| Media item | |
| | Former ACTU leader breaks Labor ranks on gas scheme | The Australian,
Australia
by Colin Packham
| 03 Sep 2026 | | Business News - Page 17 - 607 words - ID 1234065168 - Photo: No - Type: News Item - Size: 214.00cm2 | |
Former Labor resources minister and ACTU president Martin Ferguson has warned that the east coast gas policy risks undermining the confidence of important gas customers such as Korea, breaking ranks with the position of the union he once led.
The ACTU has been one of the strongest advocates for a more aggressive domestic gas reservation scheme.
Mr Ferguson said concerns over Australia's "trust and security of supply" had been raised directly with him by South Korea and other key investors, as geopolitical tensions reshape the global market and governments emphasise energy security.
The intervention by one of Labor's most senior resources figures comes as the Albanese government prepares to reveal the final version of its domestic gas reservation scheme, which will require LNG exporters to make a greater share of gas available to Australian consumers.
Gas producers oppose it. The Australian revealed how Labor initially proposed that all exporters would have to sell 20 per cent of their exportable supplies, a volume critics say would make new supply uneconomical.
Korea's state company, Kogas, is directly exposed via its stake in the Gladstone LNG project, which exports all it produces via long-term contracts. It has warned it could be forced to break contracts if Labor were to proceed with the reservation scheme, as intended.
Labor denies that the scheme will affect existing contracts, but the LNG exporters reject that interpretation.
While the ACTU has supported tougher intervention in the gas market, Mr Ferguson argued Australia should focus on developing additional supplies rather than reallocating gas.
"I simply want to get through to us as a nation that the east coast dispute about the supply of gas at the moment should not be about basically readjusting the existing supply in Australia, but increasing the supply with further investment and development of resources," he said.
Speaking as chairman of the Australia-Korea Business Council at its joint meeting in Adelaide on Wednesday, Mr Ferguson said assurances were being sought over development.
"The question is, how is a nation to play our mind to actually predicting more gas developed in Australia and overcoming any questions in the mind of our key investors about whether Australia is a safe place for investment in the future?" he said.
Gas producers are confronting the same question, with Santos chief executive Kevin Gallagher saying major new resources such as the Northern Territory's Beetaloo Basin would require billions of dollars of investment and infrastructure to reach consumers and export markets.
Mr Gallagher has urged gas producers in the Beetaloo to collaborate on a common infrastructure network, arguing pipelines carrying at least 1 billion cubic feet of gas a day would be needed to reduce transportation costs to a competitive level.
He said Santos, Inpex, Tamboran and other producers should work together.
"We've got to get round the table and develop this once," Mr Gallagher said.
The comments underline the scale of the investment challenge facing Australia's next generation of gas projects, with producers seeking confidence that the infrastructure and approvals required to develop new resources will remain viable over decades.
Mr Gallagher said Santos was not seeking subsidies but wanted certainty that regulatory approvals would "stick" once billions of dollars had been committed.
Asked whether political support for Northern Territory gas development was durable, Mr Gallagher was blunt. "I'm not convinced yet," he said.
Mr Ferguson said Australia had long been an important supplier of reliable energy to South Korea, with the country's LNG sector shaped in part by foreign investment. But the relationship had become increasingly twoway, with Korea also playing an important role in Australia's energy security. Korea is Australia's largest supplier of diesel.
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