Dear Shadow Minister,

You do sift through this stuff with such a jaundiced eye don't you.

I have never advocated for a complete ban but rather for a legislated proportion to be kept for Australians to heat our homes, drive our businesses and power our electricity at a cheaper price than what we export it.

Look at the price of petrol in Saudi Arabia .24 USD per litre. Turkmenistan, Kuwait, Iran, Equador Bahrain, Qatar, Kazakhstan, Oman, UAE and Malaysia are all sub .50 USD. Even the USA is sub .70 because of its own production.

These countries have protections in place so their own citizens are not paying world parity prices for a resource they're abundant in. Why it is okay for us to pay top dollar for natural gas while being the world's second largest exporter?

The ban was designed to shield the US from the actions of OPEC and from huge jumps in world prices and it did just that. Domestically the US was paying a fifth of the international price for natural gas and as Andrew Liveris, CEO of Dow Chemical explains “So, when natural gas is not solely used as an export, and is used as a building block for manufactured goods, it creates eight times more value across the entire economy. In this way, American’s natural gas bounty is more than a simple commodity. It’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity to export advanced products and not just BTUs.”

You wrote;

“the majority of gas exports are from the north WA or Queensland from where there is little or no infrastructure to pipe gas elsewhere or even to ship it to other states”

Rubbish. Did you even read the article? Most of the Queensland production is accessible to the eastern states. Santos brought up gas destined for the local market to honour long term contracts with overseas businesses. The Japanese are paying cheaper prices than us even though WA fields are a lot closer to the east coast of Australia than Japanese ports.

How about thinking of Australian families and businesses rather than slavishly worshiping free markets?

SR,

The main reason that gas in the US and Saudi is so cheap in comparison is that the government imposes a series of taxes on petrol. Without these Aus prices would be well below US70c.

So you are simply advocating that the government abandon the constitution and appropriate the gas at below market price by forcing the owners to sell at below market prices. Then it could continue the trend by confiscating all property and forcing people to work for the state at slave wages, then we would have a socialist paradise.

If the government simply scrapped its stupid moratorium on CSG, the country could be awash with cheap gas.

P.S. I notice that coke amatil is abandoning South Australia.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-22/coca-cola-amatil-to-close-adelaide-factory-sa-asx/8291986

Paul and Steel, if we stop exporting coal, and lets face it, it does not matter whether its burned at home or abroard, if we do stop coal exports, what do you suggest we turn to to fill the void for one, and replace the thousands of lost jobs.

A 'wish list' is all but a dream unless there is a contingency plan to manage the fallout.

Rechtub,

The greens would have all the unemployed basket weaving.

or making traps so that feral cats can be trapped, neutered and released!!

Dear Shadow Minister,

You wrote;

“If the government simply scrapped its stupid moratorium on CSG, the country could be awash with cheap gas.”

Oh that is complete bunkum and you know it.

We are awash with gas, more than any other country. But it isn't cheap here because it has been locked into export contracts by international companies.

“All eastern Australia states have experienced a period of substantial rises in wholesale gas prices during the last three to five years. The development of three LNG projects in Gladstone has been a major factor contributing to these increases. “
http://industry.gov.au/Energy/Energy-information/Documents/Gas-Price-Trends-Report.pdf

The WA government at least has the good sense to mandate 15% of production for domestic use but both it and QLD have suffered sharp spikes in domestic prices as export contracts have been put in place.

You either don't get it or are being willfully ignorant.

Dear rehctub,

Maybe you missed what I posted earlier to you;

Do you think we should have policies that will protect our households, our businesses and our power companies from high gas prices by mandating a percentage of production be kept for domestic use?