Perhaps the most enduring mystery dogging the Albanese government is why it has taken no action to reduce gas prices.
This one reform is such low-hanging fruit, so easy to do, with such immense economic upside, that the failure to act upon it is the single most toxic symptom of Australian political failure in the economy.
Consider the downsides of doing nothing:
- stalled energy transition;
- massive bill shock for households and businesses;
- industrial hollowing out;
- endemic inflation and higher interest rates,
- collapsing productivity;
- ruined budgets.
Now force the gas price lower to $7Gj using export levies, and you can reverse all of those effects, delivering a boom in one stroke of a pen.
Unions want it.
The Australian Workers Union has dismissed the need for “left-field ideas” at Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ economic roundtable later this month, saying the most effective thing Labor could do to drive productivity and profits is introduce an east coast gas reservation.
Businesses want it.
Expanding the goods and services tax, council land rates and the tax on offshore oil and gas would be the most growth-friendly ways to pay for reductions in corporate tax, according to modelling for the Productivity Commission.
Households want it.
Research by pollster Redbridge for the Australian Pipelines and Gas Association—which represents “downstream” gas businesses—found voter support for a domestic gas reserve at 86%, while less than 5% of voters expressed any opposition to the idea.
Everybody wants it. Even the federal opposition.
Everybody except for Albo’s corrupt cowards.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Monday sought to temper expectations of a major reform agenda coming from the meeting of business, unions and community groups, saying it was just a roundtable, “not more than that”.
If this basic economic survival policy can’t get up under Albo, then nothing will.
