We are one of the world's biggest gas exporters. The companies extracting our resources pay almost nothing. This is how it happens. Here's what it costs you.
"The Australian Taxation Office has labelled the oil and gas industry a systemic non-payer of tax." — ATO Transparency Report
Source: ATO Tax Transparency Report 2021-22; Senate Economics References Committee, Fairness in Taxation, 2023.
Australia is one of the world's largest LNG exporters, right alongside Qatar and the USA. Around 80% of our gas is exported. Over half of that exported gas attracts zero royalties. Multinational corporations extract a publicly-owned resource and pay absolutely nothing for the privilege.
The Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT) was designed to ensure Australians share in the profits from their own land. It has been a profound failure.
Not a single LNG project has ever paid PRRT. Some companies don't expect to pay it until the 2030s. A full decade after those projects started generating billions. Every year.
This isn't an accident. The PRRT contains provisions that allow gas companies to deduct exploration costs at rates far exceeding actual expenditure, keeping the tax bill at zero indefinitely, no matter how large the profit.
Meanwhile, the gas under your feet, publicly owned and licensed to multinationals for almost nothing, is being shipped overseas and turned into private profit. Every single week.
These aren't estimates. Published figures from the ATO, the Parliamentary Budget Office, and corporate annual reports.
Australia collects more from beer excise than from the entire profit tax on the gas industry. Beer: $2.9 billion a year. PRRT from gas: $1.35 billion. Gas companies extract a publicly-owned resource. Beer companies sell a discretionary beverage. We tax the latter almost twice as heavily.
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Taxation Statistics 2021-22; ATO PRRT collections data; The Australia Institute, Beer vs Gas, 2023.
Over the same seven-year period, Australian students repaid $14.9 billion more in HECS-HELP debt than gas companies paid in PRRT. Your education debt is literally subsidising their tax-free profits.
The students who spend years paying off their degrees are collectively contributing more to the public purse than billion-dollar multinationals extracting national resources.
Source: Department of Education, HELP repayment statistics 2016-2023; ATO PRRT collections, same period; The Australia Institute, Gas Tax Failure, 2023.
INPEX operates the Ichthys LNG project in the Northern Territory, one of the largest offshore gas operations on Earth. Over 11 years: $36 billion in Australian revenue. Tax paid: less than $500 million. Less than 1.4 cents in the dollar.
INPEX exports more gas each year than all households and businesses in NSW, Victoria and South Australia combined consume. No royalties. No PRRT.
Source: INPEX Corporation Annual Reports 2012-2023; ATO Tax Transparency Data; Michael West Media, INPEX and the $36 billion question, 2023.
In 2021-22, six of Australia's biggest gas companies: Woodside, Exxon, Shell, Chevron, INPEX, and APLNG. Combined income: $56.3 billion. Tax paid: $454 million. Less than one cent per dollar.
The year before? $34 billion in income. Zero tax. Not a cent.
Source: ATO Tax Transparency Report 2021-22 (published December 2023); figures for Woodside, Exxon Mobil Australia, Shell, Chevron Australia, INPEX, and Australia Pacific LNG Pty Ltd.
Norway and Australia both export enormous amounts of gas. The difference is what each government chose to do about it.
Sources: Australian Treasury, PRRT Review Final Report 2017; Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, Fact Pages 2023; Equinor ASA Annual Report 2023; Parliamentary Budget Office, Revenue from the gas industry 2022; IMF Fiscal Monitor, Resource Revenue 2023.
"Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz urged Australia to impose a very, very high tax rate on its natural resources."— Joseph Stiglitz, Columbia University
Source: Stiglitz, J. (2016). Address to the Tax Justice Network Australia conference, Sydney. Also cited in: Senate Economics Committee Hansard, 14 March 2018.
A 25% gas export tax would generate up to $17 billion annually. Here's what that looks like.
Revenue estimate: The Australia Institute, Taxing the windfall: Options for a gas export levy, 2023. Hospital cost modelling: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Health Expenditure Australia 2022. Classroom costs: Department of Education infrastructure benchmarks, 2022-23. Nursing salaries: ANMF wage data, 2023.
Drag the slider to allocate a portion of the available revenue.
The policy window is open. Gas companies are lobbying hard to keep things exactly as they are. Here's what you can do today.
All statistics on this site are sourced from publicly available documents: ATO Tax Transparency Reports (2021-22, 2022-23), Parliamentary Budget Office costing reports, Australian Bureau of Statistics, INPEX Corporation and Woodside annual reports, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, Equinor ASA, and peer-reviewed research published by The Australia Institute (ABN 90 061 969 284). Direct links to all primary sources are available at australiainstitute.org.au.