Penny Allman-Payne (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australians are being ripped off. That is the unavoidable conclusion of the Greens-led Senate inquiry into the taxation of Australia's gas resources, chaired by my colleague, Senator Steph Hodgins-May. The evidence before the inquiry was clear. Australia's gas resources belong to the Australian people. Whether they sit beneath the seabed or under our land, they are finite public resources, and Australians deserve a fair return when they are extracted and exported. Yet, under successive Liberal and Labor governments, some of the biggest multinational corporations on earth have been able to take that gas, export it and make eye-watering profits from it, returning far too little to the people who actually own it. That is the great Australian gas tax rip-off.

The petroleum resource rent tax was supposed to make sure that Australians received a fair return from offshore gas, but it has failed. The inquiry heard that the PRRT is structurally broken. It's riddled with generous deductions and has indefinite carry-forward losses and accounting tricks that allow massive gas projects to avoid paying what any ordinary Australian would understand to be their fair share. Australia is one of the largest LNG exporters in the world, but the Australian people are not seeing the benefit. The inquiry heard evidence that gas companies have made around $112 billion in windfall profits since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. They heard evidence that Australia has forfeited tens of billions of dollars in revenue because our tax settings have failed to capture those windfall profits.

While gas corporations have been cashing in on illegal wars, Australians have been told that there's no money for the things that they desperately need. Renters are being priced out of their homes. University students are skipping meals and working punishing hours just to stay enrolled. Older people are waiting months and years for the care that they need to shower safely, eat properly and remain in their own homes. Families are cutting back on essentials. People on income support are being told again and again that there is no money to lift them out of poverty. Then this government comes into this place and says that it has to make difficult decisions. Here's a difficult decision the government refused to make: tax big gas corporations.

A 25 per cent tax on gas exports could have raised around $17 billion a year. That is money that could have funded dental into Medicare. It could have fully funded our public schools now, not in 2034. It could build public housing. It could support disabled people instead of kicking them off the NDIS. It could help households electrify, bring down their bills and get off gas for good. It could help regional communities build the industries and jobs of the future.

Regional communities deserve more than being used as human shields by the gas lobby. Whenever anyone suggests that gas corporations should pay more tax, the industry suddenly discovers its deep concern for workers and regional communities. But where is that concern when corporations are exporting our resources for massive profits while local households and manufacturers pay international prices for gas? Where is that concern when communities are left with the boom-bust cycle—which people in Gladstone know all too well—a lack of critical services, the climate risk and the industrial pollution?

There is no serious moral case for cutting services while giving gas corporations a free ride. There is no serious economic case for making students, renters and workers pay more while multinational gas exporters pay less than they should. We need to introduce a tax on gas. This government had the chance in this budget to do the right thing and get the Australian people their fair share, and they squibbed it. The community wants a tax on our gas exports, and the Greens are going to continue working with advocates and the community to make that a reality. I seek leave to continue my remarks.