2026-09-10
The Greens are reiterating their call for a minimum 25 per cent gas export tax, following the expected first back-down of Labor’s reservation legislation from a strict 20 per cent reservation.
The Greens will examine the exposure draft in detail, but say Labor should abandon its proposed reservation scheme and instead impose a gas export tax that would, according to former Treasury Secretary Ken Henry, deliver the same objectives.
A 25% gas export tax would raise $17 billion a year in revenue that could fund cost-of-living and energy bill relief, while accelerating the transition away from Australia’s dependence on volatile gas.
Australian Greens spokesperson for Resources, Senator Steph Hodgins-May, said:
“When gas corporations say jump, Labor asks how high. Now the 20 per cent reservation requirement is being watered down to appease the gas industry.
“A gas export tax does what Labor claims its reservation scheme will do, but it also raises revenue to compensate Australians who have seen gas prices triple since exports started a decade ago.
“A reservation scheme won’t raise a cent for Australian households. And Labor is designing it in close consultation with the very gas industry that has spent years fighting any policy that asks them to pay their fair share.
“We’ve been clear that a reservation scheme is a distraction from growing public support for a gas export tax, and it serves no one but the gas lobby.
“Labor should drop this pathetic capitulation to the gas industry and work with us to finally make sure Australians get a fair return from our gas.
“A gas export tax would raise at least $17 billion a year. That’s our gas and our money. It should be used to cut energy bills, ease cost-of-living pressures and accelerate our transition away from an industry that keeps Australians exposed to an unpredictable global market.
“Labor needs to stop choosing the gas industry over Australian households. If the growing demand for a fair return on our gas isn’t enough to convince them, what will it take?”
Background: Testimony from Dr Ken Henry at gas export tax inquiry:
“...you can design an export tax in such a way that it has exactly the same impact on the proportion of gas that is supplied domestically as against the proportion that's exported… But there's one big difference, and it's a really big difference: the gas reservation doesn't raise revenue.
So why the hell would you do that? It just doesn't make sense. It's much more sensible to achieve the same goal—that is, lower price for domestic gas and more secure supply of domestic gas—through an export tax than through a gas reservation policy.”