The Australia Institute has launched a live tracker showing the enormous revenue being foregone from gas exports while domestic consumers face high energy costs. It's the resource curse in real time—Australia ships gas abroad for peanuts while Australians pay through the nose.
The tracker displays $63.8 billion in foregone government revenue since July 2022, calculated on the assumption of a 25% tax on liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports. That's $17 billion per year, or roughly $49.8 million daily, according to the tracker.
Put another way: every second, Australia foregoes $576.90 in potential gas export revenue.
Mate, that's enough money to fund free childcare or free university and TAFE for all Australians. Instead, it's flowing to multinational LNG exporters while domestic energy bills climb.
The Australia Institute's core argument is straightforward: without implementing a 25% tax on gas exports, the government has missed substantial revenue that could fund essential public services. The organization frames the issue around multinational LNG exporters receiving revenue rather than flowing to "Australian schools and hospitals."
It's a politically charged claim, but the numbers are real. Australia is the world's largest LNG exporter, shipping massive volumes to Japan, China, South Korea, and increasingly Europe. The export revenue goes to companies like Chevron, Shell, Woodside, and Santos.
The taxation regime, however, is notoriously generous. The Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT) was designed decades ago for offshore oil projects and hasn't kept pace with the LNG export boom. Companies can deduct exploration, development, and operating costs before paying tax, which means many projects pay little to no PRRT for years or even decades.
The result: Australia exports record volumes of gas while the government collects a fraction of what comparable resource-rich nations charge.
Compare this to Qatar, which taxes LNG exports heavily and uses the revenue to fund sovereign wealth and public infrastructure. Or Norway, which built one of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds on North Sea oil and gas taxation. Australia, by contrast, has no comparable sovereign wealth fund and continues to debate whether its gas taxation settings are fit for purpose.
Domestically, the disconnect is even sharper. Australian households and businesses face high gas and electricity prices, even as Australia exports LNG at record volumes. The reason is simple: most of the gas produced on Australia's east coast is contracted for export, leaving domestic users competing for whatever's left.
The government has implemented gas reservation policies and export controls in an attempt to ensure domestic supply, but these measures are limited and haven't fundamentally changed the price dynamics.
Critics of the Australia Institute's proposal argue that a 25% export tax would reduce investment in new gas projects, threaten jobs, and potentially breach existing contracts or trade agreements. They contend that Australia's LNG industry exists because of competitive taxation and regulatory settings, and that aggressive new taxes would simply shift investment to Qatar, United States, or other competitors.
Supporters counter that the current settings are a massive revenue giveaway, that Australia's gas reserves are finite, and that the nation should capture more value from resources that belong to all Australians.
The political debate has intensified ahead of an expected federal election. Labor has faced pressure from the Greens and crossbench MPs to tighten gas taxation, while the Coalition has defended the existing PRRT settings and warned against measures that could harm investment.
The Australia Institute's tracker is designed to keep the issue visible. Every day, the foregone revenue ticks higher. Every month, the gap between what Australia collects and what it could collect grows larger.
Whether that translates into policy change is another matter. The gas industry has powerful political connections, and any attempt to increase taxation will face fierce lobbying. But the sheer scale of the numbers—$63.8 billion and counting—makes the issue harder to ignore.
For now, the tracker runs on, second by second, dollar by dollar, tallying the revenue that could have funded schools, hospitals, and infrastructure but instead flows offshore.
