Gas tax lands today

Good morning.

The Senate Select Committee on the Taxation of Gas Resources tables its inquiry report today. This is one of the most commercially significant committee reports of the year. The committee was established to examine whether the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax is delivering adequate returns to the Australian public from gas extraction.

If you track energy, resources, tax, or fiscal policy: this report will be discussed in the context of Tuesday's Budget. Any recommendations the committee makes on PRRT reform will land in a Budget environment where revenue measures are already under pressure. Read the report before you digest the Budget.

No hearings today. From yesterday's events...

Key points from the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services public hearing for its Small Business Insurance inquiry:

• Insurance Council of Australia told the committee that some small business premiums have risen up to 60% since 2019 and called for a national review of civil liability laws for the first time in roughly 25 years, including caps on legal costs and a national ban on claim 'farming'.
• Australian Lawyers Alliance national president Ian Murray told the hearing that restricting injured people's access to compensation would not fix pricing — it would just shift costs onto Medicare, Centrelink and the NDIS.
• The committee is due to report 27 October 2026; more hearings to come.

From the report tabled by the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee's inquiry on the Review of the National Emergency Declaration Act 2020: the Government should keep building awareness of the Act and its framework across state, territory and local governments so coordination works when an emergency is declared; and, consequently, the Act should be amended so that national emergency declarations and extensions are subject to the usual parliamentary process — a change that would add a layer of oversight to powers that currently sit with the Governor-General on the Prime Minister's advice alone.

Tomorrow is the last day for submissions to four inquiries — I'll run through them in the morning.

— Mia