Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move Greens amendment (1) on sheet 1770:

(1) Page 6 (after line 30), at the end of Part 2, add:

11A Middle Arm Sustainable Development Precinct in the Northern Territory

No amount appropriated by this Act is to be spent on equity investment for the development of the Middle Arm Sustainable Development Precinct in the Northern Territory, including common use marine infrastructure and regional logistic hubs, as described on page 163 of Budget Paper No. 2 2022-23, which was tabled in both Houses of the Parliament on 25 October 2022.

This was a very clear opportunity for this government to do the right thing by Australians. As I said in my speech, this is their first budget—six months into their first term, after being in opposition for nearly a decade, listening to the coalition hand out money left, right and centre to their mates and to big business and fossil fuel companies to shore up their donations for every election, to make sure that that continued. The Australian public thought that at this last election they had an opportunity to put a government in place that would look after them, that would see public money going to public services for their benefit of Australians, not for public money to be propping up fossil fuel projects when the world is saying, 'Do not open up any more coal or gas projects.'

This government are deaf to that. They are continuing not to listen to the science, not to listen to the experts, not to listen to anybody and to continue the legacy of those opposite, who gave out all the money to start with. They just came into government in May, sailed in and continued that legacy, continued to give out the public's money to these fossil fuel companies and then take the language off their websites so no-one will question that—greenwash the language to continue the dirty fossil fuel industry that is continuing to thrive when their own cabinet minister says that the gluttony of greed it what's driving the gas prices in this country; that is what's happening.

So, we've got the good-cop bad-cop scenario happening over here at Labor. One cabinet minister says one thing and another says a different thing. They say, 'We want net zero.' Well, when? When are you going to transition this industry? When are you going to put renewable infrastructure in place? You have an opportunity to do that by not continuing to expand fossil fuel projects in this country, and Middle Arm is the prime example of that.

We have an opportunity today to vote for the Australian people, who want to see their money used in the right way. They want to hold Labor to account. That's what we're doing here on the crossbench: making sure that those folks watching out there understand the amount of money that is being provided in this equity fund to Santos and other companies who had record profits in the first quarter of this year, and government is still giving them our money.