Amnesty International Australia has made a submission the Select Committee on the Taxation of Gas Resources.
We campaign for a world where human rights are enjoyed by all, and support a greater taxation of gas resources amongst other measures that will resource a just transition to renewable energy rooted in respect for human rights.
Climate change threatens our civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights. It is already causing more frequent, more intense, and more unpredictable, extreme weather events in Australia that are impacting people’s human rights including their rights to housing and to health. It is being driven by the fossil fuel industry who earn enormous profits extracting, producing, and exporting fossil fuels, at the expense of everyone’s human rights.
In January 2026, bushfires destroyed more than 250 homes across Victoria. Those whose home have been destroyed and have been displaced now face searching for housing in areas where rental vacancies are as low as 0.69%.
In the Northern Territory, the Katherine hospital was evacuated twice in 2026 because of flooding, as Northern Australia faced seven high-risk weather events. Dozens of high-risk patients moved to Darwin, putting addition pressure on already-strained hospitals. Australia’s National Climate Risk Assessment warned that as extreme weather events across Northern Australia become more frequent, First Nations’ remote communities will be most at risk of harm from these events.
As a signatory to the seven core human rights treaties, Australia has promised to respect, protect, and fulfill the human rights they enshrine. To fulfill this obligation, the government must address climate change and resource a just transition to renewable energy rooted in respect for human rights.
Amnesty believes that taxation of gas resources is an important action the government can take to resource and realise that just transition.
Accordingly, Amnesty recommends strong taxation of oil and gas resources including changes to the tax treatment of gas production and export to fund a just transition.
Amnesty International is a global movement of more than 10 million people who take injustice personally. We are campaigning for a world where human rights are enjoyed by all – and we can only do it with your support.
Act now or learn more about our human rights work.
