Bandt on the Coalition’s gas policy:

I think Peter Dutton’s made a stunning admission that there’s not a gas shortage in Australia. That’s – this is what people have been saying for a very long time. There is not a gas shortage in Australia. What’s happening is that these big corporations are sending it off overseas together with the profits tax-free and making billions of dollars along the way.

Why I think this is a significant moment is that there is, I think now a growing understanding that Australia is awash with gas, and there are no – there is no shortage. But, when it comes to the solution, you see that, for Peter Dutton, it’s a cover for opening new gas mines, right? It’s just a cover for opening up new gas mines and he’s been explicit about this.

There’s a much simpler thing that we could do. A much simpler thing that we could do. Corporations like Santos at the moment pull more gas out of the domestic market, or pull gas out of the domestic market so that they can send it overseas and then claim that there’s a shortfall.

If we stop the big corporations from plundering the gas from Australian industry and households, and said, “You can’t do that just to send it off overseas to make profits off of it,” we would have more than enough gas in Australia to help us through the transition as the gas use declines and we get to renewables backed by storage, and wouldn’t need to open up any new coal and gas mines. You wouldn’t need to open up any new coal and gas mines.

A stunning admission of reality from Peter Dutton, which I don’t always expect from him, to acknowledge facts – but there you go. Again, as usual, his prescription is just to do what the gas industry wants and fast-track new coal and gas mines.

On that – no, I can’t see us working together