One Nation pledges to tear down offshore gas bans - The Australian

One Nation has committed to removing restrictions on offshore gas development if elected, stating that the bans prevent access to domestic energy resources. The party frames this as a response to energy security and cost-of-living pressures.

Where this fits

This is a proxy contest over the firm-power backbone of the grid. Gas is now Australia's dispatchable generation of last resort. The debate over offshore gas exposes a real problem: a renewables-heavy grid needs something to run when wind and solar output fall, and Australia has chosen gas over the firm alternative that exists. A ban on new offshore gas forces reliance on existing reserves and imports, tightening supply and raising wholesale costs that flow to consumers. The policy debate, though, treats gas as the only option worth debating.

What it means

If offshore gas bans are lifted, Australia gains access to additional domestic gas reserves that can firm a renewables-heavy grid at lower cost than imported liquefied natural gas. That improves both energy security and retail prices in the medium term. It also reduces reliance on LNG imports, which are vulnerable to shipping disruption and geopolitical constraint.

But this concedes the wrong premise. Gas is not the only firm generation available. A legal lift on nuclear generation would achieve the same firming and security benefit with lower lifetime emissions, no fuel imports (uranium is globally sourced, not dominated by one adversary), and without the carbon lock-in that more gas entails. The offshore gas debate obscures that Australia has chosen an expensive path, gas or renewables-only, when the lowest-cost, lowest-emission firm option sits off the table by law.