Polls say to tax gas exports to fund health and aged care

A national debate over how Australia taxes its gas industry has escalated, with new polling sharpening calls for a 25 per cent tax on gas exports to fund essential services and community resilience.

Polls released by The Australia Institute show overwhelming support for a flat 25 per cent tax on gas exports. Respondents were told such a tax could raise around $17 billion a year, with respondents strongly favouring the revenue being directed to health and aged care.

The national YouGov survey of 1502 voters found 61 per cent backed the proposal, while electorate‑level polling in Kooyong, Mackellar, Wentworth and Farrer showed support as high as 75 per cent.

The Australia Institute’s co‑CEO Dr Richard Denniss said the results reflected a growing sense of unfairness.

“As petrol and electricity prices rise, the idea that gas export companies will make enormous windfall profits while Australians struggle with higher energy prices and interest rates is as untenable as it is unnecessary,” he said.

“Australians have cottoned onto the fact that beer drinkers pay more in excise than gas exporters pay in Petroleum Resources Rent Tax (PRRT). They know students pay more in HECS repayments than gas exporters pay in tax.”

Climate groups join the push

A separate intervention from three major climate‑focused organisations – Doctors for the Environment Australia, Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action, and Parents for Climate – has broadened the campaign beyond budget repair and service funding.

The groups argue that gas corporations should contribute more to the specific communities bearing the brunt of climate‑fuelled disasters and rising living costs. They want revenue from the proposed 25 per cent export tax directed to disaster‑affected regions, household energy relief, and accelerating the transition to cleaner, more stable energy sources.

Dr Kate Wylie, from Doctors for the Environment Australia, said the health impacts of global energy shocks were already being felt.

“Food prices are rising, fuel costs are soaring, and the mental health and financial strain are landing hardest on everyday communities,” she said.

“It is not fair that our communities bear this burden while gas corporations pocket immense profits and pay little to no tax.”

Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action spokesperson Serena Joyner said communities devastated by fires and floods are being left behind.

“We have watched these corporations take our resources for next to nothing, post record profits, while communities like ours are left to pick up the pieces,” she said.

“Enough is enough.”

Inquiry blocked by major parties

The renewed momentum follows a failed attempt earlier this month by ACT independent Senator David Pocock to establish a Senate inquiry into what he calls “the great gas giveaway”.

His proposal sought to examine why LNG exporters pay comparatively little PRRT, how other countries tax their gas industries, and whether a 25 per cent export tax should be adopted.

Senator Pocock said Australia was “squandering what Norway has turned into a $3 trillion sovereign wealth fund” and urged the major parties to back a deeper examination of the issue.

“We get one chance to capture the benefits of the LNG boom and invest in the things Australians need most: housing, health, education,” he said.

“Governments of all political persuasions are constantly telling us budgets are about priorities and asking for solutions, this proposal ticks both those boxes.”

Both Labor and the Coalition declined to support the motion, preventing the inquiry from proceeding.