Madeleine King is becoming something of a connoisseur of the irony that comes with being the minister for resources in a nation that often likes to pretend it is something other than an extractive supergiant.annual gathering in Adelaide, which drew its usual army of protesters, King couldn’t help but raise a laugh over the fact that an anti-gas activist had fastened themselves to the footpath using superglue made of “petrochemicals”.
“If your only ethical dimension is CO2 reduction, we’re doing something wrong,” he said. “If you restrict supply before better alternatives are available and deployed at scale, prices go up and somebody goes short.” “It must be difficult these last few months in your industry,” he said. “You must feel as if you’re not welcome, as if the work endeavour, the innovation, the risks you take, are somehow not productive for our country.Federal price caps, regulatory interventions, the safeguard mechanism reforms that have put a growing cost on extraction, court-room lawfare, and increased taxation have all landed seemingly at once. Allies are furious and investment decisions are on pause.
“The people outside want no gas and the people inside want everyone to leave them alone and let them get more gas,” said Tony Wood, from the Grattan Institute. “The reality is somewhere in between. Executives are privately clear. They can live with the tax increase, but they want to avoid another political circus, such as the debate over whether to “ban” gas from Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen’s heavy industrial and resources emissions reforms.for vacating the field and throwing their companies to the green wolves in the Senate.