● Watson Foundation rams Norwegian krill trawler in Antarctic waters   ♦ Murdoch empire holds 70% of print circulation   ♦ Australia gave away $300B in gas — Norway built a sovereign wealth fund   ♦ Kerry Stokes: mining magnate, media owner, political donor   ♦ Negative gearing costs taxpayers $6B per year   ♦ How they killed the mining tax   ♦ The revolving door between politics and media

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Australia's Gas Heist

The wealth Australia's Gas Heist moves offshore.

Gas revenue foregone · since 2022/07/01
A$68,017,708,800
▲ ~A$537/sec · Punter's Politics / Rort tracking, since 1 Jul 2022
Hover the offshore nodes · click to open a dossier
THE RORT · LIVING MODEL OF POWER · CASE FILECASE OPEN — TRACKING
CASE FILE · RESOURCESARTICLES · 11

Australia's Gas Heist

STATUS · Ongoing · unresolvedA$68,017,708,800

One of the largest LNG exporters on earth, and Australians pay more for their own gas than the countries it's shipped to. The public tax take is measured in fractions.

01 / The evidence chain

01We gave away the gas02What Norway built03Beer, HECS, and the broken tax04Who profits05The political connections06The east coast gas cartel07The decommissioning rort08How they killed the mining tax09Gas and climate: the final rort10What the media covers and how11Why nothing changes

02 / Who's named

The PRRTMECHANISM · TAX · 11WoodsideCOMPANY · GAS · 7INPEXCOMPANY · GAS · 7SantosCOMPANY · GAS · 6ChevronCOMPANY · GAS · 6ShellCOMPANY · GAS · 6The Revolving DoorMECHANISM · 5Anthony AlbanesePERSON · POLITICIAN · 4Kerry StokesPERSON · MAGNATE · 3The ACCCFEDERAL REGULATOR · 2

03 / The money

A$66 billionApproximate value of Australian LNG exports in the financial year just ended.SOURCE · Budget Papers 2025Beer, HECS, and the broken taxA$1.5 billionPRRT forecast for 2025–26 — less than beer excise, and heading downward.SOURCE · Treasury, Senate Estimates 2026Beer, HECS, and the broken taxZeroTreasury’s own Budget Papers in 2023 stated plainly: ‘To date, not a single LNG project has paid any PRRT.’SOURCE · Treasury Budget Papers, 2023Beer, HECS, and the broken taxA$14.9 billionTotal fossil fuel subsidies from all Australian governments in 2024–25.SOURCE · Australia Institute, Fossil Fuel Subsidies 2025Beer, HECS, and the broken taxA$60–66 billionEstimated decommissioning liability for Australia’s offshore gas sector. Analysts estimate taxpayers could face 60 to 70 per cent of that cost.SOURCE · Industry estimatesBeer, HECS, and the broken tax755,000 tonnesCombined weight of 57 offshore platforms — equivalent to 14 Sydney Harbour BridgesSOURCE · IEEFAThe decommissioning rortA decadePeriod of subpar performance NOPSEMA found at SGH’s Longtom gas field before ordering remediationSOURCE · Boiling Cold / NOPSEMAThe decommissioning rort3 companiesACCC June 2025: risk of east coast domestic gas shortfall in 2026 depends entirely on whether Queensland LNG producers export all their uncontracted gas. Three companies control this decision. No reservation policy applies.SOURCE · ACCC Gas Inquiry, June 2025The east coast gas cartel

Nobody wrote this page. It assembled itself from the 11 investigations that make up Australia's Gas Heist, and it deepens automatically each time The Rort publishes another in the series. The named actors, the sourced figures and the evidence chain stay in lockstep with the archive.

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