Tammy Tyrrell (Tasmania, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Tasmanians know that I have been advocating hard for a 25 per cent gas export tax on gas companies. I strongly welcome the news that the Prime Minister's department is costing this policy. It's finally realising that it could fix our government debt whilst providing better services and cost-of-living relief.

It's outrageous that we raise more from the tax on beer than we do from the multinational corporations exporting our sovereign resources. We should be taxing our gas exports to fund our sovereign wealth fund, our healthcare, our education and our housing. But we could also easily expand this 25 per cent tax, making it much higher during times of conflict when the oil price skyrockets and the oil companies earn superprofits from it. It is fundamentally unfair that multinational corporations are pocketing record profits from the current conflict in the Middle East while regular Australians struggle to fill their tanks.

The government should implement a time-limited tax on the windfall profits of oil and gas exporters, with every dollar raised to be used to make fuel cheaper by reducing the fuel excise. That is a real, budget-neutral solution to the current fuel crisis. That's cheaper fuel for Australians, funded by un-ordinary windfall profits of multinational gas companies.