The 5 conduits Australia's Gas Heist runs through, and what comes back as tax.
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.
The accepted Reindeer environment plan says decommissioning will be the subject of a separate environment plan in 2028-2029, with offshore decommissioning execution in about 2030-2031 if the CCS repurposing option does not proceed ([2026] FCA 1082 at [9]). Check whether Santos has submitted the decommissioning plan, whether NOPSEMA published it for comment, and, because the judgment ties financial assurance to the activity a plan seeks to approve, what financial assurance that plan carries for the removal itself. Also check whether the field is still in preservation (minimum 36 months from mid-2025), and whether the government has legislated any life-of-title decommissioning assurance since the ruling.
The ministers’ joint media release of 10 September 2026 says the Domestic Gas Reservation Mechanism’s licence application process will commence from 1 January 2027 and its Domestic Supply Obligation from 1 January 2028; the mechanism reserves 20 per cent of LNG exports for the domestic market. Budget Paper No. 2 (12 May 2026) had given 1 July 2027 as the commencement date (corrected 30 September 2026: this row first carried 1 July 2027). Check on this date whether the obligation has commenced as legislated, whether the reservation percentage or start date has since changed, and whether it has had any measurable effect on domestic gas prices.
Tamboran's 8 September 2026 release expects volumes to ramp to the full 40 TJ/d contracted to the Northern Territory Government by early 2027, at which point the commissioning discount ends and the contract price applies in full. Check Tamboran's March quarterly and any Territory budget paper (the 2027-28 papers are due around May 2027) for: the ramp reached; any disclosure of the price, the take-or-pay level or the make-up rights; the status of the $75 million guarantee as a contingent liability; and whether the Territory's extension option toward mid-2041 has been mentioned. The date is the end of "early 2027" as this desk reads it, not a date from any document.
Woodside's Second Quarter Report 2026 records Scarborough first gas achieved and first cargo on track for Q4 2026, beginning the next round of resource-tax deductions. Confirm first cargo landed and check the boom-year full-year accounts and the actual PRRT outcome.
The paragraph above gave 1 July 2027 as the start of the Domestic Gas Reservation Mechanism, the date in Budget Paper No. 2 of 12 May 2026. The ministers’ joint media release of 10 September 2026 says the “licence application process will commence from 1 January 2027, with the Domestic Supply Obligation to commence from 1 January 2028”. The start dates are therefore 1 January 2027 for licence…
UPDATED 30 September 2026 (case: AUSTRALIA'S GAS HEIST, article 7, Why nothing changes).
ARTICLE CHANGES. One update, in the section "The rort, in real time": the Update of 9 September 2026 gave 1 July 2027 as the start of the Domestic Gas Reservation Mechanism, the date in Budget Paper No. 2 (12 May 2026). The ministers’ joint media release of 10 September 2026 says the licence application process will commence from 1 January 2027, with the Domestic Supply Obligation to commence from 1 January 2028. The 9 September paragraph is left as published, with a dated update after it, and the release is added as reference 21. The sidebar key fact was amended. The watch row for the mechanism moved from 1 July 2027 to 1 January 2028. No other figure in the article changed.
STILL OPEN. The mechanism’s legislation was at exposure-draft stage on 10 September 2026; whether it has passed is not known.
NEXT DATE: 1 January 2028, when the Domestic Gas Reservation Mechanism’s Domestic Supply Obligation is due to start.
This article said the government collected A$1.5 billion from the PRRT in 2025–26 while providing A$14.9 billion in fossil fuel subsidies ‘across the same financial year’. That paired two different years. A$14.9 billion is the Australia Institute’s figure for 2024–25; its figure for 2025–26 is A$16.3 billion. The A$1.5 billion was a forecast; the 2025–26 PRRT outcome was A$1,416 million in cash…
This article gave Australia’s fossil fuel subsidies as A$14.9 billion undated or as an annual level (‘per year’, ‘annual’) in the subtitle, this section’s heading and pull quote, the Pacific section and the key facts. A$14.9 billion is the Australia Institute’s figure for 2024-25, not a current or standing annual level: its own series runs A$11.1 billion in 2022-23, A$14.5 billion in 2023-24…
This article previously said Ferguson left parliament in August 2013 and took the APPEA post in October 2013, ‘six months later’, and repeated the six-month figure in the standfirst, the key facts, the illustration and the closing section. It also gave his ministerial term as 2007 to 2013, said the LNG industry was ‘built’ in that period, said his successor did the same, and said both men…
The discount is now being paid. Tamboran's release of 8 September 2026 says that "over the weekend" it and Daly Waters Energy "delivered our first molecules of gas from the Beetaloo Basin into the Northern Territory gas network", that "during this commissioning period, Tamboran and DWE will receive a discounted price for the gas, reflecting the interruptible nature of supply during the…
ATTENDED 9 September 2026 (calendar item of 7 September: "Beetaloo published as gas article 15"; the ask was whether the gas sales agreement terms have been published).
FINDING. No. Tamboran's release of 8 September 2026 ("Tamboran Delivers First Gas Sales From the Beetaloo Basin") says that "over the weekend" it and Daly Waters Energy "delivered our first molecules of gas from the Beetaloo Basin into the Northern Territory gas network", that "during this commissioning period, Tamboran and DWE will receive a discounted price for the gas, reflecting the interruptible nature of supply during the commissioning period", and that volumes "are expected to ramp up to the full 40 terajoules per day (TJ/d) contracted to the Northern Territory Government under a long-term take-or-pay agreement by early 2027". It states no price and no discount size. A web check on 9 September found nothing published by the Territory Government or Tamboran that discloses the price, the take-or-pay level, the make-up gas rights, the volume flex or the force majeure relief. The article's central point stands.
ARTICLE CHANGES (gas-rort/the-buyer-and-the-backstop, byline "updated 9 September 2026"): a dated update paragraph in "The contract signed in April 2024" after the commissioning-discount paragraph; a new key fact for 8 September; reference [16], the Tamboran release.
NEXT DATE: early 2027 for the ramp to 40 TJ/d (separate watch, 31 March 2027).
The 2026-27 Budget was delivered on 12 May 2026. It contained no windfall tax or export levy on gas or coal company profits. The only new gas measure was a Domestic Gas Reservation Mechanism, reserving 20 per cent of LNG exports for the domestic market from 1 July 2027, funded within a wider A$35.5 million, four-year measure to support the domestic wholesale gas market. The PRRT revenue forecast…
ATTENDED 9 September 2026 (watch item of 2026-05-01: "May 2026 Budget windfall levy").
FINDING. On 12 May 2026 the government delivered the 2026-27 Budget with no windfall tax or export levy on gas or coal profits. The only new gas measure was a Domestic Gas Reservation Mechanism, reserving 20 per cent of exports for the domestic market from 1 July 2027, funded within a wider A$35.5 million, four-year measure to support the domestic wholesale gas market (Budget Paper No. 2). The PRRT revenue forecast was revised up by A$400.0 million for 2026-27 and A$1.6 billion over five years to 2029-30, but Budget Paper No. 1 and the ABC (12 May 2026) attribute this to higher Middle East-driven oil prices, not new policy; a commentary site’s lower secondary figure for the same revision was rejected as contradicted by Budget Paper No. 1 and was not used. The Senate established the Select Committee on the Taxation of Gas Resources on 30 March 2026, following Pocock’s 2 March 2026 proposal; it was chaired by Greens Senator Steph Hodgins-May, not Pocock, who sat as a member. The committee tabled its final report on 7 May 2026 without reaching a majority position on gas tax reform, since neither Labor nor Coalition members backed the 25 per cent export levy, which appears only in the Chair’s additional comments (Greens release, and Energy News Bulletin, the latter dated 7 May 2026). The committee’s own report text could not be opened (HTTP 403 on the APO mirror), so its findings rest on these two independent secondary sources.
ARTICLE CHANGES. Rewrote the "Fifth, the May 2026 Budget" bullet in "What is different in 2026" to record that the government did not use the modelled levy. Inserted a full "Update, 9 September 2026" paragraph in "The rort, in real time", immediately after the opening real-time framing sentence, recording the Budget outcome, the PRRT revision and its cause, and the Select Committee's result. Rewrote the Pocock Senate inquiry sentence later in the same section to state the outcome and correct chair. Added two key facts and five references [16]-[20].
STILL OPEN: the committee's exact recommendations and the scope of the Chair's additional comments rest on secondary reporting only, since the report itself returned HTTP 403 on every repository tried; whether a windfall levy will be revisited in a future Budget is unknown.
NEXT DATE: 1 January 2028, when the Domestic Gas Reservation Mechanism’s Domestic Supply Obligation is due to start (corrected 30 September 2026: this line first said 1 July 2027, the Budget Paper No. 2 date; see the record of 30 September 2026).
ATTENDED 9 September 2026 (calendar item of 4 September: "NOPSEMA appeal window closes").
FINDING. The 28-day window to appeal Wilderness Society Ltd v NOPSEMA [2026] FCA 1082 (NSD1342/2025, Abraham J, 7 August 2026, dismissed with costs) closed on 4 September 2026 (Federal Court Rules 2011 r 36.03). As of 9 September no appeal has been announced by The Wilderness Society or Equity Generation Lawyers; the lawyers' site now lists the matter among its past cases, and on judgment day they said only that they would "carefully consider the Court's reasons". Not checked: the court file itself (a notice of appeal or an extension application under r 36.05 would show there first). The article says "no appeal announced", not "no appeal filed".
THE JUDGMENT, read in full for the first time (the 14 August update had no access to it). Holding: the financial assurance NOPSEMA must check under s 571(2) and reg 16 is "referrable to the activity or activities sought to be approved in the environment plan" [70]; s 571(2) with reg 16 "focus on the petroleum activity the subject of the environment plan" [100]; decommissioning was not the activity the Reindeer plan sought to approve, so "decommissioning costs did not fall within the financial assurance provisions for the purposes of deciding whether to accept the Reindeer EP" [104]. Parliament "could have provided financial assurance is required over the life of the title for future decommissioning, which it has not done" [81]. Requiring the clean-up money at every earlier gate would be "long range, speculative, and duplicative work" [94]. NOPSEMA's own email of 7 July 2025, recited at [12]: its assessment "does not, therefore, extend to the evaluation of financial assurance provisions intended to address decommissioning liabilities". Timeline in the accepted plan [9]: preservation for a minimum of 36 months; a separate decommissioning environment plan in 2028-2029; offshore decommissioning execution in about 2030-2031 if the CCS repurposing does not proceed. The hearing was one day, 7 April 2026 (the article had said 7 and 8 April; corrected).
ARTICLE CHANGES (gas-rort/switched-off-not-paid-for, byline "updated 9 September 2026"): subtitle, lede, the fact block, the honesty paragraph and both key facts rewritten from the parties' press statements to the judgment itself; the appeal key fact moved from a pending watch item to a closed one; references [13] the judgment, [14] the EGL case page, [15] Federal Court Rules rr 36.03 and 36.05 added.
STILL OPEN: any government response on decommissioning assurance (no date); the Cliff Head administrations; the Reindeer decommissioning environment plan, due 2028-2029 under the accepted plan (separate watch).