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

As I said, our gas industry is very important for our electricity sector. It supports 20 per cent of electricity production in Australia. Last year, that was threatened by the export of gas to other countries. When we saw—in advice to us from AEMO—that there was a shortfall potentially emerging, we as a government took action. We met with the gas industry the week after that. We imposed a gas export control framework. Since then, gas prices—gas offers to the market—have fallen by more than 50 per cent. Gas prices have fallen by about one-quarter in spot markets because we've been able to return more gas to the domestic market. Recently, just in the last few weeks, the ACCC issued a report saying that LNG producers have become more active due to a combination of factors, including 'the commitment made to the Australian government in the October 2017 heads of agreement'. We are determined to bring down energy prices. We've done that by taking action in the gas sector.