Once an election is called and Government enters caretaker mode,...

Once an election is called and Government enters caretaker mode, such decisions as you postulate are, in the normal course of events, parked for the newly elected Government to rule on. Granted, Scott Mugabe has demonstrated scant regard for Westminster protocol on matters PEP 11 in the past and he may therefore feel one more ill concieved activity is worth while in his increasingly desperate attempts to appease a narrow band of northern beach voters

However as global events unfold and expose Australia to increasingly insecure energy supply lines, he risks incurring far wider electoral wrath brought on by his needless destruction of a strategic potential. And for what?

One is reminded the lines by Coleridge. "Water, water every where, nor not a drop to drink."

Could PEP 11 and the ill conceived meddling be the albatrosses around Scott Mugabe's neck?

I hope so, but it will be for constitutional silks to decide.