2026-10-22
OUR FUTURE IS NOT FOR SALE
By Senator Steph Hodgins-May, Deputy Parliamentary Leader of the Australian Greens
If you want to know who really calls the shots in Australian politics, look no further than Labor's latest gas reservation scheme.
Australians are struggling with rising energy costs, multinational gas corporations are making extraordinary profits, and our Pacific neighbours are pleading for an end to fossil fuel expansion. Yet when Labor had the opportunity to put Australians first, it delivered another policy that gives the gas industry almost everything it wants.
It's becoming painfully clear that when the fossil fuel lobby comes knocking, Labor is all too happy to open the door.
This scheme will allow a favour factory between Resources Minister Madeleine King and Labor's favourite gas donors. She will have legal powers to give special favours to any gas company she wants.
It's a pretty remarkable arrangement. Fossil fuel corporations get the approvals, pocket enormous profits, give a little to Labor and avoid paying what they owe, while Australians are struggling to afford groceries, rent and energy bills.
And now the Coalition is making its demands clear. Shadow Resources Minister Susan McDonald has warned that lower domestic gas prices could discourage investment in new gas projects, describing cheaper gas as a short-term "sugar hit".
Think about what that means. At a time when Australians are struggling with their energy bills, the Coalition is raising concerns about gas becoming “too cheap” to justify new projects.
And while the Coalition worries about the profitability of new gas projects, Labor's decisions are even harder to justify when you look at what's happening around us.
In the days leading up to the announcement, Anthony Albanese was in the Pacific, meeting with leaders whose communities are already living with the devastating consequences of the climate crisis. Our Pacific neighbours have been absolutely clear that the world must transition away from fossil fuels. Albanese himself warned of a dangerous summer of extreme heat, floods and cyclones, yet his government continues to approve massive new coal and gas projects.
Right now, the Albanese Government is facing another enormous test, with the Hunter Valley Operations coal expansion awaiting federal approval. This project could unleash more than 800 million tonnes of climate pollution. And in a landmark decision concerning another NSW coal mine, the High Court has reinforced the importance of considering the climate damage caused when Australian coal is burned overseas.
The warnings couldn't be clearer, yet Labor is still leaving the door open to decades more coal.
What we're seeing is about much more than climate policy. It's about what happens when an industry with deep pockets, an army of lobbyists and a direct line to the government gets to write its own rules.
Frankly, we should expect a whole lot more from a country as wealthy and resource-rich as ours.
At a time when families are being forced to make impossible choices about what they can afford, a minimum 25% gas export tax could raise $17 billion every year to invest in the things that actually make people's lives better, from affordable housing and free childcare to dental care and a faster transition to clean, secure renewable energy.
I've spent years taking on the world's biggest polluters, from working alongside Pacific communities with Greenpeace to challenging gas giants in Parliament. That experience has shown me how determined these corporations are to protect their profits, but also what people can achieve when we organise together.
That's the kind of movement David and I are determined to build alongside you: one that refuses to accept politicians putting corporate donors ahead of the communities they're elected to serve, and that builds the political power to replace them with representatives who will put people first.
Because the decisions shaping our future should belong to the people who have to live with them.