The Albanese Government is building Australia’s future by ensuring households and businesses have reliable energy supply at times of high demand.

The Coalition ignored gas shortage warnings for years and left Australia’s gas market in crisis. Scott Morrison swore himself in as Australia’s Resources Minister and delivered a three-word slogan – the “gas fired recovery” – which left Australians with less gas and higher energy prices.

Since coming to office in 2022, the Government has focussed on delivering energy security for Australians.

We have delivered more gas for Australians and imposed stronger powers to require producers to make gas available domestically at affordable prices.

The Government has strengthened the Heads of Agreement with LNG producers to ensure uncontracted gas is offered to Australians first.

We have introduced a mandatory Gas Code of Conduct which delivers legally enforceable domestic gas supply commitments, while putting downward pressure on prices. The Gas Code has secured almost 650 petajoules of gas for Australian homes and businesses.

We have also strengthened the Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism – so we can direct gas to be reserved for domestic use if there is a shortfall.

This week, the Minister for Resources Madeleine King convened meetings with Australia’s major east coast gas exporters to assess the outlook for east coast gas supply over the coming months.

These are quarterly meetings as part of the Heads of Agreement with LNG exporters.

The Government has also taken advice from the Australian Energy Market Operator and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission about the energy outlook.

The latest AEMO forecasts, published last week, highlighted an improving medium-term outlook with annual gas market shortages pushed back to 2029. Importantly, this highlighted that there is sufficient supply of uncontracted gas to meet domestic needs until that time.

Updated advice from the ACCC shows that there is sufficient gas available in Q3 of 2025, but securing proactive commitments of 9PJ of gas prevents domestic demand being in competition with export customers.

While our advice suggests the market will remain well supplied, the Government has taken action to secure additional supply commitments from gas exporters for Q3 under the Heads of Agreement.

Gas producers have committed to make an additional 9 PJ of gas available for the domestic market in Q3. These new commitments mean there will be a buffer of gas supply during a time of peak demand. The commitments involve a range of measures including call options to gas powered generators, expressions of interests, delayed shipments of LNG cargoes and seasonal gas swaps.

“Australian consumers and businesses deserve to be able to buy Australian gas at reasonable prices and we’re making sure they can,” Minister King said.

“The winter months can see highly variable gas demand on days when the weather is cold in the southern states.

“Peter Dutton voted against price caps on gas during the market crisis they left and opposed the Gas Code that has delivered more supply at lower prices.

“Australians are under the pump and that's why we acted decisively to take the sting out of energy and gas prices.”

The Albanese Government will review gas market regulatory settings in mid-2025. 

The review will examine the effectiveness of current mechanisms and strengthen the regulatory framework to ensure Australians have energy security for decades to come as we move to net zero by 2050.