Ben's Blog

Australia is the second biggest exporter of gas in the world, after Qatar. In 2023 we earnt a grand total of $2.4 billion in tax from the export of 106,000 cubic metres of natural gas. In the same year Qatar earnt $42 billion in tax from the export of 161 cubic metres of natural gas. Why the discrepancy, you may well ask.

_{Angus and Scotty brainstorming The gas led recovery}

Remember when Prime Minister Kevin Rudd proposed a mining super profits tax, back in 2006. He lasted just 6 weeks after that particular thought bubble. He was given ‘the bum’s rush’ and replaced with a more amenable Prime Minister. Julia Gillard promptly re-negotiated the problematic Petroleum Resource Rent Tax with her influential ‘partners’ in the resources sector, who suggested to our newly minted PM, that government taxes should be levied on the profits accumulated after all expenses had been subtracted, rather than the usual custom of charging royalties on the volume of resources extracted. A novel approach that Julia reluctantly agreed to whilst her ‘partners’ were assisting her in a rather difficult yoga position, the combined back-flip, arm twist and arse lick!

You may not be surprised that, after this ‘slight adjustment’ to the PRRT, the ‘natural’ gas exporters managed to make almost zero profits after exporting a staggering 93 billion dollars worth of gas in 2022. Resulting in a tax burden of a poultry $2.4 billion (chicken feed)

In 2023 Australians paid more in H.E.C.S. debt ($5 billion p.a.)

than our entire resources sector paid in PRRT.(2.3 billion)

We are the laughing stock of the world!*

Alas, we have come to expect this sort of craven behaviour from our elected representatives, but it was not always like thus.

In 1974 I turned 18 and was lucky enough to vote for the Whitlam government. The minister for minerals and energy was one Rex Connor, (The Strangler) an economic nationalist visionary. Rex had big ideas. He proposed a gas pipeline from the North West shelf, off the coast of W.A., all the way to Sydney, quite possibly the longest pipeline in the world that was never built. He also decided to ‘buy back the farm’. Seeking $4 billion to purchase Australia’s entire resources industry, lock, stock and barrel. When that was knocked back, he didn’t take ‘no’ for an answer, he met a bloke in the pub, the now infamous Pakistani banker, Tirath Khemlani, who was more than happy to lend him the cash, except that he didn’t actually have it. The nay sayers and doubters soon got wind of Rex’s novel approach to international financing and blew it up into ‘the Kemlani Affair,’ a saga that brought down the Whitlam government!

In 2006 Evo Morales, a member of the Aymara people, became the first indigenous president of Bolivia. As well as giving Pachamama – the mother earth, the same legal rights in the constitution as humans, he also nationalized all the country’s natural resources.

His party, Movement for Socialism, is still in power today, largely due to the steadfast support of the poor and down trodden, who benefit greatly from the social programs paid for by resource exports.

One cannot help but wonder where our country would be today if Rex Connor had succeeded in his bold move to ‘buy back the farm.’

To put it in perspective, our resource sector earnings for 2023 were $467 billion. In the same year Australian government taxation revenue was $755.8 billion.

So imagine if we had a bold and decisive treasurer like Rex Connor at the helm, instead of the gutless wonder we are saddled with at present.  Government revenue would be a massive 43% more, allowing us to fund all our social programs as well as a speedy transition to 100% renewables! Wouldn’t that be nice?

*A Mere $22 million to get rid of PM

Further reading…..Save Us from Woodside!