Last weekend, a protest was held against constructing a critical gas pipeline between the huge Pilliga forest natural gas reserves near Narrabri, in northwestern NSW, and Newcastle.
Green environmental groups, such as Lock the Gate Alliance and Knitting Nannas Against Gas and Greed, travelled 400 kilometres in a two-day convoy down the pipeline route and finally assembled in Civic Park. All 40 of them. Very few from Newcastle joined in.
This was a last-gasp protest against what the Minns government has now deemed critical infrastructure. It will undoubtedly be a crucial connection for the billion-dollar Kurri gas-fired electric power station, which is nearing completion. Until it is linked to the natural gas pipeline, it will have to use polluting diesel.
Reliable gas supplies are not just a matter of convenience, but a lifeline for Australian manufacturing industries. The current uncertainty and lack of supply are pushing gas prices to alarming levels, threatening the financial stability of many industries. The possibility of them relocating offshore is a real and concerning prospect.
This highlights a curious aspect of Australia's energy crisis: our growing shortage of natural gas supplies, particularly on the east coast between Brisbane and Melbourne. It raises the question of why Australia is critically short of domestic gas in the 2020s when, up to 2023, we were the world's largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The answer lies mainly in our continent's geography, which has created a logistical problem. Our huge gas reserves are mainly off the coast of northwestern Australia, while most of the domestic demand is in the southeast of our the country between Melbourne and Brisbane.
In the 1970s, a visionary Whitlam-era resources minister, Rex O'Connor, planned to build a $4 billion ($25 billion in 2024) gas pipeline diagonally across Australia. This was a long-term solution to link the northwest gas supply to the southeast demand. However, in what became known as the Khemlani Affair, O'Connor couldn't convince the Cabinet or raise the capital publicly or privately to fund this critical infrastructure.
So, since the 1970s, Australia has exported vast quantities of natural gas from the northwest shelf to countries such as Japan, China, and South Korea under long-term contracts. This has put Australia in a position where we now have a gas shortage for home and industry consumers. How did government allow this to happen?
I undertook some work for British Gas 15 years ago, when the company planned to extract gas near Toowoomba, Queensland, and pipe it to the Port of Gladstone for export. When researching government policy, I discovered, to my astonishment, that even though Western Australia had reserved supplies from its offshore gas fields for the state's domestic use, various federal governments had never done this for the rest of Australia.
This has created a supply problem only recently because, in south-eastern Australia, we did have plentiful gas supplies from Bass Strait, but this has rapidly depleted in recent years. Also, the Andrews ALP Victorian government blocked the opening of onshore gas fields for ideological reasons, claiming they would not be needed in Australia's renewal energy nirvana.
Natural gas indeed produces greenhouse gases - but a lot less than coal. However, it is generally accepted that Australia will still need baseload gas as a transition fuel for decades to come. Our natural gas supplies in south-eastern Australia are running critically low, and our country is in the bizarre position of perhaps having to import natural gas into our east coast.
Once again, political ideology and lack of foresight have become the enemy of sound energy policy. As Australia's coal-fired power stations are phased out, gas will be critical as a baseload transition fuel.
Opening the extensive Pilliga gas supplies and piping them into the east coast network via the Hunter Valley will play a crucial role in providing cheaper natural gas, keeping the domestic lights on and local businesses running at a reasonable cost during the energy transition from coal.
