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  • 11 hours ago
Independent Senator David Pocock has questioned whether chevron is paying enough for the gas it uses in its operations. He says the government's attitude towards exporting natural gas is not in Australia's best interest.

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00:02I've found it probably not that surprising, but pretty disappointing how so many major
00:06party politicians are on the side of the multinational gas companies, not on the side of the Australian
00:11people on this.
00:12And we're seeing people like the Prime Minister roll out numbers that are from the gas lobby,
00:18not from Treasury, not from the ATO, not from the Prime Minister's department, but straight
00:23from the gas lobby.
00:24So, I think we've hit this point now where we know we are exporting a huge amount of
00:30gas and we simply aren't getting the return that we deserve as a country.
00:34Why are we giving them gas for free?
00:36I simply do not accept the argument that just because something is expensive to do that you
00:41shouldn't pay for the raw materials until you have recouped all of these costs.
00:48That should come off your corporate tax, not off what you pay us for the actual gas.
00:53And so we're seeing, really disappointingly, the PM and others standing up for the gas
00:58industry.
00:59Not Australians.
01:00This is a finite resource that belongs to all of us.
01:03And we're seeing energy prices around the world go through the roof so we know that these
01:07companies are going to make so much profit.
01:09In the 12 months after Russia invaded Ukraine, Australian gas exporters made an extra $45 billion.
01:18We didn't see much of that.
01:20And so, why are we saying to them, sure, just pay some corporate tax and that's fine.
01:26That doesn't cut it.
01:27We also want to get paid for the actual gas that they export.
01:30Japan and South Korea, Japan more so, actually invest in companies that are exploiting Australian
01:36gas.
01:37So they've got a 20% stake in Inpex who export a huge amount of gas, don't supply any to
01:43the
01:43domestic market.
01:44So they're making money there.
01:45Then they're making money when we send them gas.
01:48They have a gas import tax, which they've used to build 90 days worth of liquid fuel storage,
01:53unlike here in Australia, because we say we can't afford it.
01:56Then they actually on sell gas.
01:58And last year they made a billion dollars worth of profit exporting gas.
02:02They have no gas fields, they're just really smart.
02:04They put the Japanese people first.
02:07And my argument to the Australian government is nothing will change.
02:10They'll still get the gas.
02:11We can still buy liquid fuels, but we'll be getting $17 billion every year and probably
02:17a lot more over the next 12 months with the way that the energy prices are going.
02:21Of course you're going to have countries that are benefiting from our gas say, hey, hey,
02:26leave things the way they are.
02:28Don't tinker with this system.
02:30We're the ones getting fleeced.
02:32They're making money off our gas while we're facing a budget where we all know there's
02:36going to be some very serious cuts at the same time that a finite resource, that once
02:42it's gone, it's gone, is being exported without a fair return.
02:46And I just fundamentally disagree with that approach as a country.
02:49We'll see you next time.
02:50We'll see you next time.
02:51All right.
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