20 May 2015
ACTU to fire up bid for gas reservation
The ACTU will ramp up the pressure on the Labor leadership to reserve natural gas for domestic use in a bid to boost jobs and industry.
The peak union body is today expected to adopt a new policy at its triennial congress that would impose greater controls on the export of Australian gas by multinational companies.
The resolution is to be put by the Australian Workers Union national secretary Scott McDine, who has campaigned for laws to ensure a certain percentage of gas is set aside for domestic use.
Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union national secretary Michael O’Connor will second the resolution, ensuring it has the numbers from both Right and Left-aligned unions.
The push is an attempt to force the Labor Party to update its platform at the upcoming national conference in a bid to stop gas reserves from being raided to the detriment of energy-intensive industries at home.
Mr McDine warns that unrestricted exports will lead to “skyrocketing” prices. He forecasts a 300 per cent price increase over coming years, equating to a $500 spike in household gas bills.
He is asking for 20 per cent of gas extracted from any field to be reserved for domestic use. He says the consequences of inaction are high, warning that one in five heavy manufacturers will “shut up shop” over the next few years, costing 235,000 jobs by 2023.
In a speech today, Mr McDine will say: “While Australian industry and households are used to paying around $4 a gigalitre for gas, Japan and Korea, for example, are willing to pay $20 for it. And if the big multinationals can sell Australia’s gas to Asia for $20, well that’s what they want to charge us as well.
“It’s a disgrace that our nation’s decision-makers have prioritised the interests of multinational gas exporters ... over the interests of Australian workers.”
The Australian understands Mr McDine will meet Bill Shorten and opposition Treasury spokesman Chris Bowen on Friday to discuss a gas-reservation policy. Energy-intensive plants such as the Tomago Aluminium smelter near Newcastle, supporting 950 employees and 300 contractors, would be negatively impacted by rising gas bills.
Mr McDine says there are also clear environmental benefits for local manufacturers in having a cheaper source of low-emission energy. He dismisses arguments that gas exporters making “mega-profits” will leave Australia if a government introduces a reservation policy to boost domestic supplies.
Read more...