CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
Prime Minister Albanese announcement that Australia will be rapidly expanding gas extraction has caused great upset amongst Federal Parliament’s Independent crossbench, Greens MPs and some of his younger party members this week.
In a newly revealed energy strategy, the Federal Government has backpedalled on previous vows to reduce fossil fuels, and has essentially rolled out the same plans as Scott Morrison’s ‘gas-led recovery’ that Labor had tore strips off him for.
Albanese says the previously dismissed fossil fuel will remain a central part of Australia’s energy and export sectors to 2050 and beyond, because it is key to transitioning the energy sector and economy into the renewables forms of power that we’ve been hearing them talk about for 40 years.
This expansion of the gasfields will also help soothe the current domestic gas shortage in Australia that has been caused by the multinational fossil fuel corporations sending 40% of it offshore to other countries without paying our country any of the royalties that we would be entitled to if Parliament wasn’t beholden to four or five billionaire families who are rapidly trying to automate the industry with robots so they can stop paying for workers as well.
While climate groups say this new announcement will be ‘devastating’ to emissions reduction targets, Albanese has responded to criticism of this plan by simply explaining his reasoning.
Albo says that every waking moment of his day is consumed by the fear of a ‘Western Australia correction’ – where the 5 WA seats that were stolen from the Liberals at the 2022 will be returned to them by voters who no longer have the same urge to take cricket bats to the Coalition as they did during the pandemic.
With most of these proposed new gasfields sitting squarely in WA, it seems that if Labor want to get re-elected they are going to have to offer the voters of the West more than just the chance to publicly humiliate Scott Morrison.
One thing they don’t really give a fuck about is Labor’s announcement to minimise the indexation of HECS, because – as the state’s current doctor shortage would confirm – the vast majority of university courses offered in WA are related directly the resources sector, and graduates can expect to be paid enough to not have any fees left to pay off by the time they turn twenty.
