The Australian Workers’ Union campaign to guarantee affordable gas for the manufacturing sector and all Australians, has finally been acted on.
Six years after the AWU officially launched the Reserve Our Gas campaign, this week the Morrison Government called for a COVID-19 gas led recovery and announced plans to create an Australian gas hub in Queensland.
AWU National Secretary Daniel Walton said the announcement was finally the kind of decisive action the union had been pushing for.
“Today’s plan will finally restore Australia’s gas wealth as an boost to Australian manufacturing instead of a millstone,” Mr Walton said.
“Most of today’s announcements are positions the AWU has been pushing for years and we are extremely pleased to see them advanced by government today.
“The vital thing the Federal Government’s plan recognises is that Australia’s natural gas wealth should be powering jobs in Australian manufacturing. This is fundamentally what we have been campaigning for since 2014.”
The AWU warned the then-Abbott Government that Australian industry and consumers were going to be hit with catastrophically energy prices if LNG exporters were given free rein to ship Australia’s gas overseas without making provision for domestic use.
High gas prices have continued in Australia, despite a global price crash – something that ACCC Chair Rod Simms has called out as a market failure in need of correction.
That correction now includes the development of a new gas hub in Queensland to link five gas fields and a new pipeline to move gas south to Sydney and Melbourne.
The Morrison Government has also promised to build a gas power plant in the NSW Hunter Valley if the private sector does not step in.
Mr Walton added: “The Morrison Government’s plan stops short of the reservation scheme the AWU has been pushing for, but if done properly it could achieve most of the same ends for our manufacturing sector and the quality jobs it should support.
“It has been nothing short of a policy disgrace that foreign customers have been getting access to Australian gas under a better deal than Australians. Global prices have fallen, and yet the profiteering in Australia has continued. This disgrace should now end.
“For years Australian manufacturing has been crying out for relief on ludicrously uncompetitive energy prices. We have seen thousands of Australian manufacturing jobs shipped offshore and many thousands more on the brink.
“This is the final chance for multinational gas companies to stop overcharging Australians for their own gas. If they don’t play ball – the government needs to enact its reservation powers and force them to. Simple.”
“What we need now is for Labor to enthusiastically get behind this plan and remove any impediment to it becoming law.
“We need Australian natural gas to shore up our energy supply today and support the transition to a clean energy future tomorrow. Renewable energy requires something to firm and stabilise it and gas is the perfect solution to that problem. The government’s plan would achieve this and anyone who wants to see an Australian manufacturing jobs boom should back it.”
The AWU will continue to work with the Government to push ahead for a gas reservation policy. With new gas projects being considered in Victoria and NSW, it’s vital that Australia develops an East Coast Gas Reservation policy so that this extra gas supply stays in the east coast and delivers cheaper gas prices.
The AWU is helping shape government policy by being part of its Manufacturing Taskforce tasked with getting Australia’s economy back on track post COVID-19.
The Australian Workers’ Union needs your support to secure the future of Australia’s manufacturing sector. Join your union today.
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