Time for big polluters to pay up, says new alliance of climate groups

“At the moment we have a structural deficit,” she said. “The government loses money every year and has to borrow for that, and that’s with the current level of services. We already know that climate change is impacting people now, so the government spends $200 million a year preparing for climate disasters, but that doesn’t even really touch the sides of the current need. Already, it’s costing $38 billion a year across the economy, on average, and some years much more. So, there’s already huge costs. The federal government pays $200 million a year, state governments are having to pay out costs, local governments need to replace roads or need to replace bridges if they’re washed away. All of us are paying higher insurance, paying higher fruit and vegie costs when storms come through, and people are facing really big impacts, such as people losing their homes facing big costs.

“Yet, at the moment, the big coal, oil and gas corporations are not paying for the climate damage that they’re primarily responsible for.”

The coalition expanded on this point in its official launch statement, saying, “Coal, oil and gas corporations, who are responsible for three quarters of Australia’s climate pollution, take billions in government handouts, and they often pay less tax in Australia than most Australians such as nurses, despite $370 billion in revenue in 2024–25. They make mega profits, sending most overseas, and they don’t contribute to the costs of dealing with climate change and their climate pollution.”

Richards said the alliance was convinced it would achieve its aims, even if it takes a while to convince Canberra to act. She pointed to similar taxes, levies and other methods of bringing oil, gas and coal mining corporations to account that have been introduced or are in the process of being introduced across the world, from the UK and Europe to individual states in the USA. Even Queensland has a prototype that is working, and hugely popular.

“We will win, it’s only a matter of time,” she said. “It won't necessarily be quick and clean, but there’s definitely a pathway for us to get there.”

The alliance is eyeing a post-roundtable opportunity to lobby for the levy as Australia pushes to host next year’s COP 31, the United Nations’ annual climate conference.

“One of the things that could be agreed at COP 31, if Australia hosts in conjunction with the Pacific, could be the idea that the fossil fuel industry should pay for the damage that it’s causing, including in the Pacific,” Richards said. “Because, of course, the Pacific is super impacted by climate change and it’s an existential threat for many Pacific Island countries. They need funds to deal with it and at the moment they’re not getting them.”

Make Big Polluters Pay is also watching for the long-delayed release of a federal government climate risk assessment report, to increase understanding and transparency of the effects of climate change on the nation, down to community level. “I hope [the report provides] more tangible and more transparent detail about the fact that the community is currently paying for them [climate impact costs],” Richards said, “whereas the corporations that are most responsible for it, the big coal, gas and oil corporations, are not paying, or definitely not paying their fair share.”