Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Chisholm for his question. What I can say is that manufacturers in this country have a much better chance of accessing that gas under this government than they did under the previous government. We know that because the shadow energy minister for the Australian Labor Party, Mark Butler, said last year that everyone knew gas prices would go up when the LNG terminals were built. But the previous Labor government did nothing. They knew prices would go up, but they did nothing to protect the jobs and investment of this country and our manufacturing sector.

When we saw gas prices were at high levels early last year—certainly close to the prices in North Asia, if not higher—this government introduced the Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism, which for the first time gave Australian governments the opportunity to control gas exports if needed. We would always prefer to make sure that we can manage these issues in gas markets through agreement to make sure that markets are allowed to be free and open and transparent. That is why, after introducing that mechanism with the gas industry, late last year a heads of agreement was signed to allow 64 petajoules of gas to come back onto the domestic market. What that has led to is that the ACCC concluded in December last year that, this year, rather than facing a deficit of more than 50 petajoules of gas, we now potentially have an expected 20 petajoules of gas available for manufacturers. It is a better outcome.

That does not mean there is not more work to do. That does not mean that manufacturers in this country are not under pressure. But, through the action the government have taken, we have helped alleviate the pressure they were under. The prices have certainly come down and they have come down to levels that better reflect international prices and the cost of production here in Australia.