Ten years on, Queensland LNG shows the way forward for Australia’s energy future

Ten years ago, Queensland made history when the world’s first LNG shipment from coal seam gas set sail for Asia. The journey launched a world-leading, home-grown industry that has since poured billions into our economy, revitalised regional communities and secured Australia’s place as a global energy powerhouse.

Today, gas is Australia’s second-largest export. A cornerstone of our national prosperity and productivity, it helps underpin Australia’s $137 billion manufacturing industry and supports thousands of jobs.

This year alone, Australia’s natural gas industry will deliver $21.9 billion in taxes and royalties – on par with the nation’s biggest banks and miners. But this success story is under threat.

Queensland LNG projects now fuel 40 per cent of Australia’s east coast gas needs. But with traditional gas basins in decline and new exploration effectively banned for much of the past decade in Victoria and NSW, we face a stark choice: unlock new gas or continue to redistribute a finite supply. The latter outcome would undermine investment and risk energy security and progress in our energy transition.

We cannot afford to let political risk aversion and regulatory inertia stall the next wave of nation-building energy projects.

The Queensland LNG model shows what is possible when ambition meets regulatory certainty, and when vision and capital come together with tangible bipartisan support for realising Australia’s comparative advantage in energy.

The discussion started at last week’s Economic Reform Roundtable presents the best opportunity yet for meaningful progress on regulatory reform across the Commonwealth and states. Capital works most productively to deliver the strategic outcomes and the prosperity that our nation deserves when we allow markets to operate efficiently, with smart regulation that balances risk management with growth objectives.

That means letting go of the instinct to repeatedly intervene in markets, the instinct to add more and more regulation, so that Australia can instead thrive in the energy transition and be a modern, prosperous economy.

Australia’s national interest is best served by clear and forward-looking national energy. One that includes a domestic gas supply commitment backed by active measures to increase gas supply and implement smarter regulation – enabling new development while also protecting communities and the environment.

This must go hand in hand with a thriving LNG export market that attracts capital, drives exploration and expands supply for both domestic and international needs.

The false choice between domestic supply and exports undermines investment, deters exploration, and threatens the very supply we all depend on. We need policies that encourage new development, not a system that penalises success.

This isn’t just about gas. We can all see the burden of regulation on housing, and wind, solar and transmission projects are also being delayed by red tape and community opposition.

With energy being more widely distributed, we will need 110,000 square kilometres of land – nearly twice the size of Tasmania – to build the energy infrastructure that will take us to 2050. Yet approvals under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act can take more than 800 days, with no projects referred in the past two years having reached final approval.

The $3 trillion of investment the Australian Energy Market Operator estimates we will need to get to net zero is becoming more urgent. We need a unified national framework that streamlines planning, aligns federal and state processes, and delivers outcomes, not obstacles.

Australia has the resources to power a prosperous, lower-emissions future. But we must act now to harness them through better regulation, smarter policy and a renewed commitment to investment, productivity and growth.

Better regulation is about rules that are consistent, clear and aligned to tangible outcomes of building productive capacity so that Australians can continue to enjoy the high living standards we enjoy today.

Rather than a Robin Hood approach, there’s a positive agenda to be grasped that promotes growth and investment, and helps Australia to capture that next wave of investment.

Queensland’s LNG industry stands as a powerful reminder: natural gas is not just a commodity, it’s a cornerstone of Australia’s national prosperity and pathway to productivity growth.

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