Labor’s announcement of ‘business as usual’ levels of natural gas supply has been labelled a bad joke by the Coalition, exposing what it says is a government starved of real solutions to Australia’s cost of living crisis.
In a shallow attempt to distract voters from Labor’s inability to bring on new gas supply, Labor is today trumpeting a ‘gas deal’ trumpeting a ‘gas deal’ for domestic supply which experts and industry have suggested was always destined for the domestic market.
Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy Ted O’Brien blasted the governments ‘non-announcement’ today, suggesting it was another distraction from a Labor government with no plan to solve an energy crisis of its making.
“This announcement is a bad joke that will do absolutely nothing to drive down the cost of energy for Australian households and businesses, because it fails to tackle the source of the problem – supply,” Mr O’Brien said.
Shocking many commentators and energy experts, the announcement ignores the known fact that all gas from the Bass Strait is regularly earmarked for the domestic market due to a lack of local export terminals.
“This is nothing more than political spin,” Mr O’Brien said. “Not a single additional petajoule of gas will be tipped into Australia due to today’s announcement that wasn’t already destined for the domestic market.”
“This is a concession that the only way gas can flow to Australian households and businesses is when Labor provides the gas industry with exemptions from its very own policy settings.” Labor is patting itself on the back for what is clearly a self-made disaster.”
Shadow Minister for Resources, Senator Susan McDonald said “It is telling that this Labor Government has had to continue issuing exemptions from their own policies just in order to secure business as usual levels of natural gas supply.
“Exemptions from one bad policy does not guarantee projects will make it through Labor’s broken approval system or be funded by investors wary of Australia’s heightened sovereign risk.
“Natural gas reserves in the Bass Strait, sold into the domestic market, are declining rapidly and this Government has done nothing to encourage new supply to replace it across the East Coast market.”