Federal Resources Minister Madeleine King has released a Future Gas Strategy this morning that reprises Scott Morrison’s failed ‘gas-fired recovery’, with a focus on promoting gas expansions that will blow Australia’s climate targets.
The Strategy is likely to lead to a renewed push to open new, polluting gasfields in our national food bowl on the Liverpool Plains, in the mighty Pilliga forest near Narrabri, and in cultural and ecological jewels like the Kimberley in Western Australia and the Roper Gulf region in the Northern Territory.
Carmel Flint, National Coordinator with Lock the Gate said “The Future Gas Strategy announced today promotes a reckless plan to open up new industrial gas basins that will damage land, water and communities.
“It is Scott Morrison’s failed and terribly ill-considered ‘gas-fired recovery’ all over again, and it is as wrong now as it was then.
“This strategy is a capitulation to the gas lobby at the expense of manufacturers, workers and households struggling with the cost of living, who will all pay more for energy because of it.
“The gas industry has mercilessly price-gouged Australians, with gas prices more than tripling in the last 10 years, driving up energy prices more broadly and destroying manufacturing.
“Treasurer Jim Chalmer’s plan for a Future Made in Australia will be a Fossil Fuel Disaster Made in Australia if this strategy is allowed to proceed.
“It is solar, not gas, that is key to a renewables transition in Australia, and doubling down on gas will impede that transition severely and undoubtedly blow our climate targets.
“We’re calling on the Prime Minister, the Treasurer, and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen to repudiate this failed Morrison-era plan” she said.