The Albanese government appears to have ruled out imposing a tax on gas exports in next month’s federal budget, with Resources Minister Madeleine King indicating no internal shift on the idea.

Calls have grown for the federal government to impose a 25 per cent tax on gas exports in the May budget, with a Greens-led Senate inquiry on Friday preparing to quiz industry executives about the issue.

But King appeared to pour cold water on the idea of increased taxes for the sector.

“In relation to gas, we know there’s no change in our position on the taxation of that commodity,” she told ABC Radio ahead of the meeting.

“It’s only in the universe of the Greens party and their friends that they can say that spending hundreds of billions of dollars across the country could be considered in any way free.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also gave his strongest public indication a tax was not on the table, on Thursday talking up the industry’s contribution.

“They pay around about $22 billion … you need to acknowledge the tens of billions of dollars of investment that occurs in order to have that gas extracted,” he told the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing program.

“Without that investment that’s come from North America, that’s come from Japan … we wouldn’t be having a debate because there wouldn’t have been that extraction.”

King said gas was already taxed, including levies on offshore reserves.

“We’ve got to remember what those billions of dollars of investment has delivered for the Australian people,” she said.

“One of the things [we get out of it] is a domestic gas supply. We’re trying to make that fairer, so that there is more gas available in times of need.”

Opposition resources spokeswoman Susan McDonald said calls during the Senate inquiry to implement the tax were misguided.

“We’ve discovered that the arguments being put up by those seeking to hike taxes is because they really don’t understand what Australia’s tax system is,” she told ABC Radio.

McDonald said rather than increasing tax on gas companies, there would be additional revenue for the economy if more gas reserves were opened up.

“Once the gas starts flowing, the tax take start to shoot upwards,” she said.

“We will see a much bigger return than what’s been proposed by this 25 per cent tax, particularly over long term, because we won’t undermine investability in this country.”

Among those to appear this week was Punter’s Politics founder Konrad Benjamin. He questioned why a resource-rich country such as Australia was giving away its wealth while taxing ordinary citizens.

“We understand that Australia’s gas is very valuable. We understand that we’re giving most of it away for free to foreign corporations,” he said on Tuesday.

“We understand that the same foreign corporations pay close to bugger-all tax.

“We understand that a stable democracy like ours, with lots of valuable natural resources gives us a lot of leverage. The question we punters have is, how is it that we are holding all of the cards, yet still losing?”

Former Treasury secretary Ken Henry, meanwhile, urged the government to “just do it”.

“In the national interest, just do it and stop the crap the Australian public have put up with for decades now,” he said.

Woodside, Chevron, Santos, INPEX and peak body Australian Energy Producers are all expected to argue any new taxes on the sector would stifle investment and cost jobs, when they face the Greens-led Senate hearing on Friday.

“For Australia to remain competitive, stability in fiscal settings is critical,” Chevron’s submission to the inquiry said.

“Introducing an additional tax on LNG exports would increase perceptions of sovereign risk and further reduce Australia’s attractiveness for long-term investment.”

Some of the gas companies have defended the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax regime, which has been criticised for raising little revenue from resources companies. INPEX’s submission argued this was by design.

“The absence of PRRT payments in the early years of large LNG projects reflects intended design and phasing, not tax avoidance,” it said.

The Japanese-owned oil and gas company said the system was designed to raise more tax income once projects matured and become more profitable.

Still, independent MP Allegra Spender said a 25 per cent tax on gas exports would help fix issues in the sector.

“The gas industry is a very profitable industry and pays income tax. And every company in Australia, frankly, should pay income tax on its profits and should pay the proper rate,” she told ABC Radio.

“The gas companies are different because they also sell an Australian resource which they extract, which we can’t get back once it is sold.”

-with AAP