Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Australians are once again experiencing a global economic shock for which we were unprepared. Four weeks after Donald Trump triggered a regional conflict and a global energy shortage, a war that began in the Middle East is hitting Australians hard. Dr Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency, has warned that this energy crisis is worse than the combined consequences of the two oil shocks of the 1970s and the gas crisis following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022—the three biggest energy shocks in modern history.

The alarm bell has also been sounded by economists, industry and Treasury. Rapid price rises will reignite inflation; will drive up construction costs, freight costs and food prices; and will place further pressure on mortgage holders and renters. The ripple effects from the Iran war are everywhere. Consumer confidence is the lowest ever recorded. Australians are already feeling price pressures at the bowser and will soon feel them in power bills and at the supermarket.

Yet we continue to export enormous volumes of gas without receiving a fair return for the Australians who own them. The Australia Institute has found that every week the Albanese government delays implementing a stronger tax on gas exports costs us hundreds of millions of dollars. This is revenue which belongs to all Australians. It could and it should be captured from multinational gas companies for the public good. Australia's broken resource tax system is not a market failure. It's a policy choice. We are one of the world's largest gas exporters, but we collect far less revenue from our gas than other exporting nations do—less, in fact, than we collect from the beer excise or from students' HECS payments. It shouldn't be this way, and it doesn't have to be this way.

There are several rational and fair ways by which we could legislate for better returns on our oil and gas. The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis has raised the possibility of expanding Queensland's gas royalty scheme, which in recent years has raised more revenue for the state than the federal PRRT has. We could expand it so that it applies nationally. In doing so, gas producers would be required to pay royalties based on the price of the gas sales, allowing rates to increase as prices go up.

Alternatively, two permanent and responsible reforms proposed by the Superpower Institute could also improve our energy security and economic resilience. The first is a fair share levy on gas exports to ensure that, when gas prices surge, Australia receives a guaranteed return. This is not just a short-term solution. A fair share levy would be a permanent mechanism offering market certainty and stability alongside higher tax revenue. The second is a 'polluter pays' levy, which would recognise that industrial emissions impose real costs on our economy in the form of health costs, disaster recovery costs and infrastructure damage. A simple 'polluter pays' mechanism would charge large polluters—there are fewer than 60 of them at this point—for the carbon pollution that they generate through fossil fuel extraction or importation. Over 80 per cent of our national emissions would be covered. We could achieve 100 million tonnes of additional annual abatement after the first 10 years alone, which is more than twice that forecast under our current policies.

Taken together, the two reforms proposed by the Superpower Institute would raise an average of $35 billion a year of additional tax revenue through to 2050. That revenue could be used to ease cost-of-living pain, to resolve funding shortfalls in our schools and in our hospitals and to increase our energy and our manufacturing sovereignty. These measures would help us prepare for and protect ourselves against the next inevitable global energy crisis.

At a time of profound global geopolitical instability, demanding a fair share for Australians from our gas exports is sensible. Pricing pollution is necessary. Ensuring Australians benefit from the sale of resources that we own is acting in the national interest. Securing a fair return from our gas exports should be an immediate priority for the government.

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