This week, the Albanese Government handed down a budget responding to the largest energy crisis the world has faced. That’s not an easy job.  But it was also an opportunity to build the future our kids are counting on us to get right. Sadly, that opportunity was missed.  

The Albanese Government, with it’s unprecedented majority chose to keep and grow the fuel tax credit that lets multinational mining giants fill up tax-free, at a cost to the public of about $46 billion over the next four years.¹ Gas export taxes were left untouched, leaving an estimated $17 billion a year on the table,² while gas companies bank record profits during the global fuel crisis we're all paying for. Meanwhile, $2.2 billion was cut from the government's own climate and environment department ³ - the biggest cut to that department since 2022. And $1.9 billion was set aside to help expand the “Middle Arm” gas export terminal, a new gas precinct in Darwin.⁴

Independent analysis estimates this budget will spend at least seven times more damaging the climate and nature than protecting them.⁵

There are bright spots: the Cheaper Home Batteries program continues, the EV tax exemption stays longer than expected, and active transport got a small boost ($500 million). But these programs don’t make clean energy options available to every family.  The picture overall is hard to mistake: families still pay volatile petrol prices, a rising climate bill, and the cost of disasters. Polluters fuel up cheap and export our gas without paying a fair share of tax, while making super-profits.

Coal and gas companies pay low or no tax relative to almost everyone else in the economy. In 2023–24, the fossil fuel sector paid roughly 5% of its reported income in corporate tax. The average Australian worker pays close to 24%. Students repay four times more in HECS and HELP than the entire gas industry pays in petroleum resource rent tax.

Budgets are about choices. And this budget chose to invest in the past and keep things more or less as they are. Despite the science. Despite the rising costs of climate impacts on food, homes and lives.

Our budget response

As a parent, here's what I keep coming back to: the world we grew up in is changing faster than any of us anticipated. Holding onto the way things were isn’t possible anymore, and that’s hard. And watching the politicians who want to lead our country set an example that’s so different to what we want to teach our kids is gut wrenching. The uncertainty is real and so is the grief. 

But every child being born right now is a new world being born too. Every parent, every day, is building the world their kids will actually live in. On our own, each act can feel small. Together, it's the most powerful force in the country.

The Parents for Climate movement is what happens when parents bring our love, our labour and our imagination to the same table. More than 25,000 of us so far. We helped win $71 million for solar in three states because parents organised.

Now, we're growing to 30,000 strong, with a vision to build the future we want for our kids. And we need to raise $60,000 by June 30 to get there.

We are ready to face the big choices that this budget didn’t:

• Demanding that big coal and gas cover the costs of securing the future for our kids - from real transition plans for mining communities to covering the costs of clean energy transition and climate disaster clean ups
• Securing funding for clean energy in every community - with solar, batteries & energy upgrades for every school and early childhood centre in the country
• Pushing for every family to get access to clean energy savings, like renting families who are missing out on things like solar

A donation to Parents for Climate is a translation. It turns your love and your labour into the most targeted action our small team can take; into supported parent leaders, into MP meetings in seats that matter, into stories that cut through where polluter spin can't reach. It's one of the longest-lasting things you can do for the kids in your life.

If you've taken action with us before but not yet given, today is the day I'm asking you to. Your love for the kids in your life is already part of this. Let's translate it.

Whatever you can give, give for the future that’s still being built.

Nic Seton, CEO Parents for Climate

P.S. If your gift this appeal can be monthly - even a modest amount a month - you'll give parents a community we can plan around all year.

Your gift before June 30 is tax-deductible this financial year. Every dollar is stretched by 100+ volunteers and zero office costs. Thank you for backing parents.

¹ Fuel Tax Credit scheme — estimated $46.2 billion over forward estimates, primarily benefiting large mining companies. Source: Australian Conservation Foundation, At least seven times more being spent to damage climate and nature than protect it (12 May 2026). 

² Foregone gas export tax revenue — estimated $17 billion per year, or upwards of $50 billion across the forward estimates. Source: Climate Council, $19BN Budget free kick for fossil fuel industry (12 May 2026), citing ACTU analysis. 

³ $2.2 billion cut from the Climate Change, Environment, Energy and Water Department — described as the most significant cut to government's climate and environment programs since 2022. Source: Australian Conservation Foundation (12 May 2026). 

⁴ $1.9 billion for the proposed Middle Arm gas precinct in Darwin. Source: Australian Conservation Foundation (12 May 2026). 

⁵ ACF analysis: the budget contains at least seven times more spending on initiatives that damage nature and the climate than it allocates to climate and nature protection. Source: Australian Conservation Foundation (12 May 2026).