‘It’s fired people up’: support grows, including within Labor, for new gas tax to curb wartime profits
The gas industry is mobilising in opposition to a potential new tax on the sector as political momentum builds – including among Labor MPs – for the government to use the May budget to prevent producers profiting from the Middle East war,The Australian Energy Producers (AEP) chief executive, Samantha McCulloch, claimed a new tax would punish the same Asian trading partners Australia was leaning on to supply more fuel amid the global energy crisis,The gas sector was blind-sided by revelations the Treasury was modelling options for a new levy to capture windfall profits from gas and thermal coal companies, as well as potential changes to the Petroleum Resources Rent Tax (PRRT) and corporate tax,Government, industry and opposition sources believe the public mood on taxing the resources giants has shifted, giving the Albanese government cover to pursue changes it might have considered too politically risky a few months ago,The sources point to a campaign spearheaded by independent senator David Pocock, social media influencer Konrad Benjamin of Punter’s Politics fame and progressive thinktank the Australia Institute, which has highlighted how much tax gas companies pay.
Labor-aligned trade unions, the Greens and other cross-benchers are now backing a flat 25% tax on gas exports, which the Australia Institute estimates could raise $17bn per year,The campaign has enraged the gas industry, with AEP this week placing a full-page advertisement in the Daily Telegraph in an attempt to counter the line that more revenue is generated from the beer excise than the PRRT,A social media clip of Pocock asking senior public servants to compare the returns of the beer excise to the PRRT has attracted 4,2m views on Facebook, highlighting campaign’s reach,McCulloch accused the gas-tax campaign of spreading “misinformation” – a criticism backed by the shadow resources minister, Susan McDonald.
“I’m sorry that Australians are not being given the opportunity to have been given the full picture by groups whose sole intention is to shut down fossil-fuel activity in this country,” McDonald said,Pocock told Guardian Australia the beer excise comparison resonated with the public, leaving gas companies to counter the changed public sentiment,“It has engaged people and it’s fired people up,You’re really starting to see the leaders are starting to feel the pressure,” Pocock said,“In terms of the public support for this, [there’s a] huge majority and we’re seeing the gas industry mounting all sorts of PR campaigns now to try and counter the broad understanding that this is an industry that has not given us a fair share historically and that urgently needs to change.
”Labor backbencher Michelle Ananda-Rajah and former industry minister Ed Husic have publicly backed increasing taxes on gas companies,Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie is also open to the idea, exposing a split within the Coalition,Guardian Australia has spoken with several other Labor MPs who believe there is support within caucus for the change,One Labor MP, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said, “I’m getting a lot of heat and I think David Pocock’s run a pretty good campaign on this,” They said reform on gas export taxes in the budget was important, but said Labor would have to go harder on gas companies than the current PRRT, or there would “not be much point”.
Another Labor MP privately said there was strong community support in their electorate for an export tax, and that the issue had been brewing for a long time in their community.Another MP said there was a group who were “really keen” on an export tax, but had concerns that the public could turn against the policy if they believed it would mean household energy prices would increase.McCulloch – whose members include Woodside, Santos and Chevron – claimed a new tax would damage Australia’s reputation with its trading partners, such as Japan and South Korea, which are major importers of Australian LNG.The Japanese ambassador to Australia, Kazuhiro Suzuki, this week said a “surprise” in the form of a new tax would cause investors to shift their business to other countries, echoing a warning from the head of the International Energy Agency.Tokyo has long resisted Australian government interventions that potentially disrupt the export market, but the ambassador’s comments were particularly significant given Anthony Albanese is attempting to leverage the relationship with Japan to secure extra fuel supplies.
The prime minister this week issued a joint statement with Singapore on energy trade after a flurry of calls to regional trading partners, including Malaysia, South Korea and Japan.On Friday, Albanese made his most direct appeal yet for other countries to re-commit to a consistent flow of fuel to Australia.“Our gas exports are very important in the region, the context of our current circumstances are [that] Australia is a reliable supplier.We expect reciprocation in our economic relations,” Albanese said.
Ministers should ‘start doing stuff’ to help farmers and cut fuel costs, says Asda boss
Asda’s executive chair has called on the government to “stand up and start doing stuff” to support farmers and ease the price of fuel as he warned that food prices would inevitably rise as a result of the conflict in the Middle East.Allan Leighton said farmers were under pressure but the supermarket chain had so far received “a trickle of requests not an avalanche” of cost price increases from its suppliers, as they were under pressure from higher fertiliser, energy and fuel costs.“I do believe it will create inflation,” he said, adding that the pace of cost increases was volatile and quite different across the various commodities.Leighton also warned of “temporary shortages’” at petrol stations, as supplies are squeezed by the conflict in the Middle East, with the RAC reporting on Friday that the average price of unleaded petrol in the UK had risen to 150p a litre.Leighton accused the government of benefiting from £3bn of income from fuel duties as prices rose and said it should ease these duties or support farmers on energy or other costs
‘It’s fired people up’: support grows, including within Labor, for new gas tax to curb wartime profits
The gas industry is mobilising in opposition to a potential new tax on the sector as political momentum builds – including among Labor MPs – for the government to use the May budget to prevent producers profiting from the Middle East war.The Australian Energy Producers (AEP) chief executive, Samantha McCulloch, claimed a new tax would punish the same Asian trading partners Australia was leaning on to supply more fuel amid the global energy crisis.The gas sector was blind-sided by revelations the Treasury was modelling options for a new levy to capture windfall profits from gas and thermal coal companies, as well as potential changes to the Petroleum Resources Rent Tax (PRRT) and corporate tax.Government, industry and opposition sources believe the public mood on taxing the resources giants has shifted, giving the Albanese government cover to pursue changes it might have considered too politically risky a few months ago.The sources point to a campaign spearheaded by independent senator David Pocock, social media influencer Konrad Benjamin of Punter’s Politics fame and progressive thinktank the Australia Institute, which has highlighted how much tax gas companies pay
Blink and miss: Trump’s tactic of threats first and U-turn later is proving stale in Iran war
President’s move, dubbed Trump Always Chickens Out, appears to have soured as he loses hold on situation in IranFrom Wall Street to the White House, the dish everyone’s talking about this week is the Persian Taco. It’s what’s served when Trump chickens out in Iran.In the early hours of Monday morning, witnessing oil prices surge, stock futures plummet and bond yields climb due to his threat to pummel Iran’s civilian power infrastructure, the president hurriedly walked it back, announcing he would put off the bombing because talks with Iran were actually going great. After the bombast and bloodshed, it was time for Taco (Trump Always Chickens Out), a move he first put on display during the tariffs crisis last year.Bonds snapped back in instants and the price of Brent crude recoiled to below $100 a barrel from more than $112 seconds earlier
UK car production falls 17% as industry warns of ‘worrying’ decline
Fewer cars rolled off UK production lines in February in what the industry called an “extremely worrying” slump even before the impact of the Iran war was felt.Vehicle production was 17% lower last month on the same period in 2025, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, as exports dropped sharply.A further decline is expected in March, after the war sent global energy prices soaring and further dented consumer demand, a double blow for carmakers.Mike Hawes, chief executive of the SMMT, said: “Another decline for UK vehicle production and exports is extremely worrying, given these figures pre-date the crisis in the Middle East. While the sector has made efforts to build resilience into its logistics and supply chains post-Covid, the conflict adds further strain
Almost half a million Lloyds customers had personal data exposed in IT glitch
Lloyds Banking Group exposed the personal data of nearly 500,000 customers in an IT glitch that left people’s payments, account details and national insurance numbers visible to other users, a committee of MPs has revealed.A letter from Lloyds, published by MPs on the Treasury select committee on Friday, blamed the glitch on a software defect introduced during an IT update to its Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland mobile banking apps overnight into 12 March.The bank explained that customers would have had to be looking at their app within “small fractions of a second” of other users in order to access their details.However, it still meant up to 447,936 customers were potentially able to view private information of other users, with Lloyds adding that about 114,182 people ended up clicking into transactions that revealed account details, national insurance numbers or payment references.Even people who were not Lloyds Banking Group customers may have had their transaction details exposed, the bank said
Five firms including Autotrader and Just Eat investigated over fake review failings
The UK competition watchdog has launched investigations into five companies including Autotrader and Just Eat over concerns they have not done enough to tackle fake and misleading online reviews.The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which has previously investigated the tech companies Amazon and Google, said its latest crackdown includes the funeral services operator Dignity, the review company Feefo and the restaurant chain Pasta Evangelists.The CMA said that in the case of Autotrader and Feefo it was looking at whether a number of one-star reviews, moderated by Feefo, were excluded from being published on the car-selling platform and therefore did not give consumers a full picture of other customers’ experiences.The Dignity investigation focuses on whether staff were asked to write positive reviews about the company’s cremation services.Just Eat, the food delivery company, is being investigated over concerns that its system “inflated certain restaurants’ and grocers’ star ratings”
UK government borrowing costs hit 5% as Iran war fuels bond market sell-off
Italy investigates beauty brands over concerns about young girls’ mental health
Number of AI chatbots ignoring human instructions increasing, study says
‘Accountability has arrived’: dual US court losses show shifting tide against Meta and co
Billy Loughnane’s bid to become champion jockey hit by 21-day ban
Mary Rand, first British woman to win Olympic athletics gold, dies aged 86