Oxfam has just released a report ‘Freeloaders’ which shows that one in three coal, oil and gas corporations are paying no corporate income tax in Australia. And those that do pay, pay little.
It is unfair that these corporations, who are making billions from Australia’s resources, pay little to no corporate income tax while everyday Australians face rising energy bills, food, insurance and climate disaster recovery costs.
We call on the Australian Government to introduce a 25% gas levy as a first step towards ensuing the industry pays a fair share in tax. Make big polluters pay. Email the treasurer here.
So how much tax do coal, oil and gas corporations actually pay in Australia?
Our research shows that one in three large coal, oil and gas corporations paid no corporate income tax in 2023–24.
Across the sector, they contributed just 5% of their $436 billion in total reported income in corporate income tax. This is despite there being a 30% corporate tax rate. The oil and gas sector paid particularly little, just $5.2 billion (4%) in corporate income tax on $116 billion in total income.
Corporations pay tax on their profits, not on their revenue, and these corporations can use a variety of legal strategies to avoid or reduce a taxable profit, despite making billions. This enables them to minimise the corporate income tax they pay, sometimes to zero.
This is not illegal, but we think it’s unfair.
Where do the profits go?
A large share of the industry is overseas‑owned, with fossil fuel multinationals like Shell, ExxonMobil and Chevron operating and profiting from Australia’s resources.
Our analysis found 41% of fossil fuel corporations operating in Australia are overseas‑owned, including two out of every three coal companies, and almost one in every three oil and gas companies. Overseas‑owned coal, oil and gas corporations made up to 700% more than their local counterparts.
Because Australia’s tax system allows corporations to take advantage of tax loopholes and tax breaks, much of the billions made by these corporations ultimately flows to wealthy shareholders, executives and overseas owners, rather than benefitting the Australian community. That's why we need to reform the tax system so that corporations pay a fair share.
How much do the CEO’s of coal, oil and gas corporations earn?
The CEO’s of coal, oil and gas corporations are amongst the best paid in Australia and the world.
For example, in 2024 Whitehaven Coal’s Paul Flynn was paid $10.7 million, Santos CEO Kevin Gallagher was paid $6.5 million and BHP CEO Mike Henry received $19.3 million in realised pay.¹
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese earns $607,500 and the average salary of a registered nurse is $76,183. In the context of growing inequality in Australia, we question whether running a fossil fuel corporation (BHP, for example) should reward them 31 times more than running the country, or 253 times more than working to provide essential healthcare.
The overseas-owned fossil fuel multinational corporations that operate in Australia and profit from Australian resources also pay their CEOs handsomely: In 2024, ExxonMobil paid its CEO Darren Woods $66.8 million,² Chevron paid its CEO Michael Wirth $49.52 million,³ and Shell’s chief executive received a package totalling $12.1 million.⁴ In 2025 Peabody paid their CEO $13.99 million.⁵
We think these corporations can pay back more to the Australian people and that the tax system should be changed so they paid a fair share.
How will the war on Iran impact on the profits and tax paid by coal, oil and gas industry in Australia?
Australians are already paying the price from climate change, with climate disasters being made worse by the climate pollution of these big fossil fuel corporations. Now the war in the middle east is spiking oil and gas prices. This situation could lead to an increase in profits for oil and gas corporations, while everyday people endure rising costs and hardship.
Our research on the start of the war on Ukraine and the COVID-19 crisis showed that fossil fuel corporations made huge profits while poverty and inequality rose.⁶ We found that between 2021 and 2023:
- Fuel and petrol retailers made over $1 billion in windfall crisis profits.
- Whitehaven Coal made $4.91 billion in windfall crisis profits
- Santos made $4.3 billion in windfall crisis profits.
If the Australian Government doesn’t act now to better tax the coal, oil and gas industry, we risk it happening again.
Why should the Australian Government introduce a 25% gas export levy?
Our resources belong to all Australians so we should get the benefits of exporting them. And as our research has shown, the gas industry pays particularly low levels of corporate income tax. It also pays little royalites and PRRT. Research by the Australia Institute has shown that more than half of all gas extracted in Australia for export is given away without any royalties or PRRT being charged.⁷
A 25% tax on gas exports is an important first step in helping to ensure the industry pays a fairer share of tax. It would raise around $17 billion that should be spent on supporting households with energy costs during this price crisis, with getting of oil and gas for good, public services and international aid to support people living in poverty in our region.
It must also be spent on supporting communities to recover from climate disasters made worse by the climate pollution of the fossil fuel industry.
A 25% tax on gas revenue would replace the ineffective PRRT which is a profits-based tax. A tax on revenue, rather than profits, would mean that corporates cannot claim deductions to offset profits and reduce the tax paid.
What else should the Australian Government do to ensure the coal, oil and gas industry pays a fair share?
Big coal, oil and gas corporations are responsible for three quarters of Australia’s climate pollution.⁸ Yet they continue to receive billions in government subsidies⁹, aren’t paying a fair share of tax and pay little towards climate disasters.
Meanwhile, everyday people are paying the price of climate change through increasing insurance bills, high food prices, and huge recovery costs from more severe storms, drought, bushfires and floods.
Climate disasters are now costing Australia $38 billion per year¹⁰ — that’s an average of $3,800 per household. In the Pacific, the impact is even more devastating, with extreme weather events becoming more frequent and destructive.
It’s critically important that the Australian Government hold coal, oil and gas corporations to account for their climate pollution and its contribution to climate change and the escalation in climate disasters.
We are calling on the Australian Government to introduce a climate pollution levy to reflect the true cost of fossil fuel pollution on the communities it impacts.
We are also calling for a Climate Compensation Fund to be established, funded by gas export and climate pollution levies, to help communities adapt and recover from climate disasters.
What can the Australian Government do to stop corporations using tax havens?
Australia is estimated to lose 5.4% or $9.8 billion (USD $6.5 billion) of its corporate tax revenue to profits shifted to tax havens.¹¹
Globally, it is also estimated that in normal times 12% of fossil fuel corporations profits are shifted to tax havens. In times of crisis, this increases to 20% of superprofits.¹²
Australia should cooperate with other nations to agree on new rules to reduce the corporate tax avoidance of multinational corporations. Negotiations are currently underway to establish a new United Nations Tax Convention and Australia can play a constructive and progressive role to help achieve agreements that, if implemented, could restore billions to government budgets.
Australia has led the way in implementing the world’s best multinational tax transparency reporting requirement. Now we need their global leadership to help end profit shifting to tax havens.
What can I do?
Please join us in calling on the Australian Government to introduce a 25% gas export levy at the 2026 Federal budget in May. Please email the Treasurer here.
For more information, please read the full Freeloaders report here.
References:
1. Australian Council of Superannuation Investors and Ownership Matters, CEO Pay in ASX200 Companies (Australian Council of Superannuation Investors, 2025).
2 . Reuters, ‘Exxon CEO Woods’ Compensation Rose 19% in 2024’, Reuters, 7 April 2025.
3. Chevron, 2025, ’2025 Proxy statement’
4. Shell plc, Shell Annual Report and Accounts and Form 20-F 2024 (Shell, 2024)
5. Peabody, Notice of 2026 Annual Meeting of Stockholders (Peabody, 2026),
6. Oxfam Australia, 2024, Cashing in on crisis.
7. Ogge et al., Australia’s Great Gas Giveaway: How Australia and the Northern Territory Give Gas to Multinational Corporations for Free.
8. Calculation based on comparing emissions from energy (as the majority of energy and transport emissions come from fossil fuel sources) against total emissions, excluding LULUCF. Table 3, DCCEEW, Table 3: Quarterly Update of Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory: March 2025 (Australian Government, 2025).
9. Matt Grudnoff and Rod Campbell, Fossil fuel subsidies in Australia 2026 (The Australia Institute, 2026).
10. Deloitte Access Economics, 2021, ’Special report: Update to the economic costs of natural disasters in Australia Australian Business Roundtable for Disaster Resilience & Safer Communities‘.
11. Atlas of the Offshore World, accessed 25/03/2026,
12. Gabriel Zucman, Where do the profits of the war go?
