Labor’s attacks on gas ‘like the Soviet Union’, says Santos chief

Gas price legislation crusaded by the Albanese government should alarm ‘every business owner in Australia’, the CEO of the company behind the Narrabri Gas Project has declared.

The company behind the Narrabri Gas Project has warned that the Albanese government’s energy price legislation represents a form of “Soviet-style … nationalisation” that threatens to make Australia as difficult for energy companies to do business in as Argentina, Venezuela or Nigeria.

It also warned that Australia could face gas rationing this winter or next, and said that manufacturers and energy producers could wind up exiting Australia leaving the country poorer and without the “capital inflows … Australia will need to fund the energy transition.”

“Every business owner in Australia should be alarmed at what the federal government has done today. If it doesn’t like your business, your profits or the prices you charge for your products and services, it will regulate you,” Santos CEO Kevin Gallagher said.

“And it will regulate you if the unions don’t like your business, your profits or the prices you charge,” he said.

“This Soviet-style policy is a form of nationalisation.”

Santos CEO Kevin Gallagher has lashed the gas legislation being fronted by Labor. Picture: Adam Yip

Energy industry insiders have warned that projects like Narrabri, which is intended to supply much needed gas to NSW, could be on the chopping block if Labor continues to interfere in energy markets.

The Narrabri project, if fully developed, is expected to contribute $531 million per year to Australia’s GDP and employ 2,900 people on an ongoing basis.

In recent days a host of other energy producers have warned that the Albanese government’s legislation designed to bring down power prices could jeopardise their ability to supply Australian markets.

Mr Gallagher’s comments came as the head of one of Australia’s most important unions has described the Greens as “economic terrorists” just hours after the government passed energy price legislation that included an uncosted sop to the Greens to help households get rid of gas appliances.

“They don’t want further approvals, plus they hate the industry. They’re economic terrorists,” said AWU chief Dan Walton. .

Mr Walton added that he believed NSW should still push for Santos’ Narrabri project to go ahead, but only if there were measures to ensure supply would be reserved for the state.

Others in the domestic gas industry reacted angrily to the legislation, which passed the lower house with the support of the Greens after Labor agreed to include financial incentives for households to switch to electric appliances from gas.

National secretary of the Australian Workers Union Daniel Walton.

Mr Walton took aim at the Greens led by Adam Bandt.

Consumers will be encouraged to switch from gas appliances.

Brett Heffernan, CEO of Gas Energy Australia, said “the assumption that electricity is always cheaper and cleaner is wrong.”

“The bid to electrify everything is shortsighted and makes the policy mistake of trying to pick winners,” he said, adding that “gas is around 35 per cent lower in emission intensity than coal.”

Mr Heffernan said that according to analysis conducted by his organisation, if a household switched to high efficiency electric appliances, it would take more than 12 years to see any reduction in their costs while reducing their CO2 by around 9kg a week, equivalent to a BBQ cylinder.

He added that if the switch was made to cheaper, less efficient electric appliances, “emissions from gas appliances are significantly lower, which means the switch to electrical appliances actually increases emissions (in this case).”

Ross Jameson, head of the Gas Appliance Manufacturers Association of Australia, added that the government “would have to allocate billions to make the switch cost effective for consumers.”