Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Pocock, I'll take that interjection. But, typically, companies pay tax on profit. You pay tax on the difference between revenue and costs—on the profit. That is Income Tax 101. And I don't expect someone to pay tax to the Australian government if they're making a loss. I've been a shareholder in some of these oil and gas companies, and I think we need more shareholders in this place, because then you've got some sort of shallow understanding of the commercial realities. So many of these oil and gas companies actually lost a great deal of money when they were building these major projects, and that is one of the reasons why they haven't been paying tax.

But let's see what's happening. The Greens are living in the past, and let's see what's happening now. Woodside, for the year ending 30 June 2022, paid corporate income tax—that's to us, the Australian taxpayers—of $989 million, nearly $1 billion Australian tax. Senator Pocock and the Greens, including Senator Hanson-Young, go on about the petroleum resource rent tax. Woodside, for the year ending 30 June 2022, paid $720 million in petroleum resource rent tax. So let's add that to the $989 million, and we're up to about $1.7 billion in tax just for one year. Would you have thought of that as you were listening to Senator Pocock's contribution and Senator Faruqi's? Would you have been aware of that? No, you wouldn't have been.

In terms of federal oil and gas royalties, Woodside paid $535 million. So we're now nearly up to $2.2 billion for the year in terms of Woodside's tax. That's just one oil and gas producer. In federal excise they paid $392 million. In payroll tax, to actually employ people, they paid the Western Australian government—lucky citizens of Western Australia—$60 million. That's how many people they employ; the amount of payroll tax is calculated on their earnings. They also paid $7 million in FBT.

So what's the total for 2022? It's $2.7 billion in Australian tax; $2.7 billion was paid in tax by Woodside, putting this parliament in the position where it can provide health services, education services, the NDIS and where it can provide for the defence of this country. How are we going to do that if you take away all of the tax revenue from some of our oldest and best tax generating companies? How are you going to pay for those services? And don't give me a speech about wind power et cetera. You are simply not going to be able to provide the revenue this country needs to provide the services that the people of this country rightly expect. That's the first point to make.

The second point to make—and I took a point of order in relation to this, Deputy President. We are getting sick and tired of the Greens getting up in this place and making a general statement that those of us sitting on either the opposition benches or the government benches are driven solely by donations provided by anyone in this country. That is absolutely untrue. I know the senators sitting opposite. They're on the other side, but I've got absolutely no doubt that, when they put forward a piece of legislation, they're doing it because they believe it's in the best interests of the country.

The Greens may well disagree, and it is their right to disagree, but I won't stand back silently anymore and listen to the general abuse coming from the Greens, generally accusing those sitting on the government benches or those sitting on the opposition benches of being motivated by donations from whoever it is, because it's simply not true. It's absolute rubbish. I certainly didn't come into this place to be influenced by anyone, apart from my own conscious and my own common sense. So I will not sit here and cop it anymore from the Greens. I will call it out whenever I hear it. If the application of the standing orders currently isn't providing for it to be disorderly, it should provide for it to be disorderly. You shouldn't be able to cast a general slur upon everybody sitting in this chamber, on the government benches and the opposition benches, and get away with it just because you haven't personalised it to a single senator. It's not good enough, and I won't cop it anymore. It actually brings shame on this house.

And certainly I don't accuse the Greens. I've never accused the Greens of doing anything in this place, and I often get up on points of order, as they well know, and defend their right to say things as they want to say them. I've never accused the Greens of being motivated by donations. I've never done it and never will do it. I won't make that sort of personal reflection on any individual senator or on senators generally—absolutely won't do it. But I won't cop it anymore, either.

The third point I want to make to Senator Pocock is in relation to his comment around the amount of energy that is spent on producing the LNG that is exported. That's fair enough; raise that point. But the question that should also be asked is: how many people are being provided with energy at the points on the globe where that LNG is being imported? How much energy? How many millions of people are benefitting from that energy? And where would they get energy otherwise? Would they be having energy provided through less-efficient means, which would create more carbon and create a greater issue? Look at both sides of the equation. Don't look at just one side of the equation.

It would be an absolute travesty and an indictment upon this Australian parliament if we ever got to the situation where this country had to import LNG. That's what people are talking about: actually setting up terminals to import LNG, when we've got so much gas in this country. The whole notion that this country should be importing LNG is absolutely absurd. If that ever happens, it would demonstrate that the federal parliament and the various state parliaments have failed the people of Australia.

We need to be looking at every weapon in our arsenal with respect to transition, and that includes carbon capture and storage. It also includes nuclear power. We need to be looking at everything in the arsenal to try to address the transition issues and make sure we can keep making things in this country. Unless we deal with this energy situation at the moment, I deeply fear that our smelters and refineries are going to close down eventually. They won't transition. Their transition will be from production to nothing. And all those jobs will be lost. They'll go overseas to countries that simply don't have the same processes we have and don't have the same care regarding environmental outcomes that the people sitting all over this chamber have. That's the test, from my perspective, when it comes to this debate.