Amy Remeikis

The problem with that, though, is that people don't know the eligibility for these new supports.

They don't know where they're going to be available.

They don't know when they're going to be available.

And what happens is we get into a funding fight between the Commonwealth and the states and territories over how much or how little they're actually able to fund.

And that can go on for a really long time because nothing in these funding agreements is

is ever set in stone or is ever certain for long enough for people to be able to plan their lives around it.

So the committee has been going over three days.

It heard from think tanks like the Australia Institute, who I am employed by, the Superpower Institute, Ken Henry, who was appearing in a personal capacity, former Secretary of the Treasury and also one of the authors of Taxes.

reform in this country, you know, the Conservation Foundation.

And that day was all pretty much in unison about needing to reform gas tax.

So Ken Henry was probably the strongest on this when he came out and said that, you know, just cut the crap.

Yeah, that man was unloading.

And he was quite strong on that because I don't think that there would be anyone who would call Ken Henry a lefty and be taken seriously.

The man was basing this on what he knows of the Australian tax system and what he knows about how we tax resources.

The next day we heard from gas executives, though, and the Business Council and Queensland Resources Council, and they were all just as unified in how it is a terrible idea to tax gas and how it is not the time for it.

And things are very dicey.

And it was raised with, I think, one of the executives from Shell about how every single time taxes are discussed, it is always the wrong time to tax gas.

to which they didn't really have an answer other than the fact that they rely on corporate tax.

So whenever we hear about resource companies saying, oh, no, no, no, we pay tax.

Yes, they do.