are increasingly unsettled by the combined impact of the government’s various interventions on gas.
Instead, the government’s proposals led to a threatened investment strike and the stalling of new contract negotiations with gas customers. The stand-off is only now being quietly sorted out thanks to a partial government retreat over the past several weeks in closed door negotiations with individual companies.
The PRRT regime in the west operates under very different rules but still reflects senior ministers belatedly realising the risk of a repeat of a hostile gas industry response that eventually requires having to back away from the government’s original ambition. But even without that disruption, any reduction in finger pointing over responsibility for gas prices, investment and conduct will be tested sooner rather than later. Coal-fired power stations will continue to close on the east coast, including the 2025 target date for the country’s biggest power station, Eraring in NSW.