Japan’s Inpex has taken another public swipe at the Albanese government’s gas strategy, telling a conference in Darwin the country is a “global outlier” on energy policy and accusing Canberra of “moving the goal posts” on multi-billion-dollar gas investments.

Tetsu Murayama, the head of Inpex in Australia and operator of the huge Ichthys LNG venture in Darwin, compared the “outstanding” level of encouragement the company has received from successive Northern Territory governments with what is happening at the federal level.