Labor’s watered-down gas reservation plan ‘kicks it into the long grass yet again’: Denniss - thepoint.com.au

The Albanese government has announced a gas reservation scheme that Richard Denniss, chief economist at the Australia Institute, describes as insufficient. The plan falls short of earlier Labor commitments to lock in domestic supply, instead relying on voluntary industry cooperation and unspecified future mechanisms. Denniss characterised the announcement as deferring the real decision rather than making one.

Where this fits

Gas is one of the few dispatchable fuels Australia can still call on to firm the grid when renewables drop. A weak domestic reservation policy undermines energy security twice over: it leaves Australia reliant on export markets for gas that could otherwise stabilise the grid during transition, and it cedes leverage over energy costs to the export sector. This is not merely a price story. It is a sovereignty story. Weak reservation policy leaves critical grid-balancing fuel in the hands of international buyers and volatile LNG markets.

What it means

Without firm domestic gas supply secured at reasonable cost, the transition depends entirely on the speed and scale of battery storage, interconnection, and demand response. Each of those carries its own cost, supply-chain risk, and deployment timeline. Australia cannot reliably replace the firm-power role of gas with renewables and imports alone. A government that fails to reserve domestic gas is betting the grid on technologies that are still being scaled, while betting the cost on global commodity prices and Chinese battery manufacturing capacity. That is not a plan. It is a wager Australia cannot afford to lose.