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Labor is in the pocket of the Gas Giants, obviously, why else would they rather kick off 160, 000 disabled Australians from the NDIS than properly tax the gas industry to improve the budget bottom line. The facts are that the LNG export sector is worth tens of billions of dollars annually but the majority of the companies involved have not paid corporate tax for years and years. Most of the gas is sold royalty free and the PRRT fails to derive tax from LNG sales, according to the current rules in place. The whole thing is a scam. Why do our governments support this ripping off of the Australian people in favour of foreign multinational companies? It is a combination of politics over good policy, revolving door corruption and stupidity. Albanese backs gas industry over ordinary Australians.
“In the past four years, $149 billion worth of liquified natural gas was exported from Australia royalty-free. Gas companies made $55 billion in 2023, because the war in Ukraine increased world energy prices. Despite this record-breaking revenue, payments to government from the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT) were lower in 2023 than in 2001. “
PM Anthony Albanese is a politician, obviously, and he has a reputation as a political animal. What does that mean? It means that he puts the politics of a situation first. The federal Labor government is in the enviable position of having the largest parliamentary majority ever. Despite this Albanese continues to tinker around the edges rather than make the big changes required to halt the ever widening divide between rich and poor downunder. Twenty years of Coalition governments prior to Albo promoted neoliberal economics on steroids. Peter Costello under John Howard increased the CGT discount to 50% and this has turned the housing market into a wildly inflated Ponzi scheme. Houses in Australia are unaffordable for a huge percentage of the population in 2026. Rents are unaffordable on the back of this out of control market too. Neoliberal privatisation saw the Commonwealth Bank privatised and it now has one of the highest share prices for a bank globally. The average profit margin on a home loan in Australia is $200, 000. Are these facts really helping ordinary Australians afford to buy a home? I don’t think so. Neoliberalism is another scam, for the wealthy to profit from previously publicly owned assets.
Australian Zombie Neoliberalism & Anthony Albanese
Zombie neoliberalism is where we find ourselves in Australia today. We have a Labor federal government, which has grown up believing that markets rule and governments do little but look on. We are in the midst of a severe housing crisis and yet has the government got directly involved to build houses? No, it hasn’t, it believes that private interests will best meet the challenges. This has not occurred and does not look like happening anytime soon.
“There were 168,050 new homes that commenced construction in 2024, which remains at its lowest levels in over a decade,” stated HIA Chief Economist Tim Reardon. “
The required building figure is a quarter of a million new homes a year to meet the shortfalls nationally. The market is not meeting the challenge and still the government hangs back unwilling to get its hands dirty.
Australia & Proposed 25% Gas Export Tax
Returning to the failure of governments to tax the gas industry in Australia. The proposal of a flat 25% tax on LNG exports has been put forward by the union movement and is supported by around 70% of Australians. It has been backed by the CBA CEO Matt Comyn, Clive Palmer, Ken Henry, the Australia Institute, the Greens, and a number of prominent voices within the economic community. It is not supported by Labor or Liberal or by Pauline Hanson. It has been projected that this export gas tax would raise some $17 billion per year and, perhaps, we could afford to meet the challenges of the NDIS economically. Albanese backs gas industry over ordinary Australians.
Australia Remains Infected By Zombie Neoliberalism
In what sense is governing a country, which is dependent upon diesel fuel to transport most essentials around, allowing foreign multinationals to pivot to LNG over oil exploration and extraction a good idea? This is where Australia finds itself, deeply dependent upon oil imports for the fuel to run its trucking transport infrastructure. The Iran war has exposed our vulnerability and Aussies will, once again, pay for the mismanagement of our resources by the market and by our governments. Why has this occurred? Neoliberalism. It is further proof that this hangover economic/political ideology, which tells us that the markets always knows best and that governments should stand back and let them have their way, is redundant and fails the test. Australia remains infected by zombie neoliberalism, despite having a Labor federal government in power.
Neoliberalism Has Delivered Gas We Cannot Use Or Afford
We are in the invidious position of not only having lots of LNG but trucks which run on diesel, but we don’t even tax this LNG properly, which is exported in huge volumes around the world. Japan, which buys our LNG on contract gets more tax from it, as it on sells our gas, than Australia does. Why is this so? Is it ineptness on our behalf by our political leaders or something worse like corruption? The revolving door to high paid jobs post public service, perhaps? Yes, there is plenty of evidence to justify this. Campaign fund donations to the two main political parties by these companies extracting our LNG? Yes, these exist as well. The failure to properly tax the gas export industry has been going on for decades. It began in 1989 in Western Australia up on the North West Shelf.
“Qatar and Australia export similar amounts of gas each year, but Qatar collects five times as much government revenue from its gas exports. 56% of the LNG exported from Australia is royalty-free. From 2021-22 to 2024-25, Australia exported $170 billion of royalty-free LNG.
Gas companies have so far made $112 billion in windfall profits since the war in Ukraine began. Yet PRRT revenue was lower in 2023 than in 2001.
Since 2015, 10 gas companies have exported $165 billion worth of LNG from Gladstone in Queensland. Six of these companies have paid zero company tax on the profits from these exports up to 2023-24.”
Do we really think that our political leaders in government have taken adequate care of the management of our resources in light of the facts and figures listed above? Stupid is as stupid does, Australia.
The Neoliberal Betrayal Of Ordinary Australians
Australia has a population of some 28 million people. Most of them have no idea about the gas deals done on their behalf by their governments. This is why those at the top and the nefarious multinational gas companies can get away with ripping us off. Little people rarely question the actions of their far away leaders, it is a truism of life. Now, however, we have a federal government about to boot off 160, 000 Aussies with a disability from the NDIS to save money. They would rather do this than revisit the bad deals they have made with the multinational gas companies extracting our resources and selling them at massive profits. If a 25% export tax was imposed upon our LNG it would generate around $17 billion annually for the federal government to spend on us. You have to ask yourself who these politicians are governing for and what are their base motivations in this? It begs the question, doesn’t it? Albanese backs gas industry over ordinary Australians. Less than 20, 000 Aussies work in the gas sector, but their political worth in electoral seats remain a major concern for Albo the political animal.
The Abdication Of Governing To The Market
Our governments have abdicated their responsibilities to us in favour of the market via neoliberalism. They subscribe to this outdated zombie neoliberalism, where market forces make all the important decisions. Thus, we have a nation dependent upon diesel fuel but we don’t produce our own oil and therefore we have to import it. We produce loads of LNG but our trucks don’t run on LNG. We seem to give lots of our LNG away to multinational corporations and don’t charge royalties or taxes on much of it in comparison to other nations like Qatar or Norway. We are bunnies for rapacious foreign owned companies and have likely been betrayed by those supposed to be looking after our interests. It stinks of individual Australians profiting at the country’s expense. Of political parties doing deals to the detriment of all Australians. Wake up Australia you are being ripped off royally!
“Australians who are looking for independent leadership in geopolitical matters will be sorely disappointed. AUKUS means Albanese has to support Trump’s America. Illegal attacks on Venezuela and, now Iran by the United States military have all received the green light of approval by the Albanese government. Australia as a vassal state of the US is well under way via the $368 billion AUKUS program dangling as carrot for this Aussie rabbit. Hey, we get to pay for the privilege of ceding our bases to the US and observing our own sovereignty as an illusion. When push comes to shove the little Aussie has to back the big bad Americans or we won’t get any boats.”
- (https://www.midasword.com.au/aukus-means-albanese-has-to-support-trumps-america/)
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of The AI Heresy; What Price Life?; America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump; and other titles. NOW AVAILABLE AT APPLE BOOKS & GOOGLE PLAY BOOKS. Google Play Books AUDIOBOOK
©MidasWord
The AI Heresy: A Betrayal of Humanity – Epub
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