Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

Gas plays a very important role in Australia's economy and in other economies in terms of enabling the transition from some fuels, such as coal—which the Greens used to come in here and routinely talk about—to other fuels. Gas, indeed, has been a very important driver in transitioning our economy and enabling stability and reliability in an energy system more reliant on renewable energy, which comes with less reliability and needs to have dispatchable energy that can be scaled up when necessary, and gas plays a key role in that. Gas has also increasingly played a role in relation to our other major trading partners being able to shift their emissions intensity in their economies as well. Gas plays a role in relation to Japan's emissions profile and to Korea's emissions profile. All of these key trading partners see gas as a crucial part of their own transition too.