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

It's like Groundhog Day, isn't it? It's Monday morning, and we're back in the Senate debating the very same bill that was before us at this time last week. We are still hoping for some reasonable answers from the government as to exactly why they are so desperate to get this piece of legislation rammed through the Senate chamber today. An hours motion has been passed, which means this legislation is being facilitated by both sides of the chamber—both the coalition and the Labor government—because we all know they are under extreme pressure from their mates in the fossil fuel industry.

Let us step back a minute and think about what happened last week. Last week, this bill was brought before the Senate chamber. The Greens spoke to the bill. Some members on the Liberal side spoke to the bill. I think we had a speaker, maybe, from the government trying to justify the passage of this bill. Then we saw a lengthy discussion in the committee stage, where my colleague Senator Whish-Wilson was trying to get some information out of the government. We got to Friday afternoon and still this government was refusing to give answers. But of course, all the while, phones in MPs and senators offices in this building were running hot. Who was calling them? None other than representatives from the gas industry—from Santos, from Woodside, from the gas industries lobby body—from lobbyists furious that the Senate wasn't doing what had been promised them by the government. How dare the Senate do its job of scrutinising legislation and asking key questions about the impact that burying billions of tonnes of toxic carbon pollution in the seabed might have on our environment. Imagine that! Imagine the Senate actually scrutinising pieces of legislation: 'We can't have that.'

We know who thinks it runs this place. It's the gas industry and the fossil fuel industry. Then—lo and behold!—so upset and frustrated were they with not being able to get their legislation and rules past the Senate in a fast ram-through fashion, the leader of the Senate, Senator Penny Wong, came into this place during question time and belled the cat. What did Senator Wong say? She said this piece of legislation was for Santos, for Woodside, for Inpex and for the Korean and Japanese governments because they were worried about their fossil fuel investors. That is why this bill is being rammed through the Senate. We heard it straight from Senator Wong herself.

If you wonder why it is that the Australian people are so sick and tired of how politics is done in this country, it was summed up in that one spray during question time. How dare the Senate hold out and ask questions and not ram through a piece of legislation that the fossil fuel industry wanted?

Then we had the bizarre chaos and facade around a suspension of standing orders to extend hours. It seemed as though we were debating not the Senate standing orders but the Santos standing orders, because it was Santos and Woodside and the others that thought they should call the shots in this place. You've got to wonder, really, how much sway the fossil fuel industry has on the benches on the government side, don't you? I know there are good members in the Labor Party and the government who know we have to transition quickly and swiftly to renewables. I know there's frustration amongst members of the Labor Party that the fossil fuel industry still has its foot on the throat of government, but there is a fossil fuel rump inside the Labor government that still calls the shots. That's what we've seen this week, and that was facilitated by the fossil fuel industry calling up members of the coalition frontbench, begging them to do their bidding for them.

Minister, how many calls did the minister's office receive from representatives from Santos and Woodside last week while this debate was ongoing?