Australian voters back plans to keep gas on tap

The federal government’s future gas strategy has been strongly endorsed by Australians, with two-thirds of voters backing the plan to deliver affordable gas to customers in the decades to come.

The exclusive findings, contained in the Resolve Political Monitor conducted for this masthead, show that 60 per cent of voters support Labor’s future gas strategy, with just 24 per cent undecided or neutral and 15 per cent opposed.

Three-quarters of Australians support keeping a certain portion of gas for use in Australia only to ensure supply.Credit: Artists

The plan enjoys broad-based support across the country, with 62 per cent of Labor voters endorsing the policy, along with 72 per cent of Coalition voters, 54 per cent of “other” voters and 58 per cent of “uncommitted” voters – but just 36 per cent of Greens voters are on board.

The future gas strategy, announced by Resources Minister Madeleine King earlier this month, aims to unlock new gas fields across the country, including at the Narrabri site in NSW and Scarborough in Western Australia.

It is also designed to encourage the building of new gas import terminals, after warnings from the Australian Energy Market Operator of winter gas shortages in Victoria, NSW, South Australia and Tasmania by 2026, and along the entire east coast by 2028.

The Victorian government has been warned by its energy department that homes and businesses cannot transition to electricity fast enough to avoid frequent gas shortages by 2026.

The poll found that 75 per cent of voters supported a domestic gas reservation policy to ensure a steady supply of gas to households and businesses, with 22 per cent of people undecided and just 4 per cent opposed.

The only state with a domestic gas reservation policy is Western Australia, which introduced a policy that reserves 15 per cent of gas for domestic use in 2006. Despite warnings at the time it would hamper the industry in that state, gas exports from WA have boomed and the Australian Workers Union has long campaigned for a similar national policy.

Resolve Strategic pollster Jim Reed observed the government’s gas plan “gets decent community support. Even many Green voters are on board”.

“The idea of keeping some gas back for use here is quite popular, the assumption being that the supply is more reliable and affordable,” he said.

Separately, 63 per cent of voters backed the use of gas by homes and businesses, 59 per cent of people supported its use in manufacturing, 55 per cent of people endorsed its use in electricity generation and 52 per cent backed the extraction of gas from gas fields. But just 46 per cent of people backed gas exports, with 34 per cent undecided and 20 per cent opposed, even though gas exports account for 14 per cent of Australia’s export income.

When asked which energy sources they “liked”, renewables had a net likeability of plus-58 percentage points, gas was plus-38 percentage points and nuclear power was plus-6 percentage points while coal languished on minus-9 percentage points.

Gas-fired power is a key part of Labor’s plan to meet its 2030 emissions reduction target of 43 per cent and to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

Victoria and the ACT have both launched ambitious gas substitution plans to phase out the use of gas in households, including subsidies to help them transition to electric heating and cooking, as part of the race towards net-zero emissions.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has promised no federal money will flow to gas companies under the government’s future gas strategy, but six Labor MPs broke ranks to speak out against the plan and demand a greater focus on renewables.

On Nine’s Today show, frontbencher Bill Shorten defended the gas policy as the best way to firm up the grid, saying Australia had “the opportunity to invest in renewables and use gas as our baseload transition ’til we get there”.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton cited the soaring price of gas for manufacturing while spruiking nuclear power.

“The reality is that Bill’s old union, the Australian Workers Union, is strongly in favour of nuclear power because they know that it will sustain the heavy industry. Under this government over the last two years, manufacturing firms have closed down –it’s up threefold because they’re going offshore because of the electricity and gas prices.”

The Coalition is expected to announce six or seven potential sites for nuclear plants in its own electorates within the coming weeks, despite widespread opposition from state premiers.

The Resolve findings are contained in a poll conducted by Resolve Strategic for this masthead, which surveyed 1602 eligible voters from Wednesday, May 15 until Saturday, May 19. The findings have a margin of error of 2.4 per cent.

Reflecting on the poll results, Reed said gas was an interesting resource “because unlike minerals, it’s not just exported. People have that home experience and they generally value it”.

“It’s also viewed as a cleaner option to coal in electricity generation, making the transition to renewables quicker and cheaper than waiting on batteries or nuclear,” he said.

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