Australia news live: Pocock buys billboards to pressure Chalmers on gas export tax; survey reveals national gloom

Pocock buys billboards to pressure Chalmers on gas export tax

Tom McIlroy

Labor should use the proceeds of limiting tax concessions for property investors and a crackdown on gas export profits to fund welfare increases and build housing, charities and social service groups say.

Ahead of next month’s federal budget, the Albanese government is under pressure to wind back negative gearing rules and the 50% capital gains tax discount for property investments, and to tax more of the profits from soaring commodity exports, pushed up by the global energy shock.

ACT independent senator David Pocock has bought billboards in Jim Chalmers’ Queensland electorate, calling for a 25% tax on gas exports, delivered through changes to the petroleum resource rent tax (PRRT) scheme.

A billboard in Jim Chalmers’ electorate in Queensland on Sunday, which was paid for by the ACT independent senator David Pocock. Photograph: Supplied

The gas tax plan – backed by the Greens, thinktank the Australia Institute and key Labor-aligned trade unions – could raise as much as $17bn for the budget.

The Australian Council of Social Service (Acoss) and a coalition of 50 charity and campaign organisations said money from the suite of proposed changes could help the most vulnerable, and fund sustained public investment in housing, renewables and disaster resilience.

The Acoss chief, Cassandra Goldie, urged the government to be bold, saying that:

People on the lowest incomes are skipping meals, delaying medical care and rationing energy just to get by.

Frontline services are operating at capacity, facing growing demand and increasingly complex needs. Current policy settings are not meeting the needs of our communities – it’s clear that significant and sustained public investment is essential.

Groups including Foodbank Australia, Jesuit Social Services and National Shelter have signed on to the push.

Key events

Tom McIlroy

Australian life satisfaction lower than during Covid-19: poll

Fallout from the global energy crisis, rising petrol prices and the war in Iran has contributed to lower average life satisfaction in Australia, according to new research by the Australian National University.

A poll of more than 3,600 adults found average life satisfaction had fallen to 6.22 on a scale of 0 to 10, the lowest recorded, and below levels reached during Covid-19 lockdowns.

Nearly 35% of Australians reported finding it difficult or very difficult on their current income, while the majority have taken at least one significant financial coping action in the past year.

“Australia in March 2026 is a country under considerable strain,’’ researcher Prof Nicholas Biddle said.

Unlike the lockdown periods, this decline is not a sharp shock from a higher base: life satisfaction was already depressed, making the current reading the culmination of a sustained deterioration rather than a sudden fall.