Opposition Leader Angus Taylor rejects colleague’s call for new gas export tax
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor appears to have clashed with former leadership rival Andrew Hastie over a proposal to tax Australia’s gas exports, saying the tax is not a solution to securing domestic supply.
Last week Mr Hastie did not rule out support for increasing the oil resource rent tax to 25 per cent; The Greens claimed this figure could raise $17 billion a year.
He said he was sympathetic to the perspective that “multinationals do not have a social licence” and was therefore open to the idea of a windfall tax.
But Mr Taylor, who beat the MP for Canning to win the leadership in February, has closed down the possibility of supporting any export tax.
“I don’t think anything has changed in terms of whether we need more homes, more gas or more oil,” he told reporters in Canberra.
“We need all of these things and you can’t get more of them by increasing taxes, so for me it’s pretty simple.
“If we want more of something, let’s not tax it more. We want more gas, we want more crude oil.”
Oil is not the only issue on which Mr Taylor and Mr Hastie differ.
At Monday’s press conference, the Liberal leader was unable to give a clear answer as to whether he thought US President Donald Trump made a mistake by attacking Iran.
Instead, he emphasized the importance of reopening the Strait of Hormuz and did not provide detailed information about the consequences of the US/Israeli operation in the region.
By contrast, Mr Hastie told ABC Insider the other day that Mr Trump’s “massive miscalculation” on Iran was hurting Australians.
Pointing to the US leader’s claim that Iran destroyed its nuclear capacity during the 12-day war in June last year, he said, “I thought we did this job last year.”
“You can object to Donald Trump’s rhetoric, it’s all priced in – malicious tweets and other things – but there has been no consultation with allies, because if we had a little bit more lead time we wouldn’t be in the crisis we have now, we’re at the point now where we’re trying to secure our liquid fuel.”
