From Incitec Pivot yesterday:
Hooray.
Except, think about it for a minute. The QLD government has had to step in and heavy the gas export cartel to keep a national interest chemical manufacturer open. They’ve done some cosy deal on gas supply behind the scenes, probably in the premier’s office, released no cost details, and left everyone else scratching their heads.
This isn’t capitalism, competition, transparency, price discovery or anything else to with a “market”. It’s a joke of fattened interests doing sweetheart deals at the resources trough.
And do you know why? IPL will now be silenced about the need for domestic gas reservation, liberating the gas and power cartel to continue with its real project, which is to steal directly from you.
The Asian gas price is today at AUD6. The agreed net back price for the east coast under the Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism (ADGSM) is around AUD4. Yet the local price yesterday was rising again at AUD9.90.
Obviously your gas bill is more than double what it should be under existing law. Your power bill is also 30% higher than it should be under existing law because gas sets the marginal cost of electricity.
This is a $15-20bn theft from the east coast economy in broad daylight. From every single business and household.
That’s why the share prices of the gas carteliers, STO and ORG, went up yesterday as markets tanked and the oil price (which is crucial to earnings) crashed:
The market knows a good thief when it sees it.
