Coalition pushes gas as nuclear stopgap, but PM says Dutton won’t ‘come clean’

Australia’s use of gas will be an election flashpoint as the Coalition pledges to streamline project approvals in a quid-pro-quo with companies to keep more of the fossil fuel for local use.

The pledge from resources spokeswoman Susan McDonald built on a speech from Dutton on Monday in which he claimed nuclear energy presented the “only chance to reach net zero by 2050”.

Senator Susan McDonald spoke in favour of ramping up gas.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

Dutton refused to detail the cost of the seven government-owned nuclear plants he has proposed to build if the Coalition forms government, as Labor and the teals criticised Dutton’s energy manifesto.

McDonald said a Coalition government would use its role in the approval of offshore developments to make sure a proportion of gas was kept for the domestic market. About 75 per cent of Australia’s gas is exported.

In one of the most significant energy pronouncements since the opposition revealed its nuclear plans in June, McDonald said the approach would be an effective “quid-pro-quo” whereby the Coalition would try to dramatically boost gas supply in exchange for commitments to keep more onshore.

For onshore projects controlled by the states, it would use incentives and other tools to pressure companies to keep gas in the market in the hope of lowering prices and using gas as a transition fuel to fill the energy gap as nuclear plants were built over the next two decades.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese are at odds over the country’s energy future.Credit: Rhett Wyman, Getty, Alex Ellinghausen

However, the opposition will stop short of a retrospective, legislated gas reserve, which could scare investors and anger overseas buyers such as Japan, while alienating the fossil fuel firms who are currently attacking Labor’s mining agenda.

“With buckling knees, Labor and the Greens swoon at the mention of gas in our energy mix,” McDonald said in speech last week.

“If Labor retains government, we know it will likely be a minority government … and we know the Greens political party has called for a ban on [gas approvals].”

Dutton said it was “nonsense” that renewables and nuclear could not work hand in hand, as he pushed back against criticism of nuclear’s cost, acknowledging it would have a “significant upfront” price that must be considered in terms of what he said was a plant’s 80-year lifespan.

“For all the Albanese government’s sweet-talking about gas, it’s stalling projects across the country,” he said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Dutton’s keynote speech was a waste of time.

“Months after he said he would come clean with how much it would cost, with all of the detail, we have none of it,” Albanese said.

“I assume that they locked it in the diary in advance and said, we’re going to give a speech … and we’ll put out our costings and we’ll do all that and they’ve had a look and gone, ‘Whoops, it doesn’t really add up’.”

Energy specialist Tony Wood warned companies such as Woodside and Beach Energy had been exploring for gas and found little.

Tony Wood, Grattan Institute energy and climate change program director.Credit: Oscar Colman

“If there was a lot of gas, these companies would be taking it seriously,” Wood, of the Grattan Institute, said, acknowledging it would be an important fuel as the nation weaned itself off coal.

Wood said the Morrison-era “gas-led recovery” did not spur much investment and added that there were not many existing constraints for stopping exploration.

Former competition chief Rod Sims argued Dutton had made a series of claims about the economics of nuclear that were “not grounded in the latest economic facts”, noting wind and solar were becoming much cheaper.

Sims said the $1 trillion dollar-plus figure cited by Dutton on the cost of Labor’s renewables plan would not be entirely avoided in Dutton’s plans because even under the Coalition policy, renewables would play a large role in the energy mix.

“Gas is a very expensive form of electricity generation, and any expansion of it beyond peaking, as Mr Dutton advocates for, is clearly going to push up prices”, Sims said.

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