The Australian Conservation Foundation is calling on the Federal government to immediately enforce a 25% war profits tax on all Australian gas exports.
The horrifying attacks on people and mass disruption in the Strait of Hormuz are causing extreme volatility in global energy markets – and Australian gas corporations are, shockingly, reaping huge rewards.
Australia's second-biggest oil and gas producer, Santos, is reportedly making deals with commodities traders for a single cargo worth as much as $121 million – that's roughly $70 million more than before the war in Iran.
"People are being killed, maimed and displaced, water sources poisoned and landscapes torn apart, but oil and gas companies are profiteering off misery by jacking up prices," said ACF CEO Adam Bandt.
"This sick and twisted tactic in a time of mass human misery is also hurting Australians, and the Federal government has both an opportunity and responsibility to stop it.
"Everyday people filling up at the bowser, and checking out at the supermarket to feed their families need urgent relief – let's do that by reigning in big gas greed.
"During the Ukraine war, the global energy shock enabling gas exporters to more than double their profits from Australian operations, making an eyewatering $92.8 billion in 2022.
"Research shows that a 25% super profits tax would have captured and redirected around $23 billion in additional revenue in 2022.
"As the Reserve Bank gears up for another likely rate rise this afternoon, driven largely by gas war profiteering, the cost of living will soon become unbearable for many Australians.
"We need to free ourselves from greedy multinational corporations by giving people energy independence, with cars, homes and industry powered by the sun and the wind.
"Wind and solar farms in Australia, built in the right places for nature with consent from Traditional Owners, are the cheapest forms of energy and the price of the electricity they make does not change during the tragic circumstances of war.
"The more energy we make at home from renewables, the less exposed we are."
