David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I stand to support the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Amendment (Domestic Reserve) Bill 2023. It's maybe not that often that Senator Hanson and I agree, but, when it comes to the need for Australians to get a fair deal on how our gas is used, I support this. This has been a failure of the major parties for decades, allowing our resources to be shipped overseas and not benefit Australians to the extent that they should. There are many examples of countries that have done this better than Australia. Take Norway, for example. It is sitting on a $1.9 trillion sovereign wealth fund. That's because they recognise these are our resources and that we should use them to set ourselves up and to set our children up for the future. That's not the path that the major parties have taken in Australia, and it's no surprise that the Independents and minor parties, who rely on being connected to the people they represent, are pushing this parliament to change our ways.

The gas industry has been incredibly successful in convincing Australians that we need more gas. That is wrong; we need to make sure that Australians get a fair deal for the huge amount of gas that we have. At the moment, we're exporting about 70 per cent of our gas and we use about 10 per cent of our gas just to liquefy the 70 per cent that we then export. We export 25 times more gas than is used in all Australian homes and yet Australian households are paying international prices to use our own gas—to use Australian gas. They're getting price gouged because there hasn't been a government from the coalition or Labor that had the foresight or the courage to actually do something about this.

Not only are we paying international prices but we're getting dudded on the return from the sale of these valuable resources. Once we dig coal, oil or gas up, or get them out of the ground and ship them off, they're gone. That's it. We should be getting more for them. Last year, LNG exporter earnings nearly doubled to an eye-watering $93 billion in just one year. That's nearly double the amount we spend on defence just in earnings from exported gas. Obviously, this translates to record profits: windfall profits topped $40 billion last year alone. That's about four times as much as the federal government spends on all government schools across the country. And that's just in extra profits for already profitable companies.

With that huge increase in the revenue and profitability of gas companies, it's safe to assume that significantly more resource rent tax is paid. Wrong again! Offshore energy producers have not paid a single cent in in the petroleum resource rent tax, ever—not a single cent! That's deeply embarrassing for a country that exports so much LNG. The weak—and I would say 'cowardly'—change to the PRRT which has been proposed by the government is not going to solve this problem. It will simply bring forward what offshore LNG will pay in PRRT for our own gas. We have a government that wouldn't even go with what their own Treasury suggested! They picked the weak option: 'Let's not upset the gas cartels, the ones who are making windfall profits off a war that no-one planned for. This wasn't in their investment plans, but let's be nice to them. We don't want to upset things.' This failure to get Australians a fair share from our resources is unjustifiable in the light of the current cost-of-living crisis. The costs of housing, energy and groceries are all skyrocketing and it's not good enough to say, 'We can't help with the cost-of-living crisis,' while allowing gas companies to make record profits.

On housing: according to the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation, we need $290 billion over the next 20 years to build an additional 800,000 social and affordable homes across the country. On energy: Rewiring Australia tells us that $12.5 billion would electrify Australian homes so that every household would save over $5, 000 a year on their energy bills.

On biodiversity: our leading ecologists tell us that to actually end extinctions, to halt extinctions, as the Labor government has pledged and promised to us to do, we need to invest nearly $2 billion a year, if we are to ensure that the schoolchildren who come through this place have the opportunity to see things like a greater glider or koala in the wild, a bettong, a quoll—unique Australian wildlife. We are not spending that much, because we have a government that cries poor, that says, 'Oh, the budget is so tight; we've got debt.' At the same time, they are not willing to listen to their own Treasury about how to raise more income from our own gas being shipped off overseas. Australians have some of the highest income taxes in the developed world. Tax experts are telling us that we need to diversify our tax base if we are to continue to invest in things like health care, education and the NDIS.

Australia has a huge quantity of gas, more than enough to meet the needs of Australian households, businesses and industry that rely on it, and we have more than enough to meet the needs of our transition. Now is the time to make sure that Australians are prioritised ahead of the vested interest of large and largely foreign-owned gas companies.

Yesterday I helped launch the climate of the nation report, a survey of over 2,000 Australians across the country. It shows just how out of touch the major parties are when it comes to climate. Seventy-five per cent of Australians are concerned climate change will result in more expensive insurance premiums. They are right; they're seeing them. We are seeing insurance premiums across the country go up. Particularly in places like Queensland, we're seeing them skyrocket, and households are having to find a way to pay for that. Yesterday I met with a former mayor and businessman from Lismore who was talking about the fallout from the flooding in Lismore and just how difficult it was to get your insurance company to pay. But going forward, there are now large areas that are uninsurable.

Seventy-five per cent of Australians are concerned about climate related disruptions to supply chains making it hard to buy necessities. If you turn on the news, you will see climate disasters around the world. That has an effect on agriculture, on manufacturing, on the food and goods that Australians use and consume. Australians are concerned climate change will result in droughts and floods affecting crop production and food supply, and more bushfires. Someone like Minister Watt would know more than many of us about these risks, having talked to farmers, having seen what's happening in disaster readiness in the country. This is an enormous challenge for us. It's going to take more investment from the government. It is going to take a co-ordinated response to protect Australians and that takes money. We have an opportunity here to raise money from largely foreign-owned gas companies exporting our gas. I would urge the government to have the courage to take them on.

Seventy-eight per cent of Australians agree climate policy should be based on best-practice climate science. Seventy-four per cent of Australians aged between 18 and 24 support the government stopping the approvals of new gas, coal and oil projects. Again, we've been hoodwinked by the fossil fuel companies that are aided by the major party politicians, who roll out their talking points about the need to expand the fossil fuel industry against the advice of climate scientists, against the advice of the International Energy Agency and against the common sense of seeing the effects of climate change and knowing that we are in a very deep hole. When you are deep in a hole, you stop digging. We have a government that wants to continue to dig. The consequences of that are very hard to think about.

Seventy-four per cent of Australians support the concept of a polluter-pays tax for businesses based on how much they pollute. Again, people know that this is going to cost money. When your home is uninsurable, who are you going to look to? When we have whole towns flooded or burnt by bushfires the government is going to have to step in. Where does that come from? We have an opportunity to raise funds from the export of our fossil fuels in the transition, yet the major parties don't want to talk about this. They don't want to do it.

Sixty-six per cent of Australians support a windfall profits tax on oil and gas. We've seen this happen across the world. Countries have said: 'You didn't plan for this. These are our resources. We're going to tax your windfall profits and put them into paying down the debt and into climate adaptation.' I note that experts in the adaptation field are saying that Australia needs to be spending in the order of $3 billion to $4 billion a year if we're going to be ready for what is coming. And we have what? A $200 million fund. It doesn't cut it. We need more funding. Yes, funding is tight, but here's where you can get some money to fund the transition and to fund adaptation to climate change that is already locked in.

Seventy-six per cent of Australians agree that climate impacts should be considered by the environment minister when approving fossil fuel projects. It's laughable that we don't do this. I've introduced a duty of care bill that will ensure that the environment minister, those with delegated responsibility and those in other portfolios that oversee fossil fuel projects have to consider the impact on young people and future generations. We must be looking after young people. We must be making longer term decisions, not the short-term thinking that's all about how the major party gets re-elected at the next election.

Fifty-six per cent of Australians say that opening new gas, coal and oil projects will make it harder for Australia to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 43 per cent by 2030. We know this. We're already off track and yet we continue to expand the fossil fuel industry and continue to cut down native forests for woodchips, paper pulp and box liners—and this is at a loss. We're subsidising the destruction of forests that are valuable carbon sinks.

Three times as many Australians think fossil fuel companies should pay the cost of responding to climate change than think the burden should be borne by those facing climate change impacts. That makes sense to me. Seventy-two per cent of Australians think that government agencies should not employ individuals who are also employed by companies and organisations that could be affected by their advice. Sixty-six per cent think that governments should be responsible for checking the accuracy of net zero and carbon zero claims of companies.

Really importantly, we see the effect of lobbying and advertising by the fossil fuel companies. Australians overestimate coal industry employment as a proportion of total employment by a factor of 33—people think there are 33 times more people employed by the coal industry than there actually are—and it's worse when it comes to gas. They think it's 69 times more. This comes down to advertising, to lobbying and to the major parties who just read off the hymn sheet of the fossil fuel companies.

Debate adjourned.