Gas reservation policy

Question

1. The Budget papers show the government is allocating $35.5 million over 4 years for the gas reservation policy: 2. Can you elaborate more, or provide any further breakdown in table format, of what the $30.6 million over four years for 'the Domestic Gas Reservation Mechanism, gas market analysis and policy development to support market reliability', will look like? 3. Given the funding split in the Budget - is the Minister making decisions on the reservation and export licences still going to be the Resources Minister or is it the Energy Minister? 4. What is the cost breakdown for the gas market analysis and how will this be done? a. What is the cost breakdown of policy development to support market reliability? b. Is this work being done by the department in another format? c. What is required for policy development from a department for that kind of additional Budget spend, is it additional staff? 5. What does 'policy development' look like specific to 'gas market reliability', and is this work currently being done in any form across the government more broadly - including any other departments where this might be sitting such as the ACCC, AEMO or other agency? 6. The Budget allocated $4.9 in 2026-27 to modernise offshore resources regulation to support gas investment and mitigate shortfalls in supply, including consultation requirement clarity for offshore approvals. What does modernisation look like, is this a new IT system or program? Can this be broken down further by project/category and spending for that?

Answer

See attached response.

Documents

• Question with answer (PDF) (opens in a new tab)
• BI-055_McDonald_Gas reservation policy_DISR.pdf (opens in a new tab)