15th Dec 2022, 3:59 PM – Senate Treasury Laws Amendment (Energy Price Relief Plan) Bill 2022 - Second Reading - Windfall tax and welfare

The majority voted against an amendment. It would have added the words below to the usual second reading motion, which is "That this bill be now read a second time" (parliamentary jargon for agreeing with the main idea of the bill). It was introduced by Queensland Senator Larissa Waters (Greens).

Amendment text

At the end of the motion, add ", but the Senate:

(a) notes that:

(i) Australia's energy market is a mess, with big coal and gas companies making money hand over fist and consumers paying the price through skyrocketing energy bills, and

(ii) this mess is the inevitable consequence of decades of Labor and Liberal policies to privatise Australia's energy system and their failure to properly tax the earnings of the big coal and gas producers; and

(b) calls on the Government to:

(i) introduce a windfall tax on coal and gas companies,

(ii) use the funds to freeze household electricity bills for two years at the same rates as prior to the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and

(iii) raise the rate of income support payments above the poverty line".