Our guide for making a quick, powerful submission to the Senate Select Committee on the Taxation of Gas Resources

Recently there has been a lot of conversation about whether Australia should tax gas exports. Punters around the country have begun asking why multinational corporations are permitted to take our natural resources, sell them at a premium on the international market, and give us nothing back.

This injustice has led to an unusual bending of the political spectrum; a recent poll revealed that both Greens and One Nation voters overwhelmingly support a gas export tax. 

The Senate been forced to take the matter seriously and has announced a Select Committee on the Taxation of Gas Resources. This essentially means they are officially looking into the possibility of implementing an export tax, and it gives us, the punters, an opportunity to have our say. 

Submissions are open until the 13th of April and anybody can make one. It's like writing a letter to your MP, except it’s guaranteed to be read, and possibly even published. 

We’ve written this submission guide to help people make powerful, personalised submissions quickly and easily.

You don’t need to be an expert! You just need to care about energy justice.

How Senate Select Committees work (the quick version)

When an issue emerges as being nationally important, the Senate may establish a committee to look into it. The committee will do this by inviting submissions. Some of the submissions will be made by subject matter experts, some will be made by vested interests, and others will be made by concerned members of the public. All the submissions are read and reported back to the Senate. 

Making a submission is your democratic right and enables you to have a say in policy making. 

Every Select Committee publishes their Terms of Reference (ToR). This is the list of questions they are aiming to answer. The ToR for this Committee are all relevant to our work, but we’ve focussed on one for this submission guide:

“How any additional revenue generated could be used to provide cost of living relief for households and businesses and reduce our dependence on imported fuel.”

If you want to do a deeper dive, the rest of the ToR are on the Select Committee webpage.

How you can make a submission (the quick version)

We could give you one of those automatic letter generators that spits out a generic submission, but over the years we’ve learned they don’t get the same deference as a genuine, personalised submission. We’ll still make this quick and painless. Just follow the steps below to make a powerful submission.

1. Make it personal

Introduce yourself and thank the committee for the opportunity to say your piece, then hit them with a reason this issue is important to you.

Here’s an example:

“To the Committee, (or “Hi”, or “Hello”, no need to be overly formal if you don’t want to be)

My name is Justice d’Energy, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to make this submission. I am a student in Melbourne and am appalled at the injustice of the gas export tax settings. Every year the federal Government collects more revenue from HECS repayments than it does from the gas export industry”

Make it relevant to you. Maybe you want more gas to stay onshore so your bills will come down. Maybe you want more tax dollars to fund the transition to renewables. Maybe you think it’s unjust that teachers pay more tax than the entire gas export industry. Nurses too. Maybe you just want less gas extraction and more action on climate change. 

2. Address the ToR

A 25% gas export tax would generate $17 billion a year. Tell the committee how you think we could use that money to bring down the cost of living in Australia and make the world better. Something like:

“The Victorian Government recently built the Delburn wind farm at an estimated cost of $650 million. One year of a 25% gas export tax could pay for 26 equivalent windfarms and dramatically accelerate the transition to renewable energy”

Remember we’re only working on one ToR in this guide, but there are others on the Committee website.

Here are a few ideas we’ve put together. Feel free to use them or make your own suggestions. 

Free Electrification for Low-Income Households — $22B — Approximately 1.5 million low-income gas-connected households at ~$15,000 per home

Electrification of Social and Community Housing — $10B — Approximately 500,000 social housing dwellings at ~$20,000 per dwelling including envelope upgrades

Electric bus fleet electrification — $34B — Australia's publicly contracted transit bus fleet is estimated at approximately 18,000 vehicles at a cost of ~$1.9M per bus (including charging infrastructure)

Heavy freight truck electrification rebate — Rebates of $50,000–$80,000 per heavy electric truck for small and medium operators.

Climate adaptation and Insurance Fund — Governed independently of the federal budget to prevent it being raided for general expenditure. Explicitly prioritising communities least able to self-insure: renters, low-income households, regional and remote communities, and First Nations peoples.

First Nations Resource Rent — A partial return of value extracted from Country without consent or adequate compensation. Gas and oil sit beneath land that was never ceded.

How about community solar gardens? Publicly-owned windfarms? Whatever you think would work, now's your chance to get it heard.

3. Sign off

Leave the chat with grace and/or panache, so long as it's polite:

“I trust the Committee will make the right decision and support the introduction of a 25% gas export tax.

Kind regards,

Justice d’Energy”

4. Submit

You have 2 options. Head to this website and hit the “Upload Submission” box (you will have to make a “My Parliament” account)

Or, email your submission to the Committee Secretariat: [email protected]

IMPORTANT: If your submission is accepted by the committee (which it will be, so long as it addresses the ToR), it may be published online along with your name. If you do not wish for this to happen just let them know in your email (there is a box you can tick if you upload via a “My Parliament” account).

Thanks for raising your voice for energy justice!