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

I thank Senator McMahon for her question. It's a very important question, because the availability and price of gas in Australia is not only important for many Australians to heat and cook in their own homes; it also underpins thousands of jobs—tens of thousands of jobs—in businesses that have very high expenses in term of gas use, so price is extremely important to protect those jobs. To protect those jobs, the Liberal-National government took action a couple of years ago to help lower gas prices.

At the time, gas prices had peaked. There were some shortages, particularly in southern Australia. At the time I and the then minister for industry, Senator Sinodinos, announced a new mechanism, the Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism, which for the first time was able to restrict gas exports to protect those jobs in Australia. Since that time, gas prices in eastern Australia have fallen considerably. At the time, in early 2017, the spot gas price in Brisbane was $12.15 a gigajoule. Last month it averaged $5.16—a 42 per cent reduction. In southern Australia, in Sydney, prices have fallen 28 per cent, from $11.53 two years ago to $8.28 last month. In Adelaide and Victoria, there have been 20 per cent price reductions as well. We now have a situation where prices in Victoria and Adelaide, in particular, are higher than those in Queensland because the gas is being produced in Queensland and it costs a significant amount to transport the gas long distances.

What we need is for the Victorian government and other governments in New South Wales and South Australia to remove unnecessary restrictions on gas production. To protect those jobs, we need to have a supply of gas. If we don't have the gas supply, gas prices will be higher than they need to be and people's jobs will be at greater risk than they need to be. We in this chamber are on the side of jobs. We are on the side of manufacturing industries. That's why we're getting behind gas production. That's why we've maintained a situation where Australian gas is— (Time expired)