I want to start by thanking all those members who have contributed to this debate on Domestic Gas Reservation Bill and related bills over the last day or so. At its core, this package is about ensuring Australian gas delivers for the Australian people, for Australian households, for Australian businesses and for Australian industry. It is about ensuring Australian households can heat their homes and keep the lights on at a reasonable price. It is about ensuring Australian manufacturers, processors and industrial users have access to the gas they need to invest, to create jobs and to drive our economy forward. It is about ensuring that a country with abundant gas resources can rely on those resources to strengthen its own energy security while supporting the energy security of our region and remaining a trusted trading partner.

The need for reform is clear. For more than a decade, governments of different political persuasions have grappled with the challenge of ensuring sufficient domestic gas supply in a market increasingly connected to global demand. In 2017, the Turnbull coalition government introduced the Australian domestic gas security mechanism, and, in doing so, thereby acknowledged the need for government intervention to ensure domestic gas supply by restricting the export of LNG out of Queensland's Curtis Island facilities should there be issues with supply. In 2022, the Morrison coalition government entered into a new heads of agreement with the east coast LNG exporters to secure additional gas for the domestic market. After being elected in 2022, the Albanese Labor government extended and reformed both of these mechanisms. Firstly, to make sure the ADGSM was available to be used in case of shortages, as it was expiring, and, secondly, so that that mechanism could be used more than once a year. Around the same time, Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine led directly to a global crunch in gas supply, and the ripple effects landed squarely on Australia's shores. Gas prices skyrocketed. We then introduced price controls, and indeed members who were here then will remember that we recalled parliament to shield Australian households and businesses from the worst impacts of these global price shocks.

These measures have served Australia well, particularly in the face of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, helping to keep prices relatively stable. However, those measures are neither a long-term nor a sustainable solution to Australia's gas security challenges. Governments continue to confront concerns around domestic supply, affordability and energy security. The simple fact is that, if those arrangements had solved the problem for the community or industry itself, this parliament would not need to be considering this package of bills today.

The Albanese Labor government is delivering the structural reform needed to fix this and deliver enduring and appropriate market regulation for the benefit of all Australians. These bills replace temporary and reactive interventions with an enduring, transparent and predictable framework. We will do this while respecting our commitments to trading partners and maintaining Australia's position as one of the most, if not the most, reliable LNG exporters in the world. Australia's LNG exports play a critical role in supporting energy security throughout the Indo-Pacific, and these bills have been informed by extensive consultation with industry, manufacturers, producers, exporters, unions and trading partners. Throughout that consultation, we have carefully considered our domestic energy needs alongside our responsibility as a trusted supplier of energy to our region. We have struck an important balance.

The framework also recognises the realities of Australia's gas markets. Australia does not have a single nationally integrated gas market. Rather, we have two distinct gas markets—one in the east and one in the west—shaped by geography and infrastructure. The east coast gas market is connected by an extensive pipeline network linking Queensland, New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria, South Australia and the Northern Territory. Western Australia, by contrast, operates as a separate market because it is not physically connected by pipelines to the east coast gas system.