‘Galling’: Aussies set to pass up another gas windfallJacob ShteymanAAPThu, 5 March 2026 3:58PM
Australia’s failure to capture the value of windfall oil and gas profits has been labelled “embarrassing” as MPs demand immediate taxes on fossil fuel exporters set to rake in cash from war in the Middle East.
Independent MP Allegra Spender called on Treasurer Jim Chalmers to apply an immediate tax of at least 50 per cent on the extra “supernormal” revenue that companies are set to receive because of price spikes driven by conflict between the US and Israel and Iran.
With gas shipments from Qatar unable to transit the Strait of Hormuz, energy analysts have warned prices could reach the record highs seen in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Qatar is the world’s largest liquefied natural gas exporter, and about 20 per cent of global gas supply passes through the Strait of Hormuz.
Australian gas giant Woodside’s profit more than tripled in 2022, and Ms Spender said Australians deserved to share in such windfalls, if repeated.
“The supernormal profits made by a few companies during this time is not a reward for effort or ingenuity, or a driver of investment, it is the windfall from war,” she said.
The tax would not discourage investment in new gas projects because companies made such decisions on price expectations, not the risk of war, she said.
Ms Spender said the measure should only be a stopgap until broader reform to fix the petroleum resource rent tax (PRRT) was carried out.
Economist Chris Richardson said it was a reminder that Australia’s oil and gas taxes were “already an embarrassing fail, absent of windfall profits”.
“But to fail to have a system where we’re getting a proper share of those windfall profits is downright galling,” he told AAP.
Labor in its first term of government tightened generous provisions that allowed gas companies to carry forward losses and reduce future tax bills.
The changes meant gas companies would pay more tax earlier, but did little to increase the total take.
Independent senator David Pocock on Wednesday attempted to set up a parliamentary inquiry into the PRRT, but pulled his motion until the following week after failing to receive enough support.
He called for a flat 25 per cent tax on gas exports.
Gas multinationals used their huge information asymmetry to game the PRRT and scrapping it in favour of a 25 per cent export tax would give Australians a fair return, he said.
Resources Minister Madeleine King said the tax, which was initially proposed by the Australian Council of Trade Unions, would discourage investment in new supply.
“The gas industry … pay a significant amount of tax into our system and … employ many Australians around the country,” Ms King said during Question Time in response to Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown.
Mr Richardson said fixing the PRRT would be a much better option than an export tax or a temporary windfall tax, but “something has to be done”.
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