![Peter Dutton echoes Ronald Reagan in saying Australia should let ‘freedom solve the problem [of high energy prices] through the magic of the marketplace’.](https://media.guim.co.uk/12a66252c7c66830824552f3eea3e906beee3963/0_0_4982_2991/1000.jpg)
Peter Dutton has claimed that Labor “wants gas gone” in a speech signalling the Coalition will oppose changes to resource tax and environmental laws, seeking to tie them to inflation in energy prices.
Despite the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association backing the Albanese government’s proposed changes to the petroleum resource rent tax, the opposition leader will use its conference to urge the gas industry to “fight for your sector” alongside the Coalition.
Speaking remotely to the conference in Adelaide, Dutton invoked Ronald Reagan’s policies responding to the oil crisis in 1981 by letting “freedom solve the problem through the magic of the marketplace”.
Dutton railed against a series of Labor policies: reduced funding for gas exploration and infrastructure, including exclusion from the national reconstruction fund; a mandatory code of conduct, which ensures supply of gas at reasonable prices; the safeguard mechanism, which requires new gas projects for export to have net zero emissions; and the temporary coal and gas price cap.
The price cap has been praised by industrial gas users and the competition regulator, and was estimated by Treasury to save households $230 on their power bills compared with larger projected rises.
Dutton argued that although the cap “was meant to shield Australian families, businesses and manufacturers from price spikes … power prices continue to go up”.
Labor came to office in May 2022 as Australians were being slugged with price rises driven, in part, by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The announcement of price rises of up to 20% was delayed by the Coalition in their last month in office.
Dutton claimed that the safeguard mechanism amounts to “a new carbon tax law” that would be “financially crippling” for the industry.
“There will be no choice but to pass that cost on to consumers, which impacts in a negative way on inflation.”
By contrast, “the Coalition trusts industries instinctively to set their own pathway to net zero emissions by 2050”, he said.
“The markets require that. The media requires it. Your investors require it.”
Dutton said the sector was liable to pay a 40% tax rate on offshore oil and gas projects, but “because the Labor government can’t manage money, it wants to hit you with the hammer of taxation”.
On Wednesday, after a similar attack by shadow treasurer Angus Taylor on the PRRT changes designed to net just $2.4bn over four years, Appea’s chief executive, Samantha McCulloch, said the changes “provide greater certainty” to the industry about “the future investment required to maintain both domestic and regional gas supply security for our customers”.
“Australia needs a strong and sustainable future for the gas industry and that requires stable and enduring policy settings, and for that we consider bipartisan support is important,” she told Guardian Australia.
Dutton claimed that “the worst is yet to come”, citing proposed changes to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act and the planned Environment Protection Agency.
“Yes of course, we all want to protect and improve our environment. But we also have an obligation to promote the longevity of Australian industries and businesses which underpin our economic prosperity.”
Dutton claimed that Labor was driven by “renewable zealotry” and despite repeated support from Anthony Albanese and the energy minister, Chris Bowen, for the gas industry “their actions betray their words”.
“I want to say to you today that a returned Coalition government will work once again with your sector to put more supply into the domestic system.
“To make sure that we have more gas available for export so that we can continue to grow the sector. Just like Reagan, we will wind back government intervention.”
Dutton urged the gas sector “to fight for yourselves” and “speak up frankly and more avidly”. “We need you to work with us to push back against this government’s detrimental policies.”
The opposition leader was followed by Santos chief executive Kevin Gallagher, who acknowledged Dutton’s address before focusing on an earlier speech by SA energy minister Tom Koutsantonis, who told the industry that the state government was “at your disposal”. Gallaghar described this as a “breath of fresh air”.
“It’s not very often in our industry that we are so warmly welcomed and appreciated for the contribution that we make to Australia’s world-class living standards. And for the leading role we play in the energy transition to net zero,” Gallagher said.
Bill Hare warns of loss of ‘biggest opportunity’
Bill Hare, a physicist and climate scientist, warned that Dutton’s position risked setting Australia back, as “our companies will lose market share” while the rest of the world decarbonises.
“If Peter Dutton is serious about the longevity and sustainability of Australia, he would be calling for a more rapid rollout of renewables and green hydrogen for the sector’s steel, fertiliser, cement industries that are hard to abate,” Hare said.
“This is literally the biggest opportunity Australia has had in a very long time and the risk is if we don’t take it now we will lose it.”
On Saturday, Bowen told reporters that although the budget projects power prices to rise by 10% before Labor’s market interventions price rises were projected to be up to 40 or 50%.
Bowen said that rebates of up to $500 for households and the price cap were temporary “to deal with a specific circumstance caused by the spike in energy prices around the world, caused by the illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine”.
“Of course, ultimately, we continue on the transformation of our energy grid because the most, the cheapest form of energy is renewable energy and under this government that is the energy which will get support.”
