Electricity prices are among the greatest costs facing Australians. Electricity prices are set by the gas price. The gas price is set by the gas cartel, and the Government is doing nothing about it – even censoring discussion on remedies. Rex Patrick reports.
Solution to the gas price clear, but kept hidden
There are cost-of-living solutions available, but Australians are not permitted to see them because, as was argued in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal by the Albanese Labor Government, those policies might have an economic impact on Japan, Korea and Singapore.
This is censorship of a most unusual and shameful kind. It is the kind of censorship which puts the interests of foreign governments against ordinary Australians struggling during the cost of living crisis.
Gas Reservation
Just after the 2019 election, I flew across to Western Australia and spent much of the day with the Finance Minister Mathias Cormann. In his home state there is a gas reservation policy that reserves 15% of gas produced in the state for Western Australian businesses and households. Western Australians pay far less than people in the eastern states because of this policy.
My trip to WA was successful. Cormann and Resources Minister Matt Canavan agreed to pursue a prospective national gas reservation policy. It was a start!
The Government formally announced its intention to consider a prospective national gas reservation policy on August 5, 2019.
Source: ABC
They set about preparing an issue paper, which they completed in October 2020, and then set about engaging the industry. Submissions were received, and an options paper was sent to the Minister for Resources in November 2021.
The report was never actioned on account of COVID and a re-focussing of policy by then Prime Minister Scott Morrison on what he called a “gas-fired recovery”.
The paper, with an array of options for a gas reservation scheme, was buried.
No options allowed – or seen
I don’t like to see policy proposals euthanised without debate. I like open discussion, especially when it might involve consideration of ideas that might help reduce cost pressures on Australian households and Australian industry.
I sought to exhume the options paper and applied for access under our national Freedom of Information law.
It quickly became clear the Albanese Government wanted it kept under wraps.
At the start they denied access to everything. Not one page, not one paragraph, not one word was to be released to me or the Australian public.
At that point most FOI applicants give up, but I put $1,121 cash on the barrelhead to take the matter to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
Secret proceedings
In accordance with standard operating practices, as soon as I got the FOI into the AAT, the government relented and gave me half the document – but they were determined to deny access to the most significant information – the various gas policy options identified.
I battled on with the matter going to a two-day hearing. The Government was represented by a brace of taxpayer-funded lawyers. I was self-represented. Giving evidence were two officials, Mr Jeremenko of the Department of Industry, Science and Resources, and Mr Hauck of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
A significant part of Mr Hauck’s evidence was kept secret – given in a classified affidavit and a last minute secret session from which I was excluded.
The Tribunal was not accepting of Mr Jeremenko’s evidence and has ordered the Government to release more information to me.
But the Tribunal did accept Mr Hauck’s opinion that the release of the information would be harmful to our international relations; and his secret evidence was accepted too.
This is in spite of Prime Minister Albanese’s repeated statements, and the similar claims of other ministers, that Australia’s relations with Japan and other Asian energy partners have “never been stronger”.
Privately, however, DFAT appears to have persuaded the Tribunal that those same relationships are so sensitive that disclosure of an unimplemented policy options paper of a former government would cause the diplomatic sky to fall in.
Thanks to the anti-disclosure stance of the Albanese Government and DFAT’s secret testimony in support of that, Australians will not be allowed to see domestic gas policy options developed by our government’s energy experts – paid for, one might add, by you, the taxpayer.
The next chance to see this document will likely not be until 2042, eighteen years away, when it becomes subject to the National Archives Act.
Free debate in this country about our energy resources and policy options is being censored in the interest of keeping the Japanese, South Korean and Singaporean Governments and energy giants in those countries happy.
It’s a disgraceful state of affairs.
Mugs away
Other information – ministerial submissions and briefings revealed through FOI – has already shown that the Albanese Government has succumbed to pressure from Japan to ensure they have a long-term supply of gas on highly favourable terms. This is despite the Labor Party promising to both deal with climate change and ensure that Australian energy consumers were given a fair deal.
The Labor Party misled their constituent base in order to obtain power.
Climate Betrayal: how backroom deals with Japan locked Australia in for decades of gas
To make matters worse, it’s also been revealed that Japan has been taking so much of our gas on such generous terms that they’re on-selling some of our gas at a profit.
The value sequence goes like this. Large corporations, many of them with substantial Japanese shareholdings, extract our gas and export it to Asia. Australians receive very little in the way of royalties. Excess gas in Japan is sold off to their overseas markets.
Meanwhile, at home, we pay extraordinary prices for our own gas, with the gas cartel keeping supply tight to maximise its export opportunities. There have been times when the price of Australian gas in Japan, after liquification and shipping, was cheaper in price than the price of Australian gas in Australia.
Whilst the Albanese Government did bring in a $12 per/gigajoule price cap when the Ukraine war caused significant price rises on the East Coast (remember, WA prices always sit low because of their gas reservation scheme), the cartel was quietly smiling, knowing that any government that was trying to do the right thing by its citizens would have set the cap at $7 per gigajoule (still more expensive than what Western Australian’s pay).
It’s a trap: mooted gas cap plays into the hands of the cartel, locks in high energy prices
Domestic policy debate? No
The latest act by the government just rubs salt into the gas-fired wound.
To be clear, the document that I was seeking was a domestic policy options paper. The effect of the government’s successful claim in the AAT is that Australians are not allowed to engage in domestic policy debate because it might offend the Japanese.
Source: Administrative Appeals Tribunal
As Australians struggle to pay rent and buy groceries, our government is denying informed debate on a major cost-of-living remedy.
Wicked is a word that springs to mind.
Rex Patrick is a former Senator for South Australia and earlier a submariner in the armed forces. Best known as an anti-corruption and transparency crusader - www.transparencywarrior.com.au.