● THE INFLATION RORT: Four rises in 2026   ♦ GAS REVENUE FOREGONE: A$537 A SECOND SINCE 1 JULY 2022   ♦ THE INFLATION RORT: Above the 0.25   ♦ THE REPORTING RORT: The fifth system   ♦ THE AIRLINE RORT: ONGOING · UNRESOLVED · 8 INVESTIGATIONS   ♦ THE CARTEL SWITCH: ONGOING · UNRESOLVED · 1 INVESTIGATIONS   ♦ THE COMPLIANCE MACHINE: ONGOING · UNRESOLVED · 1 INVESTIGATIONS   ♦ 105 ENTITIES TRACKED · 101 INVESTIGATIONS · 0 STRUCTURAL BREAK-UPS   ♦ THE SURCHARGE RORT: The cost the Tax Office won’t wear   ♦ THE SURCHARGE RORT: A line off the receipt

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THE RORT · THE DRAIN · RESOURCES BEAT

Resources

The wealth leaving through the resources beat.

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THE RORT · THE DESK · RESOURCESDESK LIVE · TRACKING

Australia's natural wealth and who gets to keep it. The gas that was given away, the taxes that were never collected, and the sovereign fund that was never built.

19 investigations3 cases

Fig. 01 / On this desk · the cases running on this beat

The PRRTMECHANISM · TAX · 14 HERESantosCOMPANY · GAS · 9 HEREWoodsideCOMPANY · GAS · 9 HEREChevronCOMPANY · GAS · 8 HEREINPEXCOMPANY · GAS · 8 HEREOffshore DecommissioningMECHANISM · LIABILITY · 8 HEREShellCOMPANY · GAS · 7 HEREThe ACCCFEDERAL REGULATOR · 6 HERE
Fig. 01Source: beat desk · cases assembled from the archiveAs of 2026‑09Auto-assembled

Fig. 02 / The evidence · every file on this beat

Australia's Gas Heist · 15
01We gave away the gasAustralia is one of the largest LNG exporters on earth. Australians pay more for their own gas than buyers in Tokyo. The companies that take it pay almost no royalties…02Beer, HECS, and the broken taxAustralia has a special tax designed to make sure citizens benefit from gas super-profits. It collects less than the beer excise. Australians repay their university de…03What Norway builtNorway and Australia both discovered oil and gas. Both had booms. Both watched multinationals extract billions of dollars from their continental shelves. Norway taxed …04Who profitsAustralia’s gas is mostly extracted by foreign multinationals. Their profits flow offshore. The executives running those companies earn millions annually. In one case,…05The political connectionsFossil fuel and mining companies donated at least A$3.98 million to Australia’s major political parties in 2024–25, the year of the 2025 election, according to Climate…06How they killed the mining taxIn 2010, a Prime Minister tried to make the mining industry pay a fair price for public resources. The industry spent A$22 million in six weeks. The Prime Minister was…07Why nothing changesThe gas rort has been documented for more than a decade. The PRRT has been reviewed, reformed, and reformed again. The case for change is not in dispute. Yet the syste…08What the media covers and howA video about beer and gas tax was watched 8.7 million times. Not because a newspaper published a front-page investigation, but because a senator posted it to Instagra…09The decommissioning rortWhen Australia’s offshore gas platforms are eventually shut down, someone has to pay to remove hundreds of kilometres of pipelines, thousands of wells, and millions of…10The east coast gas cartelAustralia exports gas to Japan, where it is resold for profit. It exports gas to South Korea. It exports gas everywhere, and in doing so has created a domestic energy …11Gas and climate: the final rortAustralia dropped its bid to host the world’s most important climate conference weeks before it was finalised. It did so while providing A$16.3 billion in fossil fuel …12The A$60 billion boomerang: who cleans up the offshore rigs when the gas money is goneA regulator let Santos begin switching off a gas field without confirming Santos can pay to remove it. A court ruled the regulator was not required to check, and no ap…13The inquiry that couldn't agreeA Senate committee documented a gas tax that lets multi-billion-dollar exporters pay near-zero, then formally recorded it could not agree to change anything.14The boom that paid Woodside backIn the middle of a price boom, Woodside's own guidance shows the statutory resource tax line opening as a benefit of US$210-410m: not a scandal, but the PRRT's deducti…15The buyer and the backstopFirst gas from the Beetaloo was commissioned on 1 September 2026 under a binding take-or-pay contract announced in April 2024, in which the Northern Territory Governme…
The Airline Rort · 3
01The fareAustralia's domestic aviation market is one of the most concentrated in the developed world. Two airline groups control 94–99 per cent of all domestic flights. Load fa…05The frequent flyer financial machineQantas Frequent Flyer has 15 million members, about half the Australian adult population. In the financial year to June 2024, the Loyalty division generated A$2.6 bill…06Who owns the airportsAustralia's major airports are private monopolies. They face no competition. They are monitored by the ACCC but not price-regulated. They earn EBITDA margins that reac…
Media Ownership · 1
02The mining company that owns your newsKerry Stokes controls a A$10.74 billion industrial empire selling Caterpillar equipment to mines and holding the largest stake in an oil and gas company. He also owns …
Fig. 02Source: article scan · grouped by the case each file belongs toAs of 2026‑09Auto-assembled

Nobody curates this desk. It is assembled from every investigation that touches resources: the moment The Rort publishes another, it appears here, and the names that keep surfacing rise on their own.

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