The Queensland Government must respond to rising gas prices by setting its own gas reserve policy, member for Mount Isa Rob Katter said.
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WA is the only Australian state that reserves gas for domestic consumption but now Mr Katter is calling on Queensland to follow suit.
"Queensland is responsible for a significant amount of gas production across our country, yet we aren't giving our industries an advantage,” Mr Katter said.
"Instead of reserving an amount for ourselves at reasonable prices for our industries, we sell it overseas causing prices to rise and limiting supply for local manufacturers and households. The only ones benefiting are large multi-national companies who export the gas.”
Mr Katter said a portion of natural gas should be reserved for Queensland industry at a low cost, particularly in the North West.
"At the very least this should be considered for the North West which requires large volumes of gas to support industry and power supply," he said.
"A gas reservation mechanism would be consistent with the calls by the North West Minerals Province Taskforce who believe the province should be treated as a separate region.
"Forget Queensland Nickel, businesses around the state are saying they're facing huge increases in the price of gas and uncertainty around future supply," he said.
Mr Katter also heavily rebuked calls by Federal Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg to simply open more gas fields to combat high prices.
"His argument is so wedded to these “free market” ideas he will smash his own economy rather than back down," Mr Katter said.
"They have sold off our country's competitive energy advantage in exchange for bragging rights as the world’s best free-marketeers.”
Mr Katter said he would aggressively pursue this issue with the state government.
“The Queensland Government needs to be clear whether they would prefer to see our gas used to develop our value adding industries, or whether they’re happy for it to be exported to benefit a few multinationals,” he said.
"They talk about jobs,but the Sate Government appears to have little interest in ensuring that Queensland gas is used to support Queenslanders.”
"I think we would all prefer to see cheap gas available to domestic businesses to reverse the decline of our manufacturing and processing industries," he said.
Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
