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

It's such irony from the opposition over here to squawk like seagulls about process, about integrity and about the honour of the parliament when the bloke who couldn't hold a hose decided secretly to nominate himself as minister after minister after minister.

So let's actually come back to the point of what we are here to do today. We are here to relieve the pressure on everyday Australians, because power bills are rising, because cost of living is rising and because the big companies—the big coal and the big gas corporations—have been ripping off Australians for years. Greed, greed, greed! Here we are trying to do something about it. We are trying to make sure that everyday Australians can actually start to get an idea of what this government can do to help relieve the pressure, to put in place a plan, to bring down power bills and to bring down pollution while we're at it. The big corporations—the big gas and coal corporations—are crying poor. I know why the opposition are squawking like seagulls. It's because they are the mouthpieces of the big coal and gas companies. What are we hearing from them? 'Oh, it's all too hard. It's all too hard!' Well, cry me a river. These are the very corporations that have been profiteering off the pain of everyday Australians and profiteering, may I say, off the bloodshed of the war in Ukraine, an illegal war. That is what these companies have been doing. Rather than standing up for everyday people, you have this mob in here crying poor and squawking. When are these companies going to be held to account? For a decade, the opposition—the Liberal and National parties under various leaderships—could do nothing to rein them in, nothing to put in place a plan to reduce pollution and nothing to reduce power bills.

Everyday people in this country know that the cheapest and the cleanest form of power is renewables, and they want the government to get on and help them. That is why we have worked hard to negotiate to get some outcomes on this bill. It's not perfect. Of course, it's not perfect. This is all about negotiation and compromise. We will keep the government's feet to the fire. You know what really should be going on? These big corporations should be paying their fair share of tax. There should be a windfall tax on them because greed, greed, greed off the back of people's misery is their modus operandi and it is time that came to an end.

Today, we have the—