This isn’t incompetence. It’s a deliberate sellout.
Australia is one of the largest gas exporters on Earth, yet Australians are being hammered with high prices and fed the lie that there’s a “shortage.”
There is no real shortage. There is a policy failure — engineered and maintained.
Government data confirms the scale of it:
around 70%+ of Australian gas production is exported. The system is built to serve offshore buyers first — not Australians.
That means the majority of our gas is locked into export contracts, shipped overseas, and sold into higher-priced global markets… while Australians are forced to compete for what’s left.
Most of the gas extracted doesn’t stay here — it goes straight to LNG export terminals. And the insanity doesn’t stop there:
The process of liquefying and exporting gas consumes huge volumes of gas itself.
So we’re not just exporting our energy — we’re burning through even more of it just to send it away.
At home, the damage is obvious and ongoing:
- Households are smashed with rising bills
- Manufacturing is being gutted
- Energy-intensive industries are shutting down or moving offshore
- Australia’s energy security is being hollowed out in real time
And instead of fixing it, the government keeps approving more export capacity.
There is:
- No serious national energy security strategy
- No effective east-coast domestic reservation policy
- No prioritisation of Australians over multinational exporters
Just approvals. Exports. Excuses.
Calling this a “market outcome” is garbage.
Markets don’t override national interest — governments choose to let that happen.
And we have proof that it doesn’t have to be this way.
Western Australia forces gas companies to reserve around 15% of supply for domestic use.
Result? More stable supply and lower prices than the east coast.
Same country. Same resource.
Different policy — different outcome.
Meanwhile on the east coast, Australia is tied to volatile global pricing, meaning Australians pay more when international markets spike — even though the gas comes from under our own ground.
Regulators and market operators have already warned of long-term supply risks and structural problems, with shortages pushed further into the future — not solved.
Even now, the government is quietly floating domestic reservation policies (15–25%), because the pressure from industry and reality is becoming impossible to ignore.
Which tells you everything:
They know the system is broken.
They just haven’t had the backbone to fix it.
The reality is brutally simple:
- We have the gas
- We extract the gas
- We export the gas
- Then we pay more to use what’s left
That’s not economics. That’s national self-sabotage.
If this continues, Australia becomes exactly what it’s drifting toward:
a resource colony with a flag — digging up wealth, shipping it offshore, and importing higher costs back into its own economy.
Fixing it isn’t complicated:
- Force domestic supply priority
- Lock in fair local pricing mechanisms
- Stop rubber-stamping export expansions
Until that happens, Australians will keep getting smashed with higher energy costs for resources that come from under their own soil — while the profits flow offshore.
References
Geoscience Australia (2025). Australian Energy Commodity Resources Report – Production and Trade
https://www.ga.gov.au/aecr2025/production-and-trade
Reuters (2026). Australia gas supply crunch pushed out to 2030, market operator says
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/australia-gas-supply-crunch-pushed-out-2030-market-operator-says-2026-03-26/
The Australian (2026). Gas users demand supply fix as domestic reservation debate begins
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/gas-users-demand-steep-supply-fix-as-domestic-reservation-battle-begins/news-story/f337752262ecd91da68a2f62f4bc89cb
The Australian (2026). Australian households exposed to volatile global gas prices
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/australian-households-tethered-to-volatile-global-rates-facing-another-expensive-winter/news-story/00339bc1d945c19c684e472868c74f81
Energy Policy of Australia (overview of export-linked pricing impacts)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_policy_of_Australia
Energy in Western Australia (domestic gas reservation policy)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_Western_Australia
The Australia Institute (2025). Australia Last – The Failure of Australian Gas Policy
https://australiainstitute.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/P1915-Australia-Last_gas-exports-Web.pdf
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