Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

As a result of the awful conflict in the Middle East, we are once again witnessing how quickly shock waves can travel in a globalised world. My thoughts are always firmly with innocent civilians directly impacted, with recent events having completely devastating consequences, especially for children. The sooner hostilities cease, the better for all across the region.

These days, distance from a conflict in another part of the world is hardly a guarantee that countries will be shielded from aftershock. If a nation relies on another for the supply of a critical good, like oil or gas, and that supply is disrupted, predictably, the upward price movements can be brutal. Australia possesses some of the biggest reserves of gas on the planet. With this supply, we should be better positioned than most to insulate ourselves from price shocks, securing our gas at our prices, or so you'd think.

Let me quickly focus on fuel prices because I want to congratulate the Treasurer for the swift action he's taken, instructing the ACCC to monitor petrol prices closely and act where necessary. His actions have put petrol companies on notice: don't use this conflict as an excuse for price hikes or profiteering. I wrote to the Treasurer today urging him to build on his good work, empower the ACCC to monitor gas prices weekly and let multinational companies know they cannot rip off this nation as they rip our gas out of the country. Based on recent experience, we have every reason to be concerned. Power bills shot up when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, as gas companies exploited the crisis to ramp up prices and profits. Australia's east coast has been forced to accept globally indexed pricing for gas because these companies are focused more on the export market, where they can make the most money. This has seen our domestic wholesale gas prices tripling in the last decade. Get this: because of their profiteering obsession, in the past five years, those gas companies have shipped away enough gas to supply our nation for two decades at current usage levels.

Despite this, Australians are repeatedly told supply is tight. We had the ACCC tell us in December that the east coast gas market is facing a projected shortfall in the second quarter of the year. But, with so much gas in this country, we don't have a shortage of supply; we have a glut of greed. How can it possibly be that Australia doesn't have enough of our own gas for our own needs, bearing in mind that the amount of Australian gas that Japan onsells in a year is nearly double what we use on the east coast annually? This is astounding.

We may be told that supply is limited because so much gas is locked in under long-term contracts, but this argument ignores a crucial fact. According to the Australia Institute, around 30 per cent of all gas exported from Australia is not needed to meet contract commitments. Instead, that surplus is sold on the spot market for higher profit. This excess capacity dramatically exceeds any domestic supply risk. According to AEMO, in a hypothetical worst-case scenario, the east coast might face a shortfall of 153 petajoules, yet exporters send overseas eight times that volume in uncontracted gas each year. These facts will stun Australians.

The facts point to the reality that this is a broken market. The only winners are profiteers. Australian politics has got to acknowledge the red-hot anger that exists about the greed of gas companies felt by voters of all political persuasions. That's why Australians were such strong supporters of our government's actions in 2022 to cap gas prices after they shot through the roof as gas companies raced to make 'Putin profits' off the back of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. In my letter to the Treasurer, I've urged him to send an unambiguous signal that, if gas companies seek to profiteer off what's happening in the Middle East, the government is prepared to cap prices again.

I also reckon we have to seriously consider the proposal to tax gas exports. Australians are rightly angry that most exported gas attracts zero royalties and that the economic return from this national resource is disproportionately captured by foreign shareholders. Advocates of this proposal believe it can protect uncontracted gas from being shipped off in the blink of an eye by gas firms, prioritising supply to all Australians. It's also got the potential to raise billions in revenue annually for the government.

While I think the east coast gas reservation plan is massively important, it's going to take time to set up. We can't stand by and let profiteering run wild. We must act now. We can't be timid. We can't be meek about our national interest. These are our resources—our gas at our prices.

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