This is turning into an interesting IQ and ethics test for parliament. The further the gas cartel debate runs, the more the dumb and corrupt are exposed.
Beetrooter Joyce has chimed in to gaslight the living hell out of everyone:
“If you get more supply into the market by allowing us to extract more gas, naturally enough you’re going to help our domestic price,” he told Sky News on Thursday.
“We’ve got a mechanism to keep gas domestically, but you have to produce the gas to keep it domestically and they don’t want to do that.”
The closure of gas-fired power stations was forcing manufacturing offshore, Mr Joyce added.
“We have the inevitable cluster, which is our economy. We restrict supply, prices go up, manufacturing goes overseas, and the poor old bunny – which is you – has to pay.”
WRONG. Two preconditions are needed to lower prices. More gas and some, any, competition.
There is nothing in any agreement with the government that says gas must be sold in Australia. All the new ADGSM says is that more gas must be offered in Australia below export netback prices. But because there is no competition between gas cartel members, it will be offered at astronomical prices.
Shockingly, the Beetrooter gets support from another Labor dill:
Trade Minister Don Farrell says the government will only implement gas policies that allow international contracts to be fulfilled, as Labor mulls a revamp on an industry code of conduct.
While Industry Minister Ed Husic has been critical of the heads of agreement struck between the gas industry and Resources Minister Madeleine King, Senator Farrell said the deal was the “way to go”.
“She has secured a lot more gas for domestic use, particularly as we come into winter next year,” Senator Farrell told Sky News.
“That in itself will push pressure down on gas prices.
“We will ensure that we get those long-term prices down but, from my point of view, give some guarantees to particularly Korea and Japan that we continue to be a reliable supplier of conventional energy.”
No, you won’t. The cartel controls the price completely. It will set the price at a level it estimates won’t result in a punitive policy. With Albo’s cowards that is currently $21Gj which is already a 60% price hike for gas and power bills and 3% added to the CPI.
But the moment it gets the chance – another incident in Ukraine, cold weather, etc – the Evil Gas Cartel will drive the price to the $60Gj netback that Mad King agreed to before she was kidnapped and held hostage on an oil platform in WA. Which is why her voice is absent from the debate. Here’s the proof:
Perhaps we should dispatch the SAS to rescue her. If we have a bulk carrier Chinook sitting around. Or, even better, bomb the rig to destroy the terrorist threat and award Mad King the Cross of Valour.
Sadly, after just days, the Evil Gas Cartel has also nobbled Industry Minister Ed Husic:
“My firm preference is to avoid a tax solution,” Mr Husic told The Australian Financial Review on Thursday. “We need the gas companies to embrace common sense, and, if not we’ll explore other options.”
Our Ed might have had the decency to hold out for a week. Three days is a bit rich. As the AWU said, talk is cheap, and it will do nothing to stop the cartel.
If you want cheap gas at home and no impact on export volumes then introduce a Ukraine War export levy:
- All mining revenues above pre-Ukraine benchmarked prices for gas and coal are levied to the government. This crashes the local price of both fuels and electricity prices. It erases the inflation problem.
- It also inundates the budget with cash, scores of billions of it. Nor does it require the breaking of export contracts because it is about price, not volume.
- Levying gas at $7Gj and coal at $100Gj is about right.
What looms instead is a bailout for Husic’s manufacturers, which will be funded by higher taxes or more public debt. Either way, it is effectively households paying to funnel money directly to the Evil Gas Cartel while adding inflation to the economy.
Such a policy outcome delivers the worst possible impact on the most possible Australians as real incomes and wealth are smashed even more.
Albo’s cowards are living, breathing disaster for you and me.
