2026-06-29
The Australian Greens are demanding an inquiry into the fossil fuel industry's influence on children after a new report uncovered more than 260 programs through which coal, oil and gas companies are gaining access to schools, early childhood centres, museums, community organisations, and education material with virtually no regulatory oversight.
The report, by Comms Declare, identified at least $50 million funding that is disclosed across just six of these programs linked to companies including Woodside, Shell, Chevron, Santos and BHP. The programs include classroom resources, lesson plans, educational activities and career pathway initiatives that promote the fossil fuel industry and downplay its role in causing climate change.
Senator Steph Hodgins-May, Greens spokesperson for Early Childhood Education and Assistant Spokesperson for Climate Change and Energy, says fossil fuel companies must be barred from classrooms and warns the true scale of the problem is likely far greater than this report reveals, with no federal or state oversight of corporate-sponsored educational content.
Lines attributable to Senator Steph Hodgins-May:
"'Get them young' was Big Tobacco's strategy, and it appears the fossil fuel industry has copied the playbook from cradle to career. They're going after our kids.
"Labor approves new coal and gas projects with one hand, takes millions in fossil fuel donations with the other, and stands by while these corporations gain access to Australian classrooms.
"Coal and gas companies are trying to convince children that the industry driving the climate crisis is somehow the solution to it. They're rewriting the story of climate change for a generation that will live with the consequences.
"I don't want my children pretending to drill for oil while eating a Vegemite sandwich in a Woodside-funded lesson. I want them learning evidence-based science in classrooms free from fossil fuel propaganda.
"This is about social licence. These companies know their business model faces growing public scrutiny, so they're investing in the next generation's perceptions. They present themselves as climate heroes while downplaying the central role fossil fuels play in driving bushfires, floods, heatwaves and other climate-fuelled disasters.
"Woodside, Santos, Chevron and BHP have no place in our classrooms. Fossil fuel companies teaching children about climate change is like tobacco companies teaching health education or gambling companies teaching financial literacy.
"Labor has allowed this to happen on its watch. There has been no meaningful oversight, no transparency and no safeguards to protect children from corporate influence disguised as education.
"We need a parliamentary inquiry to expose the extent of fossil fuel industry access to schools and children. Every company, every program, every partnership and every institution involved should be scrutinised.
"Parents deserve to know who is shaping what their children learn. Teachers deserve confidence that educational resources are accurate, independent and free from vested interests. And students deserve facts, not fossil fuel spin.
"My message to the fossil fuel industry is simple: keep your hands off our kids and get out of our classrooms.
"If Labor made multinational gas corporations pay their fair share of tax on the resources they export, we could properly fund public education without relying on fossil fuel-backed teaching materials.”
Lines attributable to spokesperson for schools, Senator Penny Allman-Payne:
“Fossil fuel companies are smuggling their propaganda into classrooms to try to brainwash the next generation into believing their deadly lies.
“Coal and gas are cooking our planet and wrecking our kids’ futures. That’s what our kids need to be learning – not a bunch of unscientific nonsense from a tax-dodging death cult.
“It should outrage every parent to learn that there are lesson plans in our schools created by the same multinational corporations that generate vast riches from our national resources and barely pay a cent for the privilege.
“I see the influence of gas corporations in my home town of Gladstone. They throw a bit of pocket change at local sports clubs and events and think that gives them licence to exploit our labour, destroy First Nations heritage, poison our atmosphere and send billions offshore.
“We can’t keep letting them get away with it.
“We need to get to the bottom of how this is allowed to happen, and we need to get coal and gas corporations and their mouthpieces out of our classrooms.”