Still on the gas reservation policy:

Q: So in relation to the gas available for export obviously this is gas used by very important partners of Australia, including the Japanese and Koreans, have you already spoken to them about the fact that there’s going to be less gas available to We have and we’ve spoken to those key players within the industry as And how did they respond? (Did you know Japan is a gas exporter despite not having gas fields? That’s because it imports more gas than it needs and then on-sells what it doesn’t need.)

Dutton:

I well. mean, sorry, the Japanese and the Koreans, for example. I’m not going to go into those conversations.

Q: Were they angry?

Dutton:

No, we’ve had a longstanding relationship with the Japanese ambassador and his predecessors and obviously other key players as well. We’ve been able to speak with, and we’ll have more of those conversations. And I think they understand there is a need for us to provide support to Australians and Australian gas should be first and foremost for Australians and it’s an important export industry for us and we’re not going to disrupt those foundation projects. I think, importantly also, what they’re asking of us – what they’ve asked of the government that hasn’t been delivered yet is assurances about the out years and the extension of those contracts, and that’s the assurance that we can give with more supply in the system, and that gives them assurance within their domestic market as well.

Q: Does that mean if the supply doesn’t come on, that additional gas in the outer years is not secure for our foreign gas partners?

Dutton:

No, there’s plenty of in the system and plenty of gas that’s discoverable. It’s completely unacceptable that Victoria is going to spend $800 million on a gas terminal to import gas into Victoria in a country where we have an abundance of the natural resource.

Q: Let me ask you about that, you said you were going to build a pipeline – where from and where to?

Dutton:

We will work with the industry because there are capacity constraints at the moment, particularly heading north/south. There is an argument about coming out of Darwin or coming west to east and you have seen those proposals in recent weeks but we say we need more capacity in the system and we will commit $1 billion to it so it’s not just capacity in the pipeline but storage as well so we can get through peak periods, particularly in the southern markets through winter.

Q: So are you talking about a pipeline from the north of Australia to New South Wales?

Dutton:

We already have existing corridors and those parcels of land and those pipelines are already identified.

Q: Coming from where? Could you just specify?

Dutton:

Well, again, we’ll work with the industry to work that out because it depends on what gas we can bring online. Narrabri in New South Wales for example is, you know, I think a project that has been delayed for a long time and it will depend on where you can bring gas in from, from which part of the country. But predominantly you’re going to be coming from Queensland and I want to make sure that we can have a conversation with Victoria about discovering more gas there, because I think Victorians have had enough of their economy being destroyed by the Labor Party.