‘Are you toxic?’ Anthony Albanese heckled by a man on the street over gas industry royalties and tax income

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wasn’t keen to stop and chat with a member of the public who heckled him in Perth on Tuesday.

Vision of the awkward encounter has emerged, shared to the social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

In it, a man could be seen approaching the PM as he made his way to an interview at ABC Perth on Fielder Street in the city’s centre.

Flanked by staff and police protection officers, Mr Albanese tried to brush the man off as he and his entourage rushed inside the building.

“Prime minister, prime minister, good to see you,” the man began. “Who benefits from Australia’s gas industry?”

“They don’t pay any tax, they don’t create any jobs …” he continued, before another individual filming the exchange shouted: “You’re giving the gas away for free, Albo.”

Mr Albanese said hello and asked how the man was but didn’t address the question, which was a reference to a report released by The Australia Institute earlier this year.

In it, the think tank revealed that teachers pay twice as much in tax as the entire oil and gas industry.

In an analysis published in May, the Australia Institute’s senior economist Matt Grudnoff took aim at claims by oil and gas companies that they help fund public sector jobs, like teachers.

“Over the last ten years, ATO data shows that all of Australia’s school teachers paid $95 billion in personal income tax, an average of $9.5 billion per year,” Mr Grudnoff wrote.

“By contrast, the oil and gas industry paid $12.5 billion [via the petroleum resource rent tax] and $33 billion in company tax over the last ten years, or an average of just $4.6 billion per year.”

In the clip shared on social media, the man who approached Mr Albanese explained that 90 per cent of gas produced here is shipped abroad.

“How come half of that gas, they don’t pay any royalties on? How come the oil and gas industry barely get taxed?”

That has been the view of the Australian Taxation Office in the past, which in 2019 described the toil and gas sector as home to “systemic non-payers” of tax.

“The oil and gas industry employs few people and pays barely any tax,” Mr Grudnoff wrote.

“Instead, the profits from Australian gas extraction flow overseas to mainly foreign owners. Australians are largely missing out.

“The resource sector may claim that it is funding schools and hospitals, but it is doing little when compared to other industries.

“We need genuine reform of the PRRT to ensure Australians are getting their fair share from the oil and gas industry.”

The heckler stuck around outside the public broadcaster’s West Australian headquarters until the PM re-emerged.

“Mr Albanese, where’s the money for the gas?” he asked.

The PM simply replied: “Have a lovely day.”

“Are you gaslighting me, Mr Albanese? Are you toxic?”

Mr Albanese stepped into his BMW limousine and was driven away.

He spent Monday and Tuesday in Perth for a series of announcements and to attend a fundraiser where tickets went for as much as $2000 a head.