2026-03-30
The Australian Greens push to tax gas exports at least 25% is gaining momentum, with a newly won Select Committee to look at taxing Australia’s oil and gas, setting the ground for changes in the May budget.
The Select Committee will be chaired by Greens spokesperson for resources, Senator Steph Hodgins-May, who will seek to dismantle the gas industry’s excuses for not paying billions in taxes despite soaring windfall profits. .
At a time of instability and rising pressure on Australia’s energy security, the inquiry will examine how fairer taxation of gas exports could deliver billions in public revenue to ease the cost of living and reduce reliance on imported fuels.
Recent polling shows strong and growing support across the political spectrum for making gas corporations pay more for selling Australia’s resources.
Lines attributable to Greens Leader Senator Larissa Waters:
“Gas corporations are ripping us all off and paying virtually no tax. While people are struggling to pay bills and seeing the cost of living go through the roof, gas corporations shouldn’t get a free ride.
“For years rich gas corporations have got most of their gas for free, shipped it overseas for maximum profit, and now they’re making eyewatering profits off the back of the war.
“The free ride is over. People are fed up with gas industry greed and Labor’s refusal to tax gas corporations to fund cost of living support. This is money that should be helping people pay the bills and have what they need to live a good life.
“This Inquiry will put the rich tax-dodging gas corporations under the microscope, dismantle their excuses for paying no tax, and build momentum for fairer tax in the upcoming budget.”
Lines attributable to Senator Steph Hodgins-May:
“This inquiry into a gas tax comes at a crunch moment. The gas cartel is poised to cash in on global conflict while Australians are being smashed with rising bills at home.
“A 25 per cent tax on gas exports could raise $17 billion a year. Money that could slash power bills, fund free public transport, and fast-track electrification so we can end our dependence on gas for good.
“This Inquiry will interrogate the outdated talking points of gas corporations, expose how they avoid paying their fair share of tax, and recommend how we get to a tax system that benefits Australians, not greedy gas corporations.”
“It is a moment of reckoning for Labor. Will they stand up to vested interests and make gas corporations pay or will they let them continue to write the rules?