Gas giants could be forced to divert supply to Australia

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Both major parties are under pressure to prioritise domestic gas supplies in their cost-of-living plans ahead of the federal election. Gas giants would be forced to divert gas to the domestic market under a Coalition reservation scheme targeting new projects in exchange for faster environmental approvals. Industry sources expect Labor to follow suit as part of an election shootout over how best to secure more energy and drive down prices.

Transcript

00:00We're expecting the Coalition to unveil its plans to force gas giants to divert supply

00:08to the domestic market and sources have told the ABC that originally it was planned that

00:14Peter Dutton, the opposition leader, would unveil details during the election campaign.

00:19However, with energy and the prices that we all have to pay being such a big topic among

00:26voters and looming as a key battleground in this upcoming federal election, he's decided

00:32to move those plans forward. It could be imminent. He could reveal details as early as his budget

00:37reply on Thursday and industry insiders believe that Labor will very quickly follow suit with

00:44its own gas diversion scheme. That's because we are looking at the possibility of a hung

00:49parliament with both the tills and independents very hot on this particular issue, particularly

00:55Jackie Lambie and David Pocock. He has criticised both parties for a tragic lack of leadership

01:02on this issue by failing to prioritise Australians and he says that there is plenty of gas to

01:09go around to everybody with the gas that is still to be sold on the overseas market. He

01:15says this should actually be diverted to Australian households and businesses first. Now there

01:23are already gas diversion schemes operating in some states, including WA and Queensland,

01:29but this would apply far more broadly. And the real devil is in the detail. Just how

01:34would the coalition enforce its plans, particularly given both parties have been really worried

01:40in the past and have refused to do anything about this because of fears about sovereign

01:45risk. That's all about scaring away some of those really big global investors who have

01:50already invested hundreds of billions of dollars into big gas export infrastructure.

01:57Well, the coalition believes that it can offer the carrot of being able to fast track some

02:03of those future project approvals and that's by reducing some of that regulation around

02:09environmental and also carbon emissions approvals that developers currently have to overcome.

02:16It says that it believes that this will really open up the pipeline and lead to a flood of

02:21gas into our local market and it says that this will drive down prices for consumers.

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