Markets don't like uncertainty regarding financial decisions...

Markets don't like uncertainty regarding financial decisions requiring years of investment and return.

The $12/GJ isn't necessarily a problem if the P.M. followed it up with discussions to incentivise and secure local gas which as we all know has a much lower carbon/energy footprint than liquifying it, shipping it, and un-liquifying it like Twiggy is doing with his Port Kembla LNG terminal supplied from Norway.

There were about 5 LNG terminals proposed over the next decade in Australia which have no contracts lined up and are considering whether Australia is the place to invest because $12/GJ drives them out of profitability. If $12 was guaranteed minus inflation for the next 5 years then EMP would be an attractive option, but no one knows what Labor might do with the Greens pushing for $7/GJ or worse. The E.U. is considering a cap on gas prices but have no domestic leverage so have even said they will drop it if it becomes a problem, meanwhile ships are already circling out in the harbour off Germany waiting for the right international price before delivering their gas, otherwise they will just go to Asia for a better price where we buy the goods manufactured by our gas at a much larger profit margin, the irony.

If EMP took the approach that a $12 cap drives away competition and possibly summer gas could be sold off internationally at higher rates assuming that can all work, then the cap could be a big positive to secure EMP's position in the market. Everyone knows they can't do away with gas, Europe knows it, Asia knows it, and by the time the investment is critically needed Australia will know it.