MINISTER FOR CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENERGY CHRIS BOWEN: Thanks for coming everyone. Firstly, Minister Ayres and I have an announcement to make, but obviously this is the first Canberra press conference I've held, I’m sure Tim's the same, since the tragic events of last Sunday, and last night, the country came together in a moment of unity to stand with our Jewish community, to stand with the people of Bondi, to stand with the whole country against anti-Semitism, against violence, against hatred of all types. This has been a very traumatic week for our country. And in times of trauma, we must all come together and show unity and leadership. That's certainly the approach of the Prime Minister. It's certainly the approach of the government.

The Prime Minister and other national security ministers will no doubt have more to say over the course of the day to update the Australian people about our response, particularly in relation to hate laws and other things. The fact of the matter is that every Australian, I'm sure, stands against the violent anti-Jewish attacks that occurred last Sunday.

Minister Ayres and I have an announcement to make. We'll then take questions on that announcement and then I'll open it up for questions of the day.

Most Australians think that Australians should have first rights to the gas that's under Australian soil, Australian waters, and that gas should be available to Australians at reasonable prices. And Australians are right about that. Most Australians think it makes no sense that Australia can be one of the largest gas producers and exporters in the world, and yet we have report after report showing us that there are gas shortages for domestic use in coming years. And Australians are right about that as well. So today, after months of consultation with Minister Madeleine King, I'm announcing with Minister Ayres, who's acting Resources Minister as well as being Industry Minister, that the Albanese Government will now move towards a gas reservation policy for Australia. A policy based on a preferred model of export permits for our three gas exporting companies and indeed anybody else who proposes to export gas in the future. We've consulted on various models, we've consulted on various options, but we've decided to support as a preferred model for further consultation the simplest, easiest to implement, easiest to understand model of not allowing gas exports into the future unless the government is satisfied that domestic demand is catered for first. And we believe that that can be achieved by a national reservation of 15 to 25 per cent, which we are consulting on from today. We believe that this is good policy based on our experience from Western Australia over recent decades, which has developed a strong and robust gas industry, which has exported but has also catered for Western Australia's needs.

This would represent a reservation of 15 to 25 per cent, 200 to 350 petajoules a year, which our advice is would be enough not only to cater for the domestic shortfalls that are forecast but obviously to slightly oversupply the Australian domestic market which is the right policy approach. Importantly this policy will apply only prospectively to new contracts, not existing contracts, not contracts that have been entered into in good faith by our trading partners and our gas companies, but to new contracts. No existing contract, domestic or international, would be disturbed or cancelled under this policy. However, it's also important we make clear that we are proposing that this policy apply from today.

And that's one of the reasons why Minister Ayres and I have made the difficult decision to proceed with the announcement today, because we need to provide certainty to the Australian industry that contracts entered into from today will need to ensure adequate domestic supply going forward. We have shortages forecast in coming years, not next year, but in years after that, and so it's important that this policy start to operate. It will operate from 2027, but will apply from today in terms of any new contracts entered into by our gas companies.

The principles that will underpin the further detailed consultations include, as I said, that existing contracts should be respected, that the reservation scheme should have the capacity to be national in scope, work with the existing Western Australian policy in tandem with federal, state and territory gas market mechanisms, that it's intended to commence from 2027, with that caveat that any new contracts entered into from today will be captured, that it will increase domestic supply as existing contracts expire and drive downward pressure on prices. And under the preferred export model, exporters will need to meet domestic supply obligations first and supply Australian users, not just offer, but supply Australian users. Producers should have the flexibility to meet domestic and export obligations through a variety of standard commercial market-based arrangements, including contracting with exporters or domestic producers as long as supply obligations are met, and the reservation policy should encourage long term domestic gas supply contracts to support investment decisions which rely on gas as an input including commercial and industrial users and support gas infrastructure providers, and it should provide long term certainty for commercial production and investment.

So, Australian gas for Australian users as the first priority. This is an important policy, a landmark policy, an historic policy, one that's been a long time coming, one that we've thought carefully about. I want to thank my ministerial colleague, Madeleine King, for working so closely with me on this. She's on leave this week, but she has been an integral part of this process and we will work closely together, obviously with Minister Ayres and the Treasurer and other Ministers now on the detailed design elements. But this announcement today provides the industry with enough certainty going forward that they can proceed in the coming year to work with this new policy.

I'll ask Tim to add and then, as I said, we'll take questions on gas and then questions on matters of the day.

ACTING MINISTER FOR RESOURCES, TIM AYRES: Well, thank you very much. Australian gas and Australia's large gas reserves should work for Australians and that's what this landmark piece of policy will deliver for Australians and Australian industry. That means Australian gas being reserved over the coming years for heavy industry, for our energy transition, as a backup stabilising force in our electricity system, delivering blue collar jobs, delivering certainty for heavy industry in Australia's outer regions and our suburbs. I'm very grateful to be here today to stand in Madeleine King's shoes for the work that Chris Bowen and Madeleine have led over the last five or six months. It's a very important piece of work for securing Australia's industrial future and our future economic resilience.

CHRIS BOWEN: Okay, folks, questions on gas. Andrew?

JOURNALIST: Will this bring down prices, firstly, and by how much would you expect? And with the experience that you've seen in Western Australia, are you getting any kind of pushback from some of our international partners that are dependent on this?

CHRIS BOWEN: I'll take the question in a couple of parts. It'll put downward pressure on prices. Obviously, there's some detailed design elements to work through. The fundamentals of the market are such that gas is getting more expensive to extract in Australia as the Bass Strait is declining. That fundamental remains. But this is the way that the government can put the maximum downward pressure on prices by engineering a slight oversupply of Australian needs. In relation to international counterparts, over the last few days I have briefed my Malaysian, Singapore, Taiwanese colleagues, as has been also Japan and Korea. They have understood the policy. I'm not going to speak for them. They've understood the policy framework. They've understood that it's prospective and they've welcomed the fact that it's prospective.
Mike.

JOURNALIST: Minister, on the volumetric figure where you said 15 to 25 per cent, I assume, of annual East Coast production, can you just step through- I know it's-

CHRIS BOWEN:  Of LNG.

JOURNALIST: Of LNG, okay. Can you just step through how that would work, given we wouldn't have onshore storage capacity to hold that? Is that just- how does that work?

CHRIS BOWEN:  Well, we have some onshore storage capacity, of course.

JOURNALIST: The 25 per cent.

CHRIS BOWEN:  Well, we have some domestic capacity, Iona and elsewhere, but that is what we think is what is necessary to ensure adequate supply for all our big industrial users and our gas-fired power stations and the 5 million Australians who use gas to heat their homes every year going forward. Now, obviously, there will be annual calibrations, et cetera, but we think 15 to 25 is the right and appropriate amount for us to consult on going forward.

JOURNALIST: If 15 per cent of 25 per cent is more than the domestic market can absorb, would that LNG then be able to be exported?

CHRIS BOWEN:  That's not our assessment of the market. Yes.

JOURNALIST: Patrick Commins from The Guardian. I just had a question. Will the new policy or will this policy be associated with incentives for new gas production? Do you believe that there needs to be new gas fields developed in order to make this policy work?

CHRIS BOWEN:  Well, we certainly believe that we need to ensure- you know, our position has been consistent, that gas is an important support as we transition to renewables. It's very flexible. A gas-fired power station can be turned on and off, unlike coal or nuclear, for that matter, and that's very valuable. If you can have a gas-fired power station that you can turn on at times of peak demand, and then turn off so it's not emitting when we don't need it. You can't do that with coal. It's very hard with coal. You certainly can't do that with nuclear.

And we do recognise that the Bass Strait has been depleting. There's about 12 per cent of the Bass Strait left. I think a lot of Australians haven't quite realised just how little of the Bass Strait gas is left. And that will mean that we need to ensure adequate supply, and that does mean new supply in some instances. And that's why we want to provide certainty to the industry going forward. We're proceeding at a rapid pace as our transition to renewables. I understand it's very easy, on the one hand, for the Liberals to say gas is the answer to all our problems. That's wrong. The Greens to say, no new gas and we should have no gas in the system, that's also wrong. Gas is important to calibrate and support renewables, yes.

JOURNALIST: A number of the states have been building LNG import terminals. Does today's decision mean those projects are redundant, no longer needed?

CHRIS BOWEN: There's no state building an LNG import terminal at the moment, I'm afraid.  There has been some talk of LNG import terminals in Port Kembla and Geelong, but they are not under construction.

JOURNALIST: And do you think they're no longer needed?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, a regasification terminal is one way of getting gas around a country. If you've got gas being explorted in the north and it's used in the south, you can have a pipeline or you can have a terminal. But they are matters that will continue to be assessed as to what's the best- least cost, most efficient way forward.

JOURNALIST: Minister, just on the timing of this announcement, you are slipping out the policy when you know the country's eyes-

CHRIS BOWEN: Sorry?

JOURNALIST: You are slipping out the policy when you know the country's eyes are elsewhere. Do you think this is appropriate timing? We're wondering why it couldn't have waited a week or two. You did -

CHRIS BOWEN: Next week's Christmas, mate. So that would be slipping it out. Look, with respect, we were going to announce this last week. We decided not to for obvious reasons. The industry knows this is coming. It's well, we have not hidden the fact that we were doing this review. We've taken the decision that to give the industry the certainty going forward and not to leave it till next year so that they can start planning for this new policy and the policy can be in place, we're announcing it today. If we left it till next year, you could criticise us for that too. We've taken the difficult decision now to proceed to announce this policy because we need to give the industry certainty.

JOURNALIST: Right, you could have waited until January though. You could’ve waited until January. I mean, unless you were expecting like a contract to come in like, say, the next 3 weeks or something, it does still appear you could have announced it later in January.

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, as I said, we were going- we were planning to announce this last week. That's- you'd be unsurprised-

JOURNALIST: Are we expecting a contract to come in next week then?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, we’re providing for any circumstances. We're making it very clear from today. Any new contracts will be covered by the new regime regardless of when they come into force. Cam.

JOURNALIST: On the response to last week, Minister, you note the trauma-

CHRIS BOWEN: Sorry, we're just doing gas first and then I'll come to those. Any more questions on gas? I said at the outset, Cam. We’ll do gas first and then move on to other matters.

JOURNALIST: One for Minister Ayres, if I may. What are your plans for manufacturing gas supply? Has the government got any extra policy on the way to work with them on prices?

TIM AYRES: Well, we'll be working through the details of this announcement over the coming months, including working with heavy industry. Don't forget though that the Albanese Government announced just a few weeks ago the Net Zero Fund, $5 billion, within the National Reconstruction Fund. That will be concessional finance that will be there to support Australian manufacturing as it moves from gas to electrical heating processes. We are attending to as a government those parts of heavy industry where gas is providing heat at particular volumes that make it very difficult to move immediately to electrification or where gas is a feed stock. And these sustain thousands of good blue collar jobs in our outer regions and our suburbs, and the work that will go on over the coming weeks and months will attend to those details.

CHRIS BOWEN: One or two more questions on gas and we'll go to other matters.

JOURNALIST: Just in terms of the timing, you talked about from 2027 onwards. Obviously, people under a lot of pressure, the industry. You're talking about households with high gas prices now. So what are you going to do to address the high gas prices in the next couple of years? You know, the gap between now and [indistinct].

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, the shortages that are forecast aren't until- aren't over the next 12 months. So- but that's why, again, we're doing it from today in effect to ensure that no further export contracts are entered into from today regardless of when they might happen. That is ensured. Obviously, because this is a big reform, it is going to take a bit of detail to work through. We'll do that expeditiously. This is not the only thing we've done. It's not the only thing we will do, but this is a big thing.

All right, might move on to matters of the day. Cam, I'll go to you first given you had a go earlier.

JOURNALIST: Minister, thank you. You know, the trauma the country is feeling at the moment. You would have heard the calls, including from leaders in the Jewish community, for a royal commission into this. I know the Government's held two already, into robodebt, into veteran suicide. One of your MPs now, Mike Freelander, is publicly backing the idea of a federal or a national royal commission. Can you explain to people who might be wondering why the government isn't doing that? Why do you believe that the biggest terror attack in Australian history does not require a national royal commission?

CHRIS BOWEN: It requires an urgent response, and obviously, we've indicated we will work very cooperatively with the New South Wales Royal Commission and we're talking to them about that. But we also feel we must respond urgently. We're doing that now with our gun reforms and also with further announcements to be made later today and beyond. But also, we need an urgent review. Now, Dennis Richardson, who the Prime Minister has appointed, is one of our most respected, fiercely independent national security experts. He’s a former secretary of the Department of Defence, Foreign Affairs, former head of ASIO, and former ambassador to Washington. I mean, this guy is the real deal, and he will be getting on with it and he will report to the Government by the end of April.

Now, there's no way a royal commission would even be starting work in any meaningful way by April. So we need to get cracking. So we believe this is the right response. I understand there'll be some different views out there. This is the right response. Dennis Richardson is fiercely, fiercely independent. He won't be holding back in his recommendations to government, but he'll be doing it urgently.

JOURNALIST: Why can't you do the Richardson review and a royal commission? Surely, a royal commission looks at things the Government may not want to be made public, failings in ASIO or the AFP. Surely, you could do both.

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, the Richardson review is looking at our security agencies in full, and as the Prime Minister has indicated the report will be released. Claire.

JOURNALIST: One of the things that the Jewish Australian community and others are talking about is they don't just want a narrow look at security agencies. So could you explain to people what the reticence is to maybe do this rapid review targeted at security agencies but then also do something that's broader and captures issues like anti-Semitism and other concerns.

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, as I said, the most the Federal Government has at its disposal, the security agencies. Security agencies have avoided many attacks in Australia. That is a matter of record, but clearly, we have just had the trauma of the biggest attack in Australian history, as has correctly been identified. So the right thing to do is a thorough but sharp and quick review of the response, of the policy settings, and the approach of the relevant agencies. Dennis Richardson is the right man to do it. He won't be holding back. Anybody who knows Dennis Richardson knows that, that he is a fiercely independent expert. And he'll be reporting quickly to Government, and that'll enable us to get on with it. Paul.

JOURNALIST: Dennis Richardson is also on the record as having said he doesn't think that agencies could be scapegoats...

CHRIS BOWEN: If you think Dennis Richardson is- sorry, you've had your question, Claire. If you think Dennis Richardson is not fiercely independent and will be holding back, you haven't met him. Paul.

JOURNALIST: Yes, Minister. The Prime Minister has supported the idea of a royal commission in New South Wales. Is he willing to give that royal commission access to federal agencies?

CHRIS BOWEN: The Prime Minister's indicated we will be cooperating in every possible way. And obviously, we're talking to the New South Wales Government. When they release the terms of reference and what have you, there'll be no doubt the Federal Government will cooperate with that. Andrew.

JOURNALIST: In your home state, Parliament's being recalled today. What would your advice be to other government MPs with travel plans over January? Do you expect that they'll be coming back?

CHRIS BOWEN: I'll leave the Prime Minister to make further announcements, but obviously, the Federal Government will do whatever is necessary in the right time frame to get any law changes necessary in place.

JOURNALIST: Minister, returning you to an earlier question, why can't you do both, a review of the intelligence agencies and a royal commission? I appreciate your point about urgency, but surely, a royal commission wouldn't take away from the urgency and sharpness of the intelligence review.

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, I think the Government has to choose. Does it want an urgent response, which is what we want. We want an urgent response, and a short sharp review by one of the nation's most respected and independent national security experts is the right way forward.

JOURNALIST: So by saying that the Government need to choose, are you saying that, yes, an urgent review would actually take away from a royal commission?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, I do think at the federal level, you have to make a decision. A royal commission would only just be starting its work in April by the time that Richardson review will be finishing its work.
Any further questions? All in all, done. Thanks for your time.​