COGS COGS of Australia Foundation · ABN 91 341 497 529
COGS of Australia

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The public record

Five Attempts - Four PMs - One Premier
The system is the problem.

Australia has tried to win back a share of its own resources. Five times. From both sides of politics. With real power behind each attempt. Five times it failed. Not because the idea was wrong. Because the same corporate machinery was ready and waiting. The tools used were political. The defences deployed were corporate. They were never going to meet on equal ground.

The Foundation presents this record not as political commentary but as the reason COGS works where those approaches could not. Source material: Hansard, ATO and Treasury records, High Court decisions, Senate committee transcripts, and published annual reports.

1970
Gorton
Liberal
Australian Industry Development Corporation (AIDC)
Liberal PM John Gorton and Country Party leader John McEwen establish a national investment fund to take equity stakes in Australian resource development, alongside private extraction rather than against it. Gorton's January 1970 Cabinet submission used a single bauxite shipment to demonstrate that exporting unprocessed minerals robbed Australia of multiples of the value retained in-country.
How it was defeated
Gorton was deposed by his own Liberal Party in a tied confidence vote on 10 March 1971, partly precipitated by his offshore minerals legislation. McMahon scaled the AIDC back. Over subsequent decades the AIDC drifted away from its founding purpose and was privatised by the Hawke and Howard governments.
1973
Whitlam
Labor
Petroleum and Minerals Authority (PMA)
Labor PM Gough Whitlam, with Rex Connor as Minister for Minerals and Energy, establishes a government-owned and controlled minerals and resources company with power to explore, lend, take equity stakes, and develop petroleum and mineral resources. Bob Hawke would later describe this as one of the most consequential resource-nationalist initiatives in Australian history.
How it was defeated
Bill blocked twice in the Senate. Passed by unprecedented joint sitting of both Houses on 7 August 1974. Struck down by the High Court (Barwick CJ and four Liberal-appointed judges) on a procedural Section 57 timing point. The Whitlam government was dismissed by the Governor-General on 11 November 1975. Loans Affair, Senate supply blockade, US State Department documented intervention.
1987
Hawke / Keating
Labor
Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT)
Labor PM Bob Hawke and Treasurer Paul Keating introduce a 40 per cent windfall-profits tax on offshore petroleum projects, to capture the community's share of resource rents from offshore oil and gas.
How it was defeated
Industry-funded multi-decade campaign of deductions accumulation. Compounding deductions grew faster than offshore revenue for years. Treasury confirmed in evidence to the Senate that no new offshore gas project has paid meaningful PRRT to date. The instrument remains on the books; the rents do not arrive.
2010
Rudd
Labor
Resource Super Profits Tax (RSPT)
Labor PM Kevin Rudd proposes a 40 per cent profits-based tax on mining super-profits, structured to target windfall returns above $50 million while preserving small-mining-operation viability.
How it was defeated
$100 million-plus mining-industry advertising and political-pressure campaign within weeks of the announcement. Rudd was deposed by his own Labor Party on 24 June 2010. Successor Julia Gillard weakened the tax to a Minerals Resource Rent Tax that raised approximately $300 million instead of the projected $50 billion. The Abbott government repealed even that residual.
2022
Miles
Qld Labor
Queensland Coal Royalty Tier Increase
Queensland Labor Premier Steven Miles introduces progressive coal-royalty tiers, using the receipts to deliver electricity-bill rebates and 50-cent public-transport fares to Queenslanders.
How it was defeated
Industry-funded media campaign focused on a 'youth crime wave', notwithstanding declining youth crime statistics under the same government, shifted electoral framing. Miles's Labor government lost the October 2024 Queensland state election. Mining industry groups publicly congratulated the incoming LNP government on the change of administration.
2026
Senate
Cross-bench
Ongoing
Senate Inquiry on the 25% Gas Export Tax Proposal
Senate Standing Committees on Economics inquiry, public hearing 21 April 2026. Australia Institute and Punters Politics testimony advocating a 25 per cent gas export tax replacing or supplementing the failed PRRT. Federal Budget 13 May 2026 will indicate the political reception.
Status
Outcome pending. Industry advertising response launched within days of the Senate hearing. The same defensive machinery that defeated each of the prior five instruments is operational.
The pattern

Every approach above worked through parliament. A law could be passed today and repealed tomorrow by a different government. Each one depended on a Minister staying in office, a Cabinet holding its nerve, or a budget surviving the Senate.

The industries affected had fifty years to build their defences. Lobbying. Political donations. Friendly media. Crossbench pressure. Legal challenges. In one case, foreign intervention. Every approach got beaten by the same playbook. The record is unambiguous.

A sixth attempt through parliament would fail the same way. It is also unnecessary. There is a different arena: the shareholder registry. The same defences that work in parliament do not work there.

Where the power bloc begins.

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What COGS does that none of those approaches could

✓

No Cabinet to depose. The Foundation is community-owned.

It holds CHESS-registered shares in two ASX-listed companies.

Legacy Minerals Holdings (ASX: LGM) is a gold and mineral exploration company working in northern NSW.

Santos (ASX: STO) is an Australian gas producer.

The next two acquisitions are Origin Energy (ASX: ORG) and Beach Energy (ASX: BPT). Both are gas producers.

Its standing as a shareholder is enforceable under the Corporations Act 2001 and the ASX Settlement Operating Rules.

No election can revoke it.

✓ Non-disposable by design. Once a share enters the Members Asset Pool hybrid trust, the Trustee has no power of sale unless 100% of members vote, or by Court order. The defensive mechanism that defeated the AIDC by progressive privatisation is structurally unavailable.
✓ Funded directly by Australians. No foreign capital to withhold. No Treasury borrowing to cancel. No offshore credit market to refuse. The Loans Affair architecture cannot recur because there are no loans.
✓ Electorally invisible. The Foundation is not on the ballot. A Liberal government cannot repeal it. A Labor government cannot repeal it. The crossbench cannot defeat it. The Foundation operates outside the arena where electoral defeat is the operative weapon.
The legal truth
Aussie Law: The Ground Truth
Get your voice heard
How does an ordinary Australian get a say?
The vision
COGS is more than an idea

Want to talk it through? Book a 15-minute call with Thomas.

COG$ of Australia Foundation  ·  ABN 91 341 497 529  ·  Drake Village NSW 2469  ·  Wahlubal Country, Bundjalung Nation
A community membership. Not financial advice. Not a managed investment scheme.

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