New Australia Institute research published today shows that the Japanese Government makes more revenue taxing its imports of Australian gas than the Australian Government makes from the export of our gas.

Key findings:

• Japan has imposed a tax on oil and gas imports since 1978, expanding the tax to cover coal in 2003.
• Over the last five years, Japan’s energy import tax has delivered an average of AUD $8 billion per year to the Japanese Government.
• On average, every year, $1.8 billion of Japan’s energy import tax comes from gas imports, substantially more than the $1.4 billion raised by the Australian Government’s Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT).

“It’s hard to believe how badly Australians have been ripped off by gas export companies,” said Dr Richard Denniss, co-CEO of the Australia Institute.

“Japan, a country with no gas, oil or coal reserves of its own collected almost $40 billion over the last five years while the Australian PRRT provided only $7 billion to Australians.

“Not only has Australia been literally giving more than half of the gas we export away for free, we now learn that the same Japanese Government that is opposed to us putting a tax on our gas and coal exports, has been raking in billions of dollars per year via their own tax on gas and coal imports.

“The Australian Government recently cut our petrol excise to help Australians in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. If the Japanese are so worried about the cost of Australian gas and coal, they should scrap the taxes they are imposing on it.

“To add insult to insult to injury, the Japanese Government’s rationale for introducing their tax on imported energy back in 1978 was to help Japan improve its energy security after the OPEC oil shocks. Thanks to their tax on our energy exports, the Japanese have 90 days of liquid fuel stored in case of the kind of emergency we are now in.

“Australians have been taken for mugs by the gas export industry. And while successive Australian governments have been responsible for causing this mess, it is the Albanese Government that is responsible for fixing it.

“Australia Institute research shows if Labor had introduced a 25% export tax back in 2022, we would have collected $69 billion by now, and every week we delay introducing such a tax is costing us $350 million.

“The longer we delay, the bigger our public debt will be.”