Victorian gas move ‘a cynical political exercise’
Victorian households with existing gas stovetops can continue cooking with gas after the Allan government moved to exclude the appliances from the state’s net zero road map.
Victorian households can continue cooking with gas after the Allan government moved to exclude gas stovetops from its net zero road map in a policy shift that will also see state Labor introduce laws aimed at encouraging new offshore gas storage projects.
Gas lobbyists and businesses on Monday criticised the decision as a “cynical political exercise” and questioned the logic behind backing down from phasing out gas stovetops but not adopting the same view on gas heating and hot water systems.
Premier Jacinta Allan said gas cooktops and stoves that reached the end of their life would be able to be replaced with new gas appliances, but she made clear that new homes were still prohibited from connecting to gas.
“We know that gas is a diminishing resource which is why we will always help those households and businesses who can to go all electric,” Ms Allan said.
“I’m going to be really clear today … Victorians can continue to keep cooking with gas.”
Victoria has the highest use of residential gas in the country, with about 80 per cent of homes connected to the gas network.
Previously, the government was considering a plan to phase out gas cooktops from existing homes, potentially by forcing people to switch out their gas appliances for electric alternatives if they needed replacing.
“This is important because we’ve listened to Victorians and they’ve asked for this certainty to be provided, and we’re providing that,” she said. “It also gives us the opportunity to have conversation with the Victorian community about our future energy mix and our future energy needs.”
The Premier did not clarify whether gas heating and hot water systems would also be excluded from the road map.
The decision to strike out residential gas stove cooking from upcoming consultation processes as part of the Gas Substitution Roadmap comes as the state Labor government will introduce legislation into parliament later this week.
The changes will allow gas to be stored in empty gas reservoirs under the sea in a bid to boost supply security.
The projects will support the state’s gas-powered electricity generators, with Labor hoping the Golden Beach Gas Project off the coast of Gippsland will help combat forecast gas shortfalls.
“We’re continuing to provide support and certainty for the gas industry,” Ms Allan said.
The state’s first gas extraction project in a decade was approved by the government in June, clearing the way for Beach Energy to pipe gas from an offshore field in the Otway Basin near Port Campbell in western Victoria.
The managing director of Australia’s largest gas heating manufacturer Seeley International, Jon Seeley, said the Allan government must abandon its anti-gas policy. This year, he revealed that the company would close its Albury factory and shift jobs from the Victorian-NSW border to Adelaide by December 2025, saying Labor’s energy policy was partly to blame for the decision.
“Today’s announcement … is a cynical political exercise, an attempt to defuse widespread community discontent with their illogical anti-gas policies without making any substantive concessions,” he said. “Half the energy used by Victorian homes is gas for cooking, heating and hot water, which creates less emissions than switching to coal-fired electricity. Of the common household uses of gas, cooking would be the smallest, and also the most emotive for many community groups.
“Telling taxpayers (to) keep cooking with gas but ignoring the fundamental flaw in … pushing households to electrify everything else makes no sense except from a political perspective.”
Gas Appliance Manufacturers Association of Australia president Ross Jamieson said claims from the government that they had consulted with industry were “completely baseless”.
“We’ve not had any meaningful discussions with the government this year at all,” he said.
UK to ask Australia to join global clean power alliance
In his first major policy speech, UK Foreign Secretary will ask allies to join a British-led clean energy transition to wind, solar, hydrogen and nuclear across the world.
Whistleblower’s fresh claims on CFMEU’s missing $30m
Anthony Albanese is under pressure to explain why he and no-one else acted when he was first warned in 2014 by a CFMEU whistleblower that the union was being infiltrated by criminals.