COOKING WITH GAS
Bev McArthur welcomed the Liberal Nationals announcement of support for onshore conventional gas exploration with royalties to landowners, as a win for her electorate of Western Victoria Region.
Mrs McArthur used an adjournment debate last week in Parliament to ask the Minister for Resources to lift the moratorium on onshore conventional gas.
Mrs McArthur previously called for the lifting of the moratorium in her maiden speech in December 2018, and in a similar adjournment debate in November 2019. Prior to entering Parliament, as a Councillor on the Corangamite Shire, Bev McArthur was instrumental in ensuring that the council was supportive of the extraction of natural gas through conventional exploration and is pleased to note the current Mayor Cr Neil Trotter has reinforced that endorsement.
Last year, Australia overtook Qatar as the largest liquefied natural gas exporter in the world, increasing exports from 15.4 million tonnes to 75 million tonnes in the last decade. Yet despite this huge increase in production, prices are rising.
In August 2019, Victoria reached its highest level of gas consumption on record. There are proposals to build gas import terminals in sensitive areas on the Mornington Peninsula, despite significant gas reserves onshore in Western Victoria.
Bev McArthur said "It is a scandal that we have had a gas boom, and yet consumers and businesses in Victoria are paying more. Why are we considering imports from other countries or pipeline gas from other states which can cost six times more? How is it that we have the highest power prices in the country and that the price of gas has tripled since 2014?"
"Western Victoria Region has abundant resources of natural gas. We can increase supply and reduce prices, bringing lower energy costs for consumers and benefits for business, which will encourage investment and increase job creation."
Mrs McArthur asked the Minister to "remove the moratorium and stimulate development by allowing royalties for landowners. They too should benefit from the opportunity this development presents. Like the rest of Victoria, like the rest of Australia, Western Victoria Region cannot accept that misplaced ideology should continue to cost us so dear."
24 February 2020