Nationals’ Leader David Littleproud said energy bills across Australian households could have been lowered already, if Labor hadn’t been driven by an anti-gas ideology throughout its first term in government.
Mr Littleproud has welcomed Senex’s $1 billion Atlas and Roma North gas project, announced in late June, but said it could have been up and running by now, had it not been for Labor.
“The Nationals back our gas industry and welcome Senex’s expansion, however this project should have been given the green light much earlier, without Labor’s impossible price caps, codes of conduct and safeguard constraints,” Mr Littleproud said.
“Labor unnecessarily held up this gas project for more than 18 months with unprecedented intervention in the gas market and comprehensive approvals processes.
“Senex had planned for its gas project to reach 120 petajoules but the latest announcement will start with 60 petajoules. “
Mr Littleproud said despite this being half the amount Senex hoped to reach, it is still 10 per cent of the annual east coast domestic gas requirements and will make an enormous impact.
The announcement comes amid industry fears Australia could soon have to start importing liquified natural gas, despite being one of the world’s largest exporters.
“The implications of the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) are clear – Australia’s energy market is on a knife-edge. Most of the eastern states are at risk of blackouts from this summer and reliability on gas is set to deepen over the next decade.”
Mr Littleproud said Labor’s all-renewables approach clearly can’t do it all, which is why a mixture of gas as well as nuclear energy is needed.
“Under Labor, 90 per cent of our baseload power will be forced out of our energy grid by 2035, without any guarantee of a like-for-like replacement.
“We want to be a country where we can reach net zero emissions with nuclear power as part of an energy mix, but not break our economy through Labor’s reckless renewables-only policy.
