ADELAIDE — One Nation leader Pauline Hanson unveiled a proposal to abolish the petroleum resource rent tax and acquire equity stakes of up to 30% in new gas ventures during a speech at a gas industry conference in Adelaide. The Norway-inspired policy would direct profits from the government's stakes into a sovereign wealth fund, with the holdings overseen by a new Commonwealth investment body.

Under the proposal, the government would offer companies a 30% rebate on exploration costs in Commonwealth waters in exchange for taking up to a 30% equity stake in operations. The arrangement would cover co-ownership from exploration through decommissioning, exposing taxpayers to financial risks lasting decades. It typically takes more than a decade for a gas project to progress from exploration to production, meaning taxpayers would not receive an immediate return on co-owned projects.

Hanson described the existing petroleum resource rent tax as a "failure" and proposed replacing it with a royalty regime for new projects, arguing the policy is designed to extract vastly greater returns for Australian taxpayers from gas resources. She said there had been no pushback from industry during private briefings, though mining billionaire Gina Rinehart was not consulted.

Hanson said the public was "rightly unhappy" and that "public unrest is building" about the return to taxpayers from the Australian oil and gas sector. She denied the proposal amounted to a nationalisation and said the government investment body would not have a day-to-day role in running the partner gas company.

The government, industry and the Coalition criticized the proposal, accusing One Nation of importing ideas from Venezuela. Liberal frontbencher James Paterson said, "I mean, that is a policy borrowed from Venezuela and Hugo Chávez, not Australia." "Of course I understand the principle that Australians want to get better return on our natural resources, that's a reasonable principle, and we can have a debate about the details of tax policy, but nationalising our oil and gas industry I don't think is the answer," Paterson added.

Australian Energy Producers welcomed Hanson's support for the oil and gas sector and defended the amount of tax the sector contributes. "As the recent federal budget confirmed, our existing tax system is already working as intended, delivering more tax revenue when international oil and gas prices are high," chief executive Samantha McCulloch said.

The Minerals Council of Australia opposes government equity stakes in a mature industry such as oil and gas. One Nation holds two lower house seats in the federal parliament and has been rising in opinion polls. A broad coalition of groups is campaigning to replace the petroleum resource rent tax with a 25% export levy.