Australia's Gas Heist
- Opened on fileWe gave away the gas
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.
Fig. 02 / What happened
Fig. 03 / Who the record names
How we know
The exhibits sit beside the title above, each tied to the article that documented it. How evidence and sources are graded: evidence grade, source tiers.
What else is connected
Named in this case and in others. A count of where the record names them, not a finding about what they did.
From the desk
- Watch: Reindeer decommissioning environment plan (due 2028-2029 under the accepted plan)The A$60 billion boomerang: who cleans up the offshore rigs when the gas money is gone · Australia's Gas HeistAustralia's Gas Heist
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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.
- Watch: Domestic Gas Reservation Mechanism’s Domestic Supply Obligation startsWhy nothing changes · Australia's Gas HeistAustralia’s Gas Heist
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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.
- Watch: Beetaloo ramp to the full 40 TJ/d (Tamboran: early 2027) and whether the GSA price has surfacedThe buyer and the backstop · Australia's Gas HeistAustralia's Gas Heist
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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.
- Scarborough first cargo, Q4 2026The boom that paid Woodside back · Australia's Gas HeistScarborough was 98 per cent complete with first cargo on track for the fourth quarter of 2026.
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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.
- Correction publishedThe decommissioning rort · Australia's Gas Heist
The hero illustration for this article showed “60-70%” as the share of decommissioning costs that could land on taxpayers. That range was attributed to an Australia Institute page that carries no decommissioning figure. The illustration now shows IEEFA’s “up to 58%”, as in this section, and the reference list no longer attributes the range to that page.
- Correction publishedThe east coast gas cartel · Australia's Gas Heist
This section said the Australian Strategic Policy Institute described the situation as ‘a sovereignty issue, not a market quirk’, arguing that manufacturers were vulnerable to manipulation by a handful of export-focused companies with no domestic supply obligation. The phrase is the headline of an opinion piece by John Coyne, director of national security programs at ASPI, in ASPI’s The…
- Correction publishedGas and climate: the final rort · Australia's Gas Heist
This section said Article 1 answered that the gas benefits "primarily foreign shareholders, headquartered in Houston and Tokyo". No reference in this series carries who owns the companies. It now says the gas benefits the companies that extract it, three of the five dominant ones foreign multinationals, as Who Profits documents.
- Correction publishedHow they killed the mining tax · Australia's Gas Heist
The quotation above began "The campaign was such a success", left out the authors’ quotation marks around "mining tax style campaign", and was attributed to a University of Melbourne publication of 2022 and referenced to a Centre for Public Integrity page that does not carry it. It is from Joo-Cheong Tham and Yee-Fui Ng, writing in The Conversation on 19 August 2022, who put it in their own words…
- Correction publishedWe gave away the gas · Australia's Gas Heist
This section called the companies that take the gas "predominantly foreign-owned". None of this article’s references carries that, so the words are cut.
- Correction publishedWhat Norway built · Australia's Gas Heist
This section said the gas companies operating in Australia are "entirely or predominantly foreign-owned", and the opening said the windfall profits were distributed to "foreign shareholders headquartered in Houston and Tokyo". None of this article’s references carries who owns those companies. The section now says only that they are private companies, of which Chevron, Shell and INPEX are foreign…
- Correction publishedWhat the media covers and how · Australia's Gas Heist
The paragraph above on News Corp and the 2010 tax campaign said the Epstein files revealed that the campaign was coordinated at the highest levels of international political networking. The reporting on the files, set out in Article 6, shows a British political figure, Peter Mandelson, advising the industry on strategy and sharing campaign emails with Jeffrey Epstein; it does not say the campaign…
- Correction publishedWho profits · Australia's Gas Heist
The opening also said Woodside’s shareholders were "more than half" foreign institutional investors, and no reference carried it. Woodside’s 2024 annual report gives its shareholders by registered address, not by who owns the shares in the end, and does not support the claim, so it is cut from the opening and from the figure beneath it.
- Correction publishedWhy nothing changes · Australia's Gas Heist
The fourth point said University of Melbourne academics had described the 2010 campaign’s template as ‘now routine’, and reference 13 pointed to an Australia Institute explainer that does not carry the quotation. The words are Joo-Cheong Tham’s and Yee-Fui Ng’s, in The Conversation of 19 August 2022, and the point, the timeline entry and reference 13 now quote and cite that article. The point…
- Article updatedThe political connections · Australia's Gas Heist
- Correction publishedBeer, HECS, and the broken tax · Australia's Gas Heist
This section said the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax was introduced in 1988, while another article in this series said 1987. The tax was legislated in the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax Assessment Act 1987; this section now says so.
- Correction publishedThe decommissioning rort · Australia's Gas Heist
The summary above said Woodside sold the Northern Endeavour for A$1, while this section says Woodside paid NOGA A$1 to take it. The sources this article cites for the transfer describe Woodside paying NOGA, so the summary now says the same.
- Correction publishedThe east coast gas cartel · Australia's Gas Heist
The opening of this article said IEEFA’s lead analyst wrote in 2022 that the ACCC had allowed the gas market to become a cartel. The words quoted are Bruce Robertson’s, in an IEEFA opinion piece from 2018, the source this article cites for them. The opening now names him and gives the year as 2018.
- Correction publishedHow they killed the mining tax · Australia's Gas Heist
The subtitle and this section called Mandelson the man "coordinating" the campaign and said he "acknowledged" or "conceded" there was no principled case against the tax. The reporting on the Epstein files does not call him the coordinator: it shows him advising on strategy and sharing campaign emails with Epstein. His words, as reported, were advice to the industry to "start to accept that there…
- Correction publishedThe boom that paid Woodside back · Australia's Gas Heist
This section said Woodside paid A$1.72bn of income tax in 2023-24. This desk could not find that figure in the record; Woodside's own release on the ATO's 2023-24 data states A$2.26bn of corporate income tax, alongside the A$796m of PRRT, and the section, the fact box and the key facts now say so, citing that release at in place of a data.gov.au homepage.
- Correction publishedThe inquiry that couldn't agree · Australia's Gas Heist
This section and the brief said a government response to the original report was still outstanding. This outlet could not find a record of that status, and the committee's report made no recommendations: it recorded that members could not agree on any and invited the government only to reconsider the fuel-security question after the conflict in Iran. The text now says that instead.
- Correction publishedWe gave away the gas · Australia's Gas Heist
This section said the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax was introduced in 1987, while other articles in this series said 1988. The tax was legislated in the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax Assessment Act 1987; the series now uses that wording throughout.
- Correction publishedWhat the media covers and how · Australia's Gas Heist
This section said the Institute for Strategic Dialogue found Sky News Australia to be the most prolific publisher of climate misinformation on YouTube in Australia, and that YouTube restricted its content in 2021 for that reason. ISD's 2022 report describes Sky News Australia as a “content hub” for climate scepticism and delay, not as the most prolific YouTube publisher; and YouTube's one-week…
- Correction publishedWho profits · Australia's Gas Heist
The opening of this article said Woodside’s shareholders received US$9.7 billion in dividends over Meg O’Neill’s five years as CEO. Woodside’s full-year 2024 results put US$9.7 billion as the total returned to shareholders since its 2022 merger with BHP’s petroleum business, as this section states, not a total for her time as CEO. The opening now says so. It also said she spent five years as CEO…
- Record: article 7 corrected, 7 October 2026Why nothing changes · Australia's Gas HeistAustralia’s Gas Heist · one dated correction (the levy in Senator Pocock’s own comments; the inquiry; the report now read) and one dated update (the clip’s views).
This section referred to a table that the article does not contain. It now refers to the history the series has documented.
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UPDATED 7 October 2026 (case: AUSTRALIA'S GAS HEIST, article 7, Why nothing changes).
ARTICLE CHANGES. One correction and one update, in the section "The rort, in real time", after the Update of 9 September 2026, which is left as published. Correction: the 9 September update said the 25 per cent export levy "appears only in the Chair’s additional comments"; Senator David Pocock’s own additional comments (paragraph 1.65) also recommend a 25 per cent tax on the value of gas exports. It also said Pocock’s proposed inquiry became the Select Committee; his own motion for a committee, with him to chair, was lost 17 to 23 on 12 March 2026, and the Senate established the committee on the motion of Greens Senator Steph Hodgins-May, 35 to 21, on 30 March. The report, which the record of 9 September said could not be opened, has since been read on aph.gov.au. The record of 9 September, reference 20 and a later sentence in the same section carry dated notes. Update: the 8.7 million views given for the Senate Estimates clip is dated to its February 2026 reporting; the ABC reported "nearly 10 million" on 2 May 2026. The fact box, the sidebar key fact and the sentence in the section on what has changed are dated too. References 22 to 24 added.
STILL OPEN. Whether a windfall levy will be revisited in a future Budget is unknown; the mechanism’s legislation was at exposure-draft stage on 10 September 2026.
NEXT DATE: 1 January 2028, when the Domestic Gas Reservation Mechanism’s Domestic Supply Obligation is due to start.
- Record: article 7 updated, 30 September 2026Why nothing changes · Australia's Gas HeistAustralia’s Gas Heist · one dated update: the reservation mechanism’s start dates.
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…
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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.
- Correction publishedBeer, HECS, and the broken tax · Australia's Gas Heist
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…
- Correction publishedGas and climate: the final rort · Australia's Gas Heist
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…
- Correction publishedThe political connections · Australia's Gas Heist
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…
- Record: first Beetaloo gas sold at a discounted commissioning price; the contract terms are still sealedThe buyer and the backstop · Australia's Gas HeistAustralia's Gas Heist · attended 9 September 2026
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…
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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).
- Record: no windfall levy in the May Budget; the gas tax inquiry ended without consensusWhy nothing changes · Australia's Gas HeistAustralia’s Gas Heist · attended 9 September 2026
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…
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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 (corrected 7 October 2026: his own motion for a committee, with him to chair, was lost 17 to 23 on 12 March, and the Senate established this committee on the motion of Greens Senator Steph Hodgins-May, 35 votes to 21); 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 (corrected 7 October 2026: Senator Pocock’s own additional comments also recommend it, at paragraph 1.65) (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) (corrected 7 October 2026: the report has since been read on aph.gov.au), 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 (corrected 7 October 2026: the report has since been read, and the article now carries a correction on its additional comments); 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).
- Record: NOPSEMA appeal window closed with no appeal; the judgment is now read into gas article 12The A$60 billion boomerang: who cleans up the offshore rigs when the gas money is gone · Australia's Gas HeistAustralia's Gas Heist · attended 9 September 2026
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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).