Thousands of Australians are joining The Greens' campaign to end huge fossil fuel subsidies to mining companies.
Our Parliamentary Budget Office costing that shows that the three biggest tax breaks for these companies will cost the Budget nearly $14 billion over the next several years is shocking. The pressure we can exert with support from you and strong community campaigns can have a real impact.
Can you write to the papers today to back our calls to end these handouts?
A report in the Financial Review indicates that Labor is considering ending one of these three subsidies in this month’s Budget. It’s not nearly enough, but it is a sign that people are stronger than mining lobbyists and their multi-million dollar advertising campaigns.
Labor has never wanted to change fossil fuel subsidies, but together we’ve been able to make them. In the last three years, we’ve successfully secured two cuts to these billion-dollar handouts because 1.6 million Australians voted in 2010 for Greens to hold the balance of power – but there’s still more to do.
This is our best chance before the election to end more of these handouts. We are forcing Labor to move, and additional pressure in the media in this crucial week is vital ingredient to achieving it.
I’ve included some information you might find useful on our action page for this campaign. Please write to the editor today if you can.
We should be investing in the environment and in people, through the National Disability Insurance Scheme, properly funding public schools and universities, and increasing Newstart – not helping huge companies find and burn more of the fuels that are heating our planet.
Imagine what that money could do to drive big solar in Australia by extending the grid to renewable energy sites.
Yours,
Christine Milne