{"id":621146,"date":"2026-04-21T10:15:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T10:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/621146\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T10:15:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T10:15:11","slug":"labor-under-internal-pressure-on-gas-tax-as-influencer-says-government-stopped-working-for-the-punters-labor-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/621146\/","title":{"rendered":"Labor under internal pressure on gas tax as influencer says government \u2018stopped working for the punters\u2019 | Labor party"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Albanese government is facing internal pressure to raise taxes on gas companies as a prominent social media influencer warns Labor not to underestimate the scale of public outrage about the existing regime.<\/p>\n

Labor\u2019s environment action network (Lean) used evidence to a parliamentary inquiry into the tax settings for the gas sector to encourage the government to consider a \u201cvery substantial tax\u201d on windfall profits.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would definitely like to see a better return [for gas resources],\u201d Lean\u2019s national secretary, Janaline Oh, told the hearing on Tuesday, noting such a position was consistent with Labor\u2019s national party platform.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say that within the Labor membership, there is support for better returns to the Australian taxpayer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comments came as the Labor MP Ed Husic restated his support for a 25% export levy to end the \u201cobscenely sweet deal\u201d he claimed the companies enjoyed under the existing petroleum resource rent tax (PRRT) system.<\/p>\n

The Greens-chaired inquiry is examining the case for a 25% export tax \u2013 which has the support of a broad coalition of politicians, unions and climate groups \u2013 along with other options to extract more revenue from the major exporters.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

The Ross Garnaut and Rod Sims-backed Superpower Institute is pushing for a 40% cashflow levy, dubbed the \u201cfair share levy<\/a>\u201d, to replace the PRRT.<\/p>\n

The government has been weighing potential changes ahead of next month\u2019s budget after tasking the Treasury with modelling a windfall profits tax and changes to the PRRT.<\/p>\n

While the budget deliberations are ongoing, Guardian Australia understands the appetite for major interventions has diminished amid the global energy crisis sparked by the Iran war.<\/p>\n

Senior Labor sources have all but ruled out a 25% export tax in the 12 May budget, in part to avoid antagonising the same Asian trading partners that Australia is reliant on for supplies of diesel and petrol.<\/p>\n

Asked directly on Tuesday afternoon if an export tax was on the table, the finance minister, Katy Gallagher, said the government\u2019s policies hadn\u2019t changed, before noting Anthony Albanese\u2019s focus in recent weeks on striking energy supply guarantees across Asia.<\/p>\n

The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, said a 25% export tax would \u201cclose down the gas industry\u201d and should be opposed, putting him at odds with Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Western Australian Labor premier, Roger Cook, also opposed a new gas export tax.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand that it\u2019s \u2013 for many people, it seems like an attractive proposition. But I don\u2019t think it would be good for Western Australia, and I\u2019ve made those views clear to the prime minister,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Supporters of a new gas tax have warned politicians on all sides that failing to respond to their campaign risks provoking a backlash from voters.<\/p>\n

Konrad Benjamin, the former school teacher whose Punter\u2019s Politics venture has almost 1 million social media followers, told the inquiry that MPs underestimated the depth of public interest in the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cA million Australians following my content online, watching someone explain gas isn\u2019t a success story. It\u2019s a symptom of a government that has stopped working for the punters who elected them,\u201d Benjamin told the hearing.<\/p>\n

\"'Just‘Just do it and stop the crap’: Ken Henry’s blunt response to question of gas tax \u2013\u00a0video <\/p>\n

The former Treasury secretary Ken Henry, whose submission to the inquiry advocated for a 100% windfall profits tax, issued a blunt message to the committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust do it. In the national interest, just do it. And stop the crap that the Australian public have put up with for decades now in respect of the taxation of Australia\u2019s finite natural resources,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Australia Institute co-chief executive Richard Denniss said Australia must resist lobbying from countries including Japan, pointing to new research that showed the country collected about $8bn a year of revenue from its own tax on oil and gas imports.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the Japanese are so worried about the cost of Australian gas and coal, they should scrap the taxes they are imposing on it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Albanese government is facing internal pressure to raise taxes on gas companies as a prominent social media…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-621146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}