Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to make a contribution on this absolute farce that's been going on for a whole week now. Let's just call it what it is. The two big parties have ganged up to write laws to facilitate Santos burying their carbon pollution under the sea, rather than reducing it. We now have the minister representing trying to spin that as somehow progress towards net zero and as a complex policy issue—so complex that the fossil fuel industry and big gas have actually written these laws, as is plain to see, because, as folk might know, the safeguard mechanism which the Greens strengthened and passed several months ago would have made it a lot more expensive for Santos's Barossa project to proceed. They were not happy about that, so what did they do? They found a back door, and they had willing accomplices in the Labor Party and the LNP, who are now legislating a backdoor loophole so that this carbon-bomb project could proceed.

We hear rumours that I have no doubt are true that Santos and APPEA, the gas industry rep body, were phoning the offices of people in this chamber, urging them to hurry along and pass these laws that will shore up the massive profits of Santos—profits that it's making as it cooks the planet and gets in the way of carbon action. So my colleague Senator Hanson-Young asked the apposite question: who are they calling and how many times do they call? It's disappointing that the minister representing doesn't have that information to hand. I doubt it will come to hand in the course of this debate, because it would be rather embarrassing for the government to put that on the record. No doubt Santos has both of the large parties on speed dial.

We had a whole week of debate here where the Greens managed to ask this chamber to really think about what it's doing before it races these laws through. I'm really pleased that we've used the fulsome Senate procedure available to us to make sure that these awful laws were not passed last week. We're happy to keep talking about this issue. We're here to try to take climate action as well as to stand up for people and the community. This is our bread and butter, folks. We are not going to sit down and let Santos, INPEX and Woodside continue to run this parliament. We will call it out and we will stand against it.

It was very interesting. Senator McAllister has been doing the job all week of speaking to this legislation. My colleague Senator Whish-Wilson asked over and over what the motivation was for this legislation, and Senator McAllister stuck to the lines, as she has again this morning. And yet Senator Wong in question time came in and actually described what was really going on when she lambasted the opposition for saying 'no to Santos' and saying 'no to Woodside'. She did so in an incredulous manner and really spelled out that this law was written for Santos, for Woodside, for INPEX, for Japan and for Korea—all of those large carbon interests who were very cross that the safeguard mechanism would get in the way of their massive profits.

What an absolute joke, when you have the Leader of the Government in the Senate actually saying that this place is here to do the bidding of the fossil fuel industry. How dare you? How dare you, in the face of science and humanity, decide to prioritise the private profits of companies that are cooking the planet, just because they're donating to your re-election campaigns or possibly offering you a fancy, overpaid job when you leave parliament? It's abominable that that kind of decision is being made in this day and age—in any day and age—when we should know better.

Haven't they already had enough favours done for them? There is $11 billion every year of public money used to subsidise the fossil fuel industry. Isn't that enough, folks? Do they really need this extra back door to facilitate their bloated private profits? Much of which they don't pay proper tax on, I might add. Do they really need extra favours? You've already done them so many favours—$11 billion of favours every year from the public purse. We're in a cost-of-living crisis as well as a climate crisis. That money could be far better used making early childhood education free, freezing rents, building affordable homes, further subsidising renewable energy. There are so many real uses for that $11 billion rather than handing fossil fuel subsidies to your big polluter mates, who you're now doing a further favour for.

It was very interesting that the Leader of the Government in the Senate finally said the quiet bit out loud, admitting that these laws have been written for Santos, for Woodside, for INPEX, for Japan and for Korea. I'll be asking the minister about that utterance in question time when she's in the chamber and able to be held to account. I'll be very interested to see what her response is, because they were very clear words said by Minister Wong. She seemed so incredulous that the LNP might not be jumping to the tune of Santos that very second, that they might dare to ask Santos to wait a few days. Of course, the reason why they're doing that is to make the government look bad and to make it clear that the government doesn't run this chamber. So they're winners either way. They know they'll deliver for their fossil fuel polluting mates eventually, but they'll put the screws on the government in the meantime and make them look silly. Well, they're laughing all the way to the bank! Santos knows that it will get its way.

Meanwhile, the community is out there desperate for a parliament that takes science seriously, that acts to protect its future and that stops wasting taxpayer money on fossil fuel subsidies and building in back doors for polluting companies to have even more influence over this place. It's just ridiculous—the revolving door of lobbyists and industry groups. They go in and out of this building, in and out of ministers' offices, in and out of the ministry itself. It's no wonder that these laws were being written by big gas to deliver for big gas. How fascinating that the government's able to prioritise that drafting when it's not able to prioritise a whole lot of other useful drafting that might actually make people's lives better.

I'm afraid the time for truth is here, and we're finally seeing with naked honesty how much influence the fossil fuel sector has over this parliament. I'd thought we'd had a change of government, and I'd hoped that things might change. Well, more fool me, because, unfortunately, they're both taking the big donations from the big fossil fuel companies, and it's perfectly clear from last week's verbalisation by Minister Wong that they will both do the bidding of the fossil fuel giants. It's absolute heartbreak for anyone out there that voted for this government in the hope of climate action.

The safeguard mechanism was strengthened thanks to the Greens' negotiations, and now the government is back to building a back door for the likes of Santos and Woodside and INPEX to continue business-as-usual while the planet cooks, while there are bushfires in our regional areas in Queensland. They started in October this season, and they started in September last season. What more evidence do you need that fossil fuels are cooking the place, destroying bushland, destroying homes, destroying lives? And for what? So that some rich fat cat can make more money. How base is that? When did it become the government and the opposition's job to boost the private profits of the fossil fuel sector rather than represent the public interest and represent the people that voted to put you here? I don't understand the motivations. Why do you think it's your job to make Santos more money? Why? That is not your job. It is your job to act on the science, to adhere to the laws that we passed that would restrict emissions—not as strongly as they need to be, but better than we had before. It is not your job to now build in a backdoor loophole to allow business as usual for big gas. I mean, it absolutely boggles the mind.

So I come back to the question Senator Hanson-Young asked, and I'd like to know the answer, too. How many phone calls—from Santos, from APPEA, perhaps from the Japanese foreign minister or perhaps from the South Korean foreign minister—did it take last week and over the weekend, to both sides of this chamber, to get you to collude on an hours motion to ram through these laws to boost the fossil fuel sector profits?