Analysis of drilling results from the enormous Beetaloo gas deposit in the Northern Territory shows that low-cost non-nuclear energy can now transform the nation in just over two years.
It should become a late centre-stage election issue. Both parties can win from the development but Opposition Leader Peter Dutton could combine the gas breakthrough with a one-year extension of his current one-year petrol rebate policy.
The combination of a two-year petrol rebate and Beetaloo gas means lower-cost energy over three years and beyond. While the additional excise reduction cost will be around $6bn, it has a clear end.
Lower petrol costs are a great boost for outer suburban and rural areas. In inner affluent suburbs Dutton has unbelievably ignored the ALP’s so-called “saver’s tax” – the tax on unrealised capital gains.
Again, recent developments can make this a red hot issue. Whether an apparently moribund Coalition is able to change direction is an unknown.
The latest drilling results from the giant Beetaloo deposit show that with government policy innovation, the energy outlook in Australia can be transformed by August 2027, just over two years away. For Dutton, it means he can offer Australians a totally different short and long-term energy price outlook.
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The prime minister after May 3 should step in and notify the Beetaloo partners led by ASX-listed Tamboran Resources that if the accelerated drilling between May and July confirms the latest analysis, the government will guarantee gas supplies to justify an immediate start to the pipeline and also guarantee the distributors that the gas will be available.
In suggesting this strategy earlier this month, I conceded that this was a radical action with a degree of risk, but nations take such actions in a crisis and the risk is acceptable.
If a conventional path is embraced where each stage is locked in with total certainty, the gas will not be available until 2028-29 – a potential disaster for the nation.
