Sam Hawley

In it, it's revealed the government receives more money from a tax on beer than from the tax on the profits of massive oil and gas projects.

Today, the ABC's chief digital political correspondent, Claire Armstrong, on the growing campaign for a new gas tax.

I'm Sam Hawley on Gadigal land in Sydney.

This is ABC News Daily.

Claire, let's start by discussing this social media video that, well, it had many, many views.

Now, in it, independent Senator David Pocock is quizzing Treasury officials about tax.

So just tell me what goes on.

And then this is an idea that's sort of pushed along, Claire, by former teacher Conrad Benjamin, who's founded Hunter's Politics.

Now, he actually appeared before a Senate inquiry the Greens had set up into a gas tax.

And Ken Henry, the former Treasury Secretary, well, he thinks it's a fabulous idea and he's really passionate about it, isn't he?

So everyone's got a bit riled up at this point.

But look, let's put it into some more context as well, Claire, because the oil and gas companies, they do pay other taxes as well, right, and state royalties.

Clare, the Australia Institute, that's a progressive think tank, it's one of the leading advocates for a new gas tax, a 25% gas tax.

Now, its head, Richard Dennis, points out that Qatar...

that exports a similar amount of gas as us collects five times the amount of government revenue from its exports.

And he notes that the Japanese government is actually collecting more tax from Australian gas than we are, which is like what on earth is going on?

Just tell me, how much money would we make from this 25% tax on these gas giants?

So Claire, the other thing that advocates point to for this tax is Norway, as they have a similar sort of tax in place that is making the government masses of money, isn't it?

There are, of course, as we mentioned, people here who think, really, this is a very risky idea to bring in a tax like this.

Now, the gas companies, of course, are among them.