Gas policy shows Labor tilting towards pragmatic centre

Resources Minister Madeleine King is a model of rationalism in Labor’s cabinet.

It may help that she hails from Western Australia and by association understands the importance of the resources sector in underwriting Australia’s economy, and of gas to underpin its energy requirements (“King sees sense on future gas policy but must endure”, 10/5).

She joins a number of Labor ministers down the years who have exercised pragmatism for the greater good.

In Gough Whitlam’s government, agriculture minister Ken Wriedt surprised all in the industry with his unequivocal support. During the successful Hawke-Keating era, industry minister John Button and finance minister Peter Walsh, in particular, were instrumental in anchoring the party to the centre.

And finance minister Lindsay Tanner was Labor’s standout in the Rudd-Gillard government before he succumbed to the tumult. In the current era of uncertainty, King’s pragmatism is crucial to offset the pipe dreams of a number of her colleagues.

Kim Keogh, Claremont, WA

“Labor gas vision ignites critics” (10/5) predicts strong opposition to Labor’s plans to continue to exploit Australia’s many gas fields. And rightly so.

So much for Labor’s Future Made in Australia strategy helping communities involved in the fossil fuel industry transition away from carbon-emitting industries. So much for Australia becoming the world leader in renewables.

Now Labor wants to go full steam ahead in developing gas fields in sensitive areas such as the Beetaloo Basin in the Northern Territory and Scarborough Field in Western Australia. Replacing one fossil fuel with another is not a solution to our climate crisis. Burning and exporting gas is incompatible with the aim of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.

In every way this support for the exploitation of Australia’s gas fields is totally incongruous with Labor’s claim that it is committed to reducing emissions and transitioning to a totally renewable energy system, a policy that is vital if we are going to save the planet from the ever increasing ravages of climate change.

Graeme Lechte, Brunswick West, Vic

If gas is so central to net zero and a “key energy source through to 2050 and beyond” then maybe we should start valuing it a little differently (“New gas supply central to net zero”, 9/5).

A good start would be not exporting it at such a rate that it imperils our domestic supplies and risks industry shutdowns and interruptions. You would almost think that we don’t recognise it as a finite resource.

The reality is that more gas will get harder and harder to find and extract with further extensive damage to more and more fragile environments.

The conservative elements in our political world don’t seem to be able to conserve anything for the future. Short-term exploitation has had its day.

It’s time for some enlightened thinking for the future.

Robert Brown, Camberwell, Vic

The hysterical reaction of the anti-fossil fuel lobby to the federal government’s acknowledgment that liquefied natural gas will be in demand – both for the domestic and export markets – for many years beggars belief.

Don’t the critics know that LNG is a cleaner fuel than coal and therefore crucial to an orderly transition to renewable energy? And that won’t happen overnight.

To think that stopping LNG production will also stop climate change is fanciful. Our northern trading partners like LNG because it reduces pollution, especially in their heavily populated cities. Hopefully this will help slow climate change.

But it won’t stop it.

Peter Kennedy, Mount Lawley, WA

It is scary to realise our federal government can’t see what the business world clearly sees: Australia is a high-cost country to run a business.

Those high costs include high wages, taxes, energy, insurance and stifling regulatory and compliance burdens.

Add to that the costs of getting the raw materials and transporting them to markets.

If Anthony Albanese really wanted to kick off a Future Made in Australia plan, he should legislate to reduce all those costs – starting with electricity prices that he promised to reduce at the last election.

Chas Barter, Lower Mitcham, SA