The report, released today, comes at a time when Australians are paying record gas prices and constantly being told they face gas shortages.
These excessive gas exports continue to deplete Australia's gas reserves, sending Australia's low-cost gas overseas, leaving only more difficult to access, environmentally-damaging, high-cost gas for Australians.
Key points:
- In the past 5 years, the Australian government has allowed the export of gas volumes equivalent to 22 years of Australia's total gas demand.
- The gas industry uses more gas just processing gas for export than Australians use for gas power plants, manufacturing or households.
- Gas exports use:
- 9 times more gas than Australia uses for electricity each year.
- 13 times more gas than Australia's entire manufacturing industry each year.
- 30 times more than all of the gas used by Australian households each year.
- In 2023-24, 83% of all natural gas extracted in Australia was used by the LNG export industry.
- Gas exports have caused east coast wholesale gas prices to triple.
- Australians pay 4-7 times more for gas than other large gas producing nations including the USA, Russia, Qatar and Canada.
- The Prime Minster's claim that new gas projects are needed for firming renewables and the Resources Minister's claims that gas exports support Japan's energy security are untrue.
"The Australian government's apparent prioritisation of the interests of oil and gas multinationals and foreign nations over Australia's long term energy reserves is deeply concerning, said Air Vice-Marshall (Ret) John Backburn AO, Former Deputy Chief of the Royal Australian Air Force.
"Australia does not have a National Security Strategy, does not have a National Risk Assessment, and the last time we had a National Energy Security Assessment was 2011. How can rational decisions regarding the management of our energy resources possibly be made?
"Allowing the depletion of Australia's gas reserves by decades of potential supply to feed exports, while Australians apparently face shortages, amounts to negligently undermining Australia's energy security."
"Manufacturing is essential for the prosperity and security of any nation. The virtual absence of industry policy by successive Australian governments over the last 30 years has brought us to a fork in the road where we could lose our manufacturing base," said Geoff Crittenden, CEO of WELD Australia.
"The excessive gas price is not only a huge burden on industry, but its impact on the price of consumer goods like water heaters and the retail electricity price adds a substantial additional impost of Australian families."
"The Australian government is undermining Australia's energy security by allowing exports to rapidly deplete our reserves, while Australian manufacturers are left short and forced to pay sky-high prices, said Mark Ogge, Principal Adviser at The Australia Institute.
"While Australia's Minister for Resources, Madeleine King, says we need new sources of gas for Australian manufacturing, since becoming minister she has allowed the export of as much gas as Australian manufacturing would use over 40 years.
"The Prime Minister's argument for approving a 45-year extension of Woodside' climate-destroying North West Shelf gas export terminal to supply gas to firm renewables is ludicrous. The North West Shelf project is almost entirely for export, and the gas industry uses more gas just processing gas for export than Australia uses for electricity.
