Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question because it gives me the opportunity to clear up what I think is a misunderstanding on his part. The restrictions on gas exports, whenever the minister makes a determination, do not come into effect until 1 January. So the restrictions do not come into effect when the minister makes the determination. The determination has to, obviously, be made before 1 January, but it has to be made after a very careful consideration of all of the facts concerning the supply of gas.

The fact, however, is that by foreshadowing these export controls we have already seen a considerable amount of additional gas coming into the market, and we have seen, as a consequence, the short-term prices of gas easing across the east coast. For example, the average July price was $6.80 per gigajoule in Brisbane—these are the spot prices—and the July average across the whole east coast was $8.61 per gigajoule, compared with just under $12 in July last year. They went up above that in the interim. August prices have already fallen by a dollar a gigajoule in the east coast market.

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