Interview on 4RO with Luke Cross

LUKE CROSS, HOST: It's Luke here with you and joining me now, the Senator Tim Ayres, the Minister for Industry and Innovation. Good Morning Tim. How are you mate? 

SENATOR TIM AYRES, MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY AND INNOVATION AND MINISTER FOR SCIENCE: Luke, it's really good to be on the show. G'day. 

HOST: Yeah, always good to have you. I think I have spoken to you before. I don't often do breakfast. I'm a fill in guy to the boss but he's away at the moment and I think we spoke like ages ago and it's funny that you got me twice. Yeah, maybe you don't want to.  

AYRES: I reckon that's right. But anyway, it's good to be on the show and good to talk to your listeners too. 

HOST: Yes mate, you want to touch on this, this new thing that you're putting forward called the Domestic Gas Reservation Bill. Firstly, I guess it's a title. What is it?  

AYRES: Well, this is a big deal for Australia. Like a lot of legislation, it’s got a pretty dull sounding title. But Australia is one of the biggest gas producers in the world. We export gas as liquefied natural gas all around the world including massive export capacities at Gladstone. But we are the only major gas producer that doesn't reserve a portion of the gas that's under our ground and under our seas for Australian industry and Australian use. And that's meant that gas has been very expensive in Australia. It used to be low-cost gas that powered Australian industry and meant that there was cheap gas for Australian households.  

What we're doing, the Albanese Government, the Labor Government in Canberra is introducing new legislation that makes it law that up to 20 per cent of export gas or the equivalent produced in Australia is reserved for Australian industry and for Australian households. That is a massive reform, and it will drive down the price of gas and it's absolutely essential for making sure that we make more things here and rebuild our manufacturing industry.  

HOST: I mean sounds like a great idea. I don't imagine your businesses, that are probably looking at that, and I would imagine that they think well usually we sell this gas. If we can't sell it to where we normally get the biggest prices, they're probably not going to be happy. I imagine you're expecting some pushback from that side of things?  

AYRES: We've been consulting closely and you're right, there's sections of industry, some of the gas producers who would rather the Government had just left everything as it was. But we're a Government that's about delivering real change for Australia. What this reform will mean is that every day that the scheme operates that there will be an oversupply, a modest oversupply of gas into the Australian market. It will be required to be sold particularly to heavy industry.   

I worked in industry and manufacturing most of my work in life before I was elected to Parliament. I saw facility after facility in industrial regions and outer suburbs closing over the last two decades since Australia was exposed to the global price of gas. I've seen that capacity lost, I've seen those jobs lost. And this is a Government that I'm really proud to be part of that's determined to reverse that, to make sure that we're putting Australia's interest first here. I don't expect that everybody in industry who would prefer that everything was left just as it was won't be, won't be perfectly happy. That’s true. But it's in Australia's interest and the interest of the blue collar workers who live and work in our industrial regions and our outer suburbs in particular.  

HOST: I guess there's a feeling, you know, and we've been hearing a lot about it lately, that as you said, we're one of the largest gas producers in the world. But I don't feel like that we see the benefit of that as citizens. Obviously, businesses, those businesses associated do. But I don't feel like we're seeing that like other countries might see it. Like we're talking, you know, how the Middle East is with oil and all that kind of stuff.  

AYRES: Oh, absolutely. We are determined to make energy, gas and electricity in particular, the source of industry's future competitive advantage. So, that we're processing more metals here, that we're making fertiliser and plastics, cement. All of these products that require gas require huge volumes of electricity. This should be a source of competitive advantage for Australia. But we allowed a gas market to develop. When we opened up these massive gas exports that, that meant that Australia was exposed to very high prices. But we're fixing that.   

It's a big reform. It's going to make a big difference over time. And for those big heavy industrial gas users, this is good news because now they'll have the certainty to get long term contracts for gas that backs in long term jobs, long term investments. And in particular, for areas like regional Queensland or the Hunter Valley or the Illawarra or Geelong, these big industrial centres. Whyalla. This is a very important reform that will lock in jobs and investment for the future. It's a tough reform. It's not the easy thing to do. But we are determined, the Albanese Labor Government, to deliver real change and set Australia up for a stronger future. 

HOST: I imagine that these type of things, presumably it all goes through fine. These type of changes take a while. When are we realistically starting to think – oh, this will affect my energy prices and stuff like that?  

AYRES: Yeah, we've got to get it through the Parliament first. And that means there's a choice that the Liberals and Nationals and One Nation and The Greens Political Party will have about whether they're going to put Australia's interest first here, back this scheme, and make sure that Australia is set up for a stronger future. So, we'll be prosecuting this hard through the Parliament. 

We're talking to people in regional Australia about what this means for them and their families and future jobs. We're here to deliver real change and sometimes that change is going to be contested, but I just call on, everybody who's in politics to back this in because it's going to make a big difference for the country.  

HOST: Tim, thanks for that, mate. Really appreciate your time today and I'm sure we may catch up against again when I'm on breakfast at some point in the future.  

AYRES: I'll keep an eye out for it. Good on you, mate. See you next time.