The Greens have slammed the Albanese government for handing out new ocean acreage to their donor mates in the fossil fuel industry to exploit in a time of climate emergency.
Labor's disgraceful decision has nothing to do with everyday Australians and everything to do with the state capture of our government by fossil fuel corporations.
Australia is the second biggest exporter of fossil fuels in the world, after Russia. Yet Labor has no plan to deal with our exports, and is content with 56% of all Australia's gas being exported without paying any royalties or resource rent tax. That's $170 billion dollars worth of free gas over the next five years for big gas companies.
There's no plausible excuse for Labor to risk destroying marine ecosystems with seismic blasting only to lock Australia into more fossil fuel pollution and accelerate climate-driven disasters for the sake of a few profit-driven interests - but that's exactly what this shameful government continues to do, over and over again.
As stated by Greens spokesperson for healthy oceans, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson:
"Labor's two-faced climate act is wearing thin. How on earth is ripping open new gas fields for fossil fuel companies to plunder, pollute and profit from in a time of climate emergency consistent with transitioning to a clean energy future?
"Australia has decades of gas left in our proven reserves system. There is no need to put marine wildlife and livelihoods that depend on healthy oceans at risk by using destructive methods to search for new gas fields.
"Australia is the second biggest exporter of fossil fuels in the world. Clearly, we don't have a gas supply problem, we have a political problem.
"Oil and gas corporations come to our shores and take billions in government handouts, pay less tax than a nurse or a teacher, and then leave us to foot the bill of cleaning up their polluting rigs when they're done. It's a complete rort.
"Labor is taking Australians for fools, but coastal communities aren't so easily conned. Last year one of the largest seismic blasting proposals in Australian history was withdrawn by its proponent following immense community pressure. It was a siren call to all the fossil fuel companies eyeing off our oceans that their time is up. But clearly Labor is either too arrogant or too greedy to care."
As stated by Greens Resources Spokesperson, Senator Steph Hodgins-May:
"Labor's new ocean acreage handout is an environmental betrayal and an early Christmas gift to the fossil fuel companies driving the climate crisis.
"We have an export crisis, not a supply crisis. Labor is pre-empting the Gas Market Review by opening up new supply instead of fixing the existing broken system that allows big gas companies to export $170 billion dollars of free gas over the next five years.
"By incentivising decades worth of new gas, this government is ignoring science, setting us up to miss critical climate targets, and accelerating environmental disasters here and across the globe.
"The way to fix this crisis is to implement a 25% Gas Export Tax, which will deliver real cost-of-living relief instead of more of the same climate-wrecking gas projects."
