What’s the go with Aussie gas?

Big Gas will have you believe we have a gas supply problem because of Aussie demand. But we don't – the reality is we have a gas export problem. Australia already has enough access to gas to meet all our domestic needs, but 80% of it is exported overseas. Australia is among the world's largest exporters of gas, contending with only USA and Qatar. Over the past 5 years, the Australian government has allowed the export of enough gas to supply Australians for more than 20 years. What's more, Aussies pay up to seven times more for gas than other large gas producing nations including the USA, Russia, Qatar and Canada.

Gas can be replaced in Australia. Gas provides only around 5% of electricity in Australia's main domestic grid, and renewable energy provides us with viable alternatives to gas that are already getting cheaper and more accessible. We need to stop new gas projects, and we need a clear pathway to phase gas exports. Gas companies need us, but we don't need them.

Big Gas overstates its ongoing contribution to the Australian economy. But gas contributes far less to the Aussie economy than other industries of similar scale. Compared to the profits of companies like Santos and Woodside, our economy gets pennies from gas exports. The government collects less money from gas exports than from:

• HECS payments
• Salary tax of teachers or nurses
• Beer excise tax

In fact, Aussie taxpayers actually subsidise the coal and gas industries to the tune of $20,000 a minute. This means that in just over five minutes, public handouts to coal and gas companies are more than the average Aussie earns in a year. And in many parts of Australia, gas bills are dramatically increasing as Big Gas deliberately exposes us to global gas prices, leading to a massive transfer of wealth from Australian households and businesses to Big Gas. They are taking far more from us than just our gas.

Big Gas will tell you that gas is 'cleaner' than other fossil fuels. This is pure marketing spin. Not only is gas a significant contributor to climate change, but our broken laws also allow gas companies to dangerously underreport their emissions. Australia’s existing pipeline of 22 gas projects, along with identified and prospective gas resources, could emit up to three times the world’s annual emissions.

Vast quantities of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are released at every stage of the gas supply chain, even before it’s burnt to create energy. Then there's the excess of methane, a potent, highly polluting gas. In the short-term, one tonne of methane warms the atmosphere 86 times as much as one tonne of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. On top of that, we now know that Australia is underreporting methane emissions from its fossil fuel sector by at least 64%. Last year a Santos-owned export hub in Darwin was exposed as having secretly leaked methane for nearly two decades.

When you consider the full life cycle of gas – extraction, processing, transport and use – it’s just as bad for the climate as coal. And every time our politicians approve a new gas project, they’re detonating a climate bomb.

Big Gas wants you to believe that they are a critical employer. The reality is that gas companies employ a small number of Aussies, especially compared to other industries. In 2024, 16,200 people in Australia worked in oil and gas extraction, or 0.11% of the 14.4 million jobs in the country. For comparison, in the same year, manufacturing employed 902,900 people and the health sector employed 2.2 million.

What's more, the boom-and-bust nature of the global energy market, as well as the global push towards decarbonisation, creates instability for communities and jobs – often leaving Aussie workers behind.

We need the federal government and private sector to team up to support the transition of workers into a secure, well-paid renewable industry, with manufacturing jobs that are future-proofed and safe for our climate.

With the transition to renewable energy sources — like wind and solar — Australia has the opportunity to create 395,000 clean export jobs.