Opinion | Labor found out the hard way at the last election that it cannot be all things to all people when the country splits on whether to dig more coal out of the ground | CroweDM
Things have changed from the old consensus that gas is part of the transition to renewable energy. The Greens, the environmental movement and parts of the media have given up on that notion, and they want Labor to join them.. On one side is Mark Butler, a careful Adelaide lawyer who prefers to talk around a subject rather than go straight to the heart.
Butler is cautious about whether new gas fields make sense. Fitzgibbon calls loudly for more of them. The gulf between the two men is real, but so is their distance from the Greens. Neither is calling for a total halt to new gas.Some caucus members fear a disaster if Labor turns into an anti-gas party. They name industries like steel, aluminium, cement, plastics, chemicals, fertiliser and glass as examples of manufacturing that must have gas.
The gas that matters most to this question is near Narrabri in northern NSW, where Santos estimates it can produce gas at $6.40 a gigajoule – a price Butler believes is too high to solve Australia’s energy challenges. Butler criticises the project on economics more than emissions.Should Narrabri go ahead or not? Albanese is hedging. He is hoping the big decisions on the project will be settled well before the next election.
Would Labor go to the next election with a plan to stop that project? It seems unlikely. Although environmental groups hate the idea of a new gas-fired power station, there is no majority in the caucus to agree with them. Fitzgibbon is not alone. Morrison provoked the environmental movement with his plan this week, but he also used the outrage to execute a quiet and clever shift. He no longer wants a new coal-fired power station in NSW.
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