Article by Andrew Bolt courtesy of the Herald Sun.
Nothing Anthony Albanese has done has been so potentially disastrous as his meddling with our gas industry — now we risk crippling shortages.
Suddenly the battle for our future is today. Will the Albanese government wake up from its anti-gas and anti-coal madness, or give in to the Greens’ crazy ultimatum?
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has looked like an excited child driving a Ferrari at high speed on a dark mountain road.
Does he have any idea what he’s doing? Will he take us all over the cliff with him?
Nothing Albanese has done has been so potentially disastrous as his meddling with our gas industry.
Even Japan is warning Albanese to pull up. One of our biggest industries is being destroyed, and we risk crippling gas shortages next year.
Australia has a gas industry only because big multinationals thought Australia safe enough to risk vast amounts of money to find gas and develop it.
For example, Japan’s Inpex spent $30bn on one project off the West Australian coast, and to raise that money it had to guarantee supply contracts.
Around Australia, it’s a similar story. Companies invested huge money in gas (and coal and oil), assuming our governments wouldn’t suddenly change the rules, steal their stuff, or force them to break contracts.
But that, unbelievably, is exactly what Albanese and his ministers are doing, with a holy light of global warming in their eyes. Let me list their blundering.
One, this government declared it didn’t really want fossil fuels long-term.
Two, it said big gas companies must slash global warming emissions by five per cent each year under what’s called the Safeguard Mechanism. The cost will be huge.
Three, the government handed $10m to the Environment Defenders Office, which fights big gas projects of companies such as Woodside Energy and Santos.
Four, the government said, oops, we’re already short of cheaper gas for Australia, and told gas companies to sell us more of their supplies and at a cheap price this year, and a “reasonable” price after that.
And five, as of April 1, the government says it will decide every three months whether to stop or limit exports of gas if Australia doesn’t have enough. It could even force gas companies to break their contracts.
To that, add the damage from global warming hysterics in state governments. Just this week, NSW Treasurer Matt Kean promised to ban offshore coal, oil and gas production.
What’s more, the Federal Court even froze a $5bn gas project in the Timor Sea because Santos didn’t consult a traditional owner on the Tiwi Islands, more than 100km away.
Japan, which has sunk many tens of billions of dollars into projects here, is horrified by Australia’s suicidal madness. Its Prime Minister rushed here to ask Albanese to promise not to disrupt Japan’s supplies.
You might think upsetting Japan is no big deal – hey, Australian gas for Australians – but the result could be no Australian gas for anyone.
Energy expert Saul Kavonic, of Credit Suisse, says gas companies were now “treating Australia like a Venezuela, or Argentina or the Middle East or Africa because of the sovereign risk”, and pulling their investments.
Senex Energy has already scrapped a $1bn investment. Cooper Energy put off a decision on an offshore gas project in the Otway Basin. Energy giant Woodside warned it would struggle to justify exploring for more gas off Victoria.
But Kavonic says more worrying are the decisions by the big investors we don’t hear about.
“The investment that’s stopping is happening silently … They are not announcing it, they are not picking a fight, they are simply putting capital elsewhere.”
Kavonic warns the result could be acute shortages of gas next year on Australia’s east coast.
That’s why Albanese now faces a moment that could decide his government’s fate – and Australia’s.
The Opposition says it will vote against Albanese’s new Safeguard Mechanism plan, because consumers will be hit with the extra costs.
That leaves Albanese needing the Greens’ votes in the Senate to get it through, but the Greens – seemingly insane – say they won’t pass it unless Albanese bans all future coal and gas projects.
Ominously, Resources Minister Chris Bowen suggested on Wednesday he was open to compromise.
Any compromise would be just one more warning to investors in gas – or coal or oil – that their money is not safe or welcome here.
How pure Albanese’s new green Australia will then be. And how very poor.
And a final sick twist: none of this will make any detectable difference to the planet’s temperature. All Albanese’s pain is for absolutely nothing.
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