Government's COVID Commission manufacturing plan calls for huge public gas subsidies
State bans on coal seam gas development would be scrapped and the Federal Government would underwrite gas prices and massively subsidise costs and investment for gas companies, under confidential plans for a "gas-led manufacturing recovery" post-COVID-19.
The draft plans, obtained by the ABC, call for the scrapping of "green and red tape" on gas development, including a relaxation of Australian standards for equipment used in gas infrastructure and a loosening of environmental regulations and approval processes.
They are set out in an interim report from the manufacturing taskforce of the National COVID Coordination Commission (NCCC).
Its draft report advocates "underwriting new [gas] supply with government balance sheets" to allow gas producers "to invest with confidence and new pipelines to be built to get the gas to markets".
The taskforce says the Government should be "taking a non-operating equity position, minority share, or underwriting position" in gas projects and "provide support, such as low-cost capital, to existing small and mid-cap market participants".
It also wants mechanisms to put a government-guaranteed floor under gas prices, so companies can borrow against that guaranteed price.
And the NCCC wants massive government spending to underwrite a network of new pipelines linking gas projects in the north-west of Western Australia to the east coast.
