I move the amendment as circulated in my name. Deputy Speaker, this bill seeks to extend the cost of living relief provided by the fuel excise cut and I rise to speak on it today because I will support that relief. I think this parliament though needs to have a more honest conversation about the topic and what is really fair for Australians.

The fuel excise cut has provided welcomed relief to Australians right across the country. Fuel prices have been hurting people everywhere across my electorate and across every single electorate represented in this chamber. These price spikes driven by a conflict in the Middle East, a conflict that sent oil markets into turmoil and pushed petrol and diesel prices to levels that put serious pressure on family budgets.

These are real human costs of this fuel shock. And I've heard from families and businesses in my community about their struggle to make ends meet. I heard from the frontline services like the Village Chef, our local meals on wheel service, which cooks and delivers thousands of fresh meals to those in need every single week. But when the war hit, The Village Chef began to struggle to meet the rising fuel costs and maintain its valuable delivery service impacting vulnerable people right across my community.

Now, in that context, it was appropriate that the government steps in and helps cushion the blow. And I know that in my own community, people have been really relieved to see the prices come down from those astronomical heights that they reached in the early days of the conflict. So I do sincerely welcome the government's decision to extend this measure for another month, even at a reduced level.

But there is something deeply unfair lying out of sight.

The government is reducing the fuel excise discount for ordinary Australians by half, but at the same time it is retaining the fuel tax concessions for big mining companies in full. That fuel tax cut has been in place for decades. It's called the fuel tax credit scheme and it's the largest fossil fuel subsidy in the country. $10.8 billion this year and rising to 47 billion over the next four years.

Now, the scheme works by refunding fuel excise to big mining companies on all the diesel that they burn. Now, most people haven't heard of this scheme, so let me be very clear about what it means. Ordinary Australians pay more tax on their fuel than some of the most profitable mining companies in this country. Companies like BHP, Riot Tinto, and Gina Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting pay effectively no fuel tax on the hundreds of millions of litres of diesel that they burn every single year.

And they really do use enormous quantities of diesel. Mining companies use about a quarter of the diesel in Australia, 8 billion litres. That's enough to fill every big ute in Australia 30 times. It's 3.4 times more than the farming and agricultural sector.

The fuel excise discount for consumers has given relief to Aussies: nurses, tradies, parents during the school run, pensioners, fixed incomes, farmers, but it's only lasted 3 months and it's now being wound back to half strength. Whereas the fuel tax credit is permanent and far more generous than this temporary fuel excise cut for Aussie consumers.

I understand why the consumer relief was designed as temporary. It was a response to a specific shock fuel price hikes because of conflicts overseas. But as that relief is phased out, I just have to ask the government, why? Why are you willing to bring the fuel tax back for ordinary Australians while continuing to let the country's biggest mining companies off the hook?

These companies don't need cost of living relief. They continue to make huge profits. BHP made over $15 billion in profit last year. $15 billion. And yet under the fuel tax credit scheme, BHP received $622 million in fuel tax credits. Now, this money that would otherwise have been paid in tax. Tax that could pay for hospitals, schools, public transport. But instead, it was simply handed back.

And we learned in recent months through files leaked to the media that BHP chose to scale back its plans to electrify its fleet and instead spent hundreds of millions of dollars buying new diesel trucks. Now, why wouldn't it? Why wouldn't it buy new diesel trucks and machinery when the fuel tax credit scheme means that they can buy that diesel so cheaply?

Now, the same applies to other big mining companies. The 18 largest companies benefiting from the scheme are all involved in the resources sector. Together they received over three billion in fuel tax credits. Rio Tinto received 432 million in credits. Glencore received $349 million in credits.

These are some of the wealthiest, most profitable resources companies in the country, if not the world. So shouldn't we at the very least be asking these companies to pay their fair share and instead they simply don't have to pay the fuel excise year after year while ordinary Australians are told their reprieve at the bowser is coming to an end.

And that's why I'm bringing an amendment to this bill to endorse a proposal to cap the fuel tax credit scheme at $50 million per company. And this $50 million cap would mean that farmers and small businesses can receive fuel tax credits because they receive credits totaling less than $50 million. No changes to those groups.

This $50 million cap would only affect the largest resource companies in the country. We just frankly don't need it because they're already swimming in profits. The proposal would also allow companies to keep receiving that fuel tax credit above $50 million, but only if they put that money to electrify and decarbonize their businesses and their supply chains, to buy electric trucks, diggers, and rolling stock. To implement all the technologies and supply chain adjustments that are available to companies but which are not currently incentivized to do because the fuel tax credit scheme means that they can buy diesel so cheaply.

This will build resilient transport systems and it will bolster energy security. Capping the fuel tax credit is fair. Keeping it is unfair.

And it's unfair that right now a family filling up a car pays the fuel excise. A small business running a delivery van pays it. A tradie driving to job sites across the city pays it. A volunteer driving hot meals to seniors pays it. But a multinational mining company burning hundreds of millions of litres of diesel pretty much pays nothing.

The government's deliberately choosing to keep this unfair status quo and it's made this choice for decades regardless of which party has been in office. So today I'm asking the government to look more broadly than extending this one-month half strength discount. I'm asking the government to ask whether it makes sense in 2026 for ordinary Australians to be paying more tax at the pump than BHP, Rio Tinto, and Gina Reinhardt.

If this government is serious about the cost of living relief, not just for one month, but as a matter of principle, then fairness has to be part of that conversation. It cannot ask Australian families to return to the fuel tax status quo while giving the country's largest and most profitable companies a free pass on the same tax.

I support this bill because cost of living relief for Aussies is important. But I want the record to show this parliament has a choice about who pays fuel tax. And right now it's choosing to ask the least of those who can afford to pay the most.

Deputy Speaker, I urge the government to cap the fuel tax credit scheme with the same urgency it has shown in introducing this bill today.