June 27, 2022
  • Homepage
  • Workplace Issues
  • Ask Shaye
  • Workplace News
  • Unions
  • Home
    • Latest News
    • Featured News
    • Editorial
    • Lamp Archive
    • Lamp 2022
  • Professional Issues
    • Research
    • Education
    • Career
    • Registration
    • Students
    • Public Health
  • Specialities
    • Mental Health
    • Aged Care
    • Midwifery
    • Emergency
    • Drug and Alcohol
    • General
  • Workplace Issues
    • Ask Shaye
    • Workplace News
    • Unions
  • Social Justice & Action
    • Climate Change and Environment
    • Community Campaigns
    • Member Stories
    • Share Your Story
  • Life
    • Work
    • Offers
    • Travel
  • Conferences, Scholarships & Research
    • Jobs

Top Advertisment

Unions

Workplace Issues / Unions

Push to end tax ‘rort’

Lamp Editorial Team
|
May 1, 2017

Multinational gas producers are paying minimal tax while our hospitals are starved of funds.

Last year Australia’s national nursing union ran a series of TV and radio ads across the country highlighting how $57 billion ripped from health budgets was compromising the care nurses are able to deliver to the community.

The ads by the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation also alerted the public to the $1.2 billion in funding slashed from the aged care system.

Australia’s public hospitals remain in “a constant state of emergency” due to funding shortfalls, according to the Australian Medical Association (AMA).

Yet while hospitals go begging the Australian government continues to allow major corporations to avoid paying billions of dollars in tax every year.

The offshore gas industry is a prime example.

Australia may soon overtake Qatar to become the world’s biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Yet multinational companies pay Australia very little for the gas they extract from Australian waters.

A report by the McKell Institute reveals that under the Petroleum Resources Rent Tax (PRRT), offshore gas producers pay minimal tax on the profits they make.

They pay nothing at all for the gas under the sea because unlike most of the resources industry they are largely exempt from paying royalties.

By extending the royalty system to all projects in Commonwealth waters the government could generate up to $28.4 billion over 10 years, the McKell report finds.

That is more than double the $13.8 billion the federal government is spending on health this year.

Gas production booms but government rents drop

While gas production has boomed in recent years, PRRT receipts have actually decreased and will continue to decline, the report says.

In 2014-15, the federal government received $1.8 billion in PRRT revenue, and this is predicted to fall as low as $0.81 billion by 2020.

At the same time, gas and oil companies in Australia are making significant profits, with the industry turning over $67 billion in 2014-15.

Major petroleum companies “poorly compensate the Australian public for the publicly owned resources they are extracting and selling for profit,” the report says.

With LNG worth hundreds of billions of dollars set to be exported in the coming decades, there is a push in the Senate to reform the system.

“The whole thing has become a complete rort,” said Labor Senator Sam Dastyari.

“Australians are missing out on billions of dollars in royalties when Australia is experiencing a gas boom,” said independent Senator Jacqui Lambie.

Victorian Senator Derryn Hinch said Qatar was expected to raise about $26 billion in revenue from royalties by 2021.

“Compare that to Australia. The forecast is that we’ll raise less than $1 billion under the current system.”

Related Posts

Nurses and midwives also at risk of losing penalty rates

5 years ago

Fact check: Who’s got it better on wage growth and penalty rates?

3 years ago

Privatisation battles ‘point the way’

2 years ago

Middle Advertisment

Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!

Advertisement Area Single Article

COVID-19 Information

  • Public health employees
  • Private health employees
  • Aged Care information
  • Student information
  • Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Trending

  • Nurses and midwives to stop work over NSW budget-FAIL under Unions
  • ‘Smoke and mirrors’ for hardworking nurses and midwives under Unions
  • ‘Fixing the aged care crisis’ won’t be easy, with just 5% of nursing homes above next year’s mandatory staffing targets under Aged Care
  • Burnt out nurses and midwives deflated by no staffing ratios under Public Health
  • Staffing woes prompt fears of further nurse attacks under Workplace News

Footer Content 01





Footer Content 02

The Lamp is the magazine of the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association. It is published bi-monthly and mailed to every member of the Association.

Footer Menu 01

About

NSWNMA
Careers
Terms of Use
Privacy Policy

Footer Menu 02

Contact

Contact Us

Footer Menu 03

Advertising

Advertising

Copyright © 2022 NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association. Authorised by B.Holmes, General Secretary, NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association, 50 O’Dea Avenue Waterloo NSW 2017 Australia.
Design and Development by Slant Agency