Lobby group Manufacturing Australia is behind a campaign, Gas For Jobs, which is pushing for political intervention to ease the upward pressure on gas prices.
The campaign’s website states that prices for gas are being driven up by unrestricted east coast exports, with significant impacts on household users and businesses.
Energy lobby group Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA) has nearly simultaneously launched a campaign of its own, reports the Australian Financial Review, targeting excessive regulation, labour costs and “anti-gas misinformation”.
Manufacturing Australia has suggested that inaction on gas exports puts employment at risk, and Gas For Jobs urges readers to contact their MPs, urging that “protecting up to 200,000 Australia manufacturing jobs an immediate priority before it is too late,” be made a priority.
The group counts building material companies including Brickworks, CSR and BlueScope among its members, as well as fertiliser and explosives maker Incitec Pivot.
Incitec has cited affordable energy as one of the factors in its decision to open a new ammonia plant in Lousiana rather than in Australia.
For an outline of Gas For Jobs’s policy initiatives, click here.
Image: The Guardian
