A$2 trillion.

That's more than $350,000 for every person in Norway.

Now compare that to Australia.

We have resources of minerals and energy that make Norway's seem insignificant.

'Our land abounds in nature's gifts of beauty rich and rare.'

Our very own national anthem says it as plain as day.

We have enough iron ore to supply the world's needs for centuries.

We are have some of the world's largest reserves of aluminium, uranium, gold, copper, coal—the list goes on and on.

Just as it is with the people of Norway, these resources are the sovereign property of the Australian people.

And just like the people of Norway, the people of Australia should be rolling in the riches derived from the extraction and sale of these resources.

However, we are not.

Our federal, state, territory and local government debt is about 85 per cent of our GDP.

Private debt is about 135 per cent of GDP.

Families across Australia are struggling with the rising costs of living.

We have a housing crisis which is forcing many families to sleep in cars or on the streets.

We have some of the highest energy bills in the world, and crippling shortages of energy, in a country with abundant reserves of energy that most others can only dream of.

We have a public health system which cannot cope with demand.

We have increasing poverty and increasing welfare costs.

Something is very, very wrong here in Australia.

It is very clear that successive Australian governments have not made the right decisions about leveraging our resources for the benefit of the Australian people.

Australians receive the lowest share of benefits from their mineral and energy wealth of any country in the world.

The question is: why?

Why have successive coalition and Labor governments allowed our resources to be effectively pillaged by mainly foreign owned multinational companies for virtually no return to the Australian people?

Natural gas is the perfect example of this debacle.

Our gas reserves in the North West Shelf area are huge, and there are plentiful reserves elsewhere.

There are quite literally trillions of cubic feet owned by the Australian people.

As was noted in the committee inquiry into this legislation, we became the largest exporter of liquified natural gas in the world in 2019.

Exports from the North West Shelf are at more than $80 billion in value but Australia receives only $200 million or $300 million in revenue from it through the Petroleum Resource and Rent Tax (PRRT).

By comparison, the country of Qatar generates $26 billion in annual revenue from fewer LNG exports.

I've asked the current Prime Minister, the opposition leader and senior ministers of the former coalition if they understand what's going on with the riches owned by Australians in the North West Shelf.

None of them knew anything about it, and said so.

Our LNG exports continue to climb in volume, enriching foreign-owned multinationals and our manufacturing competitors.

So much gas is being exported that Australia is actually suffering a shortfall of domestic supplies—and there is no pipeline delivering North West Shelf gas to Australia where it is in very high demand.

This has created a situation which—on the face of it—is completely ludicrous.

Australia is the only large gas producer in the world where domestic prices are higher than international prices.

Another important reason for our domestic shortfall is that successive Labor and coalition governments have let these mostly foreign owned multinationals 'bank' our gas reserves.

According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, they are sitting on proven and probable reserves that could provide Australians with reliable energy for decades to come.

These reserves are being locked away under retention leases for 30 years or more when there are:

Successive Labor and coalition governments have been weak; they've been frightened by the threats these companies make and have worked actively to help these companies rip off the Australian people.

They have happily received many millions of dollars in donations from these companies as a reward for ripping off the Australian people.

They let foreign owned multinationals buy Australian housing stock, and they've let foreign owners buy about 20 per cent of Australia's water entitlements.

None of this is in our best interests.

Let me be absolutely clear: you have no business being a member of this parliament unless you are always acting to the benefit of Australia and all its people.

Here's your chance to show the Australian people you are truly acting to their benefit, by supporting the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Amendment (Benefit to Australia) Bill 2020.

This is not a tax bill.

This amendment is aimed at increasing the domestic supply of natural gas at a fair price.

If the government and opposition fail to support an amendment requiring ministers and other decision-makers to act to the benefit of Australians, they need to explain why before casting their vote.

This is not to the benefit of the Australian people who own these resources.

This is to the detriment of the Australian people, and the major parties which form government in Australia are enabling it.

This amendment to the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006 is profound but simple.

It should not even be necessary, but the great Australian gas rip-off enabled by successive Labor and coalition governments makes it necessary.

One Nation's amendment broadens the object's clause in section 3 of the act.

It states the object of the act is to 'ensure that the exploitation of these natural resources is for the benefit of the Australian community'.

What more do you want to know? That is just plain common sense. The Australian community might wonder why it's necessary for the act to state the obvious, but recent history demonstrates that decision-makers need this obligation placed on them by this amendment.

All of these mainly foreign owned companies exploiting our resources are laughing at Australia all the way to the bank.

And why not?

To them Australia is little more than a cheap dirt mine.

From 2014 to 2019, ExxonMobil Australia's revenue was about $56 billion, and it paid no tax.

In the same period, revenue for Chevron Australia Holdings was $28 billion, and it paid no tax.

Revenue for Woodside was $43 billion, and it paid only $1.2 billion in tax.

Santos made $23 billion and paid only $3 million in tax.

Enough is enough.

These resources belong to the Australian people.

It should be the Australian people who are benefiting from the exploitation of these resources.

Once they're gone, they're gone for good, and the Australian people will never get a fair return for their resources.

This amendment is an important step in correcting this ludicrous state of affairs.

And it represents an opportunity to get things right with the 'new' energy source everyone is talking about: hydrogen.

Naturally occurring hydrogen deposits are all over the place in Australia, and often associated with deposits of oil and gas.

It's the cheapest form of hydrogen because it doesn't require energy-intensive processes to produce it.

The former government's National Hydrogen Strategy says Australia is well placed to make hydrogen its next big export.

It says large-scale market activation will include enabling competitive domestic markets with explicit public benefits.

Our amendment bill is aimed at ensuring this really happens with hydrogen, and that this resource is not squandered for little public benefit as is happening with natural gas.

The major parties have screwed us on gas and oil—here's hoping they don't screw us on hydrogen too.

Anything less than full support for this amendment by members of this parliament will be a clear message to the Australian people that you are not acting to their benefit.

It will be a clear message that you don't care the Australian people are being ripped off.

It will be a clear message that you've been cowed into submission by mostly foreign owned multinationals.

It will be a clear message to the Australian people that you don't belong in this parliament.

I've worked on this for about the last five years, when it was brought to my attention about the resource that we have in Australia, and we are not getting the benefit of it. I note that, when I raised this in March 2021, Senator Ayres got up and said:

Offshore petroleum developments are already subject to a range of vastly more specific regulations to test if they're for the benefit of the Australian community.

Really? And he said:

Adding a redundant 'for the benefit of the Australian community' clause doesn't mean that oil and gas developments are environmentally sustainable; it doesn't mandate that Australian oil and gas investments should employ Australian workers and offer them decent wages and conditions …

It has got nothing to do with offering them decent wages and conditions. This is about the Australian people reaping the benefits from our resources. As I said to you, Norway have utilised their resources to the best of their ability for their people—six million people—and they have been able to make nearly $2 trillion from that.

Here in Australia, we're struggling with providing services, whether it's health care, housing or water, to our people in Australia. We have families living in their cars. We have an ever-increasing welfare debt. We have an ever-increasing debt to the rest of the world that we can't seem to be able to pay. When Prime Minister Albanese became Prime Minister of this country, he said he would see that multinationals paid their fair share of tax. What's happened with it? We haven't heard a word about it—nothing.

Here you have the best resource that we have, and we can make a lot of money out of it. If Qatar is exporting less LNG than we are and can make over $26 billion for that country, what the hell is happening here? The problem that I've found over the years in who I've spoken to with regard to this, the resource ministers, is that they didn't have a clue about it, didn't understand what they were talking about, weren't interested. Retention leases are only supposed to be for five years. We keep renewing them, because the lobbyists come in and take them to dinner, and it's: 'Oh no, mate, that's fine. We'll sign off on this. We'll give you another five years.' Some of the retention leases are more than 30 years old. It's got to be 'use it or lose it'.

We also need to build a pipeline from the west coast of Australia to the east coast to give the supply of gas that we need. You can build it if you have the will. But I find that in this place most of the people here have never run a business and they've never employed staff. They've actually come from universities, worked in political offices and then seen their way up to become members of parliament. You have no business acumen. You don't know the effects of it. You actually listen to the bureaucrats, who've got nothing to lose. No-one is held accountable in this place, not even the bureaucrats. They tell you what to do because you lack the competence, the knowledge or the business acumen to know what to do and how to make the decisions in this place that the people out there are relying on us to make for their benefit.

I will not give up on this. It absolutely disgusts me to think that Labor are not going to be talking to this bill today. They're not going to say a word on it. Why? Why are you shut down? Why aren't you speaking to this? Why aren't you going to explain to the Australian people what is to the benefit of the Australian people? If Senator Ayres is anything to go by, the fact is that successive governments, the benefit of Australia—why have we lost the Commonwealth Bank? Why have we lost the airports? Why have we lost water security? Why have we lost our electricity components? Why have we sold it to multinationals? The Australian people are getting to a stage where they own nothing. They've got no control of their country or their destiny. The politicians in this place, in my opinion, are basically useless, because I don't think you even know what the hell you're doing here. You collect your pay, you just show up and you don't understand the workings of this country, how to benefit the people of Australia. I commend this bill to the Senate.