Australia’s “quiet quitting” of its LNG export juggernaut is making the world less safe both on climate and for the “rules-based” geopolitical order, said the head of Inpex, whose $60 billion-plus Ichthys project in Darwin is Japan’s biggest foreign investment.

Challenging Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to turn his pro-gas rhetoric “into deeds”, chief executive Takayuki Ueda put the Labor government on notice that it is already lagging “far behind” offshore rivals in the race to become a “clean energy superpower”.