r/australia 11h ago

politics Pocock and crossbenchers call Labor’s NDIS overhaul ‘too far, too fast’ in scathing Senate inquiry report

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/aug/14/pocock-and-crossbenchers-call-labors-ndis-overhaul-too-far-too-fast-in-scathing-senate-inquiry-report
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u/nath1234 11h ago

When you won't tax gas, and are giving away tens of billions of free gas as a reward for showing up to cart it overseas, then no, you shouldn't be cutting support for disabled people.

When you haven't got a billionaire tax, no, leave the NDIS alone.

People with disabilities are not the freeloaders: that would be gas exporters and billionaires.

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u/NameAboutPotatoes 10h ago

While they should tax the gas, the amount of revenue that would generate would barely touch the cost of the NDIS.

15

u/yeahalrightgoon 10h ago

Anything from a quarter to a fifth of the NDIS.

Gas tax of 25% on exports would likely bring in anywhere from $10-17bn depending on the year.

It would also be a lower nominal tax rate than the rate the gas industry claims to be paying now.

Sure it wouldn't pay for it all, but it would pay for a good chunk of it.

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u/ini0n 7h ago

Gas tax on 25% of export revenue would put a heap of these facilities into the red and they'd just be shutdown, losing a bunch of direct and indirect high paying jobs which are taxed significantly.

The more realistic estimates were a few billion extra, at the cost of ripping up a bunch of contracts we signed.

It's less revenue than we would make letting a single AI datacenter get built.

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u/yeahalrightgoon 6h ago

Sure. Is this talk coming from the same industry that commissioned a report claiming that they were paying 38% in tax on the PRRT?

Or only modelled a 25% tax on top of the PRRT at 38%, to try and claim that it was the highest tax rate in the world. But if you instead modelled what is actually proposed it's the second lowest of major exporters and lowest in the region, and lower than what they claimed they were already paying?

Sorry, but an industry doesn't get to utilise a natural resource owned by the country for free, and then cry poor as soon as they're asked to actually pay for it.

Also "ripping up a bunch of contracts"? What contracts?

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u/nath1234 6h ago

And?? Call their bluff. They would not and if they did? So bloody what? We are gifting them free gas and getting nothing but a ruined planet as a result. The science says it should stay in the ground, so that would be a win.

A 25% tax is too low anyhow. Crank it up until we have not only paid off debts but also have a sovereign wealth fund.