Points against them,1) The gas (and minerals) belongs to the...

Points against them,
1) The gas (and minerals) belongs to the people of Australia. The task of drilling was farmed out to companies and in return they pay taxes.
Food for thought: When the energy companies are making huge profits, is it still a fair arrangement?

If they're making losses is it still fair?

Yes. And yes. Those were the agreed rules of the game at the beginning.

2) High energy prices has an impact on the wider economy. Businesses can be unviable due to higher energy cost.

And energy companies are unviable with lower energy prices. Either way, the viability is determined by the amount of energy not the price - the scarce energy must be rationed some way.

3) High energy prices affect ordinary Australians as well. Higher cost of living etc. People spend less.

The governments all told us that caring about the economy = killing grandma + killing Gaia. Why do they suddenly care about the economy now?

4) Energy companies cannot say points 2) and 3) have nothing to do with them. If the the economy goes down, the demand for oil and gas usually drops as well.

Circular reasoning. At any rate, energy is internationally priced.

5) When WA insisted on 15% of gas be reserved for WA, most were very negative about it. But Energy companies are still thriving.

There was less investment ceteris paribus but at least the rules were agreed at the beginning so it's fair.

6) Food for thought: Do the Energy companies really want to be the bad guys in the eyes of the public?

Oh yes like there's anything they can do to make people like them.

At the end of the day we are going to have less investment and therefore blackouts. That's now certain even if this idiot government walked back this lunacy. Every company has limited capital and they will deploy it to places where they don't get treated like this.

And that's the key. In every boardroom in the energy world executives are saying "why would we bother with Australia when the government hates us so much?"