David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The need for the government to legislate to redirect uncontracted export gas into the domestic market and bring down the price of gas and electricity for Australian industry and households, to recognise that Australian gas is for Australian households and businesses.

Fellow colleagues, representatives of states and territories in this great country, this urgency motion today is truly urgent when we look at electricity prices, when we look at Australian manufacturers and businesses doing it tough and when we look at smelters announcing that they are no longer viable. We hear many talk about a gas supply problem here in this country, but there is no such thing. We do not have a gas supply problem. We have a gas export problem in Australia. We are one of the biggest gas exporters in the world. We just happen to have a system that doesn't recognise that Australian gas actually belongs to Australians in the first instance and is happy to give away half of our gas for free—royalty free. And we have a situation where, as one of the biggest gas exporters in the world, we have a trillion dollars of national debt. Look at Norway, which has taken a different approach where they believe that natural resources belong to Norwegians and future Norwegians, and they are sitting on a $3 trillion sovereign wealth fund—two very different approaches. But that is not the focus of the urgency today. The urgency today is about pulling a lever that we have as a parliament when it comes to ensuring that Australian gas benefits Australian people, that Australian gas benefits Australian manufacturers, businesses and households.

Eighty-three per cent of gas extracted in Australia is used for LNG export. We export more than four times as much gas as is used domestically. Despite this, wholesale gas prices in Australia are more than three times higher than in the USA and seven times higher than in Qatar and Canada. Again, we don't have a gas supply problem; we have a gas export problem. According to the June 2025 interim report of the ACCC gas inquiry, there was 122 petajoules of uncontracted gas in 2024 and 79 per cent of that was exported. That is more than double the projected shortfall of 49 petajoules next year. We should be saying uncontracted gas has to go to Australian manufacturers, businesses and households. This is a solution that is on the table now. There is no sovereign risk. This is uncontracted gas that belongs to all Australians and I urge the government to actually do this. This is something you could do tomorrow, and I believe you would have the support of the vast majority of Australians. You would certainly have the support of the smelters and many other manufacturers who are really feeling the pain when it comes to gas prices.

We will potentially hear from the coalition saying that the answer is actually just more supply. 'We need more supply. We need more projects. We need Narrabri. We need all sorts of things.' Everyone knows that those things take a very long time to develop. And, again, we do not have a supply problem. We have more than enough supply. We just choose politically not to say Australian gas needs to benefit Australians. While that may be their line, they are missing the fact that uncontracted gas can solve issues for smelters and manufacturers. It would bring down the price of electricity because 17 odd per cent of electricity is firmed with gas, and that sets the price. Here is an opportunity.

The government will likely say: 'Well, we've got all sorts of reviews on foot. We've done a lot. We've got a $12 per gigajoule cap'—which I'm hearing is more of a floor at the moment. 'No need to hurry us. We've got time.' At the same time, we're spending billions of dollars of Australian taxpayer money bailing out smelters and heavy industry when we could just ensure that they had Australian gas to run on. This is nuts. Here is a solution that has broad backing from industry and from Australians, and I urge the government to get on with it.