Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

The high prices for gas in this country have been attributed to the effects of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The government proposes a temporary price cap on uncontracted gas in the wholesale market from the currently operational fields. We know that this is a really small part of our total gas market. The government is also proposing a much-needed mandatory code of conduct in relation to the market.

The reality is that Australians are struggling with record electricity prices despite the fact that this country is swimming in gas. We have no shortage of gas; we have a shortage of decent regulation. Since 2006, the Western Australian domestic gas reservation policy has delivered gas for $5 to $7 a gigajoule. We in the eastern states are being suckered. We allow more than 70 per cent of our east coast gas to be exported, and then we pay inflated prices for the residuum. Since 2015, the ACCC has repeatedly, in report after report, documented the high level of market concentration through direct interests, joint ventures and exclusivity arrangements. We're the world's third-biggest exporter of fossil fuels, but our small businesses are going to the wall.

Separate to the Treasury Laws Amendment (Energy Price Relief Plan) Bill 2022, the government hasn't ruled out compensation to coal producers over the proposed capping of coal prices at $125 a tonne—this on top of the $11 billion a year that we already spend to support fossil fuel companies. This bill will take $1.5 billion of our taxpayers' money and give it to other taxpayers to help them pay their crippling electricity bills. We're still propping up fossil fuel producers at taxpayers' expense rather than imposing export caps or higher taxes on export revenues to compensate the domestic users.

In this bill, we're committing to pay up to $12 a gigajoule for gas despite 90 per cent of our contracts for gas in 2021 having been less than that. The industry was happy to sell at $9.20 per gigajoule just over a year ago. The price of extraction and production of gas has not increased in that period. We would pay less for our gas if we had an appropriate reservation system for our domestic demands. We should be taxing what are effectively war profits for gas exporters, not Australians already struggling with inflation and cost-of-living pressures.

Let's not forget that through this legislation we will still be paying too much for our own gas, and our taxes will be going to help other taxpayers and probably to prop up the coal industry as well. This is an imperfect intervention. We still need to have the courage and the vision to take control of our own future. This bill is only a very small step in the right direction. We are still paying too much for gas. We do not have clarity and transparency on the basis for this gas pricing cap. So I move the amendment circulated in my name in the interests of greater transparency around this very important issue:

That the following words be added after paragraph (4):

"and

(5) calls on the Government to produce the ACCC report and any other supporting evidence which the Government cites as the basis for establishing this domestic gas price cap of $12/gigajoule".

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