The Greens Leader Adam Bandt says a windfall tax on gas corporations profiteering from the current crisis could be imposed simply by closing loopholes in the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT) in the government’s first budget in October.

The PRRT was designed to tax super-profits, but gas corporations figured out how to avoid paying it by building up a backlog of tax credits to the tune of a jaw-dropping $282 billion. This means that gas companies have to burn through $282 billion in profits until they start paying tax.

The Greens will today outlined plans for a $15 billion “Made in Australia” Bank and manufacturing fund - bolstering Australia’s capacity to produce components needed for the transition to clean, cheap renewable energy.

Australian Greens Senator for WA Dorinda Cox will today be joined by Greens candidate for O’Connor Giz Watson in Kalgoorlie - a region with endless sunshine and huge potential as a renewable energy superhub.

Greens Leader, Adam Bandt, has laid the blame for rising power prices on the government’s failure to make progress on the transition to renewable energy with storage and Labor’s pledge that coal-fired power stations will remain in the system just as long under Labor as under Liberal.

AEMO was very explicit that the cause of the price rise was primarily coal power station breakdowns and rising coal prices.

Lines attributable to Adam Bandt MP:

Greens Leader Adam Bandt MP and QLD Greens Senate candidate Penny Allman-Payne have announced the latest Greens policy to support jobs and development in coal regions as coal is phased out in the coming decades. 

The Greens are announcing their plan to create Green Metals Australia in Townsville today, driving $5.9 billion of investment and coordinating strategic development of the critical minerals and green metals processing and manufacturing industries. 

Greens Leader Adam Bandt MP has announced a bold plan to expand and repurpose Snowy Hydro, the Commonwealth owned corporation, to build over 25 GW of wind, solar and energy storage over the next decade, the equivalent to Australia’s current coal generation capacity. The Greens will push for this plan in balance of power after the next election.

I am going to make this as simple as I possibly can.

The Liberal-National government and Labor opposition's climate target is for net zero emissions by 2050. I think that's too late. The science says that's too late. But that's their target. The Liberal and Labor target is for net zero emissions by 2050.

The Greens have pledged to keep fighting against South Australia being a dumping ground for nuclear waste, despite the Morrison Government declaring Kimba on the Eyre Peninsula its chosen site today.

Greens Senator for South Australia Sarah Hanson-Young said:

“The Morrison-Joyce Government has officially decided to dump radioactive waste on Kimba on SA’s Eyre Peninsula, home to some of the country’s best agricultural land.

With the final Glasgow pact resolving that coal and gas were on the way out but the world was not on track to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees because 2030 pledges were too weak, the summit will be remembered as one that ScoMo helped sabotage.

But it will also heap pressure on Liberal and Labor next year to lift 2030 targets, and phase out coal and gas. 

Quotes attributable to Greens Leader Adam Bandt MP:

“Glasgow was the summit ScoMo helped sabotage, but he doesn’t get off scot free.

With Energy Security Board chairman Kerry Schott’s predicting that the grid could be without coal-fired power as in the early 2030’s, the Greens will move when Parliament resumes for a legally binding thermal coal phase out by 2030, arguing that without a planned transition, workers and coal communities will suffer disruption and uncertainty.

The Greens will give notice of a ‘Quit Coal’ bill when Parliament resumes next week with a legislated timetable for phasing out of thermal coal exports by 2030. 

The Greens have slammed the Nationals’ proposed $250 billion publicly funded coal and gas bank as robbing public money to chase stranded assets for Nationals donors. 

“The Nationals are holding our country to ransom. They want a quarter of a trillion dollars to fund assets even the big banks won’t touch because they’re too dangerous, too deadly and will send anyone who lends them money broke,” Mr Bandt said.

“Barnaby Joyce is trying to lock the public into supporting coal projects no one else will touch with a ten foot pole.