by leave—We were talking about the fact that Australia has set our net zero targets and our movement towards renewable energy. For a very long time in Australia, we've been very reliant on fossil fuels, and we recognise that you can't just flick a switch and move fully to renewables. There has to be a transition, and Labor does have a plan in place to transition to renewable energies. That's exactly where the Domestic Gas Reservation Bill 2026 fits in. Earlier I heard the member for Wentworth refer to it as a stopgap bill, and I tend to agree with that. It is a stopgap bill in terms of our transition from being fully reliant on fossil fuels to renewables. We are one of the world's largest exporters of liquefied natural gas. Even though we're doing that, there is a fairness element here, because I think it's fair for Australians to expect that their domestic gas supply is made a priority here, in Australia, as well. That's essentially what the government's domestic gas reservation plan is about and why it matters.

It does establish some clear principles. Access to Australia's gas export industry must come with a responsibility to supply the Australian market. It matters for a manufacturer trying to negotiate a contract, a small business maybe planning their energy costs and households planning the family budget. Our resources should support Australians at home as well as export earnings overseas. As we move towards an electricity system powered increasingly by renewables, we do need to manage the transition, as I said, with some seriousness. We do need cleaner energy, but we also do need reliable energy. We need an energy market that serves the people and the industries who depend on it. Business operates much more productively and much more efficiently when there is certainty, and our gas reservation plan is an important part of meeting those responsibilities.

These proposed reforms will establish Australia's first national domestic gas reservation system. I understand it's been in the works for some time. Under the proposed framework, gas exporters would face a domestic supply obligation equivalent to 20 per cent of the LNG, liquefied natural gas, exports calibrated to forecast domestic demand. That percentage is measured against export volumes. It's not a claim that one-fifth of all Australian gas production will automatically be redirected. The purpose is to make sure more gas is available to Australian customers and reduce the risk of a tight domestic market. We know what happens when markets are tight; prices go up. The proposal also seeks to replace several Commonwealth interventions with a more coherent framework which will give producers and customers clear rules for investment and long-term contracts. The principle behind the reservation is pretty simple. If you benefit from exporting Australia's gas, you should contribute to meeting Australia's gas needs, and it's a reasonable expectation of an industry that's built on natural resources. It's built on resources that are literally under our feet.

Why is this reform necessary? It's necessary because being a major gas producer does not automatically protect domestic consumers. The availability of gas in the ground is only part of the story. What matters to an Australian customer is whether gas is offered to them on workable terms and at a price they can afford and whether it can reach them when they need it. When supply is tight, buyers have few options. When businesses have few options, their bargaining positions weaken. When energy costs become unpredictable, decisions get postponed. A new production line might wait. An expansion may get put on hold. An employer becomes more cautious about taking on staff. Energy insecurity can become economic insecurity, and our reservation plan seeks to address that problem by increasing the pool of gas available to domestic consumers. It's intended to result in a market where Australian buyers have better access to supply and more confidence to negotiate.

For Australian Manufacturing, the stakes are significant. Gas is used for industrial heat and in some industries as a raw material. We don't want that to continue forever, but that's the case now and we have to have a smart transition to full renewables. It plays a role in producing goods that Australians use every day. Some businesses can electrify parts of their operations now. Others face more difficult technical and financial challenges. They may need new equipment. They may need new processes and new technologies that may still be developing. We should encourage that change wherever it is practical to do so.

We cannot build a credible transition around pretending every industrial process can change overnight. Workers deserve a plan that recognises the realities of the industries they work in. A worker in a gas-dependent factory should be able to support climate action without being told that uncertainty about their livelihood is simply something they must accept. A business owner should be able to invest in cleaner production while still securing the energy needed to operate today, and reliable domestic gas can help provide that breathing room. It can support existing production while businesses invest in efficiency, electrification and lower emissions processes.

The objective should be a stronger industrial base that becomes progressively cleaner, and that's certainly the objective of this government. Australians should aspire to make more of the products a changing world needs. We should want investment in Australian facilities, we should want skilled workers in Australian communities, and we should want the value of our resources to support more than the act of shipping them overseas. Our Future Made in Australia policy does just that. It brings all of this together. It brings together our energy transition.

There is sometimes an assumption that supporting renewables and securing gas supply must be contradictory positions. That assumption overlooks how the electricity system works and the fact that not everybody is there yet. The Australian Energy Market Operators 2026 Integrated System Plan identifies renewable energy connected through networks firmed with storage and backed up by gas as the least cost pathway for supplying secure and reliable electricity to our businesses and to our homes, but each part has a different job. Wind and solar provide renewable generation. Transmission allows electricity to move between places and share resources across our regions. Batteries store energy and respond quickly when the systems need them. Hydro and other storage help cover longer periods. Flexible gas generation provides a backup when renewable output is low and storage is insufficient. The task is to build these parts together. A solar farm cannot deliver its full benefit if it cannot connect to the grid. A battery needs electricity to charge, and a gas generator cannot provide dependable backup if it cannot secure fuel.

The last point is where domestic gas reservation can extract directly to the transition. As I said, the transition is a big part of this government's agenda. When I put my hand up to run back in 2022, moving our country towards a country so dependent on renewables was just so important to me and so important to the people of the Brisbane electorate. It was something that I said would be a priority for me as a member of parliament, so I am happy to speak on this bill today for that reason—not because I think the future of our country is fossil fuels. I speak to it because the future of our countries is renewables, and we need to make sure we get there. We need to have a plan to get there.

Back to the domestic gas reservation connecting directly to the transition, if gas is part of the system's backup, then access to gas becomes part of the electricity reliability. A reservation policy can help strengthen that access. It supports the fuel supply behind the backup capacity that the electricity system may need. Imagine a period of high electricity demand where renewable output is lower across several regions or storage has been working hard. Reserves might be running down. At that moment, the system will need a dependable source that can respond, and flexible gas generation can contribute to that.

But the value of that capacity depends on practical questions. Is fuel available? Can it be transported? Is there enough pipeline capacity? Can the plant operate when required? Those questions show why reservation is useful and why it must sit within a broader energy plan. Reserving gas on paper is only part of the task. The fuel, as I said earlier, must be deliverable, and planning must connect gas supply, pipelines, storage and electricity generation. It's a continuum, and all of this must happen alongside continued innovation and construction of renewables, electricity storage and transmission. The more effectively we build the whole system, the more confident we can be to retire ageing coal generation while protecting reliability. That's what a managed transition requires: practical preparation for the conditions the system will actually face.

We should also be clear, though, about the limits of the arguments here. Gas is a fossil fuel. Burning it produces greenhouse gas emissions. Methane leakage from production and transport also matters. Supporting a targeted role for gas does not remove those facts. Our responsibility is to reduce emissions while maintaining a functioning energy system and supporting people who rely on it. It means gas reservation should accompany continued investment in renewable generation, in storage, in energy efficiency and in electrification. For households, efficient electric appliances can reduce the need to buy gas. For businesses, better equipment and improved processes can reduce energy demand. For the electricity grid, more renewable generation and storage can reduce occasions when fossil fuels are required. Those changes must continue. A credible policy secures the gas Australians still need while helping reduce the need for it wherever practical. It should give us confidence to move forward with the transition.

At its heart, this is a debate about what Australians should reasonably expect from natural resources. They should expect those resources to contribute to public prosperity, they should expect the industry to operate under clear rules and they should expect benefits to extend to people who keep this country working: the tradesperson supplying local manufacturers, an apprentice starting a career or the family whose income depends on a regional industrial employer. Maybe it's a small business facing another contract renewal. For these Australians, energy policy is deeply practical. It affects whether the employer expands, whether the business grows, whether jobs are created, whether a business remains competitive, whether a household has room in its budget for that little extra that it might need, and whether a community has confidence in its economic future. That's a big part of this. It's about making sure that businesses, families and communities are confident about where we're going as a nation as we transition away from fossil fuels to renewables.

The transition to renewable energy is an enormous national undertaking. It requires construction, investment and coordination over many, many years. It requires public confidence. It requires workers. It requires education. It requires new skills. I go back again to public confidence. Public confidence depends on showing people that practical challenges are being addressed, and that public confidence does get tied up in skills development, education and what kids today are doing after school. We cannot ask Australians to trust an energy transition while ignoring their concerns about reliability, we can't ask industry to invest while treating secure supply as somebody else's problem, and we cannot assume that resource abundance will automatically produce a fair domestic market. Government has a responsibility to shape the rules, and our domestic gas reservation plan accepts that responsibility. It seeks to secure more gas for Australian users, it aims to improve the conditions under which households and industries obtain energy supply and it supports the back-up roles gas will play as renewable generation and storage become the foundation of our electricity system and of our homes, our businesses and our communities.

The work is to turn that framework into results—more dependable access, better contracting opportunities, a stronger domestic market and an energy transition that Australians can trust. Our ambition should be a country that uses its resources wisely and builds on its renewable advantages, thereby giving people a fair return—a country where export success supports domestic prosperity, where industrial workers have a place in a cleaner economy and where energy security is treated as a public responsibility. I commend this bill to the House.

Sitting suspended from 13:35 to 16:00