Meanwhile Commonwealth Resources Minister Josh Frydenberg says the ACCC report supports expanding unconventional gas in Australia.
“The ACCC acknowledges that the cause of the current disruption in the east coast gas market was the rushed development of LNG exports from large new CSG development in Queensland, but bizarrely, it seems to propose that more rushed unconventional gas development will alleviate this problem,” the alliance’s national co-ordinator Phil Laird said.
“The environmental and social costs of gas to consumers and to affected communities has not been properly considered by the ACCC.
“The reason why moratoria are in place in Victoria and Tasmania, and why they are proposed in the Northern Territory and New South Wales, is because environmental regulation, insurance and management are not up to the job of preventing irreversible damage being inflicted on the public by unconventional gas operations.
“We’ve seen the disaster in Queensland, and clearly need more regulation, not less.”
He said that unlike the closed ACCC processes, the Bender Inquiry into Unconventional Gas has heard devastating evidence of environmental externalities from affected community members: dewatered aquifers, water bore blow outs, uninsured cowboy outfits, falling mental health, contaminated land and air.
“The rest of Australia has heard and seen the impacts to Queensland communities and are rightly saying ‘we don’t want that here’. The ACCC should go back to the drawing board, engage with communities about impacts, and properly quantify the costs of unconventional gas to people and the environment” he said.
But, if Lock The Gate has been successful in building grassroots support of bans on gas drilling in NSW, Victoria, Tasmania and potentially the NT, it isn’t likely to find a friend in Canberra.
Frydenberg backed regulatory changes that will once again open Australia for drilling.
Yesterday he said that commercial and industrial businesses which are increasingly competing against exporters for gas are finding it difficult to negotiate supply contracts, which are now being set at higher prices, for shorter periods, and with less flexibility around terms, and households are also being slugged, and the issue will get worse post-2025 when there are concerns around gas availability.
He backed calls from the ACCC to scrap moratoria on gas developments, and said developments could be undertaken in an environmentally sustainable and sensitive way.
And he backed greater transparency, given 99% of bilateral gas contracts concluded in Australia remain confidential, and the increased regulation of pipelines.
“Great care will need to be taken to respect existing contracts and encourage continued investment in pipelines as a means of ensuring security of supply,” he said.
“No doubt different jurisdictions bring to the table different views on each of the recommendations but a great opportunity is now presented to us by the ACCC in that we have a credible, evidence-based report on a complex and changing gas market which can provide the basis for a collective response.”
The ACCC has provided the impetus for change, and he said its findings “neatly complement” the work being prepared by the Australian Energy Market Commission for the next COAG Energy Council meeting, set down for July.
