Earlier this week, MB revealed how Japan has declared war against the Greens’ plan to reserve East Coast gas for domestic use:
Japan would be weakened economically and strategically, and Australia’s reputation as a reliable energy supplier would be shattered, if export gas was redirected to the domestic market as the Greens are demanding, Tokyo’s former top envoy to Canberra says.
Shingo Yamagami, who spoke out against “energy nationalism” during his tenure as Japanese ambassador between 2020 and 2023, said he was alarmed at growing calls by the Greens for Australia to breach gas export contracts rather than develop new gas fields to meet domestic demand.
This comes as East Coast Australia is suffering from domestic gas shortages and paying among the highest prices in the world, which is also driving up electricity prices.
To add further insult to injury, Japan is receiving more gas than it needs and is on-selling to other countries about 30mt of LNG per annum, which is roughly 1600Pj:
Meanwhile, Australia’s East Coast only needs around 200Pj of extra gas to solve all our energy problems.
Former independent senator for South Australia, Rex Patrick, has written an explosive report at Michael West Media revealing how a report from the former Coalition government on options for domestic gas revenue, sent to the Minister for Resources in November 2021, has been hidden from the public because it risked offending Japan, Korea, and Singapore:
According to Rex Patrick:
I sought to exhume the options paper and applied for access under our national Freedom of Information law.
It quickly became clear the Albanese Government wanted it kept under wraps.
At the start they denied access to everything. Not one page, not one paragraph, not one word was to be released to me or the Australian public.
At that point most FOI applicants give up, but I put $1,121 cash on the barrelhead to take the matter to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal…
The Government was represented by a brace of taxpayer-funded lawyers. I was self-represented…
Thanks to the anti-disclosure stance of the Albanese Government and DFAT’s secret testimony in support of that, Australians will not be allowed to see domestic gas policy options developed by our government’s energy experts – paid for, one might add, by you, the taxpayer…
Free debate in this country about our energy resources and policy options is being censored in the interest of keeping the Japanese, South Korean and Singaporean Governments and energy giants in those countries happy.
It’s a disgraceful state of affairs…
Other information – ministerial submissions and briefings revealed through FOI – has already shown that the Albanese Government has succumbed to pressure from Japan to ensure they have a long-term supply of gas on highly favourable terms…
To make matters worse, it’s also been revealed that Japan has been taking so much of our gas on such generous terms that they’re on-selling some of our gas at a profit.
The value sequence goes like this. Large corporations, many of them with substantial Japanese shareholdings, extract our gas and export it to Asia. Australians receive very little in the way of royalties. Excess gas in Japan is sold off to their overseas markets.
Meanwhile, at home, we pay extraordinary prices for our own gas, with the gas cartel keeping supply tight to maximise its export opportunities.
There have been times when the price of Australian gas in Japan, after liquification and shipping, was cheaper in price than the price of Australian gas in Australia.
Whilst the Albanese Government did bring in a $12 per/gigajoule price cap when the Ukraine war caused significant price rises on the East Coast (remember, WA prices always sit low because of their gas reservation scheme), the cartel was quietly smiling, knowing that any government that was trying to do the right thing by its citizens would have set the cap at $7 per gigajoule (still more expensive than what Western Australian’s pay)…
The latest act by the government just rubs salt into the gas-fired wound.
To be clear, the document that I was seeking was a domestic policy options paper. The effect of the government’s successful claim in the AAT is that Australians are not allowed to engage in domestic policy debate because it might offend the Japanese.
As Australians struggle to pay rent and buy groceries, our government is denying informed debate on a major cost-of-living remedy.
Wicked is a word that springs to mind.
Rex Patrick is a patriot who put up $1,121 of his own money to have the domestic gas reservation options paper released to the public.
By contrast, the Albanese government is a traitor who has put the interests of Japanese, Koreans, and Singaporeans ahead of its constituents, the Australian people.
