One Nation has vowed to replace the contentious offshore gas profits tax and acquire 30% equity stakes in new ventures under an interventionist policy designed to extract “vastly greater returns” for Australian taxpayers from the resource.
The proposal for the commonwealth to co-own gas projects drew a mix of criticism and cynicism from the government, industry and the Coalition, which accused One Nation of importing ideas from Venezuela.
Pauline Hanson used a speech to a major gas industry conference in Adelaide on Thursday to detail a policy first flagged on the night of One Nation’s win in the Farrer byelection.
Hanson said the public was “rightly unhappy” and “public unrest is building” about the return to taxpayers from Australian oil and gas sector, voicing the same concerns as the broad coalition of groups campaigning to replace the petroleum resource rent tax (PRRT) with a 25% export levy.
Sign up for the Breaking News Australia emailThe One Nation leader criticised a 25% export tax as “economism vandalism” despite some opinion polls suggesting supporters of her rightwing populist party back the idea.
Instead, she proposed abolishing the PRRT – which she described as a “failure” – and introducing a royalty regime for new projects.
Appearing in a room of gas industry executives in Adelaide, Hanson also announced a Norway-inspired proposal to acquire equity stakes in new ventures and stash the profits in a sovereign wealth fund.
Under the proposal, the government would offer companies a 30% rebate on the cost of exploration in commonwealth waters in exchange for taking an equity stake of up to 30% in the operation.
The arrangement would give taxpayers a share in potential profits but also expose them to financial risks, which could last decades given One Nation has proposed co-ownership would start at exploration and continue until a project is decommissioned.
It typically takes more than a decade for a project to progress from exploration to production, meaning taxpayers would not get an immediate return.
The government’s stake would be overseen by a new commonwealth investment body.
One Nation has just two lower seats in federal parliament but has been surging in the opinion polls, resulting in more attention and scrutiny of its policies.
Speaking before Hanson’s address, Liberal frontbencher James Paterson said he was sceptical about government-owned oil and gas companies.
“I mean, that is a policy borrowed from Venezuela and Hugo Chávez, not Australia,” Paterson told Sky News.
“Of course I understand the principle that Australians want to get better return on our natural resources, that’s a reasonable principle, and we can have a debate about the details of tax policy, but nationalising our oil and gas industry I don’t think is the answer.”
Hanson denied the proposal was a “socialist takeover”, insisting the government investment body would not have a day-to-day role in running the partner gas company.
The One Nation leader said there had not been any pushback from industry during private briefings on the proposal. She said mining billionaire Gina Rinehart wasn’t consulted.
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