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

I have thoroughly enjoyed Senator Duniam's contributions on this over the last 10 or 12 hours, and I thank him for another one. I just want to provide a different perspective on something he said. He talked about the demonising or vilification of fossil fuel companies. The reality is that currently fossil fuels do provide a large proportion of our energy mix. That transition is underway. I'm certainly not advocating for an end of that immediately, but what I am saying is that climate scientists and experts are saying we have more than enough coal, oil and gas already being exploited for the transition. If we do want to leave future generations with a livable climate, we have to ensure that the existing reserves are used for that transition and that we're not adding new ones. This is about new coal, oil and gas. It seems very clear that this legislation is specifically designed to facilitate the expansion of the fossil fuel industry. We'll continue to hear lines from Labor and the coalition about the need to secure our energy security by opening up new gas, whether that's in the Pilliga, Barossa, Scarborough, Pluto or Beetaloo.

The inconvenient truth is that we export almost three-quarters of this gas. In fact, the gas used by gas companies to process gas and liquefy it for export is more than the gas used by every single Australian household combined. The real failure here when it comes to the cost of living is that we have policies that allow that. They allow the majority of our gas to be exported, and there is no reservation policy. There's nothing set aside that says: 'Hey, this is Australian gas. We should benefit first.' Australians should pay less for our gas than Korea and Japan do because it's our gas, yet one of the things that are fuelling the cost of living is the price of gas. Australians are paying export prices for our own gas.

Then you'll hear the major parties say: 'Don't worry about that. The thing is that they bring in a lot of revenue. They pay a lot of tax. We've got the petroleum resource rent tax.' Again, we are getting totally dudded when it comes to offshore LNG. Last time I checked at estimates, offshore LNG had not paid a single cent of petroleum resource rent tax. How can that be? If you look at the tax returns of these companies, a lot of them aren't paying their fair share of tax either. We've got teachers and nurses in our communities paying more tax than some of these foreign fossil fuel companies.

Another cost-of-living pressure that is directly related to this bill is insurance. We've seen insurance premiums go up across the country. In some areas, they've skyrocketed. I've heard stories of community sports clubs now being uninsurable. They're being told, 'Sorry, we can't insure you for fire and flood,' due to climate change. Yet here we are debating legislation, which has the support of the coalition and the Labor Party, that will make that worse. What do we say to those Australians when we're here debating legislation that will ultimately increase the costs that we all bear? It will increase our cost of living. This is the price of Labor turning to the coalition for support on climate policy in 2023.

Yet again, communities across the country are so far ahead of the major parties. They are urging them to step up, take this seriously, show some real leadership, show some moral courage and stand up to their fossil fuel donors. Santos, Woodside and INPEX all just happened to donate to both major parties out of the goodness of their heart. They just wanted to really help the major parties do their thing and get re-elected. We've got to do better. Australians will get to decide. Here in the ACT, for many years climate has been one of the biggest concerns for voters, yet they've now got four representatives who are voting for the expansion of the gas industry. We've got to do better. We've got to be more accountable to our communities. We've got to put people, including our children and future generations, ahead of the short-term profits of gas companies and the fossil fuel industry that clearly don't care about our future. If they did, they would be making other plans.

I would much rather be here contributing on climate policy that maybe is in line with Labor's rhetoric. Perhaps we could be debating policy about the electrification of households, where, for the same amount that we continue to spend on fossil fuel subsidies, over five years we could have a program that helped electrify every household in the country. We know that electrification can save households thousands of dollars every year. The sums have been done on this: three to five grand per household every year going forward. Not only is that a cost-of-living measure; it's anti-inflationary because we're not so reliant on foreign oil and we're not so vulnerable to overseas conflict that sends petrol prices skyrocketing. But that's not what the government has brought before us. The government has brought before us a bill to expand the gas industry.

We could be here debating measures that are a response to the Inflation Reduction Act. We're not doing that. We're debating measures to expand the gas industry. I'm so concerned that the government is too slow in responding to the Inflation Reduction Act—the biggest climate and energy policy and spend in history, and we're asleep at the wheel. We've got companies urging the government to bring that sort of legislation forward, to truly have policies that will make us world leaders and that will build this economy of the future—this renewables superpower that we've heard so much about. Just getting to 100 per cent renewables does not make us an energy superpower. We've got to have more ambition. We need more leadership from Labor. I urge them to bring forward climate legislation in this place so they can have the support of the crossbench and so we don't end up with a six-day debate on a stinky bill.