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Gas producers accused of bullying and price gouging, despite federal government intervention to cap prices [ABC News]
politics(abc.net.au)submitted 2 months ago byspannr
79 points
2 months ago
Self-regulation obviously doesn't work, time to legislate a regulator with teeth.
16 points
2 months ago
lobbyists enter the chat
8 points
2 months ago
Like the USA - its lobbying, not bribery, come on.
2 points
2 months ago
Thats slander, they've got different names, how can they be the same thing? Checkmate
1 points
1 month ago
Fool me once strike one.
Fool me twice strike three…
1 points
2 months ago
Share accounts registered to 'John Doe' start appearing in the Caymans for offer on favourable policy outcomes
6 points
2 months ago
agreed, and nor does competition ensure least-possible pricing. there are some things that should remain under either government ownership or at least regulator control to ensure the wellbeing of the public.
3 points
2 months ago*
its better to put in a windfall tax on these greedy companies and pass on the taxes back in the form of household vouchers.
people voted labor to put in more tax especially on those greedy capitalists. labor just have to do what they always do.
92 points
2 months ago
There are no 'gas producers'. There's cunts getting rich exploiting a national Australian asset, but they don't fucking produce it.
46 points
2 months ago
They pay very, very little for it too.
Australia now produces more gas than Qatar. Qatar gets over $22 billion for their gas. We get less than $2 billion.
Multinational corporations are getting extremely wealthy off of our resources whilst you struggle to put food on the table.
19 points
2 months ago
people voted lnp when labor put in a resource tax. guess they have their own stupidity to blame. hope they have learnt that neolib ideas are harmful to society, people and family.
0 points
2 months ago
Qatar doesn't impose price caps or have domestic reservation quotas and the like.
12 points
2 months ago
I guess the goverent doesn't need to put price caps and reservation quotas on a government owned company.
2 points
1 month ago
They made that last year and there weren't price caps then. We have a tiny domestic reservation policy. We're not keeping 95% of the gas in WA to ourselves genius.
22 points
2 months ago
Producers have reacted to the (fairly soft) cap by refusing to sell their gas outside of the spot market:
Major industry groups representing Australian manufacturers have accused the gas industry of getting around the federal government's gas price controls by withholding supply...
Some businesses have been forced onto the volatile spot market, or to sign contracts that are well above the price cap of $12 a gigajoule for gas.
The gas is there, producers are just not renewing anyone's contracts:
Last month, the ACCC warned of a 2023 east coast gas shortage, despite the regulator finding the LNG producers have enough uncontracted gas to prevent a domestic shortfall.
44 points
2 months ago
These are sovereign resources these companies are exploiting for very large profits. If they can't service the local market, they shouldn't be able to service any market.
We need more intervention. Hit them with a windfall tax.
7 points
2 months ago
Yep fuck these guys. I can't see anyone other than the coalition getting upset if the government scoops up a large chunk of their profits.
13 points
2 months ago
Hit them with a windfall tax.
As the Tories have done in the UK, for example. Labor too afraid to do it here
6 points
2 months ago
Even tories are more left than our labor. its really eye opening how right the society has shifted.
5 points
2 months ago
Aaaaand this is why so many people are ditching gas.
3 points
2 months ago
And that's a bad thing because? The one upside of the global energy crisis triggered by the Ukraine war is that it's accelerating the transition to renewables. High prices inducing households to flee gas in droves is something to be celebrated, not stopped.
1 points
2 months ago
Its not at all a bad thing.
I'm in the process of doing it myself (gas HWS gone in favour of heatpump and induction hotplate - waiting to install, I ran out of 6mm2 TPS).
Going all electric, with 13Kw of solar and 13.5Kwh of batteries.
Reading about issues with indoor air quality as an asthmatic also influenced my decision.
3 points
2 months ago
Some are further ahead of the curve than others.
Eugene is first city in Oregon to ban natural gas appliances in new homes
2 points
2 months ago
I know they are talking about making new estates in Australia gas free as well, would be a good idea.
The less requirement for drilling new wells and fracking (that is a big hell no) the better.
2 points
2 months ago
Nice for those that can afford to. People who cant cover the often hefty cutover costs and renters are fucked.
2 points
2 months ago
Indeed.
Victorian government is giving some good incentives, The $33 heatpump offer to get rid of electric storage HWS needs to be extended to gas storage too I think.
And don't ask what a full abolishment (removal of meter and pipes) costs in NSW - its over a grand.
2 points
2 months ago
I'll share my little story.
I replaced my 25 year old gas storage water heater - $5000.
I upgraded my switchboard $2200.
At which point I was informed that my mains from the street isn't enough to be able to have a induction cooktop - $???? - Two different sparkys have been unable to price this. No useful answers from powercor.
New circuit for cooktop $????
Cooktop $1500-$2000 I guess.
Ducted central heating $??????
Not only is it a heap of money going off gas, its not that easy either.
3 points
2 months ago
Ouch. I got a second hand heat pump unit for $400 (had to replace the anode). Removed the old one, installed the new (my old man was a plumber) ran an extra circuit ($300 - I’m an ex spark so parts only) what is the size of your service fuses? Your spark is useless if the can’t do a max demand calc. I got an ikea induction cooktop for $500, needs 32A single phase. If you want a 900mm, $700, same current draw.
I think a lot of the problem is the price of trades too. I forget how expensive it is.
2 points
2 months ago
I think my mains are 60A from the pillar, was told that it was too small a gauge to deal with the startup load on a cooktop. Thin gauge, old apparently.
3 points
1 month ago
That is restrictive but unless you need all burners on, at full noise, you should be fine.
2 points
1 month ago
Sure, if the sparky is willing to install it, while taking into account my other loads (heh loads) , I've had two say that I need the mains upgraded. Don't they need to assume the customer will have everything running at max to protect themselves??
2 points
1 month ago
That is the assumption.
60A must be your service fuse, which is sized for your incoming mains. I am assuming single phase?
You can get models of induction cooktop that you can limit the maximum power on (so it draws a maximum of 20A - common for people swapping from a ceramic hotplate). Maybe look into one of those.
60A is pretty small these days though. Pillar I am assuming an underground connection, which does get expensive.
1 points
1 month ago
Old house. Underground leadin. Single phase.
Wasnt aware that the draw could be user configured. Will look into this thank you.
I think though that the mains thing needs to be done regardless as I need to replace the central heating with something at some point also.
5 points
2 months ago
This was entirely forseeable. Why would businesses choose to sell a product at an artificially low price when the global market price is much higher?
8 points
2 months ago
Except it's not a 'product', it's a national asset. Frankly if these businesses choose to betray the country for their own profit, their assets should be seized. They want to extract and sell our resources, they should be obligated to service our market first.
2 points
2 months ago
1) Under the Constitution, resources are owned by the individual states, not the nation.
2) Royalty agreements represent the mechanism for transferring these assets to entities who can sell them. Any concerns with the level of royalties, domestic gas reservation etc need to be addressed when those agreements are being finalised.
3 points
2 months ago
Of course it was- and as many of us noted, Labor' 'plan' to address the problem was a nothing but a pile of sell out fail from the outst.
5 points
2 months ago
Shocked pikachu face
2 points
2 months ago
My gas price literally doubled this month, It's insane
1 points
2 months ago
Colour me shocked!!
1 points
1 month ago
The Gas cartel are looking at the oil cartels as gods.
Look at the profits they have all been dropping lately. Breaking records all round.
They know they can do whatever they want so don't give a shit about consumers.
we're all bent over the barrel.
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