Is a gas tax a good option? Does Norway have the right idea?

Well, I think the status quo is, uh, for a number of reasons hard to justify, but what exactly to do is tricky.

So this 25% export tax idea, that would raise global gas prices if it was brought in.

Do we want that? Look, I think some of us do, because gas adds carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.

If the price was high, maybe we'd lose less of it.

But I suspect the broad consensus for this campaign would probably, uh, splinter away a little bit if, if that was what was presented.

Some people who do support a gas tax, uh, have a more sort of nuanced, uh, idea of what we should do.

Mm.

What's the sense you're getting from business leaders, Miriam, that we're spending big time and pushing up prices, they'd like that, or that unemployment is so low they can't get workers, [chuckles] and that's pushing up prices, and they probably wouldn't like that? [chuckles]

Yeah.

Well, look, I'll answer this two ways.

So, so first, statistically, NAB put out a, a business survey around capacity utilization this week, and that actually found businesses were utilizing their productive capacity was above long-run averages in most of the industries that it tracks.

So that's sort of the, the statistical answer to that is like, yeah, they are hitting up those capacity constraints.

But I think anecdotally, I have not come across a small business since the global financial crisis, really, that isn't having trouble finding staff and workers, particularly in, uh, low-skilled industries.

Now, you know, there's always a, an answer to how do you get more workers, which is you, you can raise what you're paying, and then [chuckles] you'll probably attract more.

[laughing]