King last year launched the government’s “future gas strategy”, which supports the expansion of the gas industry in Australia, and recognises that gas would play a key role in the shift to net zero emissions because it releases fewer emissions than coal but could still be relied upon to back up weather-reliant renewables.
“That’s the thing about slogans and populism – it gets no one a single petajoule more.”
Federal Resources Minister Madeleine King
She said the Coalition’s proposal to boost gas supplies in Victoria by introducing a requirement to reserve some gas for the domestic market would have little impact – Victoria already requires gas producers to offer their gas to the domestic market on reasonable terms before they could sell to exporters. It was also unclear how the Coalition planned to speed up approvals, she said.
“They say they want to supercharge supply in Victoria with not a single explanation of how they want to do it,” she said.
“That’s the thing about slogans and populism – it gets no one a single petajoule more.”
South-eastern Australia’s looming shortage of gas, a major source of carbon dioxide and methane emissions, presents a challenge for governments, which are having to balance their efforts to combat climate change with the need to shore up traditional energy supplies for consumers.
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Australian Energy Producers, the industry group representing oil and gas companies, said it welcomed the Coalition’s plan to speed up approvals and its commitment that its reservation requirement would not retrospectively affect LNG export contracts.
“We look forward to seeing further detail of the Coalition’s gas policy,” Australian Energy Producers chief executive Samantha McCulloch said.
The Coalition’s pledge to expand the gas industry would lock in “decades more climate pollution” and undermine critical environmental protections, warned Gavan McFadzean, campaign manager at the Australian Conservation Foundation.
“When politicians talk about ‘faster approvals’ it usually means cutting corners on protecting the environment,” he said.
“Removing environmental protection is not a pathway to cheaper energy, it’s a licence for gas companies to get away with poor practices that harm nature and climate – and can hurt workers and local communities.”
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So far, the Coalition has promised to speed up timelines by defunding the Environmental Defenders Office – a non-profit legal centre that regularly supports challenges against fossil fuel project approvals – if it wins the election. It has not committed to reforming Commonwealth environmental protection legislation, the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.
Tony Wood, energy program director at the Grattan Institute, said the winner of the election would need to ensure that the domestic market did not run out of gas. However, he doubted whether the Coalition’s proposal would succeed in unlocking greater supplies of domestic gas in Victoria, given geological surveys indicated there was little gas left in the state to make “much of a difference”.
He also queried how the Coalition planned to “open the floodgates” to bring on new supplies without environmental reform.
“If they are not going to change the EPBC Act, then what floodgates are they going to open?” Wood said.
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