Independent David Pocock has taken up the gas baton:
“We’re seeing state capture by the gas industry that is not paying royalties, not paying petroleum resource rent tax for offshore LNG exports.”
“And then many of these multinationals are managing to minimise their corporate tax.”
“This has to end.”
– @DavidPocock #auspol pic.twitter.com/p4RbCh6FaL
— Australia Institute (@TheAusInstitute) May 30, 2024
We have seen this kind of movement from the crossbench before, so I will not kid you that I am hopeful it will inspire change.
Offshore royalties and captured taxes are only two of the issues surrounding gas “leeches”:
- war profiteering;
- cartel pricing on the East Coast;
- derailment of the energy transition;
- capture of politics.
I hope something comes of this, but Treasurer Jim “Chicken” Chalmers’ presence makes it unlikely.
What we can observe is that the rhetoric did coincide with a crash in the gas price for a day:
Bashing the electricity price in the usual manner:
Does the cartel have such precise control? More or less. It coincides with the wind blowing a gale in southern states in the past few days, dramatically tapering gas demand, so it is probably that:
And that gives you a good picture of the problem as well.
Your entire economy is beholden to “the leeches” whenever the wind doesn’t blow.
