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It’s freezing in Melbourne, where I live, and I leave my heater on all day when I work from home. The idea of soaring gas prices when we’ve only nudged the beginning of winter is a little frightening. The situation along Australia’s east coast is dire, with gas prices this week jumping to $800 per gigajoule – 80 times higher than a few months ago.
So what’s going on? As University of Melbourne professor Samantha Hepburn explains, it has a lot to do with Russia’s war on Ukraine disrupting the global energy market. Australia exports much of our domestic gas resources, which means any additional gas required to meet demand at home – as we’re seeing in this hellish east coast cold snap – must come from the rising international market.
The energy crisis won’t be easing anytime soon. Hepburn calls on the federal government to take steps to address rising energy prices and make the coming winter easier for Australians to bear.
Also on this story, the Grattan Institute’s Tony Wood offers four reasons why the price climb was so sudden, while Michelle Grattan analyses the scale of the challenge this issue poses for the new Albanese government.
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Anthea Batsakis
Deputy Editor: Environment + Energy
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Samantha Hepburn, Deakin University
Australia exports most of its coal and gas, and prices have skyrocketed. We could be facing a winter of pain for gas users.
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Tony Wood, Grattan Institute
Our coal-fired generators are failing, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made the gas that fires the generators that are replacing them expensive, and it’s suddenly got cold.
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Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
Labor knew it would inherent a cost-of-living problem – it campaigned on it. But it didn’t expect the dramatic crisis in gas prices Australia is suddenly facing
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Penny Edmonds, Flinders University
In 1881, a Pacific Islander woman brought here to walk on a sugar cane plantation ran away. She was violently retrieved by her employer. Her story sheds moving light on a dark history of exploitation.
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Hassan Vally, Deakin University
Achieving herd immunity via vaccination was always going to be a hard ask. Now it’s mathematically impossible.
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Ben Wellings, Monash University
Succession has long been the weak link in the system of hereditary monarchy. Perhaps it may be time for Australia to reconsider the place of the monarchy in our own political system.
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Michael Kearney, The University of Melbourne; Ary Hoffmann, The University of Melbourne
Few animals have babies without sex, so biologists assumed asexual reproduction must have evolutionary drawbacks. But a self-cloning Australian grasshopper shows things might be more complicated.
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Politics + Society
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Jennifer Curtin, University of Auckland
The success of independents at the Australian election is a sign the political culture has shifted in Canberra, with potential benefits for expat New Zealanders and trans-Tasman relations in general.
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Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
Michelle Grattan speaks with Tony Burke the minister for employment and workplace relations and minister for the arts, as well as the leader of the House of Representatives.
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Andrew Gunstone, Swinburne University of Technology; Andrew Peters, Swinburne University of Technology; Emma Gavin, Swinburne University of Technology; Sadie Heckenberg, Swinburne University of Technology; Wendy Hermeston, Swinburne University of Technology
The launch of the National Centre for Reconciliation Practice brings the question; what are reconciliation action plans, and do they work?
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Health + Medicine
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Katie Attwell, The University of Western Australia; Tauel Harper, The University of Western Australia
Contrary to the popular belief that social media creates rumours about COVID vaccine harms, new research suggests social media generally only aids the spread of these rumours.
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Sarah Duffy, Western Sydney University; Emilee Gilbert, Western Sydney University; Michelle O'Shea, Western Sydney University; Mike Armour, Western Sydney University
While Australians should have access to menstrual leave, they also need period-friendly policies to manage their symptoms.
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Christian Moro, Bond University; Charlotte Phelps, Bond University
No, you’re not imagining it. You can pee more in winter. Mostly, there’s nothing to worry about. But it could be a sign of hypothermia.
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Science + Technology
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Hannah Klose, Monash University; Sahana Sarkar, Queensland University of Technology
When Mehreen Faruqi first became the first Australian Muslim senator, she didn’t expect to receive the amount of abuse she did.
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Education
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Rebecca J. Collie, UNSW Sydney; Caroline F. Mansfield, University of Notre Dame Australia
High-stress schools undermine teachers’ commitment and risk losing even more from the profession at a time of growing staff shortages. But schools can take steps to reduce the causes of stress.
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Business + Economy
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Tony Wood, Grattan Institute
Our coal-fired generators are failing, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made the gas that fires the generators that are replacing them expensive, and it’s suddenly got cold.
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Beth Webster, Swinburne University of Technology
The Coalition planned to tax company income from patents at 17% instead of 30%. While it would have lifted the number of patents, there’s little to suggest it would have lifted productivity.
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