MEL CLARKE: The ACCC is forecasting a potential shortage of gas through winter. Across the Eastern Seaboard there could be a shortfall of up to 12 petajoules, which is about the amount of energy that 76,000 homes would use through winter. It's prompted the Federal Government to formally put gas producers on notice to supply more gas locally or face restrictions on exports. The Federal Resources Minister joins me now. Madeleine King, thanks for speaking with AM this morning.

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Good morning, Mel, it's great to be here.

MEL CLARKE: Could you explain for me the action you're taking to prevent this potential shortfall?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Most certainly. So yesterday I issued that Notice of Intent under the Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism for the months of July, August and September, and that is based on the report of the ACCC, as you mentioned that forecast. It's quite a - it's a relatively small shortfall, and there's a range of 12 petajoules to even an oversupply of 3. But the issue for me is that we're going into winter, and at a time when we see this international conflict in the Middle East causing disruption to supply, I wanted to make sure and the Government wanted to make sure that we have all the tools available to us should there ever be an issue with our domestic supply. So what this does is brings all the exporters to the table to prove that they will make sure that shortfall doesn't come to pass. So this is a forecast only at the moment, and I want to make sure that that forecast does not become reality, so Australians get the gas they need.

MEL CLARKE: You've already been in talks with gas exporters though. Have they been unwilling to commit more supply for East Coast users? Is that why you've had to pull out this big stick and threaten to use it to get them to come to the table?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Yeah. And if I could just make a point of clarification as well, this is about the East Coast market having a potential shortfall. And Western Australia and the Northern Territory, they are well supplied with gas, so I'll make sure that they get unlimited volume permission if we take this much further. But as to the East Coast exporters, that's correct what you say. I have asked them to re-sign the Heads of Agreement that expired at the start of the year and we've been in negotiation for some time, and they've been unwilling to or unable to come to an agreement on that. And in the absence of that agreement, which would have been preferred, it would be an industry-led response, we are not going to let this just go into the thin air. We're going to make sure we use the tools we have, which is this Notice of Intent, to make sure that these companies come to the table and make sure that the Australian people have the gas they need.

MEL CLARKE: And what's the timeframe here for these gas exporters to come to an agreement before you make the decision whether or not to restrict their exports?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: So 30 days. We'll work together over the next month. In fact, I expect we'll work together very much more quickly than that to ensure that these guarantees are put in place so that everyone can be reassured that Australians will have enough gas for the winter. So that's the timeline. But what's really important is we don't want a repeat of 2022 when we didn't have these tools available to us when there was a gas shortage. There was no – the ADGSM could not be activated. Now we've reformed that so it can be activated ahead of winter when we see these forecasts.  So this is a government that has got the tools, I am prepared to use them. I haven't done this before because I haven't needed to, because industry has been more forthcoming. Next year we'll have the Domestic Gas Reserve in place, and so we are going through the tail-end of a transition from this Gas Security Mechanism to the reserve. But it's really important in a transition that we use all the tools we have. As the Prime Minister has said we need to be over prepared during this moment of international conflict and crisis so that Australians can be reassured that their Government will make sure they have the gas they need.

MEL CLARKE: Gas producers have been pushing back in recent days against the Government's plans to introduce an East Coast Gas reservation. They've also been speaking out against the crossbench push for a windfall profits tax. Now they have this formal Notice of Intent from you. Are you now in a political battle with the gas industry?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Not at all. In fact Australian Energy Producers, AEP, their peak body supports the reservation, the gas reservation, and we've been working with AEP and industry around what that looks like. And it's complicated, so we are taking the correct amount of time to make sure we get it right. But this is in fact a well-supported policy of Government, and that's because I think the gas industry realises they need to reassure people that they're doing the right thing, supplying Australians gas before they export it into the international market. And that international market is vitally important for our economy, but also for our regional neighbours. So we keep working on that. As for the various media conferences and other publications I've seen on a potential extra tax on the gas industry, well, as we've been very consistently saying, our policies haven't changed in that regard. Right now I'm really focused on making sure we get the product, the commodity, the gas into people's homes and into industry over the winter.

MEL CLARKE: Madeleine King, thank you very much for speaking to AM this morning.

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Thanks very much, and I hope all your listeners have a really wonderful Easter.

MEL CLARKE: Thank you. That's the Federal Resources Minister, Madeleine King.