The left-leaning think tank said Australian equity in to the LNG industry was only 4.3 per cent.

Seven out of the 10 LNG export projects were at least 90 per cent foreign owned. Four of the projects, including Curtis Island LNG were foreign owned.

The three projects on Curtis Island were owned by European giant Shell, APLNG (a company owned by Sinopec, Origin and ConocoPhillips) and GLNG (owned by Santos, Petronas, Kogas, Total).

The institute said the overall resources sector in Australia was largely foreign owned. It said BHP, often called the Big Australian, was 94 per cent foreign owned and the mining industry was 90 per cent foreign owned.

Report author and senior research fellow at the Australia Institute David Richardson said households were paying a fortune to compete with the gas export inedustry, run bya amajority foreign owned companies who pay little or no tax,” he said.

“As gas companies lobby for ever-more expansion for export profit, Australians are entitled to ask how this industry is serving the national interest,” he said.

“It’s time for the Government to consider a windfall profits tax, as recently enacted by the UK Government, to ensure Australians get a fair share of our natural resources industry.”

In Queensland, the State Government is expected to impose higher royalties in the coal sector after mining companies have enjoyed soaring prices.

Gas industry Industry lobby group APPEA said the latest report from “this anti-gas political activist group again completely misrepresents our industry, one of the leading drivers of the Australian economy”.

“Many of the resources in Australia would not be developed without access to capital from around the world,” APPEA chief executive Damian Dwyer said.

“The oil and gas industry is a huge backer of Australia and its economy, investing around $473 billion between 2010 and 2020 and paying about $5 billion a year in payments to all levels of government, totaling more than $150 billion since the late 1980s.

“These include PRRT collections that have delivered over $40 billion since its introduction and the latest Budget shows these will rise by over $4 billion over the next four years.

“But the full scope of our national economic contribution is far wider than just payments – employing tens of thousands of workers, providing energy security to households and businesses and facilitating regional growth – and was recently put across the entire gas supply chain at almost $500 billion of economic activity annually.”