Factcheck: Is the research behind calls for a gas exports tax 'misinformation'?

On ABC’s Afternoon Briefing on 20 July 2026, Member for Forrest Ben Small said:

There’s been a pretty shameless campaign by the Australia Institute, the Senator for Canberra, David Pocock and others, to spread basically misinformation on how much of a contribution that the oil and gas industry makes to Australia and to our economic activity.

Claim: Research underpinning calls for a gas exports tax is “misinformation”.

Is it misinformation?

Importantly, Mr Small did not identify which specific claims or publications he was referring to.

However, many of the claims made by the Australia Institute, Senator David Pocock and others, based on research into the economics of gas in Australia is based largely on official data sources.

For example:

• The Australia Institute’s research showing that Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT) receipts are going down, not up, comes from the budget papers. As does research showing that Australians pay more in beer excise, or spirits excise, or even the excise on pre-mixed alcohol and ciders than the oil and gas industry pays in PRRT.
• Research showing how Australia’s gas industry overstates how many people it employs uses data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, here.
• Research showing that Australia exports around 80% of our gas production comes from the government’s Australian Energy Statistics.
• Research showing how little tax individual gas companies pay uses Australian Taxation Office (ATO) data here.
• Research showing that Australia collects more from student debt repayments than the PRRT is sourced from the ATO annual report here.

Verdict: There is no evidence that the research underpinning calls for a gas exports tax is ‘misinformation’. These data sources are published by Australian government departments and agencies and are publicly available. Whether commentators draw different conclusions from those figures is a matter of interpretation, but the underlying data largely consists of official government statistics.