By Luke Voogt
Bill Shorten has turned up the pressure on Victorian gas bans a week after the Indy reported a local MP’s push to tap onshore reserves.
The Federal Labor leader visited a North Shore factory yesterday, calling on the Andrew’s Government to lift its moratorium on onshore gas.
“Wherever we’ve got conventional gas in Australia we should be pursuing that,” Mr Shorten said.
“I think it’s reasonable if we can extract gas in Australia conventionally, safely (and) in consultation with communities.”
Mr Shorten’s comments came after Member for Western Victoria Simon Ramsay defied the Victorian Liberal party’s policy of maintaining the moratorium until 2020.
“(Premier Daniel) Andrews needs to be sensible,” Mr Ramsay told the Indy last week.
“I’m asking his energy minister to enable the state’s onshore gas reserves to be tapped where it is safe to do so.”
Mr Shorten visited Incitec Pivot’s Geelong plant yesterday morning to urge Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull to “pull the trigger” on gas export controls.
Rising power costs could threaten Pivot’s 120 jobs despite the company increasing productivity by $6 million during the past three years, Mr Shorten said.
Energy prices have increased 60 per cent in the past 18 months at the factory, which has manufactured fertilizer since 1926.
“It could all be for nothing unless we deal with the energy crisis in Australia,” Mr Shorten said.
The opposition leader urged the government to prioritise the Australian gas supply to local businesses and said a lack of control on exports had contributed to “spiralling” prices.
“I think Australian business struggles with the idea that Japanese or overseas businesses can buy Australian gas more competitively than Australian business can.”
Mr Turnbull has signalled his intent to introduce export controls, a measure supported by Manufacturing Australia.
“We recognise the Prime Minister’s leadership in that respect,” said Manufacturing Australia executive director Ben Eade.
High power prices and energy shortages threatened the roughly 10,000 manufacture jobs in Geelong, Mr Eade said.
“Right now we have an emergency situation.”
Despite Geelong’s manufacturing decline, the sector is still the city’s third largest employer according to the latest Enterprise Geelong statistics.
Mr Eade backed Mr Ramsay’s calls to lift the moratorium in favour of a “sensible middle-ground” for exploring gas.
“Rethinking the moratorium on onshore conventional gas is very important,” he said.
He also backed Mr Ramsay’s calls to slow the shutting of coal-fired power stations in Victoria, which he said provided vital baseload electricity to factories.
“We do have a pretty fragile baseload energy mix now with coal fire sources having come out of the system.”
Incitec Pivot’s Geelong plant relies mainly on electricity, not gas. But Mr Eade said often gas prices set the wholesale price for electricity.
Geelong Manufacturing Council executive officer David Peart said rising energy costs were threatening future investment in the sector.
The council was looking at alternatives, such as reducing energy consumption, increasing efficiency and introducing renewables, with its members, he said.
