2026-05-28
What’s next for the campaign to tax gas?
By Senator Steph Hodgins-May
A decade ago, the Greens were calling for a tax on gas exports.
We could see what was happening: massive polluters and multibillion dollar corporations were being handed Australian resources for free while ordinary people paid the price.
We said then what remains true now: Australia should be moving rapidly to renewable energy. And if the gas industry is going to operate here in the meantime, the least it can do is pay its fair share.
That means contributing to the transition to clean energy that will eventually replace gas whether the industry likes it or not and helping cover the environmental clean up costs that Australians are otherwise left footing.
We’ve been making this argument for years. But this year, something shifted.
We chaired a parliamentary inquiry into the gas industry and turned up the pressure on the big corporations. Not a single gas CEO had the courage to front up and answer questions directly.
Thousands of Australians signed our open letter demanding the government stop giving gas corporations a free ride.
And despite Labor trying to declare the debate over after the budget, it’s obvious that almost nobody outside their party room believes that.
People across the country are talking about taxing gas corporations including politicians who take huge donations from the industry but still won’t seriously consider reform.
Labor keeps repeating the same tired lines: that taxing gas properly is unrealistic, that there’s no credible plan, and that voters should ignore the hundreds of thousands of dollars the party receives in donations from the industry.
Meanwhile, the Liberals are openly courting gas lobbyists and asking for donations so they can fight even harder for the industry’s interests.
And One Nation has unveiled what it calls a “revolutionary” gas tax proposal, one that would actually raise less revenue than the already broken PRRT while still leaving taxpayers exposed to billions in subsidies and support for gas corporations.
It’s no coincidence they announced that plan at the same gas lobby conference as the Liberals, to the same room full of industry insiders.
The corporate parties are rattled. They’re trying everything they can to shut this campaign down, from pretending the issue has disappeared to throwing out half baked alternatives designed to protect the status quo.
The gas companies themselves are worried too.
Ahead of the budget, they spent millions of dollars on advertising because they were terrified the government might finally start working for the public instead of the fossil fuel industry.
To most people, $11 million is unimaginable money.
But to these corporations, it’s pocket change especially compared to the estimated $17 billion they could be paying if Australia properly taxed gas exports instead of effectively giving them away.
The same logic applies to political donations.
Gas corporations pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into Labor, Liberal and One Nation campaigns because it’s a smart investment: no matter who wins government, they expect access, influence and favourable treatment in return.
Spend a few hundred thousand dollars now, save billions later.
These aren’t really donations. They’re investments in political protection.
And that’s exactly why the major parties refuse to take meaningful action.
The Greens don’t take corporate donations. In fact, the fossil fuel industry has tried to offer them to us.
That independence matters. It’s why we can stand with communities and fight to make gas giants pay what they owe instead of helping them rip Australians off.
And the campaign is working.
The industry is on the defensive. The major parties want people to believe the budget settled the issue because they want the public to lose momentum and move on.
We can’t let that happen.
If we keep the pressure up, we can force multinational gas corporations to pay their fair share and invest that money into the transition to clean, secure, affordable energy for everyone.
Because one thing is now undeniable: the social licence of big gas in Australia has been irreparably damaged, and the grip the fossil fuel industry holds over the major parties exposed for all to see.