Wednesday, 18 February 2026

 Katherine COPSEY (Southern Metropolitan) (18:16): (2320) Polluters should pay for the damage that they cause. Our communities are living through more frequent and more severe climate disasters – floods, fires and storms – and these are driving up insurance premiums and leaving people in limbo for months waiting for clean-up and recovery support. This is the human cost of Labor’s support for polluting fossil fuels. Ridiculously, while ordinary Victorians pay the price, many of the companies making huge profits off wrecking our climate are paying little to no tax, and when the burning of fossil fuels supercharges disasters like fires and floods, it is households, emergency services, local councils and taxpayers that are stuck with the bill to clean up their mess. How is that fair? So here is the Greens’ proposition: make the polluters pay. The government should stop paying them. It should stop underwriting their operating costs through taxpayer subsidies, tax them effectively and redirect that money into the things that people actually need – disaster resilience, climate-ready infrastructure, and cost-of-living relief. This is not a new idea. The Greens called for the end to the diesel fuel rebate – for example, for mining – decades ago, and the action has only become more urgent as the climate crisis intensifies. Far from subsidising their polluting, climate-wrecking activities, the government should be instituting a levy on fossil fuel producers. The funds raised can help us to support community adaptation and recovery, as well as creating a financial incentive to transition away from fossil fuels. The action I seek from the Minister for Environment is that they set up a climate adaptation fund, which can resource local resilience projects such as new nature corridors, drought-proofing techniques and community education and awareness initiatives. Victorians should not be having to pay to clean up the mess made by our biggest polluters. It is the polluters who should pay.