Australia overtook Qatar as the world's largest LNG exporter in 2022. Annual export revenue: $90B+. PRRT collected in 2023–24: $1.5B against $46.18B in assessable receipts.
The comparison with Norway is the starkest in resource economics:
| Metric | Australia | Norway |
|---|---|---|
| Effective gas tax rate | ~0.08% (INPEX, Mitsui, Mitsubishi — Senate 2017) | 78% special petroleum tax |
| Annual sovereign revenue collected | ~$800M–2B | NOK 1.1T+ (~A$170B) |
| Sovereign wealth fund built | None | $1.7T (Government Pension Fund Global) |
| Foregone resource rent since 2000 | ~$84B (ANU TTPI 2022) | N/A — they collected it |
The PRRT's failure is structural: $282B in accumulated uplift-compounded carry-forward credits means Gorgon, Ichthys, and Wheatstone are not expected to pay meaningful tax until the 2050s — after the fields are depleted.
A 25% Sovereign Gas Export Tax applied to gross LNG export revenue above a $500M threshold, generating $21–27B in new annual revenue.
Applied to gross revenue — not declared net profit — this eliminates the transfer pricing mechanism used by INPEX, Shell, Woodside, and Chevron to book Australian production into Singapore marketing hubs at below-market prices.
For all companies with Australian turnover >$1B, the ATO applies whichever is higher: - 30% of declared net profit, OR - 3–5% of gross revenue
A company generating $4B in Australian revenue but declaring $0 profit still pays $120–200M minimum. Modelled on the UK's Diverted Profits Tax. Debt-loading — borrowing internally at inflated interest rates to manufacture deductible losses — is rendered irrelevant.
If a multinational refuses to pay, federal regulators place a statutory lien on their Australian physical assets — pipelines, ports, liquefaction facilities — until cleared. Constitutionally grounded in Customs Act s112 and validated by Airservices Australia v Canadian Airlines International Ltd (1999).