Susan McDonald (Queensland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to warn of a dangerous and increasingly prevalent risk to our democracy. Australians have been told that beer drinkers pay more tax than gas companies. Others say that the Commonwealth receives more revenue from HECS payments than from the petroleum resources rent tax. These cherrypicked statements make effective social media grabs, but they are intentionally deceptive, used by activists to hijack our important national debate. Activists are deliberately provoking outrage to pit Australians against an industry that pays the bills. They wrap this campaign up in a cloak of fairness when, in reality, their ultimate aim is to end fossil fuel extraction and leave Australian poorer and in the dark.

These people funding this anti-gas activism do not have Australian interests at heart, and I will have more to say about this coming weeks. If Australia sends a message that taxation settings can be reshaped by activist campaigns, investment will go offshore. The PRRT is profit based tax which applies once projects recover their enormous upfront investment costs. Around 70 per cent of Australia's gas production occurs in Commonwealth waters, where the PRRT applies instead of state royalties. Treasury estimates companies will pay $8.3 billion in PRRT over the next five years, while onshore gas paid $2.1 billion in state royalties and licence fees in last year alone.

Large-scale gas developments require tens of billions of dollars in capital investment before a single dollar of profit is made. Infrastructure must be built, facilities constructed, export capacity established and jobs created. No Australian business pays tax before a profit is made, but yet, when it comes to energy projects, activist groups and activist senators expect us to pretend the basic economic principles should no longer apply. The PRRT is not the only gas paid by the Australian gas industry. Producers pay company tax, income tax, state and territory royalties, payroll tax and regulatory charges. They also employ tens of thousands of Australians whose wages generate income tax for the Commonwealth and support local businesses, coffee shops and fishing venues. The reality of this is this: Australia's oil and gas sector is one of the largest taxpayers in the country.

In 2024-25 alone, the industry contributed a record $21.9 billion dollars in taxes and royalties to state and federal governments before employment taxes. That is enough to fund the $17.7 billion of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme for the entire year. Over the past three years, the sector has delivered almost $60 billion in taxes and royalties to Australians. The oil and gas industry is now the second-largest corporate taxpayer in Australia, contributing $18.7 billion this financial year. This helps to fund schools, hospitals, roads and essential services, which are relied upon by every Australian. Natural gas alone contributes $105 billion every year to Australia's economy, representing 3.7 per cent of the national GDP and supporting more than 215,000 Australian jobs. That is engineers in Gladstone, diesel fitters in Roma and geologists in Brisbane. They are truck drivers, apprentices and contractors across regional Australia earning strong wages and supporting their local communities. Since 2010, Australia's LNG sector has invested more than $400 billion into the Australian economy, and yet activists would rather see them go offshore.

Australia's system is different from countries often cited in comparison, like Norway and Qatar. These nations achieve higher government returns because the governments pay for it. They own large shares of energy projects, but this means taxpayers carry more of the burden. Norway, for example, provides exploration refunds worth up to 71.8 per cent of project costs to encourage investment, whereas, in Australia, private companies take the risk. The coalition will always stand for strong policies to—

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator McDonald.

Senate adjourned at 17 : 50