ATO data reveals:

• Santos Limited has racked up a 10th straight year of zero corporate tax payments from a total of nearly $47 billion in sales.
• Darwin’s Ichthys LNG Pty Ltd paid zero corporate tax for the 6th year running, from a total of $43 billion in sales.
• Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT) revenue has hit a 3-year low, down to $1.5 billion from a peak of $2.0 billion in 2021-22.

“The new tax data shows, yet again, that big gas is taking the piss out of Australians,” said Rod Campbell, Research Director at The Australia Institute.

“It beggars belief that a company like Santos can spend a decade selling almost $50 billion worth of gas and not pay a cent of tax on it.

“Japanese ambassadors and executives see fit to lecture Australia on energy and tax policy, while Japanese entities like Ichthys pay zero company tax and zero PRRT.

“PRRT revenue was lower in the latest year of data (2023-24) even though production and prices were high and a Labor government had been in power for over a year.

“Australia Institute research shows that over the 10 years to 2023-24, nurses paid $7 billion more in tax than did the oil and gas companies. How’s that fair?

“Gas exporters enjoyed a $100 billion windfall by selling Australian gas at peak prices caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A chorus of economists, including Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz, urged the Albanese government to put in a windfall profits tax, but it did nothing.

“The Albanese government’s refusal to get a return for Australian resources is a big part of the government’s revenue problem.

“Jim Chalmers could have delivered a budget surplus last week, if more money was raised from the gas industry.”