This landmark legislation will establish Australia's first national Domestic Gas Reservation Scheme and ensure Australian gas works for Australians. It delivers on our commitment to secure gas supply for Australians and put downward pressure on domestic gas prices by requiring gas producers to reserve up to 20 per cent of gas exports for domestic use, fixing gas supply shortages. This is about ensuring more Australian gas is available here at home, powering Australian households and ensuring affordable gas for local manufacturing and heavy industry, to create more jobs and grow the economy.

For too long, Australia has been in the perverse situation where, despite being one of the world's largest gas producers, we had shortages and price shocks at home. The scheme will work to ensure Australian households and businesses have access to secure, reliable and affordable gas. And, what's more, gas is vital in supporting renewables and essential for manufacturing and processing critical minerals. It will be a crucial energy source as we make the transition to a low-carbon future, and cheaper gas will help households and businesses make the switch.

If the bill passes, the lost decade of coalition policy failures will finally be put right, securing Australia's energy future as we transition our economy to net zero by 2050. This legislation creates a national gas reservation scheme. It represents a significant structural reform. The three bills together form a package establishing a nationally consistent domestic gas reservation framework. Australian gas supports jobs, investment, regional communities and export earnings and provides economic and energy security for our trading partners. Gas powers Australian homes, underpins our manufacturing and contributes to reliability of our energy system. This scheme is designed to secure Australian gas to Australian homes at fair prices.

To give some context, when we came to power in 2022, the first thing we had to deal with was an energy crisis. What was interesting, when I listened to the member for Goldstein, was the fact that they voted against helping people with energy bill relief and capping gas prices. The coalition voted against this stuff. They voted against the very thing that he is waxing lyrical about and lamenting about us allegedly failing to do. And who could forget the 22 policies and the NEG, which didn't last from the caucus meeting of the coalition until question time? That was the utter dysfunctionality of the coalition during that period of time. So let's get this in context, and let's listen to the reality of what was needed and what was happening. I want to pay tribute to industry and particularly to the union movement, who also backed this gas reservation scheme. I've been at national and state conferences of the Labor Party where we backed this particular policy, so today I'm pleased that we are passing this legislation through the House of Representatives.

We had ageing gas and coal-fired power operations when we came to power—ageing coal-fired generators. Maintenance backlogs are myriad. We experienced extraordinary disruptions in terms of what happened in Ukraine with the illegal and immoral invasion by Russia and the impact on the international gas market—the perfect storm that culminated in gas being offered in the domestic market at much too high prices. Frankly, it's unacceptable to our government and to the Australian people. The regulatory framework we inherited from the coalition—a series of bandaid solutions created in response to previous crises—was ineffective and was expiring. Our government acted quickly and decisively to ensure affordable gas and energy. We reformed and extended the Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism and its heads of agreement. We introduced a Gas Market Code of Conduct and we capped gas prices at $12—opposed by the coalition.

Then we set to work to build something better. In 2024, we released our Future Gas Strategy, which set out the role gas will continue to play, particularly in supporting the rollout of renewables for peaking and firming in Australia and for our trading partners. We commissioned our gas market review last year, which recommended establishing a national gas reservation scheme, and over the course of this year the government has consulted extensively, wisely and widely on the detailed design of the domestic gas reservation. In May this year we released our draft design framework for consultation. It set out a headline reservation figure of the equivalent of 20 per cent of export volumes and the regulatory architecture such as an export licence scheme. In other words, the gas reservation scheme for domestic consumption will require gas companies to supply Australians with up to 20 per cent of their exports to ensure a modest domestic oversupply.

As a result of the extensive consultation feedback, further design work was undertaken. We further refined the reservation scheme and we released the exposure of the bill for further consultation in September this year. That exposure draft included the announcement of the demand calibration mechanism, which provided for the Australian Energy Regulator to vary the domestic supply obligation from year to year in response to projected demand, with a target of 110 per cent of that demand. Indeed, the bills that the Minister for Resources introduced on 14 October included further refinements of the scheme based on consultation on that draft bill. It's not like we haven't spoken to people about this.

Some of the changes from the exposure draft included limiting ministerial discretion and making the scheme more transparent, preventing loopholes and making it harder to game the scheme, and ensuring that the states and territories are consulted on decisions that impact them—for example, in relation to market-wide domestic supply obligation adjustments. Importantly, our legislative package abolishes the Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism, which will no longer be needed in the circumstances.

A lot has been said about the role of gas in the past year, but it's important to reiterate a few points. Gas is essential to supporting the rollout of renewables, gas is crucial for a strong Australian manufacturing industry, and we need gas to continue heating our homes. We need gas to process more critical minerals and rare earths here in Australia. The reality is that only gas can provide the sustained high temperatures needed at the right cost to process and refine them. We can't have a critical minerals revolution here in Australia without a guaranteed supply of affordable gas.

This is a pretty big day for critical minerals, I might add. It's the first anniversary of the Australia and United States framework for securing of supply of critical minerals, and the government has just launched a refreshed Critical Minerals Strategy with a big focus on economic resilience, national security and industrial capability. More-affordable gas is central to that strategy. We've announced we're backing two major critical minerals projects that boost our critical minerals capability, supporting local jobs and deepening supply chains with international partners.

When it comes to international partners, the reality is we need to keep developing gas to export for our region. We're fortunate to have nearly 50 years of peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific. Australia's reliable flow of energy exports has played a big role in regional stability. Indeed, our engagement and our leverage with energy export partners in Asia this year was a case in point. Our trade relations are mutually supportive and have helped us to shore up our domestic fuel supplies and security—as well as urea, I might add. Our exports of gas and coal support the energy security of Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore, while their refining of liquid fuels like petrol, diesel and aviation fuel keeps Australians moving.

A successful, orderly energy transition relies on continued Australian exports of energy. We should continue to export traditional commodities, resources like gas and coal, while our export markets still need them and while our regional partners follow their own paths to net zero. We understand that no two nations are the same and they'll follow their own strategies. What's important is our commitment to that goal and a peaceful, stable journey towards it so we can minimise the impact of climate change while making sure our local industries and communities have all the energy they need. As I mentioned before, the legislation will be subject to extensive consultation and feedback.

Industry and unions have been calling for a domestic gas reservation scheme for several years and have backed that proposal. Peak bodies like the Australian Industry Group are broadly supportive while the Energy Users Association, which represents major gas users like manufacturers, have applauded the intent of the proposed laws and welcome the legislation. They understand, and the government has acknowledged, that it's reasonable to have some flexibility in terms of how gas exporters meet their obligations under the scheme. They accept we need to respect long-term contracts between exporters and overseas buyers, and these should be exempt from the scheme. I know what a game changer a domestic gas reservation scheme will be for local manufacturing in my outer suburban and regional communities in Blair, for the local economy and for good blue-collar jobs.

For example, Capral Aluminium is the largest producer of aluminium extrusions in Australia and has a major plant in Ipswich in my electorate. There are hundreds of people in my electorate working there in good, unionised jobs. They have been very clear that local manufacturers like them need affordable gas to compete on a global scale, and I visited Capral's facility on numerous occasions. Gas makes up seven per cent of Capral's manufacturing costs. They've said that gas prices are nearly triple what they were five years ago and they're paying three times what they were. From their perspective, our proposed domestic gas reservation scheme is absolutely vital to keeping their prices sustainable and globally competitive.

I also want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the strong advocacy of the mighty Australian Workers' Union on this issue. For over a decade, the AWU have campaigned for a domestic gas reservation policy through their Reserve Our Gas campaign to lower energy prices, protect manufacturing jobs and boost our sovereign manufacturing capability. They've taken that to state and national conferences to pursue that campaign. I want to recognise the leadership of the national secretary, Paul Farrow, in this space, as well as the efforts of Queensland state secretary of the AWU, Stacey Schinnerl in my home state of Queensland. I'm from Queensland, and I know how important the gas industry has been for jobs and investment, particularly in Central Queensland.

We know some industry stakeholders have raised concern about design, workability, implementation of the scheme and the issue of ministerial discretion. I note the bill was referred to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee, and it's due to report on 11 November. Issues from stakeholders, I'm sure, will be raised during the course of that committee inquiry. There's no doubt about that. But I make this point, and I say this to the Greens political party. They're always in favour of reform on issues—whether it's housing, climate change, environment or in areas of gas—until they get faced with the legislation, and then they run. They run away always, the Greens political party.