Hansard debates

Mrs McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (18:05): My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Resources, and it relates to the Labor government’s damaging moratorium on conventional gas exploration in Victoria. There has been no moratorium on the demand for gas. August last year saw the single-highest level of use ever recorded in Victoria. In peak periods most of the energy we use comes from gas, not electricity—three times as much in fact—and demand is constantly growing. On average there are around 40 000 new connections to the network every year. Last year Australia overtook Qatar as the largest liquefied natural gas exporter in the world, increasing from 15.4 million tonnes to 75 million tonnes in the last decade. Yet despite this huge increase in production, prices are rising. Worse still, there are now serious proposals to build gas import terminals in sensitive areas like the Mornington Peninsula.

What has gone wrong? It is a scandal that we have had a gas boom and yet consumers and businesses in Victoria are paying more. Why are we considering imports from other countries or pipeline gas from other states which can cost six times more? How is it that we have the highest power prices in the country and that the price of gas has tripled since 2014? Alcoa’s recent update on the Portland smelter puts this into perspective. Company president Roy Harvey noted last month:

It is a plant that operates very stably, it is a good technology, it just happens to be one of the … highest energy price markets on the planet.

The simple answer is Victoria’s inexplicable ban on conventional onshore gas exploration. Industry cannot build new supply closest to where customer demand is greatest, hence the absurdity of high-cost pipeline imports or expensive and potentially environmentally undesirable import infrastructure. Western Victoria Region has abundant resources of natural gas. We can increase supply and reduce prices, bringing lower energy costs for consumers and benefits for business, which will encourage investment and increase job creation.

The government in Canberra has asked Victoria to increase supply. Even the Labor Party recognises the stupidity of the policy. Resources spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon has said the ban makes neither economic nor environmental sense. Everyone wants the ban lifted. Victorians are paying the price. The action I seek is that the minister support my longstanding campaign to remove the moratorium and stimulate development by allowing royalties for landowners. They too should benefit from the opportunity this development presents. Like the rest of Victoria, like the rest of Australia, Western Victoria Region cannot accept that misplaced ideology should continue to cost us so dear.