2023-04-21
The gas industry’s public relations campaign to avoid tax reform just highlights the extent to which Australians are getting rorted by the gas sector, Adam Bandt has said, urging the government to adopt PRRT reforms that could net $94.5bn in tax over the decade.
Petroleum Resource Rent Tax reforms costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office on behalf of the Greens show that the gas industry would be paying $94.5bn across the decade under fair reforms that charge royalties, refresh tax credits and remove the compounding effects of the uplift rate.
Instead, APPEA today boasted that they have paid $1.8bn in the petroleum resources rent tax this year. However, even if they simply paid royalties alone, the sector would pay $4bn each year for their access to gas owned by all Australians.
It comes as the International Energy Agency has warned that Australia’s energy tax settings are not in line with sustainable energy consumption, and don’t reflect the carbon intensity that goes into producing power.
Lines attributable to Leader of the Australian Greens, Adam Bandt MP:
“In trying to defend their inadequate contribution to funding the Australian way of life, the gas industry has just bolstered the case for significant tax reform,” Mr Bandt said.
“The PRRT could raise $94.5 billion across the decade to help get dental into Medicare, freeze rents and build affordable homes. The gas corporations are making record profits and they know their $1.8b contribution is far less than what they should be paying.
“The gas corporations have been making money hand over fist, capitalising on coal closures and a dictator’s illegal war overseas, yet they’re only paying a fraction of the tax they should.
“The IEA has said that Australia’s federal energy taxes are broken, and let heavy polluters get away with unsustainable energy production.
“Australia’s gas tax is broken and many multinational corporations pay no gas tax at all. When a nurse pays more tax than a global gas giant, something is seriously wrong.”
Lines from Australian Greens Resources and First Nations spokesperson, Yamatji Noongar woman Senator Dorinda Cox:
“The PRRT is broken. The fact that gas companies don’t pay their fair share of a tax every Australian company pays is a joke," Senator Cox said.
“They sound like someone trying to defend not paying income tax because they pay some GST.
“With a change to the gas tax likely to be in the budget, this is the best chance we’ll have in a generation to stop the billions of public money that goes to the gas industry.
“Across the country First Nations people are fighting to protect their Land from fossil fuel companies that flaunt their minimal contribution to PRRT. In this year of the Voice, The Greens will make these companies pay for their profiteering off the destruction of Country and First Nations cultural heritage.”