Coalition leader Peter Dutton is an unelectable fool.
In the wake of the Jobs & Skills Summit, which saw Labor open the floodgates to record numbers of permanent and temporary migrants, Peter Dutton claimed the intake wasn’t high enough and demanded more immigration:
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has responded to the federal government lifting the permanent migration cap to 195,000 for 2022-23.
“We’re not a government in exile, but it’s clear the number needs to be higher,” he told reporters from the Gold Coast.
“They just need to calibrate the number because over the next couple of years we are going to see a tightening within some sectors.”
Now Dutton is pitching his stake firmly in the corner of the energy cartel, vigorously opposing the Albanese Government’s $12 a gigajoule price cap on domestic prices:
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has been critical of the government’s plan to cap gas prices.
“The concern we have got is if you start restricting the supply of gas, that will only drive the price up, particularly when you have more demand in the marketplace,” he told the Nine Network.
“So what the government should be doing is putting more supply into the system, working with the companies – not against them, because I fear in this package that it’s going to actually drive prices up and you are seeing the response of companies now…
“Shell is talking about restricting supply into the market. This is intervention … which is actually going to make it worse for families and small businesses,” he said.
Earth to idiot: this isn’t a functioning market, it is a foreign-owned cartel that is sitting on 90% of reserves, is exporting 72% of east coast supply and making record profits, while gouging domestic users.
The notion that we need more supply is utterly ridiculous given said supply has increased by some 300% over the past decade, which the cartel has chosen to export.
Eastern Australia is literally swimming in gas. There is not, nor has there ever been, a shortage of gas on the east coast of Australia. There is merely a shortage of desire to supply it locally at a reasonable price.
The problem is that these gas reserves are controlled by a few foreign-owned firms that are engaging in cartel behaviour. Hence, ‘more supply’ won’t solve the problem and regulatory action is needed.
Idiot Dutton only needs to look to Western Australia for the solution. Western Australia’s domestic gas reservation policy has been in operation since 2006 and has delivered the world’s lowest gas prices in the $5-7/gigajoule range.
Western Australia’s gas reservation policy has not deterred investment nor exports. To the contrary. Western Australia has received the most LNG investment and exports are booming, all while residents enjoy the world’s lowest gas and electricity prices.
Finally, why does Idiot Dutton believe that a $12 a gigajoule price cap would deter investment? This price is some 50% higher than a year ago when the cartel was happy to invest. It would also leave the cartel free to make obscene profits on their exports, which comprise the overwhelming majority of their sales.
Under Idiot Dutton, households and businesses east of Western Australia would see their energy bills explode, driving inflation to the moon and forcing the RBA to hike interest rates higher. It would usher severe financial stress and a wave of business closures – all to juice the profits of a few foreign-owned energy giants.
Rather than fluffing the energy cartel, Idiot Dutton should have advocated for Australians and argued for a lower price cap.
He and the Coalition are unelectable.
