The delay comes as a new national and West Australian poll of 1,906 voters, undertaken by uComms on behalf of the Australia Institute on the 27th of April, shows growing support for a tax on gas exports.
Key results:
- Two in three WA voters (68%) and seven in 10 voters nationwide (72%) agree gas export companies should pay a 25% gas export tax.
- This includes four in five Labor voters (80%) nationally.
- WA Premier Roger Cook has stated that he thinks a new tax on gas exports would be bad for Western Australians. Three in five voters nationally (61%) and more than half of WA voters (56%) do not think that collecting more revenue from gas export companies would be bad for Western Australians.
- Only one in four WA voters (24%) thinks collecting more revenue from gas export companies would be bad for Western Australians.
- Nationals voters are the only ones more likely to think collecting more revenue from gas export companies would be bad for Western Australians (54%) than think the opposite (31%).
"In making this decision, the Prime Minister has simply chosen to delay the inevitable," said Dr Richard Denniss, co-CEO of The Australia Institute.
"Australians understand that we only get to sell our gas once, and Australians understand that it is the job of the Australian government to get us the best deal they can for our scarce resources.
"The Prime Minister's decision to kick the can down the road might feel politically easy right now, but it is going to come at an enormous cost to both the budget and the Australian voters' faith in their government.
"Voters get that they're being ripped off by multinational gas companies, and now they know that their Prime Minister is ok with that. I think it is optimistic for the Albanese Government, and the gas industry, to think this issue will blow over.
"The wave of support for a gas export tax has grown rapidly. It now includes everyone from the Greens and David Pocock to Clive Palmer and One Nation. Even the CEO of the Commonwealth Bank, the most valuable company in Australia, understands that it is time to end the farcical situation where more than half of the gas exported from Australia is given away for free.
"Australia Institute research shows that every week the Albanese Government fails to implement a 25% gas export tax results in $350 million in lost revenue. That is around $1.4 billion per month. If the Government delays the implementation of a 25% tax on gas exports until the next election, the result will be a gift from ordinary Australians to the multinational gas export companies of over $30 billion."
