Australians across almost all political affiliations firmly back taxing gas exports, a week after a Senate committee hearing heard the country earns more money from the excise on beer drinkers.
“Would it be accurate to say that the tax on offshore gas exports – PRRT (petroleum resource rent tax) – is still giving us less revenue than the tax on beer?” he said.
Treasury official Dr Shane Johnson confirmed that in the 2025-2026 financial year, beer taxes were expected to amount to $2.7 billion.
“Taxes from PRRT, $1.5 (billion), so yes, it’s lower,” he said.
“How, do we live in a country, one of the biggest gas exporters in the world, and we’re getting more tax from beer than PRRT?”
Finance Minister Katy Gallagher stepped in to respond, claiming the government had pushed changes to the PRRT through parliament, and that it remained focused on delivering on its election commitments.
Now, a new survey from the Australia Institute has found a majority of voters for all political parties – save one – are in favour of taxing gas exports more heavily.
Asked whether they’d support a flat 25 per cent tax on gas exports, 54 per cent of voters agreed overall, with 30 per cent unsure and just 6 per cent disagreeing.
Strikingly, across all political parties, only Coalition voters did not, as a majority, support the idea, with only 48 per cent agreeing. However, that still dwarfed the 9 per cent who disagreed, with 33 per cent unsure.
A majority of respondents who identified as Labor, One Nation, Greens, and other party voters all backed the proposal.
“Australia is one of the world’s largest exporters of liquefied natural gas,” Australia Institute co-chief executive Dr Richard Denniss said.
“But while Norway, Qatar and Saudi Arabia grow wealthy from selling their gas, the Australian government collects more revenue from taxing beer, cigarettes and even HECS repayments than it does from the petroleum resource rent tax.”
He said the survey showed “clear and overwhelming” support for taxing gas exports.
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