Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

As confidently predicted just 10 minutes ago, the fix is in. The gas cartel has reached into this chamber with its power and influence, and the chamber is about to vote for the most minuscule and ineffective of Senate inquiries into a critical piece of legislation that undermines the consultation requirements for offshore gas projects. This is exactly what the cartel wanted, and it's exactly what the cartel is going to get today.

Very instructively, this amendment—which will be supported by the Labor Party—wasn't moved by the Labor Party; it was moved by the Liberal Party. Let's rewind to last year, when Mr Dutton assumed his position as Acting Prime Minister when the government was constructing its response to the High Court decision that, quite rightly, rendered indefinite immigration detention illegal and unlawful in Australia. Here we go again; Mr Dutton is flexing his muscles and Mr Dutton is giving Labor its riding instructions.

Make no mistake, the Coles and Woolworths of Australian politics—or should I say the Santos and Woodside of Australian politics, because that's what we're dealing with here, the two big gas corporations—are colluding to do over First Nations people. The first thing this government is doing since the Voice referendum is removing a voice from First Nations people, as my friend and colleague Senator Cox said. What an absolute disgrace this is! In the middle of a climate emergency, when First Nations people in this country have been dealt a bitter blow in the result of the referendum, what does the government do? It comes in here and enables the planet cookers by doing over First Nations people and reducing their voice in standing up for their communities and standing up for their country.

This is a dark day in the Senate, and it's going to be delivered by the Santos and Woodside of Australian politics—the political parties that take massive donations from the gas cartel and then come in here and vote for whatever the cartel asks them to deliver. The Greens aren't going to have a bar of this. We are not going to do the bidding of the gas cartel. We are not going to accept their filthy political donations. We are not going to collude to do the bidding of the cartel to do over consultation requirements in particular for First Nations Australians, who want to defend their waters, their country and their communities against the rapacious actions of the giant gas corporations in Australia.