Independent Senator David Pocock has confronted Shell executives over the company's minimal tax contribution of $109 million despite massive Australian gas exports, with Shell representatives struggling to answer basic questions about sales volumes.The exchange during a Senate inquiry highlighted the opacity around Australia's gas sector taxation and renewed calls for Norway-style resource levies. According to news.com.au, Shell executives could not say how much gas the company sold from Australian operations.Think about that for a moment. A multinational corporation extracting and selling Australia's natural resources appeared before a Senate inquiry and couldn't - or wouldn't - provide basic data about its sales volumes. That's the problem with Australia's resource sector in one exchange.Pocock has become the conscience of the Senate on resource taxation, relentlessly pursuing data on what multinational companies actually pay versus what they extract. The ACT senator has compared Australia's resource taxation regime unfavorably to Norway's, which captures around 78% of petroleum profits.Shell's $109 million tax bill sounds substantial until you consider the scale of Australia's gas exports. Australia is one of the world's largest exporters of liquefied natural gas, shipping billions of dollars worth of gas annually to Asia.Yet gas companies have repeatedly been found paying minimal tax through aggressive tax minimization strategies. Transfer pricing - selling gas to their own offshore subsidiaries at below-market rates - has been a particular focus of Australian Taxation Office investigations.The Reddit discussion of the story was dominated by comparisons to Norway. "Australia vs Norway should be a case study for any nation that finds natural resources," wrote one user. "Let few leeches take the cream from the top and then own the print media to convince the minions that are doing it for their best interest."That sentiment captures the frustration many Australians feel about resource taxation. Norway discovered oil and gas around the same time as Australia and built a sovereign wealth fund that benefits all citizens. Australia discovered similar resources and built... well, we built some very wealthy mining executives.Pocock's questioning represents a broader shift in Australian politics, with independents and crossbenchers increasingly willing to challenge corporate power in ways the major parties often avoid. Whether that translates into actual policy change remains to be seen. But at least someone's asking the questions.