Parliamentary Updates

Zali Steggall MP calls on the Treasurer to Properly Tax the Gas Industry

23 March 2026

 

Zali Steggall MP: To the Treasurer, I refer to your previous answer. Treasury has downgraded predicted revenue from the PRRT at successive budgets. Will you admit that the government got it wrong and properly secure revenue for Australians from its gas at a time when Australians, primary producers and small businesses need targeted support to meet rapidly increasing costs?

Treasurer Chalmers: As the honourable member says, I answered part of this question a moment ag. In regards to the additional part of it, what we've been able to ensure is that there is more tax paid sooner than would otherwise have been the case. And obviously when you're dealing with a volatile commodity that we're talking about now, then sometimes the numbers come in lower, sometimes they come in higher than is forecast. Now on the broader point that the honourable member is making a bit like the point that her colleague near her was making a moment ago, I do understand that there are a range of views about this. We do believe that Australians deserve a fair return on the resources they own, and that's what motivated our efforts with our PRRT reforms to get more tax paid sooner than would otherwise have been the case.