Leaked #BHP documents reveal something deeply broken in #Australian politics. #auspol

One of the world’s biggest #mining corporations publicly presented itself as committed to #climateaction, while internally #delaying major #cleanenergy projects, locking in diesel trucks and pushing #renewable investment years into the future.

According to leaked internal documents BHP shelved billions of dollars worth of renewable energy plans in WA, delayed the rollout of electric mining fleets, and bought new diesel trucks that could keep operating into the 2040s.

All while its #Pilbara iron ore operations made around $22 billion in pre-tax profits last financial year.

That’s the point that really hits home. BHP did not delay climate action because it lacked money. It delayed climate action because, when climate commitments came up against profit, profit won the fight.

It always will, and that tells us everything about the limits of government abrogating responsibility for the climate crisis and trusting big corporations to voluntarily step in and do the work for them.

These documents reportedly show BHP internally describing decarbonisation as “urgent” and warning that slow emissions reductions could damage the company’s reputation. But when serious investment was required, major clean energy projects were pushed back, electric fleets were delayed, and new diesel trucks were locked in.

At the same time, BHP continued publicly presenting itself as a climate leader.

This is the gap between corporate climate promises and corporate behaviour. And it is exactly why governments cannot keep letting massive corporations mark their own homework.

Corporations will not act at the speed the climate crisis demands. Governments have to make them.

That requires strong laws. Bold reforms. Proper regulation. No more public handouts for fossil fuels. And a tax system that makes big corporations pay their fair share for profiting from Australia’s resources.

Instead, #Labor keeps #protecting the very corporations slowing down climate action.

The government has #refused to tax gas corporations making obscene export profits. It continues to pay mining companies to pollute. Last year the Government paid BHP $627 million to burn diesel under the Fuel Tax Credits Scheme.

With incentives like that, no wonder BHP isn’t decarbonising.

And while people are told there is not enough money for the NDIS, public services, climate action or cost-of-living relief, some of the biggest corporations in the country are still being allowed to profit from Australian resources without doing their fair share.

Communities are already living with the consequences of climate delay. More dangerous #heat. More destructive #floods. More intense #fires. Marine life and coastal communities under pressure. Families wondering what kind of future their kids are being left with.

And while people are told serious climate action is too hard, too expensive or too disruptive, #multinational #corporations are delaying renewable projects while making billions from Australian resources.

As with the housing and cost-of-living crisis, the problem is not a lack of money. It is a lack of political guts and will.

#TheGreens could not have been clearer or more consistent: real climate action will not come from trusting big corporations to do the right thing when no one is forcing them to.

It will come from making them pay their fair share, ending public handouts to fossil fuels, and putting strict rules in place so climate commitments cannot be quietly abandoned the moment they become inconvenient.

That is why we are campaigning for a 25% tax on gas exports, which could raise at least $17 billion a year to fund the services people need, instead of leaving obscene profits with gas corporations.

And Australians are with us. More than 60% of people support a tax on gas exports because they can see the basic unfairness: gas corporations are making enormous profits from Australian resources while people are told there is not enough money for housing, climate action, the NDIS or cost-of-living relief.

These leaked documents show exactly why that fight matters.

Greens signal willingness to help Labor push capital gains changes through in weeks
By Tom Crowley

Treasurer Jim Chalmers introduced the bill to parliament today, which the government hopes to pass before the winter recess.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-28/greens-likely-to-play-ball-with-labor-capital-gains-timeline/106732096

#FederalGovernment #GovernmentandPolitics #FederalParliament #Economy #Tax #TheGreens #TomCrowley

#Victorian #Greens criticise failure to introduce donation reforms.

The #VictorianGreens leader, #EllenSandell, has criticised the state government for failing to introduce donation reforms to parliament this week.

Speaking outside parliament, she told reporters #theGreens have heard “very little” from the government in the last few days after weeks of negotiations. Sandell went on:

“I do not know what is holding #Labor back. I can only conclude that Labor is not interested in stopping dark money flowing into politics, and want to keep a whole bunch of #corporate and #billionaire #donors for themselves, because the Greens we have an open door, and we’ve said, come and talk to us and we would be happy to talk about laws that actually stop this dark money flowing into Victorian politics.”

While the major parties are mulling increasing the donation cap, she said it shouldn’t be increased:

“We think that the donation cap, which is just under $5,000, is fine where it is. That allows people to make a small donation but it does not allow corporations and billionaires to donate tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars to influence our politics.”

Sandell said there was a “pathway” to pass reforms via the Greens and the crossbench:

“We are happy to move very quickly if they bring #legislation that closes these dodgy #loopholes and puts a cap on #politicaldonations, we’re happy to do that, and I don’t understand why they haven’t brought that legislation this week or last week.” #auspol

lol. #TheGreens emailed me complaining about #PoliticalDonations in #Victoria, then asked me for money. #auspol

😂🤣

WE SAY NO TO #US #FOREVERWARS

By #Greens Senator #DavidShoebridge

As you will have already seen on your TV screens and social media feeds, the US and #Israel earlier this month launched an #illegalWar on #Iran. It is a devastating escalation, particularly for people across the #MiddleEast who for weeks now have been subjected to continuous bombing.

This should be a moment for #Australia to take a clear stand. To stand on the side of #humanity and #internationalLaw and make it clear we do not support #Trump and #Netanyahu’s illegal war.

Instead, the #Albanese #Labor Government, cheered along by the #Liberals and #OneNation, has committed Australia to another disastrous US-led forever war.

By deploying #Australian personnel to the Middle East and deepening our involvement, Labor is repeating the same catastrophic mistakes of the past. For decades, we have seen the consequences of being tied to the United States’ military machine. #Iraq. #Afghanistan. #Vietnam.

Wars that promised security and delivered destruction. Yet the Labor government remains unwilling to learn from that history.

Rather than charting an independent #defence and foreign policy grounded in #peace and de-escalation, they are choosing to double down on military alignment with the Trump-led US.

And that alignment runs deeper than many Australians realise.

Australia’s integration with the US military and the US industrial base has gone further than most people would expect. We host #USBases on our soil like #PineGap and #NWCape that are critical to US global warfighting. We buy billions of dollars worth of US weapons and have designed our entire military to be “interoperable” with the US.

We have hundreds of Australian personnel embedded throughout the US military. This includes three Australian personnel on the US nuclear submarine that sank an Iranian frigate and left the survivors to drown. Labor plans to have Australians make up 10% of all personnel on US nuclear submarines by 2030, allegedly as preparation for #AUKUS.

That is the reality of AUKUS. It locks Australia’s military into the US chain of command and draws us into US military actions before the public, or even Parliament, has had the chance to have a say.

Which raises a simple question. Who decides when Australia goes to war?

Right now, it is a decision made behind closed doors by a handful of politicians. In fact Australia can be sent to war with the decision being made by just the Prime Minister and Defence Minister.

That is why the Greens’ push for #WarPowers reform is more urgent than ever. We have introduced a new law that would require a #vote of #Parliament before Australians are sent into any overseas #conflict, and we forced it to be debated in parliament this week.

If lives are on the line, it should be the Parliament that millions of Australians elect, not a handful of government Ministers, who make that call.

At the same time as conflict abroad escalates, the Labor government is closing Australia’s door to people who are desperately in need of protection.

In a stark display of tripartisanship, the war parties of Labor, the Liberals and One Nation have come together to pass laws to refuse up to 7,200 #Iranians who already have valid Australian #visas from coming to Australia. The express reason they did this was so none of them could do what members of the Iranian women's football team did, come on shore and make an asylum claim.

It is the height of hypocrisy.

As all this chaos rolls out, instead of calling for peace, Labor has cheered the war on and sent 85 military personnel and hardware into the US warzone. Then they change the law to prevent people fleeing places like Iran from finding safety here. These measures go so far as to block people of certain nationalities from even applying for a visa, punishing individuals for the actions of regimes they are trying to escape.

We must not be a country that profits from and promotes conflict abroad, then turns its back on those displaced by it.

#TheGreens are the only party in Parliament willing to stand against this approach and speak and vote for peace not war. We are the only ones calling for a foreign policy grounded in human rights, international law, genuine independence and the core needs of the Australian people.

We say no to US forever wars and the war parties. We say yes to peace and cooperation. We say no to secret decisions to send Australians into conflict and yes to giving the Australian people a say over this war and every other war. We say yes to a defence policy that defends Australia and does not threaten our neighbours, as part of a broader commitment to genuine human security that is far broader than just guns, bombs and missiles. #auspol #uspol #TrumpRegime #RogueNation

https://greens.org.au/magazine/we-say-no-us-forever-wars

“If the EPP yields to German pressure, the conflict will return in every vote on migration”— AfD MEP Alexander Sell

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://europeanconservative.com/articles/interviews/epp-afd-firewall-cooperation-migration-ep-germany-eu-reform-alexander-sell/

The Greens don't take corporate donations. You'd think that alone would be enough to sway every voter, but a lot of people simply don't know.

https://greens.org.au/vic/campaigns/ban-dirty-donations

#TheGreens #Australia #Politics #AusPol #Victoria #Melbourne