Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has seemingly clashed with former leadership rival Andrew Hastie over a proposal to tax Australia’s gas exports, saying a levy is not a solution to securing domestic supply.
Last week, Mr Hastie would not rule out support for increasing the petroleum resource rent tax to 25 per cent, a figure the Greens claim could raise $17bn per year.
He said he was sympathetic to the perspective that “multinationals don’t have a social licence” and was therefore open to the idea of a windfall tax.
But Mr Taylor – who beat out the Canning MP to win the leadership in February – shut down the prospect of supporting any type of export levy.
“I don’t think anything has changed about whether we need more houses, whether we need more gas, or whether we need more oil,” he told reporters in Canberra.
“We need all of those things, and you don’t get more of those things by raising taxes, so it’s pretty straightforward for me.
“If we want more of something, let’s not tax it more. And we do want more gas, we want more crude oil.”
Oil is not the only issue where Mr Taylor and Mr Hastie differ.
During his Monday press conference, the Liberal leader was unable to give a straight answer on whether he thought US President Donald Trump had made a mistake by attacking Iran.
Instead, he pointed to the importance of reopening the Strait of Hormuz and would not elaborate on the consequences of the US/Israeli campaign in the region.
In contrast, Mr Hastie told ABC Insiders the day prior that Mr Trump’s “huge miscalculation” on Iran was hurting Australians.
“I thought last year we did the job,” he said, pointing to the US leader’s claim of decimating Iranian nuclear capability during the 12-day war in June last year.
“You can take issue with Donald Trump’s rhetoric, it’s all priced in – mean tweets and whatever else – but there wasn’t consultation with allies, because had we had a bit more lead time, we wouldn’t be in the current crisis we are now where we’re trying to secure our liquid fuel.”
