Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has decided that 'ramping up' is his go-to phrase to use about the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT). The problem is that only one fossil fuel item is actually going up, and it’s not the PRRT. It’s the Fuel Tax Credit, a subsidy to the fossil fuel industry.
Fri 22 May 2026 01.00 AEST
Photo: AAP Image/Jay Kogler
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has decided that ‘ramping up’ is his go-to phrase to use about the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT).
Last week, pressed on whether PRRT had failed, Albanese defended it, saying the structure of the scheme meant revenue would increase over time, or ‘ramp up’.
We’ve heard this before: major gas projects require enormous upfront investment, companies recoup those costs first, and only then does the tax begin to generate larger returns for government.
The problem is that only one fossil fuel item is actually going up, and it’s not the PRRT. It’s the Fuel Tax Credit, a subsidy to the fossil fuel industry.
In the next financial year, the Fuel Tax Credit will cost $10.7bn and then it is projected to grow to $12.8bn by 2029-30.
So what is the Fuel Tax Credit? The credit is money that the Government gives to miners, farmers and transport for notionally paying the fuel excise despite ‘not using public roads’ (this is a very dodgy argument, imo).
Each year it keeps going up.
Ramping up, if you will.
By contrast, the PRRT? The ramp is still there… just in the opposite direction.
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